Posted in Whathaveyou on June 22nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
As Matt Pike opines in the behind-the-scenes clip at the bottom of this post — which looks like it could be a snippet taken from a feature-length documentary that would’ve been well earned on the band’s part even before they snagged a Grammy — laughing, he says, “It’s definitely a specific kind of person who’s going to listen to a High on Fire record.” And so it is. The band hasn’t been without controversy in terms of Pike‘s reading habits, but when you’ve been a specific kind of crazy for a long time and then all of a sudden a whole bunch of new people start paying attention, that kind of thing is going to get noticed in a different light. Matt Pike talkin’ crazy shit? Points for consistency. Have you ever read the lyrics?
Anyhoozle, cool that the band are reissuing The Art of Self-Defense, but the big question being answered here as I see it is the status of their next record, which is done. Hooray for that, and I mean it. Not only are they due, but that their next LP will arrive in reasonable time for them to take it out and say, ‘We’ve been a band for 25 years and we still destroy everybody,’ will no doubt be a good bit of fun for them and anyone else lucky enough to be in the path of their aural battery. A quarter-century of High on Fire isn’t nothing, and I look forward to hearing Coady Willis drumming on a record after seeing him with the band live twice last year. New material, so much the better.
The PR wire has info on that reissue, confirmation of a 2024 release for the next LP, and a reminder that it was Frank Kozik who put out their first release. Behold:
High on Fire Announces 25th Anniversary Celebration, ‘The Art of Self Defense’ Deluxe Reissue
Grammy-Winning Rock Band Completes Work on New LP!
Iconic U.S. rock band, High on Fire, celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2023 and announces plans to honor a quarter-century of creation with a special slate of rejoiceful revelry. The GRAMMY Award-winning group, featuring bassist Jeff Matz, guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike, and new drummer Coady Willis (Big Business, Melvins, Murder City Devils) will bookend the jubilee with a reissue of its long-out-of-print debut, ‘The Art of Self Defense’, and the release of its as-yet-untitled new album, set to drop in early 2024. In between, fans can expect a slew of live performances spotlighting specific eras from the trailblazing band’s historic career.
On August 4, MNRK Heavy will reissue High on Fire’s debut album, ‘The Art of Self Defense’. Originally released in 2000 on the late Frank Kozik’s now defunct Man’s Ruin Records, ‘The Art of Self Defense’ introduced the world to the towering trio and modded the template for what constituted modern-day heavy music. The celebratory reissue is completely remixed by original producer, Billy Anderson, remastered by Justin Weis, and boasts a new alternative cover, expanded gatefold artwork, and the band’s self-titled demo as bonus tracks. ‘The Art of Self Defense’ deluxe reissue, which will be available on LP in a smorgasbord of colored vinyl variants, is available for pre-order at this location.
In additional news, High on Fire has completed work on its new, untitled ninth studio album and successor to 2018’s ‘Electric Messiah’, which netted the group its first GRAMMY for Best Metal Performance. Recorded in Salem, Massachusetts with longtime producer Kurt Ballou, the album is the first to feature drummer Willis, who joined High on Fire in 2021. Additional details will be announced as available.
“High on Fire wishes to thank everyone that has supported our efforts over the last 25 years, including the labels, road crews, friends, and families, but most importantly the FANS,” says the band collectively. “We are looking forward to celebrating this milestone with everyone and sharing new music soon.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 21st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
At some point this morning — probably about 15 seconds after I close my laptop to attend to whatever domestic task has suddenly popped into my head — an announcement will come through the PR wire for the new Somnuri record, which is titled Desiderium and will be released as the Brooklyn trio’s label debut through MNRK Heavy (formerly eOne Heavy). You can see the preorder link below. I got it from the video, which I searched out on YouTube after I saw the banner with the release date on social media and a new pic of the band (above) in the same color scheme that one assumes is to coincide with the release announcement that, again, is probably coming today. Is it in my inbox yet? I’ll check. Nope.
Fair enough. That hasn’t stopped me from digging into the three-minute aggro burst of the song itself. It put me right in mind of when High on Fire signed to E1 in 2010 and went on to unveil Snakes for the Divine, which remains a treasured piece of their catalog. I don’t know what’s in store for Desiderium as I haven’t heard more than the three minutes of “What a Way to Go” in the video at the bottom of this post, but if you weren’t already betting on Somnuri after 2021’s Nefarious Wave (review here), there just might be enough energy here to get you off your ass and on board with their assault.
Plus, Justin Sherrell eats dirt in the clip, and that’s a sacrifice worth honoring.
When and if I see the actual album announcement — 10AM Eastern? oh! oh! maybe it’ll have cover art and recording info and a tracklisting and oh! well organized biographical and lineup information! oh that’d just be the best! — I’ll be glad to update this post with it [EDIT: Obviously that happened]. Until then, it’s you, me, a buncha links and a new Somnuri song, which as it turns out is plenty.
Enjoy:
SOMNURI: Brooklyn Sludge Metal Trio To Release Desiderium Full-Length July 21st Via MNRK Heavy; “What A Way To Go” Video/Single Now Playing + Preorders Available
Brooklyn, New York sludge metal trio SOMNURI will unleash their third full-length, Desiderium, on July 21st via MNRK Heavy, today unveiling the record’s artwork, first single, and preorders.
