Posted in Whathaveyou on May 5th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
There are actually two songs up from Maanta Raay‘s forthcoming self-titled debut. The Nashville three-piece posted opening cut “The Night Rider” and the declarative fuzzy roller “Maanta Raay Theme” last year, so they’ve been out there for a bit, but if like me the news of their self-titled debut full-length coming out June 20 is the first you’re hearing of them, each of the two streaming songs offers something distinct from the other. As hinted, tonal depth is part of that in the “Maanta Raay Theme,” but while it’s less fuzzed, guitar-forward largesse is still very much a factor in the more Earthless-style, 1972-swaggering “The Night Rider.” Plus shred on the part of guitarist/vocalist Chet Weise, who nails it with celebrant excess.
It’s two tracks out of the total eight, but already the No Sabes Records release is setting up an expectation of range, and I’m looking forward to hearing how it pans out.
They’ve done some Third Man Records stuff — Nashville — and have three UK dates lined up after the release. The PR wire tells it like it is:
Announcing debut album from Nashville power trio MAANTA RAAY
Share new single ‘The Night Rider’
MAANTA RAAY is a riff-casting, power trio from Nashville, Tennessee. Their self-titled debut will be out summer 2025 on No Sabes, distributed by Forte, and comes from the heavier side of psychedelia. While the influences are apparent — Leigh Stephens (Blue Cheer), Jaki Liebezeit (CAN), Daphne Oram, Randy Rhoads, James Jamerson, Ron Asheton — the record’s interstellar overdrive vs droned-out tempos, musi-quinox arrangements, sometimes garage rawness (members include ex-Quadrajets, Immortal Lee County Killers, and Modern Convenience) and unleashed layers of sonica, all testify that the band’s mission is to make it new. The emerging band, featuring Mason Hadley (b), Carlos Ortiz (d), and Chet Weise (g/v), has already shared bills with the likes of Earthless, Boris, Minami Deutsch, Melvins, and Napalm Death. Experience the RAAY live or try them out on headphones to hear a band in search of the next sound, just like Weise sings, “Golden teachers teach a lesson / the universe can be a VHS left unwound / but sunlight reaches Earth in just eight minutes.
FOR FANS OF: Nebula – to the Centre, St Vitus – Born Too Late, The Heads, Swervedriver, Thee Hypnotics – Very Crystal Speed Machine etc.
MAANTA RAAY MAANTA RAAY NO SABES RECORDS RELEASE DATE: 20TH JUNE 2025 (LP)
Tracklist: 1. The Night Rider 2. Lost Satellite 3. Maanta Ray Theme 4. Om Revver 5. Peace Cruiser 6. Ancient Future 7. Uforchid 8. Cosmic Mircowave Background
UK SHOW DATES 2025 3rd July – Bristol – Moor Brewery 4th July – Manchester – Big Hands 5th July – London – Third Man Records Blue Basement
MAANTA RAAY: Chet Weise – Guitar, Vocals Mason Hadley – Bass Carlos Ortiz-Martinez – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 19th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
The kind of midweek update that just might make the whole thing better, Howling Giant have posted word that they’ve finished recording their next album. Of course that doesn’t mean work on the yet-untitled LP — actually, it probably has a name and they just haven’t said what it is yet; fair enough — is done, as there’s likely still mixing and mastering to go, but the news is still good. Recording is done. On to the next thing.
That’s apparently a couple Twitch live streams before they take off on the East Coast run that will bring them to my hometown, Morris Plains, NJ (actually it’s the west side of Parsippany, but you know how it is with these post offices) as they make their way further north to Hopsmoker Fest in Braintree, MA. New material on the road? Crazier things have happened.
But when I see more on the next record — which has the monumental task of following 2023’s Glass Future (review here), but damn it, I believe in you, Howling Giant — I’ll say more. For now, they posted the following photo and update on socials:
Through flame and shadow, through fatigue and illness, through mountains of zebra cakes and pop tarts, we rise above the crucible of Neil.
