The bell of the ride counts out a measure and soon enough the guitar starts in on “Witch,” the opening track from Wolf Blood‘s self-titled debut. Right away, something just seems bent. It’s like the sound is contorted somehow. It’s an otherworldly sensation and it continues throughout the Duluth, Minnesota, four-piece’s six-track offering, which follows through with a loosely cultish approach but is more geared toward general darkness and tonal space than trying to win you over to Team Lucifer. Driven by the riffs of guitarists Mike Messina and Mindy Johnson (the latter also vocals), “Witch” is the slowest of Wolf Blood‘s tracks until its complementary 12-minute closer “Procession of the Witch,” and it also provides one of the album’s signature hooks, so while it may not represent the High on Fire thrashy sensibility of “Exile,” Messina, Johnson, bassist Brian Wells and drummer/vocalist Jake Paulsrude are definitely putting their best foot forward, and they’re swinging it hard right at their audience.

Grooves and big riffs abound, but that’s nothing new to the converted, and where Wolf Blood really distinguish themselves is in the oddity of their aggression. Blending clean vocals, spoken parts and screams, they play off both metallic and heavy rock styles and craft something fluid and malevolent from them. There’s a sense of theatricality in side A finale “Dancing on Your Grave,” where much of the album’s second half seems to be more about pummel, but there’s an emerging personality at work across the board, and Wolf Blood emerge after “Procession of the Witch” unscathed by their own strangeness, having tread hard on a couple fine lines between subgenres. Ultimately, Wolf Blood is as satisfying for its brashness as it is for its density of groove.

The band released it earlier this year on two separate, sold-out tape pressings and the whole record is available to stream on the band’s Bandcamp in that original form, but Burning World Records and Outer Battery Records will have a vinyl out in October remixed and remastered by James Plotkin, and you can hear the new version of “Witch” on the player below. Please enjoy:

Wolf Blood‘s Wolf Blood is out in October through Burning World Records (EU preorder here) and Outer Battery Records (US preorder here). The band will tour beginning on Sept. 25 in support of the vinyl.

Wolf Blood Midwest Fall Tour Dates:
9/25- Duluth, MN @ The Red Star
9/26- Eau Claire, WI @ House of Rock
9/27- Dubuque, IA @ Eronel
9/28- TBA
9/29- Iowa City, IA @ TBA
9/30- Madison, WI @ The Wisco
10/1- Madison, WI @ Dragonfly Lounge
10/2- Milwaukee, WI @ Quarters
10/3- Chicago, IL @ TBA
10/4- St. Louis, MO @ TBA
10/5- Colombia, MO @ TBA
10/6- Kansas City, MO @ Vandals
10/7- Lawrence, KS @ TBA
10/8- Des moine, IA @ Vaudville Mews
10/9- Minneapolis, MN @ House show

Wolf Blood on Thee Facebooks

Wolf Blood on Bandcamp

Wolf Blood at Burning World Records

Wolf Blood at Outer Battery Records

Chaotic acid rockers Wolf Blood will issue their self-titled debut on Oct. 1 through Burning World Records. The Minnesota four-piece released the album earlier this year and have nearly sold through both of the tape runs they pressed, and the Burning World vinyl will be available to preorder starting Aug. 27, complete with new artwork that, well, is pretty badass.

That’s below, as well as the Bandcamp stream of the album, info and Midwestern tour dates, since it seems Wolf Blood will hit the road starting late next month and are still solidifying some of the dates for the tour. If you’ve got a place that needs loud in one of the cities below, hit the band up and pay them for playing, because that’s the right fucking thing to do.

Goes a little something like this:

Wolf Blood Debut Album Coming out October 1st, 2014 on Burning World (U.K.)/Road Burn (U.S.) Records.

Pre-order available August 27th at www.burningworldrecords.com.

Wolf Blood’s Midwest tour runs from Sept 25-Oct 11th.