SOMNURI does not keep their feet planted in surface reality. The band’s flavor of heavy metal stomps from genre to genre with the fervor and confidence of a band ready to cross thresholds of all that’s perceivable and possible. Composed of lead guitarist and singer Justin Sherrell, drummer Phil SanGiancomo, and bassist Mike G, their latest effort is a true testament to the band’s insatiable work ethic cementing them as one of heavy metal’s most exciting emerging acts.
Recorded at Gojira’s Silver Cord Studios, mixed by Justin Mantooth at Westend Studios, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege Mastering, on Desiderium, the band weaves seamlessly through a variety of tempos and sounds, giving some well-trodden genres new roads to travel. Songs like “Paramnesia” swing in like a sludgy wrecking ball, calling to mind the likes of Eyehategod and Crowbar in their heaviest moments. Instead of going for all-out mosh parts, the band pulls back, allowing Sherrell to get a few clean vocals in before charging back up on full assault. Sherrell’s voice is insanely versatile, both able to deliver soul-filled clean vocals and some grim screams. It’s the perfect counterpoint to the band’s instrumentals, weaving a ladder between sludge, grunge, psych-rock and more. All of this leads to something like Alice In Chains if they got way into acid and wanted to go full-tilt heavy.
SOMNURI’s flow from genre to genre works well, much like being in a fever dream of sound. The album’s lyrical themes blossomed from Sherell experiencing a chain of dreams wherein he lived a multitude of different lives and realities. These dreams concluded with Sherrell witnessing a suicide that embodied both a tragic end and a strange new beginning. “Was I experiencing a dream state and experiencing someone else’s reality? Or was that just me leaving my cocoon to start a new life?,” Sherell wonders. The dream stuck with Sherell, informing the album’s title, which is defined as a feeling of loss or grief about something lost.
Front to back, the abundant ideas and soundscapes turn SOMNURI’s Desiderium into a prism of sound. Every song is an amalgamation of what makes rock kinetic, bridging a gap between acts like Helmet, Karp, Handsome, and Quicksand with the sonic journeys of Isis or Jesu. It’s this thirst for exploration that makes SOMNURI who they are: they’re an ascendant band, not constrained by any label or descriptor.
In advance of Desiderium’s release, today the band presents a video for the record’s first single, “What A Way To Go.”
Elaborates SanGiacomo of the track, “‘What A Way To Go’ is an anti-authoritarian kick in the teeth. With all of the corruption in the world, it’s hard not to feel like you’re being buried alive sometimes, the song came about while trying to vent that frustration. It’s straight to the point and urgent, with less twists and turns than some of our other material.
Adds Sherrell, “Susan Hunt, who directed the video, captured the imagery perfectly along with a sense of being hounded and surveilled. This is the first single from our new album, Desiderium, and we couldn’t be more excited to set the tone with it and let people know what kind of energy they can expect this time. The album is the pinnacle of our sound thus far and we can’t wait to unleash it.”
Desiderium, which comes cloaked in the cover art of Alex Eckman-Lawn, will be released on CD, LP, cassette, and digital formats. For preorders, go to THIS LOCATION.
Desiderium Track Listing: 1. Death Is The Beginning 2. Paramnesia 3. Pale Eyes 4. What A Way To Go 5. Hollow Visions 6. Flesh & Blood 7. Desiderium 8. Remnants 9. The Way Out
SOMNURI Live Lineup: Justin Sherrell – guitar, vocals Phil SanGiacomo – drums Mike G – bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Well, it’s established that Matt Pike formed the project Pike vs. the Automaton basically so he could keep going when the pandemic was on, High on Fire weren’t up to much and Sleep were actively taking a break, so why not continue to support earlier-2022’s Pike vs. the Automaton (review here) with another tour? What, you thought dude was going to sit on ass for the Fall? Maybe do a few Cameos? Turns out you can do both.
They’ll start in Dallas and head to the upper Midwest before wrapping in Iowa City. I don’t know if it snows in Minneapolis in mid-November or not, but I’d play the mother hen and tell dudes to take coats anyway. No, you won’t get sick just from being cold, but freezing your ass off is no way to go through life either.
Interesting to see Pike ascend to “heavy metal icon” status, but I can’t really debate it, even before you take into account the Grammy. Maybe more “heavy” than “metal,” but why quibble? I know there’s been some blowback because he read some dirtbag’s book or whatever, but you can’t really argue with the impact he’s had on at least two generations of heavy music in basically two once-in-a-lifetime-if-you’re-lucky bands. Seems to me if you were getting your politics from High on Fire lyrics anyway, that one’s on you, and the whole thing was pretty low stakes, made bigger because the internet is toxic too all forms of life.
Anyway, go get ’em, I guess, not that they need me to say it. From the PR wire:
High on Fire’s Matt Pike Announces ‘Pike vs. the Automaton’ U.S. Tour Dates
Heavy Metal Icon Hits the Road In Support of Debut Solo LP
From rewriting the hard rock rulebook with his Grammy award-winning trio, High on Fire, to reverse engineering doom metal with his genre-defining trio Sleep, Matt Pike has channeled his natural talents and chiseled a steely path straight to the heart of modern-day metal’s molten core. Today, Pike announces a string of autumn U.S. tour dates in support of his debut solo LP, ‘Pike vs. the Automaton’, out now via MNRK Heavy.