Album 3 is tracked! We are beyond excited to show you what we have crafted and captured in just under 200 hours of recording time with the ever patient and wise Neil Tuuri at Amish Electric Chair Studios. Hoping that the stars align and we can share this record with you all later this year.
In the meantime, we’re back to road prep! How does a weekly stream until the April tour sound? See y’all every Thursday at 6PM Central on Twitch 👾
4/15 Louisville, KY – MagBar 4/16 New Kensington, PA – Preserving Underground 4/17 Morris Plains, NJ – Autodidact Beer (with Sun Voyager) 4/18 Braintree, MA – Hopsmoker Fest 4/19 Richmond, VA – Richmond Music Hall 4/20 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie 4/21 Durham, NC – The Pinhook 4/22 Charlotte, NC – The Milestone 4/23 Asheville, NC – Eulogy (with REZN)
Howling Giant are: Tom Polzine – Guitar and Vocals Zach Wheeler – Drums and Vocals Sebastian Baltes – Bass and Vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 4th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If you keep up with the Nashville trio via whichever social algorithm offends you least, you may have seen the picture above. Left to right, that’s bassist Sebastian Baltes, guitarist/vocalist Tom Polzine, and — oh, hello — Adrian Zambrano on guitar. The band have been in the studio lately, I think recording an album that I have no idea when they wrote because they haven’t stopped touring behind 2023’s so-rad-I’m-nervous-about-the-follow-up Glass Future (review here), and part of that process has apparently been bringing in a couple guests.
For those unfamiliar, Zambrano is known for his work in Ohio’s Brujas del Sol and a brief but memorable stint in Lo-Pan, and since moving to North Carolina last year released the Discomfort/Disorder EP (review here) with Shadowcloak. To all his work that I’ve heard, Zambrano brings a progressive mindset, technically proficient but not to the sacrifice of soul. He’s the kind of player who makes bands better, and the fact that he’s going to do this tour with Howling Giant on second guitar — not the first time the trio has become a four-piece; they spent much of 2024 on the road with James Sanderson on guitar and backing vocals — is only good news.
Except for the fact that I won’t see it. Check out the poster below — the tour starts April 15 in Louisville and is centered around the occasion of Hopsmoker Fest at Widowmaker Brewing in Braintree, MA (I happened to be there two weeks ago) — and you’ll note that on April 17, they’ll hit Autodidact Beer in Morris Plains, NJ. With New York’s Sun Voyager, no less. No shit, that’s like two minutes from my house. Inarguably the closest heavy rock show that’s ever taken place near where I live. Two traffic lights between here and there. It’s “around the corner,” as it were. I’ll be traveling April 17, and that’s not a hardship, considering, but still. New Kensington, PA, is five and a half hours from here, and I won’t be back by the time they’re in Philly. So I miss out on the closest show that’s ever happened to me. Go fucking figure.
I might send The Patient Mrs. to review the show, though. Fun fact: in 2012, she wrote up a show review for Mars Red Sky (with whom Howling Giant toured this past Fall) that was a hoot, and I already asked her to go to the venue and take the band baked goods — because in addition to all the other sundry ways she’s amazing, she bakes, and who doesn’t want a loaf of homemade sourdough on the road? — so we’ll see. Childcare is the question there, but it’s not like she has to go far to get to the venue. The Obelisk is presenting that Autodidact show, and god damn, I hope they do more in that spot.
From Howling Giant‘s socials:
Hitting the road around Hopsmoker Fest in April! Stoked to get back out and see all of ya as we emerge from our winter studio slumber. Who knows, we might even play a new song or two.
We’re also super excited to be bringing our buddy Adrian Lee Zambrano out for this run to shred dual guitars with us. You may have seen bits of him here already as he was laying down tracks with us at Amish Electric Chair Studios. Everyone wish Adrian a warm welcome to the HG Thunderdome!
