If you’re looking at the tracklisting below and wondering why Ides of Gemini might have named one of the tracks “May 22, 1453” sophomore Neurot Recordings outing, Old World New Wave, it was the date of a partial lunar that occurred during the siege of Constantinople, during the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Perhaps that gives some glimpse of the otherworldly feel that the trio are bound to bring to the historical thematic of their second album and the follow-up to their like-minded debut, 2012’s Constantinople (discussed here), though if you’d like to dig further there’s an audio/visual sample to go with as well that’s easily worth the three minutes it takes to watch.

No word on which of these tracks is featured in that teaser, but the tracklisting and the artwork by drummer Kelly Johnston-Gibson have been revealed, and she and vocalist Sera Timms (also of Black Mare and hopefully one of these days the Gary Arce collaboration Zun) give some perspective on where they’re coming from this time around.

The PR wire has it as such:

IDES OF GEMINI: Ethereal Doom Contortionists Prepare To Release Old World New Wave; Artwork + Track Listing Revealed

Ethereal doom trio, IDES OF GEMINI, are preparing to unveil their sophomore offering, Old World New Wave, via Neurot Recordings this Fall.

IDES OF GEMINI features guitarist Jason Bennett, drummer Kelly Johnston-Gibson and the haunting vocal prowess of singer/bassist Sera Timms, also of Los Angeles dark-psych conjurors Black Mare. The follow-up to the band’s 2012 Constantinople debut, Old World New Wave was recorded at Valley Recording in Burbank, California, engineered and mixed by Chris Rakestraw (Danzig), mastered by Grammy award winning producer Matt Hyde (Slayer) and boasts the striking hand-drawn cover art of Johnston-Gibson.

Comments Timms of the offering, “For Old World New Wave we all really coalesced as a band, and were able to work off one another’s strengths. J came up with the basic concept and musical framework of the album, and Kelly and I gave it form and identity. For me, my own personal musical identity, taste, preferences etc. were eclipsed by the power of the music which worked as an animate force unto itself — so much so that I cannot listen to any of it objectively, or tell you if it’s good or bad, but I can tell you that it’s distinctively IDES OF GEMINI.”

Adds Johnston-Gibson of the images surrounding the record, “The artwork is an interpretation of Sera’s lyrical narrative, which carries over themes from Constantinople, as well as symbolic of transformations experienced by us as individuals and inevitably as a band. The minimalist, direct style of the cover and accompanying illustrations is indicative of our energies combined to create one clear, singular force, as experienced through the music, while the visual content has more to do with the story: essentially a conflict between opposing energies leading to destruction, therefore allowing a clean slate for integration of opposites into a resurrected whole.”

Old World New Wave Track Listing:
1. Black Door
2. The Chalice & The Blade
3. Seer Of Circassia
4. White Hart
5. May 22, 1453
6. The Adversary
7. Fememorde
8. Valediction
9. Scimitar

Old World New Wave will be released on CD and digitally via Neurot Recordings and on vinyl via SIGE Records on September 16th, 2014.

http://idesofgemini.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/IdesofgeminI
http://idesofgemini.bandcamp.com
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Ides of Gemini, Old World New Wave Album Teaser

YOB have set a September release date for what’s still my most anticipated album for the rest of this year despite the fact that I’ve heard it (once) front to back, Clearing the Path to Ascend. Also their Neurot Recordings debut, it’s comprised of four songs, three of which were aired live at this year’s Roadburn festival in the Netherlands. It’s been a long time since I last heard a YOB record I didn’t make my album of the year, so yeah, this is definitely one I’m looking forward to. I’m sure you are as well, so I won’t delay the info further.

From the PR wire:

YOB: Clearing The Path To Ascend Artwork + Track Listing Revealed; Record To See Release This September Via Neurot Recordings

This September, two years after leveling the expectations of critics and listeners alike with Atma, doom trio powerhouse, YOB, will unveil Clearing The Path To Ascend, an aptly titled album for what will undoubtedly be the crowning achievement for a band whose journey now nears two decades of creating music that is at once commanding and cathartic.

As is the YOB way, the four tracks comprising Clearing The Path To Ascend don’t simply offer a vacuous glimpse into the already riff-soaked doom genre; these songs demand the tandem attention of mind, body, and soul, etching a mark across a sound that finds YOB as formidable as they’ve ever been. True ascension requires a destruction of those barriers that prevent any movement forward. Unsurprisingly, YOB pummels any and all of these obstacles with absolute authority, clearing the way for a genuinely visceral listening experience and climbing upward into a realm that sets the band in a heavy metal place that has been and will always remain wholly their own.