The ‘Pike vs. the Automaton’ mini-tour will launch on November 13 in Dallas, TX. The weeklong jaunt will run through November 20 in Iowa City, IA. Tickets for all dates are on sale at this location:https://pvta.ffm.to/tourdates
The just-released live dates are as follows:
Matt Pike’s ‘Pike vs. the Automaton’ tour dates:
November 13 Dallas, TX Amplified Live November 14 Little Rock, AR White Water Tavern November 15 Memphis, TN Growlers November 17 Chicago, IL Reggies November 18 Milwaukee, WI The Rave November 19 Minneapolis, MN Turf Club November 20 Iowa City, IA Gabe’s
“Actions speak louder than words,” said Pike when asked for comment. “We’re going to let our music do the talking. See you at the shows.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Welcome bit of good news on the day as Brooklyn trio Somnuri sign to MNRK Heavy for the release of their upcoming third album in 2023. This almost invariably means they’ll tour with Crowbar, who they’ll also join for a hometown gig at Saint Vitus Bar on Aug. 9, as the two are now labelmates, and a support slot for High on Fire doesn’t seem impossible either, frankly. Bottom line is this puts them in a different league of bands.
All the better since they earned it. Their second record, 2021’s Nefarious Wave (review here), came out on Blues Funeral Records and remains a ripper even as the three-piece post the new song and clip, “Coils.” In addition to the Vitus Bar date, they’ll be at Tattoo the Earth, and one imagines there’s more to come, particularly in the New Year with a new album. Right on.
The PR wire made it official:
SOMNURI: Brooklyn Stoner/Sludge Trio Joins MNRK Heavy Roster; “Coils” Video Unveiled
Brooklyn, New York stoner/sludge trio SOMNURI has united with MNRK Heavy for the release of their upcoming, third full-length today, unveiling a stand-alone video single, “Coils.”
Among other hustles, hitting the pavement and providing a cannabis delivery service was one of the main catalysts in SOMNURI’s infant stages and a DIY ethos was adopted early on. The grind it takes to survive in New York City seeps into their music and it’s hard not to hear elements of the city throughout: sludge, atmosphere, and at times brutal dissonance, layered with pounding and entrancing rhythms and low-end frequencies that make your guts rattle. SOMNURI’s sound weaves in and out of hauntingly infectious melodies and bludgeoning riffs and grooves that shift time and tempo often.
In celebration of their signing, the band is pleased to reveal their new single, “Coils.” The track seamlessly fuses rugged heaviness with epic and melodic instrumentals. Their groove-forward, bludgeoning riffs, and psychedelic atmosphere is in spirit with the likes of High On Fire, Mastodon, and Torche.
Notes the band, “The song ‘Coils’ is about getting stuck in loops. It’s about repeating the same mistakes and searching deep within to overcome them.”
SOMNURI Live: 8/09/2022 Saint Vitus Bar – Brooklyn, NY w/ Crowbar, Spirit Adrift, Stabbed 8/26/2022 Tattoo The Earth Festival Pre-Party @ The Palladium – Worcester, MA w/ Unearth, Sworn Enemy, Boundaries, Hazing Over
SOMNURI started when two multi-instrumentalists joined forces after sharing the stage and practice spaces in previous Brooklyn-based bands. Justin Sherrell (guitar/vocals) had guitar ideas he wanted to develop further and soon linked up with drummer Phil SanGiacomo. The ability for both founding members to explore ideas on guitar, bass, drums, and vocals continues to be the band’s lifeblood. The band’s first and second LPs were very well-received. With a willingness to venture into new sonic spaces of heavy music, SOMNURI’s upcoming full-length is in the works and due out in 2023 via MNRK Heavy. Further info will be unveiled in the coming months.
SOMNURI Live Lineup: Justin Sherrell – guitar, vocals Phil SanGiacomo – drums Mike G – bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 6th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
You don’t need me to tell you to go see Crowbar, but in case you do, go see Crowbar. The New Orleans progenitors of sludge metal are closing on 30 years since issuing their landmark self-titled debut, and they head out on this US run supporting their new album, Zero and Below (review here), on MNRK Heavy, formerly E1, bringing Spirit Adrift along for the ride. You should know by now what you’re getting into going to a Crowbar show — they will deliver — but while we’re on the subject of reliability, I want to say what a goddamn comfort it was to have Crowbar doing livestreams during the pandemic lockdown. I know they needed money and that fiscally that’s a poor substitute for touring, etc., but hot shit it was good to know that in a world busy turning itself inside out on multiple fronts, you could still count on Crowbar. May they outlive us all and tour forever.
From the PR wire:
CROWBAR: Summer Headlining Tour With Spirit Adrift Announced; Zero And Below Full-Length Out Now On MNRK Heavy
CROWBAR will return to the road this Summer on a US headlining tour with Spirit Adrift! The Riff Beast Tour will commence on July 22nd at Ripplefest in Austin, Texas, and run through August 27th at Tattoo The Earth Fest in Worcester, Massachusetts. Tickets are on sale now! See all confirmed dates below.