Burning World Records is extremely proud to add another high quality act to the roster. After signing bands like Monomyth, Conan, Slomatics, Nihill and Altar Of Plagues (to name but a few) we can announce that WOLF BLOOD from Minnesota will join our label with their debut album this fall. The 4-piece band has the songs, the power and the riffs, like Windhand and Goatsnake before them.

After selling out the entire first cassette-pressing of their debut album in less than a week, WOLF BLOOD is set to release the vinyl version of the self-titled monster in October 1st 2014.

Formed in a dank basement during the infamous 2012 Duluth, Minnesota flood, guitarist Mike Messina and drummer Jake Paulsrude (Dad’s Acid) started writing psycho-sludge experiments that sounded too stoned to be metal, and too baneful to be indie-rock. They recruited renown hard-core guitar sorceress Mindy Johnson (The Keep Aways) and magi-roots bassist Brian Wells to flesh-out their menacing sound.

This seven-song recording opens with the haunting single Witch. From there…you’re on your own for the next 35 feral, blood stained minutes.

Midwest Fall Tour Dates:
9/25- Duluth, MN @ The Red Star
9/26- Eau Claire, WI @ House of Rock
9/27- Dubuque, IA @ Eronel
9/28- TBA
9/29- Iowa City, IA @ TBA
9/30- Madison, WI @ The Wisco
10/1- Madison, WI @ Dragonfly Lounge
10/2- Milwaukee, WI @ Quarters
10/3- Chicago, IL @ TBA
10/4- St. Louis, MO @ TBA
10/5- Colombia, MO @ TBA
10/6- Kansas City, MO @ Vandals
10/7- Lawrence, KS @ TBA
10/8- Des moine, IA @ Vaudville Mews
10/9- Minneapolis, MN @ House show

burningworldrecords.com
facebook.com/wbduluthmn
wolfblood666.bandcamp.com

Wolf Blood, Wolf Blood (2014)

I’ll admit, it’s been a while since I last saw a cassingle sleeve. That which brings the self-titled EP from Minneapolis duo Brownangus is simple enough. It says “brown” on one face and “angus” on the other, and on the sides, the band’s name and the website for Major Destroyer Records, who release the tape in an edition of 100 copies. The cassette itself is raw-meat pink with brown letting and offers about 16 minutes of varied punishment, from blistering noise rock to caustic droning to assorted moments of sludgy grooving, the two-piece of bassist Craig Lee and drummer Blake Jette (both of whom take credit for vocals, though I don’t hear any on the tape) coming across with no shortage of blown-out fuckall. At times, Lee‘s tone and the wash of cymbals with which it arrives reminds of fellow Midwesterners Beast in the Field, and if the Twin Cities-dwellers were to take influence from the Detroit twosome, I don’t think anyone could blame them, but ultimately, Brownangus — whose name appears as two words on the tape itself and one just about everywhere else — are more rooted in punk, however much an affinity for chaos the two acts may share.

A beehive bass buzz starts side one of Brownangus‘ Brownangus. The tape presents two nameless tracks, the first longer than the second, each of which accounts for its side. Side one is immediate but finds room in its circa-10-minute screed for a droning break after an initial buildup and groove. Noise and bigger riffing emerges in a sudden kick on the other end, but Lee and Jette have never completely let go of the tension, so it’s not as if they’re coming completely out of nowhere. They retain an experimental feel as Jette keeps slower time and Lee delves into various effects for a deconstructing march that ends side one with a sample of an emergency broadcast. Side two begins with some abrasive feedback that leads into a rolling low-end groove, but soon enough downshifts into more downtempo terrain, gradually fading out altogether until a rumble signals a return to full-blast bludgeoning. Jette taps his sticks on the rims of his drums during an upbeat break, but Lee soon joins back in and the forward drive continues in punkish form with intermittent starts and stops for the remainder of the side, Brownangus never quite settling into one method or another, but showcasing an unabashed glee for playing with noise on their way. Another fadeout marks the end of the quick release, and Brownangus make their way out of their self-titled with relatively little fanfare considering the havoc wrought over these two sides.

