Posted in Whathaveyou on July 24th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
So, uh, there’s a band called Heads. playing Desertfest Belgium 2018. They’re from Germany and not at all to be confused with The Heads from the UK. I guess the punctuation makes some different there, but isn’t it a little like calling your band Beatles. and expecting not to get sued? Question of scale there, I know, but you get my point. Heads. are a different band from The Heads. Okay.
I’m kind of surprised that Dead Meadow, in joining the lineup for Desertfest Belgium 2018, aren’t among the headliner, who are still TBA. I’ve got some names I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised to see signed on to play, but no question the lineup is ridiculously strong in the interim, what with Dead Meadow, Heads., Ancestors, Wiegedood and Messa all newly confirmed. I guess we’ll just have to wait on those headliner announcements.
From the PR wire:
DEAD MEADOW PLAYS DF ANTWERP ’18
WIEGEDOOD, ANCESTORS and more
Well, we promised a worthy replacement for John Garcia, and we think this one will delight all you fans of delicious stoner grooves.
With 20 years and 7 records on the counter, Dead Meadow can truly be considered venerable veterans of the scene. With their most recent album ‘The Nothing They Need’, the DC band has made a glorious return 5 years after the previous outing. By now the ingredients might be familiar – heavy proto-metal riffing and long psych workouts – but once again the band proves noone cooks up a stew quite like they do. A rock solid addition to this year’s line-up, we think you’ll agree!
We already have one Belgian heavyweight on the program, so how about another? Wiegedood got its infamy coming up with a disturbing band name that translates to “crib death” in Dutch. But soon we learned that this was no mere gimmick: their peculiar version of black metal is effectively as unsettling and grim as the name suggests.
If the album teasers are anything to go by, the next album by Ancestors is gonna be something truly special. A culmination of everything the band stands for, from the atmospheric post-rock passages to the chugging riffs. Six years is a long wait for a new album in these times, but it seems like this will truly be worth the wait.
Another singular voice at the festival comes from Messa, who merge seemingly disparate genres like doom metal and dark jazz into one sonic stew they describe as ‘Scarlet Doom’. And finally, the German HEADS. adds shades of shoegaze and post-rock in their noiserock, with equally unique results.
There you have it, a selection of new names that truly add a sense of adventure and experiment to the line-up. You know we still have some headliners in store for you, so stay tuned!
The Planet of Doom: First Contact EP is something of a curio from the outset. What it effectively does is to retintroduce The Planet of Doom (discussed here), which is an upcoming animated feature helmed by artists Tim Granda and David Paul Seymour bringing together huge names from the graphics and sonics sides of the heavy underground to tell a story in varying chapters, each with its own designer and each with its own music. As projects go, it is breathtakingly ambitious. A generational work, and understandably, it’s been a few years in the making at this point. Last I heard, a 2019 release was expected, but in order to keep momentum going, keep the movie in the mind of potential viewers/fans, and give a taste of the general aesthetic of the work, The Planet of Doom: First Contact presents four songs in a relatively brief 22 minutes that essentially serve as a sampler of what’s to come.
In order, the release presents tracks from Port Orchard, Washington’s Mos Generator, who every bit deserve to be the leadoff with “Sword of the Sea,” Italian upstarts Messa, who bring the seven-minute “Serpent Libido,” Sweden’s Vokonis with “Runa” and Northern Ireland’s Slomatics, whose “Jagaer” closes out. They are just four among the likes of Order of the Owl, Phillip Cope (ex-Kylesa), Slow Season, Space Witch, Mother Crone, Granda himself, Ironweed, Destroyer of Light, Ufomammut, Cirith Ungol, Wo Fat, Orchid, Elephant Tree, who will ultimately feature on the finished product, but they’ve obviously been chosen as the first representatives because of the flow between the songs. Often with soundtracks, there’s an issue of sonic incongruity between individual cuts, and reasonably so. Different players, different tones, different recordings, different moods — it should sound different in the end result. With Mos Generator, Messa, Vokonis and Slomatics, though, it’s not an issue.
And not because the bands don’t have their own respective styles, from the pure heavy rock with just a slight darker tinge of Mos Generator through the atmospheric approach of Messa, the brash doomly bombast of Vokonis and Slomatics‘ futuristic engagement, there is enough of a leap between sounds that one would hardly be surprised if The Planet of Doom: First Contact wound up disjointed, but the progression toward Slomatics‘ “Jagaer” is such that from Mos Generator onward, there’s a downward motion brought to bear. We’re not just making First Contact with The Planet of Doom like Jean-Luc Picard showing up with a handshake and a gift basket from the United Federation of Planets — “Try the Alvanian snap peas!” — we’re being brought on a descent below its surface into some lurking subterranean cave, surrounding by an ancient murk and a looming sense of threat as we move deeper through. In that way, “Sword of the Sea” is a perfect lead-in.