Comments vocalist/guitarist Kirk Windstein, “We are looking so forward to our Summer 2022 headlining tour! We truly believe in our latest album Zero And Below and can’t wait to bring you a great set list of old and new CROWBAR. See you on tour!”
CROWBAR will be touring in support of their critically-adored Zero And Below full-length released earlier this year on MNRK Heavy. Produced, mixed, and mastered by Duane Simoneaux at OCD Recording And Production in Metairie, Louisiana, Zero And Below is the band’s most unforgivably doom-driven record since their 1998 landmark effort, Odd Fellows Rest. Led by Windstein, with guitarist Matt Brunson, bassist Shane Wesley, and drummer Tommy Buckley, songs like “Chemical Godz,” “It’s Always Worth The Gain,” and “Bleeding From Every Hole,” are unapologetic emotional outpourings, with a bare-knuckle resolve alongside its soul-searching vulnerability, reliably delivered with crushing heaviness.
CROWBAR: 7/22/2022 Ripplefest – Austin, TX 7/23/2022 Amplified Live – Dallas, TX w/ Mothership 7/24/2022 The Vanguard – Tulsa, OK w/ Mothership w/ Spirit Adrift: 7/26/2022 Outland Ballroom – Springfield, MO 7/27/2022 Red Flag – St. Louis, MO 7/28/2022 Route 20 – Racine, WI 7/29/2022 Cabooze – Minneapolis, MN 7/30/2022 Cobra Lounge – Chicago, IL 7/31/2022 Piere’s – Ft. Wayne, IN 8/02/2022 Emerson Theater – Indianapolis, IN 8/03/2022 King Of Cups – Columbus, OH 8/04/2022 Montage Music Hall – Rochester, NY 8/06/2022 The Chance Theater – Poughkeepsie, NY 8/09/2022 Saint Vitus – Brooklyn, NY 8/10/2022 Anchor Rock Club – Atlantic City, NJ 8/11/2022 Reverb – Reading, PA 8/12/2022 The Loud – Huntington, WV 8/13/2022 The Broadberry – Richmond, VA 8/14/2022 Local 506 – Chapel Hill, NC 8/16/2022 Archetype – Jacksonville, FL 8/17/2022 Gramps – Miami, FL 8/18/2022 Will’s Pub – Orlando, FL 8/19/2022 Downtown Music Hall – Ft. Walton Beach, FL 8/20/2022 Soul Kitchen – Mobile, AL 8/21/2022 Chelsea’s Live – Baton Rouge, LA 8/23/2022 40 Watt – Athens, GA 8/24/2022 Elevation 27 – Virginia Beach, VA 8/26/2022 Empire Underground – Albany, NY 8/27/2022 Tattoo The Earth Fest – Worcester, MA
CROWBAR: Kirk Windstein – vocals/guitar Matt Brunson – guitar Shane Wesley – bass Tommy Buckley – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 19th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Though not unheard of, Matt Pike side-projects don’t happen all the time. It’s been more than a decade since he fronted Kalas on the side from High on Fire, and in the years since, splitting duty with High on Fire and Sleep has no doubt been enough, so Pike vs. the Automaton, which released its self-titled debut (review here) earlier this year on MNRK Heavy (formerly eOne), is something of an outlier. I don’t know how much touring Pike and company will ultimately do for the project, and that record’s enough of a brainscrew that I’d be curious to check it out live. I’m not trying to sell you on a show or anything — dude needs my promotion not in the slightest — but if you go or don’t, this isn’t necessarily a ‘they’ll be back’ kind of situation.
Food for thought. There’s elements in Pike vs. the Automaton that draw from all sides of his approach and then some from what he’s shown to-date. I wonder what that would be like blasting at you from a stage at full volume. Torrential, maybe.
From the PR wire:
Matt Pike Announces First Live Shows Supporting Debut Solo LP ‘Pike vs. the Automaton’
From rewriting the hard rock rulebook with his Grammy award-winning trio, High on Fire, to reverse engineering doom metal with his genre-defining trio Sleep, Matt Pike has channeled his natural talents and chiseled a steely path straight to the heart of modern-day metal’s molten core. Pike’s debut solo LP, ‘Pike vs. the Automaton’, was released on February 18 via MNRK Heavy. Music, merch and more is available at PikeVstheAutomaton.com.
Matt Pike announces the very first live shows with his solo band, which includes drummer Jon Reid, bassist Chad “Chief” Hartgrave, guitarist Chris Evans (Lord Dying), and “possible special guests”. The group has booked live dates in Seattle (May 5), Tacoma, WA (May 6), Port Angeles, WA (May 7) and Portland, OR (May 8) with additional live performances expected to be detailed soon.
On the topic of the first “Automaton” shows, Pike bellows, “Who’s ready to be crushed by sound?!? Rehearsals for our inaugural shows have been deafening! We are primed and ready to deliver and destroy! See you soon!”