YOB’s music is not unlike the path that’s let them to their current place among heavy metal’s elite, slowly building from a hushed ethereal vapor into the thunderous and masterful tumult of sound domination. The ethereal mists of Eugene, Oregon no doubt provided the perfect catalyst for founding member and vocalist Mike Scheidt to call up the signature of surging doom that would soon come to garner YOB its current position as one of the most respected and revered bands in all of heavy metal. While giving due sonic credit to the cornerstone influences such as Cathedral, Sleep, Electric Wizard, and Black Sabbath — YOB immediately set out to define a sound wholly singular and utterly devastating in its cathartic enormity.

Those threads of progressive rock and drone that have always underscored the music of YOB are now fully realized with Clearing The Path To Ascend. Drummer Travis Foster wields his signature rhythmic furor here with bombastic precision while bassist Aaron Rieseberg coils around the sonic tide with an unforgiving churn all the while in a deadly synchronicity with Scheidt’s uncanny vocal range and its pendulous movement between the triumphant howls of a medieval madman and the earth splitting growls of a war-battered titan.

With Clearing The Path To Ascend, YOB explores a thunderous dimension that’s familiar in its auditory clout but completely new in the execution of its trajectory, taking the band’s sound into a remarkable place as ethereally compelling in its aesthetic, as it is merciless in the magnitude of its sound.

Comments Scheidt, “Writing this album felt like being plugged into a main. Emotionally, it’s our heaviest. But it also has some real beauty and light. We dug the deepest we ever have to get to the heart of these tunes.” Behold the artwork that will adorn this work of art, and check out the track listing below:

Clearing The Path To Ascend Track Listing:
1. In Our Blood
2. Nothing To Win
3. Unmask The Spectre
4. Marrow

YOB on Facebook
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YOB, New Song at Roadburn 2014

Oh, I certainly would like to see Neurosis again. And I’d certainly like to see them play with SunnO))) and Goatsnake and Pelican and -(16)- in Tucson at the third Southwest Terror Fest this October. While I contemplate which of my limbs to donate to science and/or the illegal black market in order to make that happen, check out the rather considerable list of tour dates Neurosis have coming up. It’s been more than a minute since one could really think of them as a touring band, but they seem to be working their way back up to it.

I think when they put out The Eye of Every Storm they played, what, five shows? Now here they are going to Australia for the first time in their career, which hits its 30th year in 2015. Pretty astounding.

The PR wire puts it like this:

NEUROSIS Confirms Stateside Performances Including Southwest Terror Fest; First Australian Tour Booked

Directly following their recent declaration of an impending European Summer tour, which includes several major festival appearances and performances in territories where they’ve never before played, NEUROSIS now announces new stateside shows as well as their first tour of Australia.

Continuing their most intense bout of touring in more than two decades, still steadily supporting their heralded 2012-released, Honor Found In Decay, NEUROSIS will return to European soil this Summer. From June 28th through July 3rd, the Euro routing includes performances at both the massive annual Graspop Metal Meeting in Bessel, Belgium, as well as the Tuska Open Air Metal Festival in Helsinki, Finland, after which they’ll plow through Germany, Croatia and Greece.

Exactly one month after returning from Europe, NEUROSIS will finally make their way across the southern Pacific, bound for Australia on their first ever tour of the continent. The six-city Australian inundation will see the pack ripping through Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney between July 4th and 9th, with two shows scheduled in Sydney.

NEUROSIS has also been confirmed as one of the key headliners at Arizona’s Southwest Terror Fest III: The Western Front. The third installment of this ever-expanding, now four-day event, will consume Tucson October 16th through 19th, with main acts Goatsnake and Sunn O))) in addition to NEUROSIS, who will headline Saturday, October 18th with support from The Body, Author & Punisher and Sorxe. In conjunction with their SWTF trip, the band will invade Denver on Sunday, October 19th with support from Subrosa and In The Company Of Serpents before dispersing and returning to their respective homes.