With guest vocals alongside those of guitarist Tony Reed, the track builds on the moodier spirit of the band’s 2018 album, Shadowlands (review here), with a gradual unfolding that moves by 90 seconds in toward a more rocking tension that lets loose just before two minutes in. A sudden organ-laced break at around 2:20 leads to a section of progressive guitar textures and the aforementioned guest vocal spot, stopping again, this time to complete silence, before crashing out to a big rock finish that brings on Messa. Kind of a curious structure there, and if “Sword of the Sea” was left off Shadowlands — I don’t know that it was recorded during the same session or it wasn’t — that peculiarity might be why. In any case, Messa, who’ve reaped massive acclaim for their 2018 album, Feast for Water (review here), present the longest inclusion on the EP and earn their time well with a blend of ambiance and heft that serves as a distinguishing factor even among other accomplished purveyors of riffly wares. They’ll begin to hit the European festival circuit this Fall, and accordingly fall into the “one to watch” category, but even more than that, they’re one to listen to, since “Serpent Libido” does so well in its moody affect and loud/quiet tradeoffs, moving toward a plodding section that turns suddenly to blastbeats to end and set the stage for the initial roll of Vokonis‘ “Runa.”
The Swedish three-piece’s participation in The Planet of Doom: First Contact could hardly be better timed. They recently signed to The Sign Records and will record their third album in August to follow last year’s resounding The Sunken Djinn (review here). “Runa” was reportedly written specifically for The Planet of Doom, and though what it might have to do with the plot remains a mystery, the riff and crash of the band’s sound is well intact in the sharply delivered five-minute cut. It’s a solid showing of what they do and the individualized edge they’ve taken on developing since getting their start just a few years ago. They’ve become a vital outfit in the Euro underground, and “Runa” shows why in its blend of aggression and nod. They continue to both grow and impress, and while I don’t know if their next record will be out before the end of 2018, they very obviously are actively working to keep moving forward. The sudden collapse at the end of “Runa” gives Slomatics a bed of silence on which to begin the underlying synth of “Jagaer,” which soon enough unveils its tonal lumber and rolling rhythm.
I know there are plenty of heavy bands involved in The Planet of Doom, but Slomatics‘ blend of entrenched narrative, their otherworldly vocal echoes, and their inhuman, post-apocalyptic slow-motion assault from guitarists Chris Couzens and David Majury and drummer/vocalist Marty Harvey is perfect for the film. “Jagaer” unfolds with patience and weight alike, and continues in the vein of the band’s 2018 split with Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, Totems (review here), to assure that Slomatics are in no way done after wrapping the trilogy story that finished on 2016’s Future Echo Returns (review here). That’s invariably good news to anyone who’d take on The Planet of Doom: First Contact, as their thud-and-swirl methodology wraps by diverting into a momentary wash of feedback and cutting to nothingness. Hints of more to come? One might say that, and as it’s convenient for me to do so, I will. Either way you take it, The Planet of Doom: First Contact augers remarkably well for the rest of the soundtrack when it finally arrives, and speaks to the curated sensibility of the entire proceeding. As samplers go, it is of impeccable quality and only adds to the well justified anticipation for The Planet of Doom itself.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 22nd, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Set in Milan across four nights and three different venues taking place over the course of two months, the full VVitch Festival is a season-long experience. It draws bands from multiple regions in Europe, the US and Canada, and is no less eclectic in its sound than in the geography. Each show has a different theme that feeds into the larger entirety of the experience, and VVitch Festival proper will be held as the last night, with Frizzi 2 Fulci, Celeste, KENmode, Belzebong and The Necromancers (who are touring together and also making a stop in Austria at the Heavy Psych Sounds Fest), Birds in Row and Coilguns. Seems like a pretty sick night and all over the place, but again, it’s just the last of four in the series.
Full lineups follow here, along with event links as per the PR wire:
-VVITCH-
Inspired by witchcraft and horror movies themes, between doom, sludge, black, grind, death and post metal, it?s coming soon in Milano, Italy, a new event for metal maniacs called “VVITCH FESTIVAL”. A trilogy of events plus a fourth one, the festival. Three different venues in Milano, 17 bands, some of them for the first time in Italy, some for exclusive Italian shows.