4/15 Louisville, KY – MagBar 4/16 New Kensington, PA – Preserving Underground 4/17 Morris Plains, NJ – Autodidact Beer (with Sun Voyager) 4/18 Braintree, MA – Hopsmoker Fest 4/19 Richmond, VA – Richmond Music Hall 4/20 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie 4/21 Durham, NC – The Pinhook 4/22 Charlotte, NC – The Milestone 4/23 Asheville, NC – Eulogy (with REZN)
Howling Giant are: Tom Polzine – Guitar and Vocals Zach Wheeler – Drums and Vocals Sebastian Baltes – Bass and Vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 13th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Hey, remember when All Them Witchessaid they were recording in January? Well they did. And apparently they’re done. Seems like it was a pretty quick process, honestly.
The band’s socials this past weekend charted the progress in a series of photos and video clips — the Nashville-based heavy-psych blues innovators have never wanted for documentation, which is to their credit — and that series resolved at about 3:30AM on Sunday morning with the words “done tracking,” an emoji, and some stylized black and white shots.
Of course, “done tracking” isn’t the same as “album’s finished.” I don’t have info on who’s going to mix or master the release, but even if it’s done in-house by the band themselves it takes some time, and from there, a lot depends on how the record is being released. 2019’s Nothing as the Ideal (review here) was tracked as the trio of bassist/vocalist Charles Michael Parks, Jr — who finished this session just in time to go on tour with King Buffalo this week (dates here; they added a second Brooklyn show) — guitarist Ben McLeod and drummer Robby Staebler.
Since their impending LP will be their first since 2017’s Sleeping Through the War (review here) to feature organist/violinist Allan Van Cleave, and their first with new drummer Christian Powers, the anticipation is high to hear how the dynamic and direction of the reliably amorphous band have shifted in the past six tumultuous-for-everybody years. If you hit their Instagram or stories or reels or whatever the fuck we’re being told to call short videos on the internet this week, some of it sounds pretty heavy. Whenever and however the new album shows up — surprise release this Wednesday would totally work for me, just saying — a personal challenge thereafter is to go see the band live, which I’ve not done in too long. The good news is there will likely be ample opportunity once the record is out.
When I see more, I’ll say more. For now, here’s “done tracking” preserved for posterity:
DONE TRACKING 🙂
All Them Witches are: Charles Michael Parks, Jr. – bass/vocals Allan Van Cleave – Rhodes/violin Ben McLeod – guitar Christian Powers – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 11th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
The news here is proportionately good and undetailed. After spending much of the last two years on the road celebrating their catalog, sometimes with whole-album residencies, sometimes just with regular-old constant touring, Nashville heavy psych-blues innovators All Them Witches are currently holed up in the writing process for what will become their seventh full-length. They quickly confirm they’ll record in January, which assuming that results in a 2025 release — hey, you never know — would put their next album at five years’ remove from 2020’s Nothing as the Ideal (review here), which might be fair to call the longest break between LPs in their career if it weren’t for the fact that they spent all of 2022 issuing a monthly singles project called Baker’s Dozen (discussed here) and had the Live on the Internet CD/LP besides. They didn’t disappear, is what I’m saying.
No word on who’s recording — could this be a moment for McLeod to step into producing the band? — or where, but the span of time since Nothing as the Ideal means that All Them Witches‘ next LP will be their first since two pivotal lineup changes took place in the band; first, Rhodes pianist and violinist Allan Van Cleavereturned in 2021, and second, drummer Robby Staebler made a hard right turn politically and split with the group to pursue other projects, resulting in All Them Witches bringing Christian Powers on board for the first time. Powers has spent the bulk of 2024 playing live with the band, so I’ve little doubt that while the dynamic will likely have shifted, the chemistry will be on lock between the new guy and the three founding members he joins, Van Cleave, McLeod and bassist/vocalist Charles Michael Parks, Jr.. To that I would just point out that no two All Them Witches records have ever been the same but they’ve all made their way to ‘rad’ by one path or another and I’ve little doubt the band will get there again.
So, maybe next summer? A Sept. 2025 release? Depends on who’s putting it out, which we also don’t know yet, if it’s still New West Records or what. I look forward to hopefully finding out in the New Year.
From socials:
Hi. We are writing a new record! Recording in January. Amping. Thank you!!
