My Dying Bride to Release A Mortal Binding April 19; Video Posted

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 13th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

My Dying Bride

Headed toward their 35th anniversary next year, UK death-doom progenitors My Dying Bride have announced their new album, A Mortal Binding, will be released on April 19 in continued cooperation with Nuclear Blast. I actually went and counted before reading it two seconds ago in the press release, but yes, this will be the band’s 15th LP, and it arrives some four years after 2020’s The Ghost of Orion (review here), which was about as righteous a beginning to their post-Peaceville era as one could’ve hoped to get. A Mortal Binding greets public eyes and ears with the video for the first single “Thornwyck Hymn,” and I guess if there’s a visual theme you want to say it’s based around, it’d probably be ‘writhing.’ So, fair enough.

The song dogwhistles metal to longtime fans craving elements like the violin that’s made its way back into their sound or harsher vocals, but no one track is going to tell you everything you’re going to hear on a My Dying Bride record, whatever welcome reassurances it might otherwise provide. After 14 records, I don’t think anyone is expecting My Dying Bride to come along and completely revamp a very-much-not-broken-thus-not-needing-fixing approach, but they always show some level of refinement or progression in their sound — at this point the band has grown with them as people — and, well, I know I’m fuckin’ miserable, so bring it on. Please.

Preorders, etc., from the PR wire:

My Dying Bride A Mortal Binding

MY DYING BRIDE ANNOUNCE NEW STUDIO ALBUM A MORTAL BINDING

RELEASE FIRST SINGLE/VIDEO ‘THORNWYCK HYMN’

A MORTAL BINDING IS OUT ON APRIL 19TH

British death-doom legends, My Dying Bride, are proud to announce their 15th studio album, A Mortal Binding, set to be released on 19th April via Nuclear Blast Records. Today’s news is accompanied by the release of tempestuous, heart-wrenching new single ‘Thornwyck Hymn’. The track comes with a stunning video directed by Daniel Gray, depicting a maritime story of unfolding desire and tragedy.

My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe commented, “Set upon the rugged coast of Yorkshire, Thornwyck village has spent an eternity being haunted by the chill waters that wash its shore – and the hidden folk who dwell in the salty depths.
Woe betide anyone who fares into the briny sea, or even steels to close to its edge for they may never set foot back on mother earth.”

You can pre-order A Mortal Binding here: https://mydyingbride.bfan.link/a-mortal-binding
Listen to ‘Thornwyck Hymn’ here: https://mydyingbride.bfan.link/thornwyck-hymn

A Mortal Binding, the much-anticipated follow-up to The Ghost of Orion (2020) finds the Yorkshire-based quintet delighting in anxiety, loss, and toil to resplendent effect. From the raw distress of ‘Her Dominion’ and twisted horror of ‘Thornwyck Hymn’ to the funerary violins of the 11-minute monolith ‘The Apocalyptist’ and the classic-feeling ‘The 2nd of Three Bells’, A Mortal Binding is pinnacle My Dying Bride. If Songs of Darkness, Words of Light (2004) elevated the band to new heights and A Map of All Our Failures (2012) expanded upon the group’s mid-tens grandeur, then A Mortal Binding stages My Dying Bride’s next exultant phase of elegiac misery.

A Mortal Binding tracklisting:
01. Her Dominion
02. Thornwyck Hymn
03. The Second of Three Bells
04. Unthroned Creed
05. The Apocalyptist
06. A Starving Heart
07. Crushed Embers

A Mortal Binding formats:
CD jewelcase
Vinyl 2LP gatefold – green
Vinyl 2LP gatefold – red w/ black smoke
Vinyl 2LP gatefold – clear w/ black smoke

My Dying Bride hired The Ghost of Orion studio wizard Mark Mynett to produce, mix, and master A Mortal Binding. The group holed up at Mynett’s Mynetaur Productions (Paradise Lost, Rotting Christ) in Manchester, UK, where they tracked the album consecutively from July to September 2023.

For over three decades, My Dying Bride from West Yorkshire have been the voice of the hopeless and broken, combining haunting sounds with crushing misery and melancholy. With their signature sound they’ve shaped the doom metal scene like barely any other act and integrated both soft violin melodies and violent death metal growls into their music, whilst always staying strictly loyal to themselves. And since the early Nineties, the band’s masterminds and founding members Andrew Craighan and Aaron Stainthorpe forged beautiful grief into studio albums with songs of epic length. As My Dying Bride edge past their 33rd year, they’re aging gracefully, remaining as vital and heart-wrenching as ever. The flower withers once more on My Dying Bride’s upcoming new record A Mortal Binding, due out on 19th April 2024.