“..dark forces are going to cross the walls of the city, after the Sacrifice and the Ritual, the Evocation..”
VVITCH I – Sacrifice September 19th 2018, Spazio Ligera, Milano DEMILICH (FIN) exclusive Italian show SPECTRAL VOICE (USA) exclusive Italian show CARDIAC ARREST (USA) exclusive Italian show FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1568544103256273
VVITCH III – Evocation November 3rd 2018, Spazio Ligera, Milano BOLOGNA VIOLENTA (IT) “Uno Bianca” full album set FISTULA (USA) exclusive Italian show GRIME (IT) DEATH HAS GONE (IT) FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2063352060550129
VVITCH FESTIVAL November 25th 2018, Circolo Magnolia, Milano FRIZZI 2 FULCI (IT) (live soundtracks by Fabio Frizzi, of Lucio Fulci’s horror cult movies, for the first time in Milano) CELESTE (FR) exclusive Italian show KEN MODE (CAN) exclusive Italian show BELZEBONG (PL) BIRDS IN ROW (FR) COILGUNS (CH) THE NECROMANCERS (FR) FB event:https://www.facebook.com/events/172227866788138
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 28th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Very cool that Electric Wizard are headlining Up in Smoke 2018. Very cool. Not saying it isn’t. And right on that Dopethrone, Messa, Child, Humulus — have to wonder if they’ll bring their own beer — and Giant Sleep are playing too. Awesome. The name I want to focus on here, however, is Ancestors. The returned/reactivated Los Angeles unit will have their new album out on Pelagic Records by the time they head to Europe to play Up in Smoke presumably as part of a larger round of touring, and I’m pretty sure I’ve said this already, but watch out for that fucking record. Really. It’s a stunner.
2018 has already seen a fair share of righteous outings — I’d list them here, but you know, stolen laptop — and a couple real landmarks are still to come, but don’t let the new Ancestors get by you just because it’s been a while since they put anything out. I’ll have more to say about it, I’m sure, because it’s the kind of record about which one doesn’t easily shut up, but yeah. Take it as an(other) early heads up.
Here’s Up in Smoke‘s announcement:
UP IN SMOKE 2018 – ELECTRIC WIZARD & 6 MORE ACTS CONFIRMED!
GET YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A WEEKEND PASS!
Up In Smoke Indoor Fest 2018 has just announced a bunch of new bands, including their second headliner: The almighty ELECTRIC WIZARD, bringing their new album “Wizard Bloody Wizard” to make Pratteln tremble once again! Also confirmed:
DOPETHRONE (CAN) – The riff comes in many forms. Sometimes it’s clean and elegant… sometimes it’s filthy, grimy and about as elegant as a sledgehammer to the sternum. “Dopethrone are the kind of humans that eat the blues for lunch and wash it all down with a giant jug of crust punch! This is one of those bands that will have the crusty punks head banging right next to the stoners, both united under the bad sign of doom.” (CVLT NATION) The Canadian trio released their new album “Transcanadian Anger” few days ago!
ANCESTORS (USA) – Ancestors formed in 2006 and instead of “choosing between prog rock or heavy rock,” merged the styles to create music rife with atmosphere, tension and raw human emotion. They create mighty, modern music that dovetails innovative arrangement, crushing primordial riff interplay and melodic instrumental passages with textural atmospherics. They will release their long-awaited new album this summer via Pelagic Records.
MESSA (IT) – Messa play evoking doom metal with a dark jazz twist. Deliciously haunting female vocals, rhodes piano and 70’s fuzz guitars combine to conjure a sound that is all of their own. With influences as diverse as Windhand, Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore, The Devil’s Blood, Jex Thoth, Angelo Badalamenti, Bellwitch, John Coltrane and Aluk Todolo, the band has moved from the droning occult doom of their first LP “Belfry” to a new, darker and more atmospheric approach clearly showcased in their new record “Feast for Water”, released in March!
CHILD (AUS) – Hailing from the urban wilds of Melbourne, Australia, Child combine the heavy emotion of the blues with the tone and raw power of hard rock to create a visceral musical experience that reaches right into the chest of listeners. Since the release of their runaway self-titled debut in 2014, Child have continued to develop their unique brand of heavy blues through constant writing and extensive touring. The band released their latest EP “I” a few months ago!