NEUROSIS Tour Dates:
6/28/2014 Graspop Festival – Bessel, Belgium
6/29/2014 Tuska Open Air Metal Festival – Helsinki, Finland
6/30/2014 Schlachthof – Wiesbaden, Germany
7/01/2014 Jedinstvo-Pogon – Zagreb, Croatia
7/02/2014 Astra – Berlin, Germany
7/03/2014 Fuzz Live Music Club – Athens, Greece
8/04/2014 The Hi Fi – Brisbane, Australia w/ Hope Drone
8/05/2014 HQ – Adelaide, Australia w/ Space Bong
8/06/2014 Capitol – Perth, Australia w/ Drowning Horse
8/07/2014 The Corner Hotel – Melbourne, Australia w/ Clagg
8/08/2014 The Hi Fi – Melbourne, Australia w/ Whitehorse
8/09/2014 Manning Bar – Sydney, Australia w/ Adrift for Days
10/18/2014 Rialto Theatre – Tucson, AZ @ Southwest Terror Fest
10/19/2014 The Gothic Theatre – Denver, CO w/ Subrosa, In The Company Of Serpents

http://www.neurosis.com
http://www.facebook.com/officialneurosis
https://www.facebook.com/CorrectionsHouse
http://www.neurotrecordings.com
http://www.facebook.com/neurotrecordings

Neurosis, “At the Well”/”Locust Star” Live in Brooklyn, 2013

This is the first audio that’s been made public from YOB‘s due-in-September seventh album and Neurot Recordings debut, Clearing the Path to Ascend, and mostly, it confirms that YOB are still YOB. The landmark Oregonian cosmic doom trio haven’t decided to become YOB Lion and do a reggae record — though no doubt they’d pull it off — and they haven’t lost the balance of weight and atmosphere that’s made their work so influential over the last decade. They’re still YOB. Good.

What it doesn’t do is show off quite how far out YOB go on Clearing the Path to Ascend. It doesn’t give a sense of the patience at work in the album or some of its expansive elements into classic rock, experiments in furthering parts of YOB‘s approach that may have always been there but have come clearer into focus. But time’s limited and for a first listen to the album and a first look at the artwork, I’ll take it.

From the PR wire:

YOB, Clearing the Path to Ascend Teaser

YOB: DOOM METAL CONJURERS REVEAL FIRST VIDEO TEASER; FORTHCOMING NEW FULL-LENGTH TO BE UNVEILED VIA NEUROT THIS AUTUMN

Long-running Oregon doom metal conjurors and recent Neurot signees, YOB, are pleased to unveil the first taste of their forthcoming new long player. Titled Clearing The Path To Ascend, the trio’s latest audio exploration was recorded at Gung Ho Studio in Eugene, notorious for its reserve of vintage equipment, alongside longtime collaborator/iconic sound-sage Billy Barnett, who mastered YOB’s Atma, The Great Cessation, The Unreal Never Lived and The Illusion Of Motion. Mastering was handled by Brad Boatright (Sleep, Beastmilk, Nails) at Audiosiege Engineering. The result is a wholly cathartic, sonicly enormous, riff-soaked sound collage of dark and light.

Comments founding vocalist/guitarist Mike Scheidt, “Writing this album felt like being plugged into a main. Emotionally, it’s our heaviest. But it also has some real beauty and light. We dug the deepest we ever have to get to the heart of these tunes.”

Witness the first sampling of Clearing The Path To Ascend http://youtu.be/vHhrk0w7g3I

YOB:
Mike Scheidt – vocals/guitars
Travis Foster – drums
Aaron Rieseberg – Bass

YOB on Thee Facebooks

Neurot Recordings

Neurot on Thee Facebooks

My only issue with Neurosis touring Europe is that I’m not there to see them. Other than that, we’re cool. Go get ’em.

The progenitors of post-metal, who remain influential even beyond crafting the blueprint for that subgenre in their wake, continue to support 2012’s Honor Found in Decay (review here). They’ve played pretty steadily since the album’s release, not all-out touring, but making regular live appearances, which they haven’t always done over the course of the last decade-plus. 2015 marks 30 years since they first got together, and though I’ve seen no word yet of how they’ll mark that anniversary, shows and fest slots in the interim is never something to complain about. Six in a row this time.

Honor found on the PR wire:

NEUROSIS Announce European Live Shows This Summer

Neurosis have announced more live shows in Europe this summer, continuing their voyage in support of the staggering album, Honor Found In Decay, and as part of their journey, they shall be heading to places they’ve never played before.