While they keep it nasty for just about the entire duration and the tape’s all-at-once-per-side presentation lends itself more to listening altogether than parsing out each individual piece that comprises it, Brownangus does make a few deft turns, between its fury and drone and roll, and what comes across clearest of all is that Lee and Jette have an open creative process and are ready and willing to manipulate their own sound in order to make the noise they want, rather than sculpting their material to fit some genre ideal. Near as I can tell, the Major Destroyer cassette is their first physical release, and as such it showcases a duo of blistering potential. They don’t seem to here, but should they decide they want to, it’s easy to imagine them adding vocals to their approach down the line from whichever of them can scream the most viscerally, or better yet, both.

Brownangus, Brownangus (2014)

Brownangus on Thee Facebooks

Major Destroyer Records on Bandcamp

Major Destroyer Records webstore

Proffering thicker-than-thou tones and churning filth-laden plod, the debut cassingle from Hands I Annul Yours — despite being instrumental but for a couple samples — makes no attempt to soften its perspective. With just the two tracks, “Asking for Death” and “Grind Humanity,” the limited-to-100-copies red-tape release on Major Destroyer Records nests itself in the bowels of misanthropic sludge riffing, raging in a way that would seem to contradict its lumbering pace but winds up fitting right in with it.

The two-piece outfit of Kyle Anderson and Blake Jette (Mike Mulen seems also to have been involved in production and art) recorded Asking for Death/Grind Humanity. Beginning with a sample of cult leader Michael Travesser from the documentary Inside a Cult, “Asking for Death” lunges for the eardrums with tonal largesse and formidable crash, gradually unfolding to what actually winds up being the more accessible of the two central instrumental progressions on the tape before devolving into noise and more sampling. “Grind Humanity” is slower and begins more straightforwardly, but winds up mired in noisy, droning fuckall that even more than Travesser‘s disparaging the empty frivolities of modern living speak to Hands I Annul Yours‘ feelings on the subject.

Notes are held and droned out and crashes are well-timed. Before the halfway point, an echoing sample provides transition into the faster second half of the track, a build that climbs to a righteously heavy peak before cutting back to washes of feedback noise that last over the course of a long minute-plus fade. The whole thing is over in just about 10 minutes (unless you’ve got your tape player set on continuous), but Hands I Annul Yours leave a lasting impression nonetheless. Info on the band is sparse — they recorded in Minnesota and this is a one-time-only pressing — and no real bio pops up on Major Destroyer‘s page or Bandcamp site, so their overall presence is minimal, and likely on purpose. It would almost be out of character with the music if Hands I Annul Yours wanted to be found.

But if you’re telling me you’ve got a red, 100-copies-only one-time pressing of a killer obscure sludge band’s demo, and it gives me an excuse to type the word “cassingle,” I’m telling you sign me up. So yeah, sign me up. Tape also comes with a download. This shit rules:

Burly Iowan five-piece Superchief and Minneapolis fuzz contenders Red Desert have teamed up for five gigs together in the Midwest. Superchief’s ultra-dudely Corporate Dynamite came out last year (review here) and Red Desert will have in tow their new one, Damned by Fate, which is their first outing since 2008’s 18 Wheels. Here’s what the PR wire has to say about it, raw copy-style:

Superchief and Red Desert Announce 2012 Midwest Tour Dates

The two Midwestern powerhouse bands join forces in August 2012 for Summer Tour! Red Desert and Superchief team up for 5 dates in August 2012 for a regional, Midwestern tour.

Dates are:
August 21st – Iowa City IA (Blue Moose Tap)
August 22nd – Indianapolis, IN (Indy’s Jukebox)
August 23rd – Chicago, IL (Quenchers Saloon)
August 24th – Madison, WI (The Wisco)
August 25th – Racine, WI (Bar 525)

Red Desert loads up the van in support of their brand new release, Damned by Fate. The album is a nine-song, fuzz-infused masterpiece of the highest order. Red Desert is determined to get the music out in front of new listeners across the Midwest. Damned by Fate is currently available for purchase on Bandcamp.com and Red Desert will have physical copies available on the tour.