All Them Witches are: Charles Michael Parks, Jr. – bass/vocals Allan Van Cleave – Rhodes/violin Ben McLeod – guitar Christian Powers – drums
Posted in Reviews on October 16th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’m pretty sure this is day eight. Like, not 100 percent or anything, but without looking I feel pretty good about saying that today would be the day we hit three-quarters of the way through the Fall 2024 Quarterly Review — if it was actually going to end on Friday. Yeah, turns out I have enough stuff I want to write about to add an 11th day, so it’s going to go to 110 releases instead of 100 and end Monday instead. It’s gotta stop at some point and I have a premiere set for next Tuesday, so that’s as good a time as any, but while I can sneak the extra QR day in, it makes sense to do so on any level except the practical, on which none of it makes any sense so that doesn’t do us any good anyway.
We — you and I — march on.
Quarterly Review #71-80:
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Trigona & IO Audio Recordings, Split LP
Doing a shortform review of a split sometimes works out to have all the depth of insight of “Hey this thing exists,” but hey, this thing exists. Bringing together California’s IO Audio Recordings and Australia’s Trigona — both solo outfits with their controls set for the heart of the heretofore sonically unknown; they collaborate on a vinyl-only bonus track called “Space Sickness” — the 39-minute digital form of the release further breaks down to three Trigona tracks in the first half and two from IO Audio Recordings (whose moniker is also styled all-lowercase: io audio recordings), and any way you go at any given point throughout, it’s pretty gone. Trigona‘s “Spectra,” “Andaman Sky” and “Vespicula” have a full-band heavy psych shimmer and a thread of drone that works well to transition into IO Audio Recordings‘ “Paranormal Champion” and “Ascend and Return,” the former of which pushes into a wash in its middle that seems to be in the spirit of Sonic Youth, getting duly noisy at the long-fading end, and the latter moving from a darker industrial rock into hypnotic ambience to round out. Both of these entities have other fairly recent releases out — to say nothing of the labels standing behind them — but so much the better for those who find this split to bask in the warmth of “Andaman Sky” and find a personal space within the sounds. If it’s obscure, so be it. It exists.
Aussie rockers Emu promise on the opening track of their self-titled debut that, “A new age is coming,” and they sound like they’re trying to push it along all by themselves. Like much of what follows on the six-track/41-minute long-player, “New Age” offers a blend of in-your-face classic-style heavy rock and roll — not quite boogie, but they’re not opposed to it as the ZZ Toppish middle of “Desert Phoenix” shows — and raucous jamming. “Sittin’ Here Thinkin'” is a couple minutes shorter and thus more direct feeling, while apparent side B opener “The Hatching” is a three-minute acoustic-led interlude before the solidifying-from-the-ether “Once Were Gums” and the bigger-swinging “Will We Ever Learn?” renew the dig-in, the latter diverging near its halfway point to a finishing build that serves the entire record well. The Sunshine Coast trio’s energy and modernized ’70s-isms call to mind some of what was coming from San Diego starting about a decade ago, but ambition is plain to hear in the longer tracks and the material wants neither for expanse or movement. The very definition of an encouraging start.
Multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Phil Howlett (Lucifer’s Fall, Rote Mare, etc.) is the driving force behind Adelaide’s Solemn Ceremony, and on Chapter III, he and lead guitarist Kieran Provis capture a rare spirit of raw 1980s doom with a glee that, thankfully, doesn’t undercut all the misery on display in the songs themselves. Howlett also plays guitar, bass and drums, and seems to have engineered at least part of the recording, and his vocals are a big part of what so much characterizes the doom Solemn Ceremony proffer. In his throatier moments, he has a push that reminds distinctively of Scott Reagers from Saint Vitus, and while the music is by no means limited to this influence — “Chapter III” is more morose emotionally and the uptempo movements of “The King of Slaves” and “Skull Smasher” clearly have broader tape collections — it is the rawer side of traditionalist doom that Howlett is harnessing, and since he wields it less like a precious thing than the anti-punk lifeblood it was at the time, it works. Doom from doom, by doom, for doom.