‘Pike vs. the Automaton’ live dates:
May 5 Seattle, WA Barhouse May 6 Tacoma, WA Plaid Pig May 7 Port Angeles, WA Devil’s Lunchbox May 8 Portland, OR High Water Mark
Posted in Reviews on April 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
When we’re keying down after an invariably long day at my house and it’s getting close to The Pecan’s bedtime, we often watch a “bonus-extra” video. Sometimes it’s “Yellow Submarine,” sometimes a Peep and the Big Wide World on YouTube, whatever. Point is, think of today like a bonus-extra for the Quarterly Review after last week. Sometimes we do an extra-bonus-extra too. That will not be happening here.
So, we wrap up today with this bonus-extra batch of 10 records, and yes, as always, I took it easy on myself in backloading the last day of the QR with stuff I knew I’d dig. It’s called self-care, people. I practice it in my own way, usually incorrectly. Nonetheless, here’s 10 more records and thanks for tuning in to the Quarterly Review if you did. Next one is probably early July.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
Crowbar, Zero and Below
Six years after The Serpent Only Lies (review here), New Orleans sludge metal progenitors Crowbar deliver Zero and Below, a dutiful 10-song and 42-minute collection that emphasizes the strength of the current lineup of the band. It should go without saying that more than 30 years on from Crowbar‘s founding, guitarist/vocalist Kirk Windstein knows exactly what he wants the band to be and how to manifest that in the studio and live, and he does that here. The real question is whether “The Fear that Binds You” or maybe even the later “Bleeding From Every Hole” will make it into the touring set, but those are just two of the candidates on a record that feels like it was expressly written for Crowbar fans with a suitably masterful hand, which of course it was. There’s only one Crowbar. Treasure them while you can. And hell’s bells, go see them on stage if you never have. Buy a shirt.
Joined by a litany of musicians and friends he at one point or another called bandmates in Blackfinger and Trouble, as well as Victor Griffin of Pentagram, Place of Skulls, etc., for a lead guitar spot, Eric Wagner‘s solo album, In the Lonely Light of Mourning, takes on an all-the-more-sorrowful context with Wagner‘s untimely death last year. And in many ways, the underlying message of In the Lonely Light of Mourning is the same message that Wagner‘s participation in The Skull for the better part of the last decade reinforced: he still had more to offer. He still had that voice, he still knew who he was as a singer and a songwriter. He still loved The Beatles and Black Sabbath and he was still one of the best frontmen after to do the job for a doom band. I don’t know what kind of archive exists of recordings he may have done before his death, but if In the Lonely Light of Mourning is the last release to bear his name, could there be a better note to close on than “Wish You Well” here?
Recorded and seemingly layered together over a period of years between 2016 and 2020, Ode and Elegy‘s self-titled debut features only its 55-minute eponymous/title-track, and that’s more album conceptually and personnel-wise than most albums are anyway. There are guitar, bass, drums and vocals, and those recordings began in 2016 (vocals were done in 2018), but also a string quartet (recorded in Minneapolis, 2017), a brass section and full choir (recorded in Sofia, Bulgaria, 2020), flute (recorded in London, 2020) and harp (recorded in Manchester, UK, 2020). What the Parma, NY-based outfit make of all this is an organic, neoclassical and folk-informed complexity worthy of headphones for its texture and encompassing in both its heaviest and its most sweeping sections. There’s a vision at work across this span, and from the Behemoth-esque grandiosity of the horns about 33 minutes in to the final payoff and bookending subdued melody, the execution is no less impressive than the scope behind it. The years of effort in making it were not wasted. But how on earth do you write a follow-up for a debut like this?
The thing about the jazzy break in the middle of second cut “A Fist for Crows” (as opposed to a feast?) is that it’s not at all out of place with the lumbering-but-moving heavy noise-rock-toned riffing or the big melodies that surround on Burn the Sun‘s first LP, Le Roi Soleil. After the relatively straightforward opener “Wolves Among Us,” it’s the beginning of the Athenian rockers showcasing their multi-tiered ambitions. “Fool’s Gold” is a short melodic heavy punk rocker, and those elements pop up again throughout, but “Severance” oozes into Deftones-y melody on vocals early and drifts out in psychedelia for much of its second half build, and there’s post-metal to be found in 12-minute closer “Torch the Skies,” but with ambient interludes in “Crawling Flame” and “The Calm Before,” even that’s not accounting for the whole breadth of the nine included pieces. Much to the band’s credit, they pull off their abrupt turns like that in “A Fist for Crows” and the later highlight “Tidal Waves,” while also keeping more charging aggression in their back pocket for the penultimate “Siren’s Call.” Some sorting out to do, but there’s a strong sense of identity in the songwriting.
A two-songer being offered up as a 7″ sacrifice presumably to the antigods of riffy lysergic doom, while, yes, also heralding the Leeds trio’s forthcoming second LP, Cosmology, Amon Acid‘s Demon Rider may be a bite-size slab, but it’s a slab nonetheless of tripped out doom, drawing on Cathedral in the title-track and bringing some of Orange Goblin’s burl to the still-spacious and freaked “Incredible Melting Man” in a whopping 3:43, as the founding UK-via-Greece duo of Sarantis Charvas (guitar, synth, vocals) and Briony Charvas (bass, synth) — as well as singly-named drummer Smith — follow-up their 2020 debut, Paradigm Shift, with a fuller and more realized shove. The synth does more work in their sound than it first seems, and together with the echoing vocals, it brings “Demon Rider” to a darkly psychedelic place. If that’s where Cosmology is headed as well, I guess it’s time to get on your possessed motorcycle and ride it into interstellar oblivion. You knew this day would come. Come on now. Off you go.