HUMULUS (IT) – Humulus is a Psych-Stoner power trio from Brescia/Bergamo (Italy), formed in 2009. Their first self titled album was released by Go Down Records in December 2012. The ten tracks of this first work fully reflect the stoner attitude of the band and their aggressive sound that is best expressed during their live shows. Their latest LP “Reverently Heading Into Nowhere”, more psychedelic and heavier than ever, came out in the Spring of 2017.
GIANT SLEEP (GER/CH) – Giant Sleep are five guys from Germany and Switzerland, worshipping the power of the riff. The sound of the quintet penetrates the worlds of the subconscious and incomprehensible with no regard for genres nor boundaries. Modern post- and prog-rock elements meet the classic sound of the 70s; an original mixture of lively and creative music. On their second album “Move A Mountain” Giant Sleep takes you on a journey through rock history and beyond.
Taking place October 5th & 6th 2018 at Z7 in Pratteln, Switzerland, highclass acts such as JOHN GARCIA & THE BAND OF GOLD, ACID KING or SASQUATCH have already been confirmed with many more to come. Tickets for Up In Smoke are available HERE!
SHARE & WIN: To get another chance to win a weekend pass for Up In Smoke 2018, please visit the Facebook page for more info!
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 21st, 2018 by JJ Koczan
You know what I like about the lineup info below for Doom in Bloom Festival VI? Yes. I like the lineup. I mean aside from that. I like seeing the phrase “family atmosphere.” There’s so much bullshit around heavy music that it’s gotta be dark and grim and unforgiving and miserable. Yeah, some of that stuff is cool and I’m certainly not about to say extreme music doesn’t have its place, but if you’re not there to enjoy it, what’s the fucking point?
And why pretend otherwise? You know what you should do if going to a place or a show or a fest is going to make you miserable? You should stay home and save yourself the trouble. “Family atmosphere?” Hell yes. I don’t care if the music is bleak as hell, we can still be friends when we listen to it.
Cheers to Doom in Bloom Festival VI. Also, I want a shirt that says “slow down or die” on it. Good fun:
The dead stay longer alive: The DOOM IN BLOOM Festival had a break in 2017. The guys are just like the music that fascinates and unites them; passionate and slow.
With the forthcoming sixth edition in 2018 they come up with a hand-picked line-up and a family atmosphere with lot of attention to the details.
Always non-profit and with heart. Slow down or die!
Let’s doom together with the following bands:
? Hangman’s chair official (Paris, France) Forever drowned with Paris’ moods: Despair, solitude and violence share the stage with beauty and symbiotic love. The band represents one of the most important acts of the french Stoner/Doom scene. Coming to our lovely fest with their new LP “Banlieue Triste”, out April 2018 via MUSICFEARSATAN – LABEL.
And whatever Hangman’s Chair transforms into now, its roots will lie around the corner of an alley, in between two parisian bars or deep down the Seine river. These monsters’ kids will cry their despair.
? MESSA (Treviso, Italy) Evoking, vintage doom with a dark jazz twist. Deliciously haunting female vocals, rhodes piano and 70’s fuzz guitars combine to conjure a sound that is all of their own.
The band has moved from the droning occult doom of their first LP ‘Belfry’ to a new, darker and more atmospheric approach to their unique sound. This evolution is clearly showcased in their new record ‘Feast for Water’, a concept album centered on the introspective, symbolic and ritual features of the liquid element.
?! DOOM IN BLOOM Festival VI is very honoured to host the official EU (excluding Italy) release show of their new LP “Feast for Water”, out 6th April on Aural Music.
? Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree (Stuttgart) Psychedelic Doom Rock from one of the most promising, german newcomers of 2017 (#15 of 20 in debut albums 2017 at The Obelisk). Beautiful and eerie psychedelic mixed with rockin’ doom riffs characterized their heavy and variable sound.
? B.S.T. (Hamburg) Hamburg City Doom – slow, melancholic, traditional with a pinch of sludge, lots of melody and german lyrics.
? From Yuggoth (Dresden) Monolithic riffs from the depth of a distorted, dirty and unearthly reef deep down on a foreign planet somewhere in the universe. Transcendental in terms of volume and repetition to take you through the psychedelic ether. Cosmic Horror Space Doom?