As was the case with their 2019 outing, No Light Ever (review here), Boston post-metallic instrumentalists Glacier make a priority of immersing the lister in the proceedings of their five-track/46-minute A Distant, Violent Shudder. Five years later, they continue to take some influence from Red Sparowes in terms of presentation and how the songs are titled, etc., but as the full crux of second cut “‘The Old Timers Said They’d Never Seen Nothin’ Like That'” comes forward at around three minutes in, Glacier are outright heavier, and they go on to prove it again and again as the album plays out. Fair enough. From “Grief Rolled in Like a Storm” to “Sand Bitten Lungs,” which seems to be making its way back to its start the whole time but ends up in an even heftier churning repetition, Glacier remain poised as they sculpt the pieces that comprise the record, the semi-title-track “Distant/Violent” doing much to build and tear down the world it makes. Heavy existentialism.
Like a reminder that the cosmos is both impossibly cold and hot enough to fuse hydrogen atoms, the third full-length from Finnish progressive blackened sludge rockers DÖ sets its own frame of reference in “Call of the Supervoid.” That lead cut doesn’t lay out everywhere Unversum goes throughout its contemplative eight songs and 45 minutes, but it does establish the tonal reach, the vocal rasp and the heft the trio foster throughout, so that by the time they’re nestled into the nodding second half of “Melting Gaze of the Origin,” en route to the explosive and suitably gravitational roll that would seem to begin side B in “Ode to the Dark Matter,” they’ve laid out the tenets by which Unversum operates and can proceed to add to that context. That they’re flexible enough to spend the early going of “Faster Than Light” in a psychedelic holding pattern should be seen as emblematic of their breadth on the whole, never mind the crush and seethe of “Nuclear Emperor” or “Moldy Moon,” but their extremity is tempered cleverly by their slower pacing, and that lets their individualized craft come across organically as Unversum carries the listener deeper into its expanse.
In 2022, when Raf Ruett (guitar, keys), Alex Nervo (bass, keys) and Neil Dawson (drums) were part of what might’ve been the final Obiat album, Indian Ocean (review here), it was an expansive, years-in-the-making culmination of that band’s time together, with recordings taking place across continents, guest vocals and arrangements for horns. As Ruett, Nervo and Dawson reemerge in Aeternal Chambers, there have clearly been a few aspects redirected. For starters, the band’s first four songs to be made public on their self-titled debut EP are instrumental, and so are able to breathe and develop differently. Each half of the 30-minute EP is comprised of a nine-minute and a six-minute track, and even the shorter ones clue the listener into the intense focus on ambience, hitting harder à la post-metal in “Drive Me to Ruin” but keeping a brighter tone in the lead guitar to contrast any sense of plunge, saving the biggest for last in “Glitch in the Mist.” More of this will do just fine, thanks.
From the non-cartoon butt on the front cover to quoting Lord of the Rings at the end of the album-intro “The Pact,” to catchy hooks throughout “Spells,” “Tungs” and the speedier “My Coven,” OmenBringer would seem to have a firm grasp on the audience demographic they’re aiming for, but there’s more happening in the tracks than plying the male gaze as the Nasheville four-piece make their self-released full-length debut. And that’s fortunate, because the record is 53 minutes long. I’m sorry, nobody needs to be putting out a 53-minute album in 2024 (I get it, first album, self-release, you might never get another chance; I’ve been there), but vocalist Molly Kent, guitarists Cory Cline (lead, also bass) and Spookie Rollings and drummer Tyler Boydstun mitigate this by making the late-arriving title-track an empowerment anthem — plus banjo? is that a banjo? — and fostering keyboardy drama in the hypnotic interlude “The Long Walk,” which follows. Ups and downs throughout, but a solid underpinning of metal gives the songs a foundation on which to build, and the penultimate “Stake” even hints at cinematic growth to come.
