Looks like a tour to me. North Carolina-based trio Ape Vermin are set to head out May 17 in the company of Mean Green for a run that will take them through Texas en route to the West Coast before they loop back through the Rocky Mountains and head home. Unlike a lot of the variably-sized lists of shows I might post on a given day, this one hits Wyoming, which is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, and with some shows still to fill in, they’ll top it off with a gig in Asheville on June 12, having spent the better part of a month on the road. It’s the kind of stint where everyone’s either best friends afterward or they never speak to each other again. Here’s hoping for the former. You can help probably by giving them a place to sleep and maybe some food, should they be in your vicinity.

Ape Vermin released their Arctic Noise EP in 2021 and you can stream that below. Mean Green‘s self-titled debut arrived last year. Am I crazy for thinking a split wouldn’t be the worst idea here? Maybe it’s just the two logos together on the David Paul Seymour poster below, but either way, the thing is a thing and it’s happening.

Here’s the thing:

We’ll be embarking the Riders of the Damned tour with our brothers in Mean Green starting 5/17! Come witness this onslaught of absolute metal.

5/17 Spartanburg, S.C – Ground Zero
5/19 Tampa, FL – Brass Mug
5/21 New Orleans, LA – The Goat
5/22 Houston, TX – Black Magic Social Club
5/23 Dallas, TX – Haltom Theatre
5/24 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
5/25 Laredo, TX – Cold Brew Rock Bar
5/26 Austin, TX – Valhalla
5/29 Tucson, AZ – The Rock
5/30 Phoenix, AZ – Blooze Bar
6/1 Richmond, CA – Baltic Kiss
6/2 Reno, NV – Alturus Bar
6/4 Salt Lake City, UT – International Bar
6/5 Casper, WY – The Gaslight Social
6/7 Ridgeway, CO – The Sherbino
6/8 Denver, CO – Hermans Hideaway
6/12 Asheville, N.C – The Odditorium

***More dates to be added***

Artwork by: David Paul Seymour

https://www.facebook.com/ProgressiveDoom
https://www.instagram.com/ape_vermin_official/
https://apevermin.bandcamp.com/

Ape Vermin, Arctic Noise (2021)

Take a listen to the two streaming tracks from Mean Green‘s upcoming self-titled debut full-length, due out March 24, and it seems likely you’ll understand where the PR wire is coming from when it compares the Boone, North Carolina-based three-piece to the likes of Weedeater and Sleep. To those weighty comparisons, I might throw in a band like Beaten Back to Pure or even Johnny Weils era Alabama Thunderpussy, has Mean Green guitarist Jake Helms as a rough-throated sneer in the verses of album-opener “Law” before they break out the Sleepier lumbering density of “The Deal” and the Dixie Dave-ish phrasing of the lyrics there, about the open road, selling your soul — one assumes to Riff Satan, who is like Regular Satan, only better — and not coming back, etc.

Southern sludge kind of went out with the rebel flag. I wouldn’t at all mind it coming back if this is the gritty fashion in which it does so (still a pass on the stars and bars, though to be honest I’m not much for flags in general), and Mean Green feel like they’re dug right into the sludgy mud with no regrets except that you didn’t bring more gummies to the show. What’s that about, anyway?

You can stream the tracks at the bottom of this post. What follows was yoinked from the PR wire:

Doom metal trio Mean Green to release Self Titled Debut Album!

From the highest peaks of Boone, North Carolina, Sludge and Doom metal band Mean Green will release their debut self titled album on March 24th, 2023.

Mean Green is a 3-piece stoner doom band formed in early 2022 by Jacob Helms, Alex Wierback, and James Matthews who enjoy playing metal music as loud as possible and at a slower pace than most people are used to. Armed with much larger guitar and bass rigs than necessary for smaller venues, their tone and energy are a force to be reckoned with in the western North Carolina music community. From the start they knew they did not want to be just another cover band in their small college town of Boone North Carolina, they began writing their own music.

The highly motivated band are preparing regional shows in Charlotte, Raleigh, Winston-Salem, Athens, Greensboro and an Album release show on March 24th in Asheville with Doomsday Profit and All Hell.

Mean Green’s self-titled first release is a full length album consisting of songs written in their first year of the band’s forming. Inspired by the likes of early Black Sabbath, Sleep, and Weedeater. Mean Green wrote this album to convey a stripped down and bare bones look at sludge, stoner, and doom metal. Relying heavily on tone and a slow moving freight train like tempo for most of their songs, they bring their own twist on common themes and ideas of the genre. With crushing guitar tone, wall shaking low end, bludgeoning percussion, and growling vocals this album is a first look into the roots and inspiration of Mean Green.

1. Law
2. Crow
3. Mean Green
4. Fiend
5. Last Bullet
6. Grease Monkey
7. The Deal

Mean Green is:
Jake Helms (Guitar, Vocals)
Alex Wierback (Bass)
James Matthews (Drums)

https://facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083281025433
https://instagram.com/mean_green_metal
https://meangreen.bandcamp.com/

Mean Green, Mean Green (2023)