Posted in Reviews on February 26th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Italian four-piece Messa conjure a genre cornucopia with their second record for Aural Music. The somewhat quizzical title Feast for Water, taken in context with the cover art of a diver breaking the surface to plunge beneath, speaks directly to the idea of immersion; there’s no guarantee that diver is going to reach the air again, in other words. With eight richly varied tracks presented in a front-to-back linear flow across a still manageable 49 minutes, the band demonstrates a clarity of purpose and a heaviness beyond tone that do indeed seem to be geared toward swallowing the listener as a part of the experience of the album itself.
In quiet stretches of drone, it is hypnotic, and at times it owes some elements of cultistry like those that emerge in the galloping post-intro opener “Snakeskin Drape” to The Devil’s Blood, the impressive lead work of guitarist Alberto playing well off Marco‘s riffing and Sara‘s overriding vocal melodies while Rocco‘s snare pushes the charge from deep enough in the mix to still be a presence, but not dominant.
From the very humming start of the 2:31 intro “Naunet,” Messa set an ambient foundation in cello-style string sounds and backing drones — courtesy of Marco — but there’s a tension created as well as the short cut builds a high-pitched tone to a wash of noise before cutting cold to the quiet beginning of “Snakeskin Drape,” so clearly a drive toward a dynamic approach is a factor as well. That was the case on Messa‘s 2016 debut, Belfry (discussed here), but creative growth is evident in the fluidity of the band’s presentation, and Feast for Water has a sonic persona that transcends its familiar aspects and casts an individual identity that continues to expand its depth as the tracks play through.
To wit, as “Snakeskin Drape” so intentionally builds momentum throughout its five-minute run, the subsequent “Leah,” at eight minutes, brings together Rhodes-infused lounge jazz topped with Sara‘s breathy vocals with crush-minded noise riffing, angular and catchy at the same time and crafted in cyclical fashion to contradict the quieter stretches without necessarily undercutting their effectiveness in terms of mood.
Rounding out with a brazen display of low-end wash before ceding ground to “The Seer,” “Leah” is a standout and a highlight for its central riff alone, but it remains best when taken in the context of following the metallic thrust of “Snakeskin Drape” and leading into the bluesy guitar that follows in “The Seer,” which itself arrives married to significant tonal heft. There isn’t a centerpiece on Feast for Water, but if one examines the record front-to-back, it not only breaks into even vinyl sides, but follows a parabolic course in putting its “meat,” as it were, in the middle. “Leah,” “The Seer” — which returns a bit to the gallop of “Snakeskin Drape” while adding some minor-key Eastern inflection in the guitar around a riff that, in another setting, one might say was culled from Goatsnake — and the following pair of “She Knows” and “Tulsi” each broadening the range from the track before it.
At what one presumes would be the start of side B, “She Knows” digs into further Rhodes-ery courtesy of Alberto as quiet drums from Rocco build toward a post-metallic roll somewhat hopeful in mood but still very much as it approaches the midpoint in the vein of what’s come before, cutting back to quiet at the midpoint and this time being joined for a verse by Sara, whose vocal command is able to carry these quiet parts and the heavier stretches with likewise malleability. That makes “She Knows” all the more an exemplar of Messa‘s dynamic as it stands throughout their second long-player, and as it hits its crescendo, the song is neither overblown nor underserved, feeding directly into the grunge-style riff and solo that begin “Tulsi.”
To an extent, the shift between “She Knows” and “Tulsi” mirrors that between “Naunet” and “Snakeskin Drape,” but it’s not necessarily a reintroduction happening so much as a perpetuation of flow. Sweeping into and out of blastbeats with blackened screams from Rocco for atmospheric effect, the beginning of “Tulsi” is the most blatant nod to extreme metal on Feast for Water, but through guitar squibblies play a role in the subsequent verse, the chug they complement is all doomer bounce.
An ambient break leads to a second half revitalizing the jazz feel with sax (yup) atop echoing drums and guitar, and it’s with “White Stain,” which follows, that Messa hit the inevitable reset point and returns to the Rhodes-backed loud/quiet trades heard earlier. That this in itself feels familiar shows how thorough a job the band does in setting their own terms across the long-player’s span, and if they take a victory lap anywhere in these songs for that success, it’s in the soaring guitar solo in the second half of “White Stain,” which recedes into roll and rumble in order to let the quieter “Da Tariki Tariqat” finish out.
There’s a linear build to the four-minute guitar-led instrumental-save-for-ambient-buried-singing piece, backed by cymbal washes and string and/or sax sounds, but as it comes to its loudest and most distorted point, the tension built leads not to a blowout noise-laden finale but a smoothly executed, classy apex that’s come and gone in under a minute’s time, letting the atmospherics end the proceedings. As they do so, it’s hard not to appreciate the boldness of that choice and the confidence in their approach that it represents.