Those ever-reliable climbers of Weird Mountain at Forbidden Place Records snagged Mucho Mungo‘s gem of a 2020 debut EP, and with an extra track added, made a first full-length from Moth Bath that shimmers like a reinvented moment where classic prog and garage rock met. For a record that opens with a song called “Bear Attack,” the Madrid three-piece of guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Marco González, bassist/vocalist Adrien Elbaz and drummer/vocalist/keyboardist Santiago Aguilera take a wholly unaggressive approach, digging into psychedelia only so much as it suits their movement-based purpose. That is to say, “Sandworm I” boogies down, and even though “Sandworm II” is comparatively mellow, there’s a space rock shuffle happening beneath those echoing space-out vocals. “Pocket Rocket” devolves in its sub-four-minute stretch but features some choice drumming and Galaga-esque keyboard sounds for atmosphere, while “Blue Nectar” captures a brighter jamminess and “The Moth” signals more cosmic intentions for what’s to come. Sign me up. Familiar sounds that don’t quite sound like anything else.
Bringing Swiss duo Sum of R into the realm of Finland’s weirdo-brilliant Waste of Space — Dark Buddha Rising, Atomikylä, Dust Mountain, a handful of other associated acts — by having founder Reto Mäder add vocalist Marko Neuman and drummer Jukka Rämänen from Dark Buddha Rising was not going to make Lahbryce any less devastating. And sure enough, “Sink as I” unfolds with a genuine sense of immersion-toward-drowning that the vague ambience of “Crown of Diseased” and the no-less-airy-for-being-crushing “Borderline” immediately expand. For its eight songs and 54 minutes, what was a tailor-made Roadburn lineup push deeper. Deeper than Sum of R‘s 2017 debut, Orga (review here), and deeper than many consciousnesses will want to go. The instrumental “The Problem” is actually less challenging, but “Hymn for the Formless” makes short work of the tropes of European post-metal while “Shimmering Sand” and the noise-laden “144th” once more spread out in terms of ambience, and closer “Lust” finally swallows us all and we die. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer species, and what a way to go.
Albatross Overdrive‘s third full-length, Eye See Red, opens with a hearty invitation to “Get Fucked,” and that is but the first of a slew of catchy, hard-edged, punk-informed heavy rock kissoffs. “Eye See Red” is duly frustrated as well, but as “Coming Down” suitably mellows out and “Been to Space” redirects the energy behind the earlier cuts’ delivery, there’s a feeling of the palette broadening on the part of the California-based five-piece, leading to the centerpiece “Bring Love,” the chorus of which sounds aspirational in light of the leadoff, and “Sagittarius” and “Fuente del Fuego” skirt the line between classic punk and biker rock, Albatross Overdrive continue the gritty and brash style of 2019’s Ascendant (review here) but find new reaches to explore. To wit, the nine-minute closer “Shattered” here reaches farther into melody and instrumental dynamic, bringing the different sides together in a way that’s genuinely new for the band while still having their core of songcraft underneath. They’ve well established themselves as a nothin’-too-fancy heavy rock act, but that doesn’t seem to be an aversion to forward progression either. Best of both worlds, then.
To a certain extent, what you see is what you get with Guided Meditation Doomjazz. The Austin-based outfit led by six-string bassist J. Blaise Gans aka Blaise the Seeker conjure a half-hour session, recorded mostly if not entirely live, with a direct intention toward high-order chill and musical adventuring. Across “Warm Me Up,” “Summer,” “Let Me,” “Down” and “It’s Winter Again,” the band — working as the trio of Gans, Greg Perlman and drummer Mathew Doeckel — are fully switched-on and exploratory, and the pieces carved from their jams are hypnotic and engaging. A check-in from a prolific outfit, but with the backing of The Swamp Records, Summer Let Me Down comes across as something of a moment’s realization, placing the listener in the room — all the more with the photography included in the download — with the band as the music happens. Immersion, trance, digging in, vibing, all that stuff applies, but it’s the hiccups and the letting-them-go that feel even more instructive. If you can remember to breathe, it’s just crazy enough to work. Made to be heard more than once, and serves that well.
Everybody’s favorite drone freaks Darsombra — who just might play your house if you pay them, feed them, allow them enough electricity and/or maybe sex them up a little — released the 7:50 single “Fill Up the Glass” on the last Bandcamp Friday as a 24-hours-only offering that was there and gone before I could even grab the cover art to go with it. Rife with spacey, spicy sounds, their interweaving of synth and guitar sounds improvised if it isn’t, rumbling and oozing at the start and drifting joyously into the cosmos over its stretch. No clue whether the song will show up on their next album — as ever, Darsombra are on to the next thing, which is a tour that begins at Grim Reefer Fest in Baltimore and some kind of special offering, presumably a video, for April 20 — but like all their work, “Fill Up the Glass” is evocative and a revelry in creative spirit, and if seeing this gets you on board with checking out any of their more recent work, then I’ll consider it a win regardless of this song’s availability over the longer term. But it is a cool track.