My Dying Bride are:
Aaron Stainthorpe | vocals
Andrew Craighan | guitars
Lena Abé | bass
Shaun MacGowan | keyboards / violin
Neil Blanchett | guitars
Dan Mullins | drums

www.mydyingbride.net
https://www.facebook.com/MyDyingBrideOfficial/
https://www.instagram.com/mydyingbride_official/

http://www.facebook.com/nuclearblastusa
http://instagram.com/nuclearblastusa

My Dying Bride, “Thornwyck Hymn” official video

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Enslaved Announce Deluxe Edition of Heimdal w/ Extra Tracks

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 12th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

I’ll not waste your time recounting the various glories of Enslaved‘s early-2023 outing, Heimdal (review here), because holy crap, we’ve arrived at the next stage of the covering-Enslaved-on-The-Obelisk running gag, wherein although I never really get much response when I write about the band — I assume because they’re not Electric Wizard, which is a standard that few bands will ever meet; just one comes to mind — I now assume you’re actually as huge a fan as I am. Sweet, right? I know!

As such, a deluxe edition of Heimdal from the Bergen, Norway-based progenitors of progressive black metal, which includes their ‘The Otherworldly Big Band Experience’ live recording, the new track “Gangandi” that you can see the visualizer for — it’s got more scope in its first three minutes than some bands have in their career, but you know that — at the bottom of this post, and a couple alternate versions of songs from teh record with Jo Quail on cello. Mark it a win for fans like you and I.

The release is out March 1, which puts it in time for the band’s upcoming European and UK tour, though I don’t know how you sell digital releases at the merch table. I’m sure there’s a way. It’s the future. You can always spend money here.

From the PR wire:

enslaved heimdal deluxe edition

ENSLAVED | announce ‘Heimdal (Deluxe)’ digital album + release single/visualizer ‘Gangandi’

One year ago, Norway’s trailblazing cosmic voyagers, Enslaved, released their latest avant-garde creation titled Heimdal. To commemorate the studio album’s first year of existence, the band are proud to announce the Heimdal (Deluxe) digital album, set to be released on March 1st 2024 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Heimdal (Deluxe) will include the studio album in full, as well as bonus track ‘Gangandi’, alternative versions of two album tracks ‘Congelia’ and ‘Forest Dweller’, both featuring sublime performances from renowned cellist Jo Quail, plus the entirety of ‘The Otherworldly Big Band Experience’ – Enslaved’s stunning 2022 streaming event featuring fellow psychedelic Norwegian prog band Shaman Elephant.

Today, the band have released their deeply mesmerising track ‘Gangandi’ as a preview to the deluxe digital album, which is accompanied by a visualizer.

Vocalist/bassist Grutle Kjellson commented,

“Gangandi was the last song we made before the recording sessions for Heimdal took place. I remember Ivar driving down to my place from Bergen on a Friday night to play a demo for a new song for me, and I went like, “Daaaaamn, this is something else!” I absolutely loved it, but at the same time, I sensed that it was a little bit to the left of the rest of the material. When I started to figure out what to sing over it, I ended up writing a poem in cross rhyme in archaic western Norwegian, which even separated the whole effort even further away from the rest of the material.

So, ultimately, we ended up not including it on the album, other than as a bonus track on the most “exclusive” and limited vinyl versions.

That said, that doesn’t mean that we don’t enjoy the song! Quite the contrary! We love this odd little hybrid of folk rock, early Mayhem, and King Crimson! It just ended up being the weird cousin of the rest of the songs. Kind of like Enslaved itself as a matter of fact.”

PRE-SAVE HEIMDAL (DELUXE): https://enslaved.bfan.link/heimdal-deluxe.ema
LISTEN TO TRACK ‘GANGANDI’: https://enslaved.bfan.link/gangandi.ema

Enslaved’s latest studio album Heimdal (released March 2023) is both a departure and a communion with roots forged over three decades ago in the turbulent birth throes of Norway’s black metal scene. It’s a record that points towards new beginnings, and a dawn that’s on the other side of the apex of the land. A psychedelic journey through arcane Norse folklore, connecting with one’s ancient ancestors and our future selves.

‘The Otherworldly Big Band Experience’ was an Enslaved show like none other, their biggest, boldest project to date – a colossal, kaleidoscopic stage show featuring a stellar setlist covering their career, both past and present. Including some tracks never previously performed live.