Ultimately it’s one such move among many peppered across Feast for Water, but like everything before it, the contemplative capping of “Da Tariki Tariqat” echoes the notion of willfully progressive songwriting that serves to unite this material nearly as much as the overall quality level of the craft itself. Might take some time to grow on a certain type of listener looking for a more immediate impact, but if one is willing to chance diving in like the figure on the cover art, Feast for Water unfolds a world well worth taking the risk of not making it back.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 22nd, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Let’s say maybe you’re the kind of person who doesn’t just want to sit in the dark all the time by yourself. You like to leave the house, and you do so without the fear of the judgment of others or worry about pianos falling from the sky and so on. You like to be in the company of those who share your interests, and perhaps to partake of the occasional adult beverage while enjoying a wide variety of loud, heavy and high-energy musical performances. Well. You are in luck. Because it just so happens there are these things called music festivals that happen pretty much every weekend between now and forever,, and should you happen to find yourself in Pescara, Italy, on April 27-28, there’s one you might want to check out.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Tube Cult Fest, which, putting aside all joking about agoraphobia — which is a serious condition from which many people suffer — is a significant accomplishment that in itself justifies showing up if you’re in the area. Past years have featured the likes of Ufomammut and 1000mods, and Tube Cult Fest 2018 is no slouch either in the lineup department, with Weedeater, Sannhet, Zatokrev, Freedom Hawk, Minami Deutsch and a significant slew of others to claim your mind, heart and/or soul as their own.
To wit:
TUBE CULT FEST 2018 • Chapter X
April 27 – April 28
Tube Cult Fest Chapter 10 is revealed. Here’s the full line-up of the Adriatic’s Loudest Festival.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 19th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Keep an eye out for this one. Really. With their second record, Feast for Water, Italian four-piece Messa take a massive swath of influences from across various styles of heavy and make them their own, and I’m not just talking about the angular crunch early in “Leah” or the derived-from-black-metal gallop of the preceding “Snakeskin Drape,” but you can hear it in the vast, open, drone-infused ambient stretches in those tracks and others as well, the band establishing firm command of grunge riffing on “Tulsi” and trading between dense, rolling riffs and key-led atmospheres on “White Stains,” which follows — they’ve got genuine breadth and depth to their approach. With the unflinching soulfulness from vocalist Sara out front, the songs shift smoothly through a range of moods and expressive sensibilities.
Not that I’ve heard it or anything.
The album is out April 6. Here’s details from the PR wire:
MESSA: new album “Feast For Water” to be issued April 6th on Aural Music
Italy’s peerless “scarlet doom” foursome MESSA have announced the release of their sophomore full-length “Feast For Water”, to be issued April 6th on Aural Music. MESSA play evoking doom metal with a dark jazz twist. Deliciously haunting female vocals, Rhodes piano and 70’s fuzz guitars combine to conjure a sound that is all of their own. With influences as diverse as Windhand, Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore, The Devil’s Blood, Jex Thoth, Angelo Badalamenti, Bellwitch, Urfaust, John Coltrane and Aluk Todolo, the band has moved from the droning occult doom of their first LP ‘Belfry’ to a new, darker and more atmospheric approach clearly showcased in their new record ‘Feast for Water’, a concept album centered on the introspective, symbolic and ritual features of the liquid element.
MESSA – New album “Feast For Water” Out April 6th on Aural Music Pre-order from March 2nd at this location
TRACK LISTING: 1. Naunet 2. Snakeskin Drape 3. Leah 4. The Seer 5. She Knows 6. Tulsi 7. White Stains 8. Da Tariki Tariquat
MESSA emerged on the first day of 2014. Marco and Sara started to develop the basic concept while writing the first songs. Later on, Alberto and Rocco joined the band. The extreme diversity of their musical background immediately proved to be essential in the construction of the band’s sound. In 2016, Messa signed a deal with Aural Music and subsequently released their first opus, ‘Belfry’, which was brought on tour extensively across Europe and USA. A flexy disc and a Picture 7’’ were released before the band got to work on their second album titled ‘Feast for Water’, a mind blowing Dark Jazz Doom ritual drenched in Occult Blues from hell.
MESSA IS Marco – Guitar, Bass, Ambient Sara – Voice Rocco – Drums, Screams Alberto – Lead Guitar, Rhodes piano