The declarative, 16-worthy sludge-metal chug of closer “Thera II (Embers of Descent)” is honestly worth the price of admission alone here, if you’re desperate for impetus, and Bristol’s Urzah bring the earlier “Of Decay” to a head like Amenra at their undulating finest, and The Scorching Gaze, which is the band’s first album, resounds with scope. Bolstered by guest vocal appearances by Eleanor Tinlin spread across opening duo “I, Empyrean” and “Lacrimare (Misery’s Shadow)” as well as the subdued “The Aesthetic” after the appropriately tumultuous “A Storm is Ever Approaching,” Urzah are able to foster aural textures that are about more than just the physicality of the music itself, correspondingly spacious and complex, but never lack immediacy, not the least for the post-hardcore shouts from guitarist Ed Fairman, who’s joined in the band by drummer James Brown, bassist Les Grodek and guitarist Tom McElveen. It doesn’t feel like Urzah‘s style is a settled issue — it’s their first LP; that’s not at all a dig on the band — and as the march of “Thera II (Embers of Descent)” gives way to its fade, one can only hope they stay so open-minded in their craft.
Whatever the narrative you want to put to Goat Generator‘s self-titled debut, whether you want to hone in on the cultish doom-prog boogie of “Black Magik,” the more modern synthy prog-psych of “Waving Around” and “Dreamt by the Sea,” the four-minute desert-rocking homage to wildlife in “Honey Badger” or the tambourine-inclusive spoken-word verses build of “Everyday Apocalypse Blues” or the way they take 11 minutes well spent to tie it all together in the subsequent closer “Far From Divine/Kingdom Gone” — whatever your angle of approach — there’s no getting around the story of the band being how much better they are than their name. The Leipzig-based four-piece offer songs varied in purpose and mood, speaking to genre from within and showcasing the vocals of Tag Hell without shortchanging the instrumental impact of Patrick Thiele‘s guitar, Martin Schubert‘s bass and Götz Götzelmann‘s drums, and they called it Goat Generator, which isn’t quite over-the-top enough to be righteously ridiculous as a moniker and reminds of nothing so much of the Stoner Rock Band Name Generator, feeling bland in a way that the music very much is not. It’s their first LP after a 2022 demo, and I’m not gonna sit here and tell a band to change their name, so I’ll tell you instead that if you’re put off by that kind of thing in this case, it’s to your own detriment to let it keep you from hearing the songs.
Rife with a languid pastoralism and threads of traditionalist folk guitar (not entirely acoustic), synth enough to make the procession that emerges behind the finishing “Candlelight Vigil” no more out of place than it wants to be in its casual, snap-along, out-for-a-walk vibe soon met with low end fuzz and a wash of keyboard melody, Head Shoppe‘s self-titled debut lets each of its six component pieces find its own way, and the result is a malleability that extends less to form — these are guitar and synth-based instrumental works of sometimes weighted psychedelia — than to the intangible nature of the creative spirit being manifest. I know nothing in terms of the process through which Head Shoppe‘s Eric Von Harding composes, but his style is able to incorporate field recordings that are emotionally evocative while also giving the otherwise sprawling “Saunders Meadow” the conceptualist ground above which it drifts. The also-eight-minute “Gracias a la Vida” uses cymbals and even manipulated voice to conjure memory before delving into flamenco stylizations, and is as much about the transition from one to the other as just what might’ve brought them together in the first place. An escape, maybe.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 3rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
A remastered version of Howling Giant‘s 2015 debut EP, being released in January for its 10th anniversary with a bonus track and demos? Yes, fucking of course. Duh. What, you’re gonna say no to that? I repeat: Duh.
In the band’s recounting of their beginnings, they note that “Whale Lord,” which opens the Howling Giant EP, began as a mixing project in college in Boston. I’m pretty sure that’s the Berklee School of Music they’re not namedropping — though admittedly it would be more hilarious if they were a Harvard-educated stoner rock band — and that accounts for some of the method behind their particular brand of madness and the fact that they’ve sounded all along like they know what they’re doing. Because they do.