Enslaved will be touring the UK and Europe in March 2024. The 16-date run will take the band across 10 different countries, with support coming from British post-hardcore quartet Svalbard and US metallers Wayfarer.

Tickets are on-sale now from https://enslaved.no/

ENSLAVED – UK + EUROPEAN TOUR 2024
w/ Svalbard + Wayfarer
06/03 – UK London, Islington Assembly Hall
07/03 – UK Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
08/03 – UK Manchester, Club Academy
09/03 – UK Glasgow, Slay
10/03 – IE Dublin, Opium
12/03 – NL Helmond, Cacaofabriek
13/03 – FR Paris, La Machine
14/03 – CH Geneva, PTR/l’Usine
15/03 – FR Montpellier, Victoire 2
16/03 – IT Milan, Legend
18/03 – CZ Prague, Futurum
19/03 – AT Vienna, Szene
21/03 – DE Cologne, Club Volta
22/03 – DE Leipzig, Taubchenthal
23/03 – DE Berlin, Hole44
24/03 – PL Warsaw, Proxima

Enslaved have also been announced for some festivals in 2024:

31/07-03/08 NO Beyond The Gates, Bergen
11/08 UK Bloodstock Festival, Derby
14/08-17/08 DE Summer Breeze, Dinkelsbühl
16/11-17/11 MX Mexico Metal Fest, Mexico City

Enslaved are:
Ivar Bjørnson | guitars
Grutle Kjellson | vocals
Arve ‘Ice Dale’ Isdal | guitar
Håkon Vinje | keyboards, clean vocals
Iver Sandøy | drums

http://www.facebook.com/enslaved
https://www.instagram.com/enslavedofficial
http://www.enslaved.no/

http://www.facebook.com/nuclearblastusa
http://instagram.com/nuclearblastusa

Enslaved, “Gangandi” official visualizer

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Enslaved Announce 2024 UK & European Touring

Posted in Whathaveyou on November 13th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Enslaved

Move along, people! Business as usual here. Just Enslaved touring with Svalbard and Wayfarer, supporting early-2023’s Heimdal (review here) at club shows probably ahead of another summer of festivals and more traveling as they complete the touring cycle for their 16th album, having built a catalog unparalleled in its commitment to sonic progression either in or out of black metal. Yeah, they’re not the only ones who’ve been around that long, but who else has had the kind of trajectory Enslaved have had, incorporating sounds and styles from prog and krautrock while maintaining their ability to conjure tempests of tremolo seemingly at will.

I guess Opeth would be the big analog, but Opeth ‘went prog’ from a beginning in death metal. They started as one thing and became another. Enslaved have done that without dropping their original intention toward extremity. They changed the sound to suit them, rather than themselves to suit the sound.

This concludes today’s lecture on why you don’t listen to enough Enslaved. Put on Below the Lights twice today after you watch the video for “Congelia” at the bottom of this post and we’ll talk about this again tomorrow. No, probably not really.

From the PR wire. Or was it socials. Oh who cares:

Enslaved tour

Friends!

In March next it is happening; we are going to tour Europe + UK! Enslaved will be hitting the road, together with Wayfarer and Svalbard. We will visit 10 different countries and play in 16 different venues. Ticket sales will kick off tomorrow, so make sure you find yours!

Due to events and circumstances beyond everybody’s control, our first European club tour since 2018 as a matter of fact! No less!

The blare of the great horn shall resound once again, and Heimdal will guide you through pain and anxiety and to victory!

Looking forward to see you all again.

Alu Alu Laukar!!
-Grutle

At which of these shows can we expect to see you?

06/03/2024 – Islington Assembly Hall – London (UK)
07/03/2024 – Brudenell Social Club – Leeds (UK)
08/03/2024 – Club Academy – Manchester (UK)
09/03/2024 – Slay – Glasgow (UK)
10/03/2024 – Opium – Dublin (IE)
12/03/2024 – Cacaofabriek – Helmond (NL)
13/03/2024 – La Machine – Paris (FR)
14/03/2024 – Geneva PTR/l’ Usine – Geneva (CH)
15/03/2024 – Victoire 2 – Montpellier (FR)
16/03/2024 – Legend – Milan (IT)
18/03/2024 – Futurum – Prague (CZ)
19/03/2024 – Szene – Vienna (AT)
21/03/2024 – Club Volta – Cologne (DE)
22/03/2024 – Taubchenthal – Leipzig (DE)
23/03/2024 – Hole44 – Berlin (DE)
24/03/2024 – Proxima – Warsaw (PL)