Here is the complete run-down of Neurosis’ European live shows:

June 28th – GRASPOP Festival, Bessel, Belgium
June 29th – Tuska Open Air Metal Festival, Helsinki, Finland
June 30th – Schlachthof, Wiesbaden, Germany
July 1st – Jedinstvo-Pogon, Zagreb, Croatia
July 2nd – Astra, Berlin, Germany
July 3rd – Fuzz Live Music Club, Athens, Greece

Steve Von Till comments…”We feel very lucky to be able to return to European soil this summer. This brief journey will mark only our second time in Finland, and the first time ever for Neurosis to bring our music to Croatia and Greece. How very fortunate we are to be able to perform there, see new places and meet new people. And of course it is always good to be with friends and family in Germany!”

https://www.facebook.com/officialneurosis
http://neurotrecordings.blogspot.com
http://neurotrecordings.com/

Neurosis, “Bleeding the Pigs” from Honor Found in Decay (2012)

This morning brings the news that Oregonian cosmic doom forerunners YOB will issue their next full-length through Neurot Recordings. Fans will recall that Neurosis guitarist/vocalist Scott Kelly also appeared on YOB‘s last album, 2011’s Atma (review here), and the two bands have played shows together enough that the alliance between YOB and Neurosis‘ label certainly makes sense. Details on the record itself are slim, but YOB will be at Roadburn this year, and hopefully one of their sets will have some room for material from their forthcoming seventh album.

Hot off the PR wire:

YOB: Oregonian Doom Metal Trio Join The Neurot Recordings Family

Neurot Recordings is pleased to welcome long-running Eugene, Oregon-based doom metal trio, YOB, to their expanding household of eclectic, thought-provoking music. The band — founding vocalist/guitarist Mike Scheidt, drummer Travis Foster and bassist Aaron Rieseberg — will release their seventh studio offering this Fall preceded by an appearance at the illustrious Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, The Netherlands in April.

Comments Scheidt of the recent union, “YOB is very happy to have signed to Neurot for our new album. Travis, Aaron and I agree that Neurosis is the epitome of forward-thinking heavy music, made with zero compromise. Our love for their music is total. Neurot’s dedication to putting out uncompromising music is no different. To have this opportunity to put an album out on their label is an honor that runs deep. We cannot wait to share our new music with Neurot and our friends worldwide.”

Neurosis’ Steve Von Till notes, “This was meant to be. Neurot has always sought out to work with those who share in the purification of spirit through sound and who harvest their sound from originality and intensity. When I listen to YOB, see them leave it all on the stage, or share a conversation with them about life, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that they embody what Neurot stands for completely and we are so very honored that we get the opportunity to work together with them on their next album.”

Adds Scott Kelly, “YOB, as with all things that actually matter, there is only one. They have built their temple with a foundation concreted in absolute truth. The truth is the riffs, the truth is in the delivery, it’s in the unwavering commitment, and in the handshake and the look in their eyes. If you don’t know them, then you are fucking up your own lifes’ truth. There’s is nothing heavier on the face of this earth than this band. The Neurot Family is honored to be a part of legacy of this, the monolithic treasure of sonic achievement that is YOB.”

Further details on YOB’s forthcoming new release to be unveiled in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

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YOB, “Adrift in the Ocean” from Atma (2011)

Partnering alternately with Syndrome, The Leaving and Oldseed, Scott Kelly and the Road Home will begin a run of European tour dates this week that will carry them through the rest of this month and into next, supporting 2012’s The Forgiven Ghost in Me (review here). This will reportedly be the first time the trio of Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Noah Landis (Neurosis) and Greg Dale hit the road together in Europe, so not that you needed an excuse to go if you happen to live or find yourself in that part of the world, but you’ve got one just in case.

Dates and a promo video follow:

Scott Kelly and The Road Home: European Tour 2014

After nearly 100 European Shows Scott Kelly, guitarist and singer of Neurosis, proved that his solo work stands out alone.

Now, for the first time, he will come to Europe with “the Road Home”. His Band. The Band that recorded the highly acclaimed Scott Kelly and the Road Home – “The Forgiven Ghost In Me” LP/CD.

The Road Home are Noah Landis of Neurosis (Keyboards/Sounds) and Greg Dale who lately was on tour with Neurosis.

Together Scott, Noah and Greg continue to explore The Great Mystery.