The four tracks that comprise the original Howling Giant release can be streamed at the bottom of the post. In comparison to 2023’s Glass Future (review here), which the band will continue to support on the road with France’s Mars Red Sky this December; I’ll be at that Brooklyn show so help me Robot Jeebus — it sounds raw, but the energy and the songwriting are there along with hints of the harmonies to come. “Camel Crusher” still nods like a beast. Have fun with it.
Preorders for the thing are up as of tomorrow, as the PR wire details:
HOWLING GIANT announces special 10th-anniversary reissue for “Howling Giant” debut EP this January!
Nashville heavy psychedelic and prog metal goldsmiths HOWLING GIANT are set to reissue a 10th-anniversary remastered edition of their self-titled debut EP this winter, with vinyl and CD preorders starting on Friday 4th October! Recorded live in guitarist and vocalist Tom Polzine’s bedroom, Howling Giant’s 2015 self-titled debut EP still holds true to the band’s core tenets of soaring melody, spacey jams, and fuzzy riffs. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of what propelled these Nashville pillars of sci-fi and fantasy-driven psych-metal into the heavy rock world stratosphere, this fully remastered edition of the “Howling Giant” EP will also comprise three unreleased demos, a spoken word history on the beginnings of the band, a newly recorded cover as well as the digital-only bonus track “WZRDLF Origins”.
About this special EP reissue, the band says: “For the 10th anniversary of our self-titled EP, we wanted to reflect on our origin story. With this release, we included the original 2012 demos recorded during our time in Boston so that the listeners could hear the evolution of our sound. We’re very excited to repress the HG EP on vinyl, newly remastered by Tony Reed with a bunch of goodies on the B-Side. We recorded the original demo for Whale Lord as part of a mixing project in college. We booked the only available studio time (a 4-hour block from 2am to 6am) to record 2 tracks live and on the spot. From the witching hour, we brought Whale Lord and Tusk of the Thunder Mammoth into existence. We hope you enjoy comparing the original 2012 demo to the final product, recorded live in Tom’s bedroom. These are the tracks that started it all. The wizard lives.”
The “Howling Giant” anniversary reissue will be released in Standard Purple Variant vinyl, Light Blue/Yellow Splatter Special Edition (with silver laminate cover), CD and digital on January 13th, 2025, with preorders starting on October 4th at midnight Pacific Time via Bandcamp. All vinyl and CD preorders will receive a digital download of all the remastered tracks, demos and special “SKLDZR Origins” bonus track.
HOWLING GIANT “Howling Giant” EP Anniversary reissue Available on January 13th, 2025 (vinyl/CD/digital) Preorders start Friday 4th October from midnight PST
Howling Giant upcoming shows w/ Mars Red Sky Dec 5 – Baltimore, MD – Metro Baltimore Dec 6 – Brooklyn, NY – TV Eye NYC Dec 7 – Cambridge/Boston, MA – Middle East Upstairs Dec 8 – Philadelphia, PA – MilkBoy Dec 10 – Asheville, NC – Eulogy Dec 11 – Louisville, KY – Portal Louisville Dec 12 – Detroit, MI – Sanctuary Detroit Dec 13 – Youngstown, OH – Westside Bowl Dec 14 – Toronto, ON – Monarch Tavern Dec 15 – Montréal, QC – Foufounes Electriques
Howling Giant are: Tom Polzine – Guitar and Vocals Zach Wheeler – Drums and Vocals Sebastian Baltes – Bass and Vocals
Posted in Reviews on September 4th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Named in honor of one of the standout hooks from Howling Giant’s 2023 LP, Glass Future (review here), the ‘Sunken City Espresso Roast’ was a surprise from the moment I opened the bag. It is the second collaboration between the Nashville-based band and Frothy Monkey Roasting Co. behind 2021’s ‘Doomsday Express’ medium roast (review here), and had a lot to live up to in terms of the standard that first joint effort set. Sipping it from my Spock mug over the course of the last few mornings as I ground my way through the 12 oz. bag (that’s .34 kg for you metric types) one pot at a time, I was not disappointed.