Enslaved are:
Ivar Bjørnson | guitars
Grutle Kjellson | vocals
Arve ‘Ice Dale’ Isdal | guitar
Håkon Vinje | keyboards, clean vocals
Iver Sandøy | drums

http://www.facebook.com/enslaved
https://www.instagram.com/enslavedofficial
http://www.enslaved.no/

http://www.facebook.com/nuclearblastusa
http://instagram.com/nuclearblastusa

Enslaved, “Congelia” official video

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Green Lung Announce 2024 European Touring

Posted in Whathaveyou on November 7th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Green Lung spent some time in continental Europe last month ahead of releasing their third full-length and Nuclear Blast label debut, This Heathen Land (review here). They’ve got shows across England and into Scotland coming up in a few weeks, and with the list of dates below, they’re starting to reveal a bit about their Spring plans as well.

They’ve left a good amount of time here for Spring fests if they’re going to be around Europe at that point, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they showed up on more metal-focused lineups as well, the album having significant crossover potential. But obviously this is all a ways off — not the UK shows this month, but the rest — and there’s time for these shows to take shape and for plenty of others to be sorted. Green Lung are going pro, and might be about to embark on a touring cycle broader than any they’ve done before — I’m holding out that this is the record that brings them to the US — so yes. More to come.

Till then, this from social media:

Green Lung tour

Now that you’ve heard the new songs, it’s time for us to get out there and play them for you! We’re excited to announce that we’ll be back in Europe in March, April and May next year – we’ll be playing our first club shows in Greece, conquering Germany, Denmark, Austria and Switzerland with the mighty Spirit Adrift, and finally making it to Ireland with the mesmerising Lowen. Tickets will be on sale 9am this Wednesday morning (#128121#) (#128652#)

22.03 Thessaloniki GR
23.03 Athens GR
30.03 Köln DE
01.04 Copenhagen DK
02.04 Hannover DE
03.04 Leipzig DE
04.04 Munich DE
05.04 Vienna AT
06.04 Zurich CH
07.04 Aschaffenburg DE
30.04 Colchester UK
15.05 Liverpool UK
16.05 Belfast UK
17.05 Limerick IE
18.05 Dublin IE
19.05 Leeds UK

GREEN LUNG on tour:

https://greenlung.co.uk/#LIVE
22 Nov. Glasgow, UK Cathouse
23 Nov. Manchester, UK Gorilla
24 Nov. Nottingham, UK Rescue Rooms
25 Nov. Sheffield, UK Corporation Sheffield
26 Nov. Bristol, UK Thekla
30 Nov. Wolverhampton, UK KK’s Steel Mill
1 Dec. Norwich, UK Norwich Arts Centre
2 Dec. Southampton, UK The Joiners
10 Dec. London, UK Scala

Green Lung is:
Tom Templar – Vocals
Scott Black – Guitar
Joseph Ghast – Bass
John Wright – Organ
Matt Wiseman – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/greenlungband
https://www.instagram.com/greenlungband/
http://www.greenlung.co.uk/
https://greenlung.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/nuclearblastusa
https://www.instagram.com/nuclearblastrecords/
http://shop.nuclearblast.com/en/shop/index.html

Green Lung, “Maxine (Witch Queen)” official video

Green Lung, This Heathen Land (2023)

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Album Review: Green Lung, This Heathen Land

Posted in Reviews on November 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

green lung this heathen land

The ascent of Green Lung to the forefront of the heavy underground has been swift and uncoincidental. Over the last half-decade, the London-based, organ-inclusive nature-cult five-piece have developed a sound both familiar and distinct as their own, driven by brazen, big-swing hooks unabashedly pop in form and melody, doom and heavy rock riff-led groove and an emergent touring pattern further speaking to the we-want-to-do-this-full-time intention on the part of the band itself. This Heathen Land is the third Green Lung full-length and feels duly like a culmination of the time since they released their preliminary single “Green Man Rising” (review here) in 2017 ahead of their first EP, Free the Witch (review here), the next year, as well as a crucial step into the next phase of their career and a new level of distribution as their label-debut for Nuclear Blast. It is clearly not a moment they’re treating lightly, nor should they.

