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Methra Post Video for “Dead Ram”

Posted in Bootleg Theater on July 26th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

methra

As they continue to support their new album, Acolyte (review here), Tucson duo Methra have unveiled a new video for the track “Dead Ram.” The clip is apparently a prequel to their last video, which was for the song “Hartley’s Cult,” the title derived from their purported obsession with Peavey amps — something you can see manifest in the wall of them that appears to be in the band’s practice space. It’s a tale of heartbreak, murder, wandering and death-sludge, and front to back it looks like it was an absolute blast to make. Which is as it should be.

That is the prevailing impression I get from Methra at this point, and it was true of the record as well: They sound like they’re having fun. The music lacks nothing for grit — it’s raw, nasty all over the place, even when they touch on a cleaner vocal here or a melodic part there, as indeed they do in “Dead Ram” — but it’s a very specific kind of fun that guitarist Nick Genitals and drummer Andy Kratzenberg are having throughout, like every time the cameras are shut off or the recording equipment is paused, everyone starts laughing. In a realm of music that sometimes seems so averse to enjoying itself on any level, it’s refreshing to see a band doing so with such brazen abandon.

You can check out the video below, followed by some comment from the band. Acolyte is out now on Battleground Records.

Enjoy:

Methra, “Dead Ram” official video

METRHA informs viewers, “Upon completion of our ‘Hartley’s Cult’ music video, we realized the story was not complete. We asked ourselves, ‘WWGLD’ (what would George Lucas do)? The answer was simple; a prequel, with even better(worse) effects. Who was the Acolyte? What drives Him?”

METHRA’s new lo-fi visual production is the unsettling tale of one man’s descent into madness, and rebirth into The Acolyte. In the “Dead Ram” video, a crazed drifter can somehow hear METHRA practice on the other side of town….and he hates it. He’ll take an absurd trek through Tucson’s lesser known architectural wonders on a deadly mission to silence the grating sounds of disgusting music inside his head. This prequel to the “Hartley’s Cult” will horrify you. All stunts were performed with actual landmarks and operational firearms. You have been warned.

Methra on Thee Facebooks

Methra on Bandcamp

Battleground Records website

Battleground Records on Thee Facebooks

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Methra, Acolyte: Nihilation (Plus Full Album Stream)

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on July 1st, 2016 by JJ Koczan

methra-acolyte

[Methra release Acolyte July 4 via Battleground Records. Click play above to stream the album in full.]

For all the fuckall Methra proffer in the 10 songs on their Acolyte debut full-length, it’s not like they haven’t put in any thought to their presentation. The Tucson-based duo of guitarist Nick Genitals and drummer Andy Kratzenberg (the latter also of Godhunter) reportedly recorded an overwhelming, and in my limited understanding of modern recording methods completely unnecessary, 69 guitar tracks, likely just so they could say they did it, and from their Peavey-style logo and art and the self-aware, tongue-in-cheek nature of many of the songs, from the falsetto chanting at the end of “Hartley’s Cult” — another Peavey reference — to the way opening duo “Silverbar” and “If Everything is Terrible, then Nothing Is” take on Electric Wizard, “Creeper” Pentagram and “Pike Warship” High on Fire, the Battleground Records release ends up as much about personality and quirk as its sonic impact, though that’s not to be understated either.

What they do best of all, however, is change up their approach. The longest of the tracks, the aforementioned “Hartley’s Cult,” is just over five minutes long and most others are two-to-three, so the record’s done in a half-hour, but during that time, the two-piece run through a gamut of different sounds and feel no reservation about blending elements of doom, stoner metal or grind riffing and vocals, as on the penultimate “Heshlaw” or “Pike Warship” or “S.P.S.,” which may or may not be a sequel to the similarly-named “S.B.S.” from Methra‘s 2014 EP, IV – Ronkonkoma (review here). Their doing so seemingly by whim’s dictate gives Acolyte a punkish spirit, but its tones are thick and while it moves periodically, the focus throughout is more about exploring these different styles and expressing appreciation for varied forms.

Or, more likely, the focus is having a good time. That’s the prevailing impression Acolyte leaves as the drum-led shuffle of closer “Organ Trail” — based on visual assessment of Nick and Andy‘s ages, I’m going to guess that’s a reference to the PC game Oregon Trail — boogies quietly into its fadeout. That doesn’t say much about the music, but the work as a whole is a demented, at times extreme kind of fun, and for all its jumps in sound, swapping out clean vocals for harsh ones and so on, there is a flow to it that starts with the roll of “Silverbar,” the band doing their best Jus Osborn and pulling it off en route to following up with a Vincent Price nod in “If Everything is Terrible, then Nothing Is,” which riffs through two verses and a chugging instrumental chorus and then rides that groove through a long fade into the more manic “Hartley’s Cult.”