Scott Kelly & The Road Home European Tour 2014!
Tue 04.02. BE Brussels @ DNA
Wed 05.02. BE Liege @ La Zone (1)
Thu 06.02. BE Arlon @ L’Entrepot (1)
Fri 07.02. FR Paris @ Espace B (1)
Sat 08.02. FR Bayonne @ Atabal
Sun 09.02. ES Mungia (Vizcaya) @ Olalde Aretoa
Mon 10.02. ES Coruña @ Mardi Gras
Tue 11.02. PT Oporto @ Passos Manuel
Wed 12.02. PT Lisbon @ Galeria Ze Dos Bois
Thu 13.02. ES Madrid @ La Boite
Fri 14.02. ES Barcelona @ Hangar
Sun 16.02. IT Bologna @ Freakout Club
Mon 17.02. AT Vienna @ Arena 3Raum (2)
Tue 18.02. CH Zurich @ Ziegel oh Lac (2)
Wed 19.02. CH Geneva @ La Gravière (2)
Thu 20.02. CH Martigny @ Sunset Bar
Fri 21.02. HR Zagreb @ Klub Mocvara
Sat 22.02. SI Velenje @ Klub eMCe Plac
Sun 23.02. HU Budapest @ A 38
Mon 24.02. SK Trnava @ Mala Synagoga
Tue 25.02. PL Krakow @ Lizard King
Wed 26.02. CZ Prague @ Klub Pilot
Thu 27.02. GER Dortmund @ Pauluskirche (3)
Fri 28.02. GER Leipzig @ UT Connewitz
Sat 01.03. GER Hamburg @ tba
Sun 02.03. DK Copenhagen @ KB18
Tue 04.03. NO Drammen @ Union Scene
Wed 05.03. SE Stockholm @ Lilla Hotellbaren
Thu 06.03. FI Tampere @ Klubi
Fri 07.03. LV Riga @ Cinema – K. Suns.
Sat 08.03. PL Warsaw @ Chmury
(1) Support: Syndrome
(2) Support: The Leaving
(3) Support: Oldseed

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Scott Kelly and the Road Home, European Tour Trailer

In just a few short months, Portland-based four-piece Stoneburner will mark their first release on Neurot Recordings with their sophomore full-length, Life Drawing. Really, for any heavy band, to have the endorsement of Neurosis behind seems about as close to “living the dream” as you’re gonna get, though if the newly-revealed artwork for Life Drawing is anything to go by, Stoneburner are keeping a pretty similar mindset to that which came across on their 2012 Seventh Rule debut, Sickness Will Pass (discussed here), which was plenty nasty and heavy to spare. Good for them, both in terms of living the dream and not fixing what clearly isn’t broken.

Harken to the PR wire, for it brings you knowledge, and only knowledge can kill Zardoz:

STONEBURNER: Portland Sludge Slingers Reveal Album Details

Portland sludge slingers and recent Neurot family additions, STONEBURNER, are readying to unleash their forthcoming new full-length, Life Drawing. The follow-up to their 2012 debut, Sickness Will Pass, features nine rumbling odes of bottom-heavy hostility and emotional decay. Recorded, mixed and produced by Fester at Haywire Studios, mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering — both in Portland — and swathed in the visually abrasive cover art of J.J. Shirey, Life Drawing promises to hurl STONEBURNER’s habitually chest-caving sludge mantras to entirely new realms of earth-deteriorating heaviness.

Comments the band in a collective statement: “Lyrically we’ve always focused on personal matters, and one theme that particularly seems to keep coming up on this record is the struggle to be a decent person in a world that keeps doing its best to cause you not to be. J.J. Shirey, who paints our album covers, is part of the STONEBURNER brotherhood and we have absolute faith in him. We have him sit in on rehearsals, read our lyrics, and then we send him off to come up with whatever he thinks best suits the material. We feel that this piece absolutely captures the mood of trying to grow and heal, but constantly finding yourself falling back into the darkness caused by emotional and physical addictions. The world isn’t always a happy, beautiful place, and neither is our music. Thanks to J.J. you’re going to sense that before you even hear the album.”

Life Drawing Track Listing:
1. Some Can
2. Caged Bird
3. Drift
4. An Apology To A Friend In Need
5. Pale New Eyes
6. Giver Of Birth
7. Done
8. You Are The Worst
9. The Phoenix

STONEBURNER features a persuasive musical ancestry that winds through Buried At Sea, Buried Blood, Heathen Shrine and others. Named after a subterranean weapon from the novel Dune, STONEBURNER deliver a wholly organic orchestration of captivating, crustified doom metal, their torrid hymns bathed in internal agony, anguish and despair. To define STONEBURNER, one need only look to the list of bands with whom they’ve shared the stage: Yob, Sleep, Eyehategod, Neurosis, Buzzov-en, Weedeater, Saint Vitus, Watain, Tragedy, Noothgrush, Graves At Sea, Lord Dying, Drop Dead, Whitehorse, Wind Hand, Bastard Noise…

Life Drawing will be unleashed via Neurot Recordings later this Spring. Stay tuned for further info.

http://www.facebook.com/Stoneburner.PDX
http://www.neurotrecordings.com
http://www.facebook.com/neurotrecordings

Stoneburner, Live on Jan. 24, 2014