Brolester Records recording artists, Superchief, have been relentlessly touring their current release Corporate Dynamite for the past year and a half. After a successful stint at SxSW in 2012, Superchief has been itching to get back out on the road. The band is excited to be heading into new territories on this tour, as well as returning to old favorite locations. Building a fan base takes work and consistency and Superchief has this in abundance.

Both bands, having played several times together in Iowa and Minnesota, felt it was their duty to bring their brands of rock n roll to the masses. Musical brothers-in-arms traversing the back roads of the Midwest together, with instruments in one hand and a cold beer in the other; both Red Desert and Superchief would not have it any other way. Through solidarity and perseverance they will convert those that are unaware, and solidify those that are; that rock n roll is not dead.

http://www.reverbnation.com/superchief

http://www.reverbnation.com/reddesert

http://brolesterrecords.com/

Rest assured, I’m not trying to get away with anything here. Space is the Corpse of Time — the fourth album from Minneapolis, Minnesota, instrumentalists Zebulon Pike — was released a while back, and I’m not trying to pass it off as something brand new or something you probably can’t download by whatever means it is the kids are using these days. However, it being a self-release from the band, I thought it was still worth featuring here, and since it is out now, the best way to go seemed to post the whole record rather than a single track.

If you’re unfamiliar with Zebulon Pike, the prog-doom explorers formed in 2002 and are veterans of the old Emissions From the Monolith festival. A double-guitar four-piece, their sound hones in on elements of space rock, but the performances as captured on Space is the Corpse of Time aren’t loose in the way one might expect when thinking of modern instrumental heavy. Rather, songs like “Echoic Worlds” and the sprawling “Powers of the Living/Manifestations of the Dead” are always moving somewhere, however long they might rest on a single part or theme.

The music is evocative, and apart from the title track, long. Each of the other four cuts tops 10 minutes, and that’s par for the course for Zebulon Pike, who’ve been known to double that span on occasion. They use their time wisely, though, so that even as Tom Berg‘s bass rumbles in the final minutes of “Powers of the Living/Manifestations of the Dead,” it does so in a way that feels purposeful in creating an atmosphere and mood. Album opener “Spectrum Threshold” also boasts some effective doom chugging from guitarists Morgan Berkus and Erik Fratzke, and well-timed, adaptive drumming from Erik Bolen, so right away, the band lets you know you’re in more than capable hands.

So again, you don’t have to tell me, because I know Space is the Corpse of Time has been out for a while now. I just thought it was worth hosting the record for anyone who hasn’t yet had the chance to hear it, and if that’s you (and I suppose even if you’ve heard it and you’re listening again), I hope you enjoy:

[mp3player width=460 height=270 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=zebulon-pike.xml]

Zebulon Pike‘s Space is the Corpse of Time is available now. For more info, check out the band’s website or find them on Thee Facebooks here.

It’s always hard to speculate on what motivated a band to get together, but if the ultra-visceral EyeHateGod-style sludge of Witchden is anything to go by, the Minneapolis foursome are clearly upset at Joe Mauer‘s lack of homerun production at home over the last couple seasons. On the four uploaded tracks from the upcoming full-length, Consulting the Bones, Witchden vent their frustration amid dank riffage and the burnt-throat screams of aptly-named vocalist Jason “Herb Headie” Micah.

Micah is joined in Witchden by guitarist Adam Alexander Rivkin and bassist Andy ‘The Machine” Green, both of whom also handle backing vocals, but it’s drummer Jeff “Kong” Moen whose name is likeliest to be familiar. Moen is also a member of Sourvein in the band’s latest incarnation, and though there’s no word on how exactly he handles the commute from Minnesota to North Carolina or if in fact he’s still in Sourvein at all, he brings a characteristic crash and thud to Witchden tracks like “All Just a Lie” and the punishing “Ossuary.”

The album is listed as “coming soon,” which could mean two weeks or five months, but if the songs Witchden put on their ReverbNation page are anything to go by, they’re at least worth checking out. The band is also on Thee Facebooks, if that’s your druthers.