Methra (photo by Schlecter Promotional Studios)

Hard to say any one track on Acolyte sums up what Methra are doing across the whole album, because that changes almost song by song, but the slow start of “Hartley’s Cult,” the way it incorporates out-of-nowhere blown-out screams and growls before its cleaner chorus, the pickup in pace toward the end and the already-noted chanting at the finish go a pretty long way in conveying both the attitude and the versatility Methra are working with across the album’s span. So of course the next track, the 1:45 “Creeper,” is a complete left turn, delving into parody Pentagram-style doom rock that’s sincere in its reverence as much as satire of the current cult rock movement that band has in large part inspired. It’s also catchy, with a satisfying rhythmic bounce and horror-minded feel.

One might expect “Dead Ram” to follow suit à la the stylistic complement between “Silverbar” and “If Everything is Terrible, then Nothing Is,” but no dice. Rather, “Dead Ram” starts off a four-track run of growling sludge rock, finding out what happens when the likes of Repulsion or Napalm Death is thrown into the pot with some of the previously noted doom. A clean chorus emerges late in “Dead Ram,” but the bulk of the song is grunted forth, and “Pike Warship” follows suit after its opening scream, “Bow to Pike!” Of course, the riff is in the style of Matt Pike‘s work in High on Fire, but with the low growl vocals, the vibe is more grinding than High on Fire ever have been and pushes through to “S.P.S.,” which splits itself into two parts with a first half that mostly holds the form of “Pike Warship” and “Dead Ram” and a second more spacious, sort of raw, moldy basement psychedelia, like if you had a swirl but all the colors were shades of brown. The riff is what holds the two pieces together, and I guess you could probably say the same for much of Acolyte.

A sample about buying machetes ends “S.P.S.” and then it’s time for Methra to lay down the “Heshlaw,” a song for which the lyrics — I’m sure unfortunately — are just about indecipherable as they’re growled out over a steady roll that serves in some ways as a closer before “Organ Trail,” rounding out the album’s most extreme portion with a solidified approach. I don’t know if it’s keys or guitar on “Organ Trail,” but the volume and impact of tone is way pulled back and the drums march Acolyte to its finish with one more context-expanding stretch that seems to come from nowhere but somehow still work. What Methra basically accomplish on their first LP is to set themselves up to go anywhere they want stylistically. The previous EP had some of these elements at play, but the will that Andy and Nick show in swapping one approach out for another and the humor with which they execute those turns only highlights the consciousness of what they’re doing. I’d expect, and hope, they only get weirder from here.

Methra on Thee Facebooks

Methra on Bandcamp

Battleground Records website

Battleground Records on Thee Facebooks

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Methra to Release Acolyte July 4

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

I’m just going by what I see in the photo and read in the PR wire info below, but it seems fair enough to expect Methra‘s forthcoming Acolyte long-player to sound somewhat… bigger… than their preceding EP, IV: Ronkonkoma (review here), which the Tucson-based duo released in 2014. The new full-length, which is also their debut on Battleground Records, is out July 4, and based around an apparent affection for Peavey amps and a concept of secret murder conspiracies and upwards of 69 guitar tracks, sounds like it’s going to be weird as hell, which I kind of dig. I wouldn’t dare speculate as to how it might actually come across without hearing it, but “big” seems like a safe enough bet. So I’ll roll with that.

The aforementioned photo and announcement from the PR wire:

methra (Photo by Schlecter Promotional Studios)

METHRA: Battleground Records Confirms Impending Acolyte Debut LP From Tucson Sludge Degenerates

Tucson, Arizona-based marauders METHRA have completed their arduous Acolyte LP for Summer release through Battleground Records, the record sure to prove itself as one of the most bafflingly gnarly sludge metal releases of the year.

METHRA is comprised two self-proclaimed fat weirdos who believe in making heavy music for heavy people, drummer Andy Kratzenberg (Godhunter) and guitarist Nick Genitals (Limbless Torso) recorded the bulldozing Acolyte in late 2015 at Arcane Digital (North Side Kings, Unruh, Landmine Marathon) with Ryan Butler who complained of physical and mental anguish due the bands’ unorthodox recording demands. The band used only incredibly large speakers to record a behemoth load of sixty-nine guitar tracks – for a total of ten songs that is — including 15″ and 18″ speakers, and a 21″subwoofer.

The rough concept of Acolyte is based on persistent online rumors that a cabal of top amplifier manufacturers had Hartley Peavey killed and replaced with a doppelganger in the late 80s to stop the company from collapsing the industry due to low price points on the highest quality original amplifiers in the world.

In deference to the great glory of this nation and the announcement of a sequel to the game-changing blockbuster film Independence Day, METHRA has decided to give a very special 4th of July release to Acolyte, which will happen through the regulation of Battleground Records on colored vinyl and digital deliveries. Album art, audio samples including two videos, preorders, live dates, and other propaganda will be issued in the coming days.

http://www.facebook.com/methratucson
http://methra.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/battlegroundrecords
http://www.battlegroundrnr.com
http://www.twitter.com/battlegroundrnr
http://battlegroundrecords.bandcamp.com

Methra, IV: Ronkonkoma (2014)

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