You have your coffee yet? I’ve got mine. Today’s Friday, which means day five of this six-day Spring 2022 Quarterly Review, and it’s been a hell of a week. Yesterday was particularly insane, and today offers not much letup in that regard. If you’d have it another way, I’m sorry, but there’s too much cool shit out there to write about stuff that all sounds the same, so I don’t. I’ve had a good time over this stretch and I hope you have too if you’ve been keeping up. We’ll have one more on Monday and that’s it until late June or early July, so please enjoy.
And thanks as always for reading.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
Pike vs. the Automaton, Pike vs. The Automaton
Matt Pike acoustic? It happened, and YOU were there! Truth is, the strumming foundation on which “Land” is built is just one example of Pike vs. The Automaton‘s singular get-weirdness, and followers of his career arc through Sleep and High on Fire from playing basements to winning a Grammy will recognize pieces of cuts like “Abusive” and “Trapped in a Midcave,” the all-out rager “Alien Slut Mom” (which of course was the lead single), the bombastic expanse of “Apollyon,” the even-more-all-out-rager “Acid Test Zone” and the dug-in get-weirdness of “Latin American Geological Formation” as one of heavy music’s most influential auteurs welcomes (?) listeners into a world of swirling chaos, monsters, conspiracies and, of course, riffs. The album saves its greatest accomplishment for last in the 11-minute “Leaving the Wars of Woe,” but if you’re old enough to remember when Rob Zombie did those off-the-wall cartoons for White Zombie videos and the Beavis and Butt-Head movie, listening to Pike vs. the Automaton is kind of like living in that for a while. So yeah, awesome.
Maybe the heaviest sans-bass low end since Floor? That’s not a minor claim, but at very least Wellington, New Zealand’s End Boss put themselves in the running with They Seek My Head, their debut album. The guitars of Greg Broadmore and Christian Pearce are the crushing foundation on which the band is built, and with Beastwars‘ own Nathan Hickey on drums, there’s a reliable base of groove to coincide as all that weight becomes the backdrop for E.J. Thorpe‘s vocals to soar over top on cuts like “Heart of the Sickle” and “Punished.” It’s a wide breadth throughout the eight songs and 33 minutes, allowing “Becomes the Gold” to show some emotive urgency while “Nail and Tooth” seems only to be sharpening knives at the outset of side B, while “The Crawl” just about has to be named after its riff and fair enough. “Lorded Over” hints at an atmospheric focus that may or may not further manifest in the future, but the closing title-track is what it’s all about, and it’s big nod, big melody, big hooks. You can’t lose. Onto the ‘best debuts of 2022’ it goes.
Fred Laird (Earthling Society, Taras Bulba) and Mike Vest (Bong, Blown Out, etc.) released their self-titled debut as Artifacts & Uranium in 2021 as a collection of three massive dronescapes. Their follow-up, Pancosmology, telegraphs being more compositionally-focused even before you put it on, running eight songs instead of three, and indeed, that’s how it turns out. There are still massive waves of exploratory drones, guitar, electric piano, drums programmed and real — Nick Raybould plays on half the tracks, so a potential third in the duo — synth, bass, whatever a Gakken Generator is, it all comes together with an understated splendor and a sense of reaching into the unknown. Witness the guitar and synth lines of “Silent Plains,” and are those vocals buried so deep in that mix? I can’t even tell. It doesn’t matter. The point is that for 37 minutes, Laird and Vest (and Raybould) take you on a psych-as-spirituality trip into, around and through the universe, and by the time they get to “The Inmost Light” noisewashing at the finish, the feeling is like being baptised in a cold river of acid. If this is the birth of the gods, I’m in.
After the slower rolling opener “Broken Dick,” Night City‘s debut cassette EP, Kuang Xi, works at a pretty intense clip, taking the Godflesh vibe of that lead track, keeping the abiding tonal thickness, and imbuing it with an also-’90s-era Ministry-ish sense of chaos and push. The four-song outing works from its longest track to shortest and effectively melds heavy industrial with brutal chug and extreme metal, and one should expect no less from Collyn McCoy, whose plumbing of the dark recesses of the mind in Circle of Sighs is a bit more purely experimentalist. That said, if “Encryptor/Decryptor” showed up as a Circle of Sighs track, I wouldn’t have argued, but the use of samples here throughout and the explicitly sociopolitical lyrics make for coherent themes separate from McCoy‘s other project. “Steppin’ Razor” uses its guitar solo like a skronky bagpipe while calling out Proud Boy bullshit, and in fewer than three minutes, “Molly Million$” finds another gear of thrust before devolving into so much caustic noise. The version I got also featured the dancier “Tomorrow’s World,” but I’m not sure if that’s on the tape. Either way, a brutalist beginning.