As noted though, I was surprised. In my apparent ignorance of roaster norms, I tend to think of ‘espresso roast’ as darker, often greasier beans, but when I dumped the bag into the hopper of my grinder — I use an electric burr grinder that gives pretty even output, and grind coarse for an electric Chemex pourover machine; I use bottled water because my tap water has too much limestone and could measure temperature if I was so inclined, but frankly, there are only so many hours in the day — the ‘Sunken City’ beans were markedly light. A quick googling of potentialities informed me that it’s definitely a thing actual coffee reviewers/experts on the internet have opinions about, but that a lighter espresso roast is basically fair game, particularly in a ‘craft’ context.
And as I’m shoehorning disclaimers to cover for the fact that I don’t really know what I’m talking about — that should be familiar enough by now — I’ll say that while it surely would’ve been nice to put the espresso roast in an espresso maker, I have no such apparatus at my disposal. One presses on regardless.
Having come down from my initial surprise and thereby broadened by horizons ever so slightly, I put the grounds in the filter and let the Chemex perform its drippy magic. My principle concern at that point was the acid content, which is just about always on my mind with lighter, drier beans. Where ‘Doomsday Express’ offered +1 dexterity, ‘Sunken City’ is billed as a +1 strength potion, so I expected a hit of flavor that I was glad to find realized on my first cup. Without being overbearingly fruity or nutty and offering a richer mouthfeel than I might have anticipated, I caught hints of what might’ve been in the compact setting of an actual espresso drink while still enjoying it as regular coffee, and like ‘Doomsday Express’ before it, ‘Sunken City’ found a balanced flavor that wasn’t too fancy or in-your-face, but classy and with a character of its own.
You could easily relate that to Howling Giant’s music — “Sunken City,” the song, and the record from whence it comes also find a balance between class and impact — and I’ll say that even as my own taste has veered toward low-acid darkness in roasts, I didn’t hesitate when it came to downing this one, and the creamier mouthfeel (I drink coffee black, exclusively) added dimensionality to the experience that I don’t always get from unburnt grounds. As the band get underway this week touring with Mars Red Sky, they seem to have pulled merch off their Bandcamp page that I assume they’ll be selling at shows, and that includes the coffee. The dates follow:
Howling Giant live: w/ Mars Red Sky: 9/03 Chicago, IL – Reggie’s 9/04 Milwaukee, WI – X-Ray Arcade 9/05 Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry 9/06 Sioux Falls, SD – Club David 9/07 Rapid City, SD – Fairground 9/08 Denver, CO – Hi-Dive 9/10 Portland, OR – The High Water Mark 9/11 Seattle, WA – Substation 9/12 Boise, ID – The Shredder 9/13 Salt Lake City, UT – Crucial Fest 9/14 Las Vegas, NV – Sinwave 9/15 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill 9/16 Sacramento, CA – Cafe Colonial 9/17 Los Angeles, CA – El Cid Sunset 9/18 Tempe, AZ – Yucca Tap Room 9/19 Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad 9/20 El Paso, TX – The Rosewood 9/21 Austin, TX – Ripplefest Texas w/ GOZU: 9/24 Houston, TX – Black Magick Social Club 9/25 New Orleans, LA – Siberia 9/26 Atlanta, GA – Bogg’s Social & Supply 9/28 Nashville, TN – The East Room
I don’t imagine anyone’s going to get to a gig just to pick up a bag o’ beans — though if you do, that’s rad; I hope you stay for the music — but it’ll be worth keeping an eye on the merch page in case any is left when the tour is done. I’ll note as well that the ‘titan jellyfish’ design on the front of the bag is also on a t-shirt (I bought one since I didn’t feel like waiting until they come through in December for it), and if you prefer your logos on top of the design as I do — nobody needs to be reading words off my middle-aged belly — it’s got that going for it.
Whether or not ‘Sunken City’ will be the last time Frothy Monkey Roasting Co. and Howling Giant collaborate, I don’t know, but each of the two coffees these parties have done together offers something distinct from the other. For overcoming a not-what-I-expected first glance, ‘Sunken City Espresso Roast’ impressed all the more, and when/if the opportunity presented itself to do so — like, at a merch table — I would gladly indulge again.