Rise Above Records signing a band that might even loosely be called doom is immediately noteworthy because it means the band in question has impressed label owner Lee Dorrian, formerly of Cathedral, who — let’s be honest — has some of the best taste in music the world over. Thus Friends of Hell unleash 40 minutes of dirt-coated earliest-NWOBHM-meets-Celtic–Frost chugging groove, with former Electric Wizard bassist Tasos Danazoglou (currently Mirror) on drums and Sami “Albert Witchfinder” Hynninen (Spiritus Mortis, Reverend Bizarre, Opium Warlords) on vocals, biting through catchy classic-sounding cuts like “Into My Coffin” and side B’s “Gateless Gate” and “Orion’s Beast.” Unremittingly dark, the nine-song collection ends with “Wallachia,” a somewhat grander take that still keeps its rawness of tone and general purpose with a more spacious vibe. It is not a coincidence Friends of Hell take their name from a Witchfinder General record; their sound seems like prime fodder for patch-on-denim worship.
The second full-length keeping on a literally-underground theme from 2021’s From the Basement (review here), the 10-song/35-minute What Lies Beneath finds founding Delco Detention guitarist Tyler Pomerantz once again getting by with a little help from his friends, up to and including members of Hippie Death Cult — Eddie Brnabic shreds over instrumental closer “FUMOFO” — The Age of Truth, Kingsnake and others. Angelique Zuppo makes a highlight of early cut “Rock Paper Scissors,” and Dave Wessell of Ickarus Gin brings a performance that well suits the strut-fuzz of “War is Mine,” while instrumentals “What Lies Beneath” and “Velcro Shoes” find Tyler (on bass and guitar) and drummer Adam Pomerantz digging into grooves just fine on their own. The shifts between singers give a compilation-style feel continued on from the first record, but a unifying current of songwriting brings it all together fluidly, and as “A Slow Burn” and “Study Hall Blues” readily demonstrate, Delco Detention know how to take a riff out for a walk. Right on (again).
Put Lansing, Michigan’s Room 101 up there with Primitive Man, Indian and any other extreme-sludge touchstone you want and their debut long-player, Sightless, will hold its own in terms of sheer, concrete-tone crushing force. In answering the potential of 2019’s The Burden EP (review here), the album offsets its sheer bludgeoning with stretches of quiet-tense atmospherics, “Boarded Window” offering a momentary respite before the onslaught begins anew. This balance is further fleshed out on longer tracks like “Dead End,” with a more extended break and the title-cut with its ending guitar lead, but neither the sub-five-minute “Windowlicker” nor “Boarded Window” earlier want for mood, and even the finale “The Innocent, the Ignorant and the Insecure” brings a feeling of cohesion to its violence. This shit is lethal, to be sure, but it’s also immersive. Watch out you don’t drown in it.
Heralded by the prior single “With the Devil Hand in Hand” (posted here), which is positioned as the closer of the 41-minute five-tracker, Hydra‘s second full-length, Beyond Life and Death, finds the Polish four-piece pushing deeper into doomed traditionalism. Where their 2020 debut, From Light to the Abyss (review here), had a garage-ist edge, and if you work hard, you can still hear some of that just before the organ kicks in near the end of “On the Edge of Time” (if that’s a “Children of the Sea” reference we can be friends), but after the more gallop-prone opener “Prophetic Dreams” and the penultimate “Path of the Dark”‘s whoa-oh backing vocals, the crux of what they’re doing is more NWOBHM-influenced, and blending with the cult horror lyrical themes of centerpiece “The Unholy Ceremony” or the aforementioned closer, it gives Hydra a more confident sound and a more poised approach to doom than they had just two years ago. The adjusted balance of elements in their sound suits them, and they seem quickly to be carving out a place for themselves in Poland’s crowded scene.
The two 12-minute tracks “Opiate the Sun” and “Foret” bookend Swiss trio E-L-R‘s second LP for Prophecy Productions, Vexier, and the intention would seem to be plain in hooking and immersing the listener in the experience and flow of the album. Like their wildly impressive 2019 debut, Mænad (review here), this collection has plenty of post-metallic elements, and there’s specifically a post-black metal bent to “Three Winds” in its earliest going — by the midsection it’s come apart into broad, open spaces, but the rush comes back — and the centerpiece and shortest track, “Seeds,” which seems to shine even brighter in its melody than the opener, as the vocals are once more presented on a level plane with the rest of the atmospheric elements, far back in the mix but not at all lacking resonance for being vague. “Seeds” is a fitting summary, but “Fleurs of Decay” leans into the expectation of something harsher and “Foret” boasts a more complex linear build, stretches of drone and a broader vocal arrangement before bringing the record to its gentle finish. I liked the first record a lot. I like this one more. E-L-R are doing something with sound that no one else quite has the same kind of handle on, however familiar the elements making it up might be. They are a better band than people yet know.
Titled Three or III, depending where you look, the third long-player from Denver instrumental heavy rockers Buffalo Tombs follows relatively hot on the heels of the second, Two (review here), which came out last October. Spearheaded by guitarist/bassist Eric Stuart, who also recorded the instrumentation sans Patrick Haga‘s own self-recorded drums (lockdown? depends on when it was) and mixed and mastered — Joshua Lafferty also adds bass to “Ancestors” and “Monument,” which are just two of the six contemplations here as Buffalo Tombs explores an inward-looking vision of heavy sounds and styles, not afraid to shove or chug a bit on “Swarm” or “Gnostics/Haint,” but more consistently mellow in mood and dug into its own procession. “Familiars” hints at aspects of heavy Americana, but the root expression on III comes across as more personal and that feeling of intimacy suits well the mood of the songs.