Now labelmates to the likes of Lucifer and Hangmans Chair (along with scores of others including GraveyardEnslaved, etc.), Green Lung flirt with forest-goth kitsch on This Heathen Land in a manner that refuses not to be both heavy and (mostly) fun. Their sound is immediately identifiable as the spoken intro “Prologue” sets the stage with a description of “a country of lonely tors and desolate moors, of forgotten woods and mysterious standing stones” backed by vintage-ish budget-horror creeper synth before Matt Wiseman‘s drums spring to life with the feedback from Scott Black‘s guitar at the outset of “The Forest Church,” but there are some differences between what Green Lung bring to This Heathen Land and where they were even two years ago on 2021’s Svart-issued Black Harvest (review here) in craft and performance alike, and these are brought all the more into relief by the fact that the new nine-track/42-minute outing was recorded mostly by esteemed and returning producer Wayne Adams (also of Petbrick, JAAW, and others, with a list of albums helmed that has room for both Black Helium and Possessor) at Bear Bites Horse Studios, with mixing by Tom Dalgety and mastering by Robin Schmidt. There is a clear intention toward balancing largesse and the organic aesthetic underpinnings of Green Lung, the elements they derive from classic heavy rock, with the largesse of a modern release on arguably the world’s biggest heavy metal imprint.

This Heathen Land accomplishes this outright, and with the consuming, sweeping momentum built across “The Forest Church,” “Mountain Throne” and “Maxine (Witch Queen),” frontloaded longest-to-shortest after “Prologue” puts you in the place of the record being a BBC documentary on paganism from 1974 as vocalist Tom Templar begins a session of lyrical storytelling corresponding in its has-read-books-of-English-folklore framing to the ambitiousness of both the album’s theme and the breadth of its arrangements, which are dynamic even as Green Lung are undeniably more metal in their presentation than they’ve ever been.

Templar, in “The Forest Church,” the penultimate “Hunters in the Sky,” and elsewhere, can be heard pushing his voice into upper registers and that’s part of it in a classic-metal sense, but in Black‘s gleaming-sword lead tone shredding solos throughout, the punch in Joseph Ghast‘s basslines and the sound and placement of Wiseman‘s drums (Sam Grant is credited with additional drum engineering,), there is a sharpness to Green Lung‘s attack that, while offset by the late-afternoon folk fusion of “Songs of the Stones” — which does bring in an electric guitar later for Black‘s solo — feels very much like the band purposefully stepping up their game to reach as many ears as possible. This has been their modus all along from one release to the next, and they’ve always been songwriters, but in its front-to-back flow and the memorability of the pieces that comprise it, This Heathen Land is a richer manifestation of who they are than they’ve yet had.

green lung

Part of why is because, in both the lumbering breakdown chug of centerpiece “One for Sorrow” and the cheeky keyboard of “Maxine (Witch Queen)” that harnesses a bit of the ethic of Type O Negative‘s “My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend” — minus the sleaze, plus a witch — they’re simply doing more. Neither Black Harvest nor 2019’s Woodland Rites (review here) wanted for complexity in their arrangements, but This Heathen Land shows characteristic progression in the dynamic interplay between Black‘s guitar and Wright‘s organ, as well as in Templar‘s vocal layering and the placement of backing vocals. It’s somehow completely over-the-top — and never more so than in the finale “Oceans of Time,” in which Templar dons the mantle of Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker’s Dracula to deliver the chorus lyric lifted from the movie with a suitably grandiose sweep, call and response, and so on — and just what it needs to be.

And the procession followed by the songs, from “Prologue” into the push through “The Forest Church,” “Mountain Throne” and “Maxine (Witch Queen)” with the ’60s garage bounce of the latter giving over to the anthemic and boldly heavy “One for Sorrow” — chorus singalongs coming soon to any number of UK festivals, surely; I only hope they go into “Hunters in the Sky” immediately after, and that someone gets it on video — followed by the righteous rug-pull shift to acoustics with “Songs of the Stones” and the regrounding of “The Ancient Ways” before “Hunters in the Sky” unveils a speedier gallop they’ve been holding in reserve and “Oceans of Time” slows from that but spreads itself over a vast expanse in its still-relatively-compact six minutes to cap with a veer into the epic that answers the definitive hook in “One for Sorrow” and delves into gothic romance in a way far more celebratory than ironic.

The last lines as they push into the fadeout, snare popping to mark the steps of the run, guitar shredding wildly, vocals calling and responding, are, “I know you feel it, Vina/I feel it too/You’re part of me now, Vina/I’m part of you,” and the point being underscored is that Green Lung are all-in. Other than that Dracula took place partly in London, there isn’t a lot of connection between “Oceans of Time” and This Heathen Land‘s stated themes around British paganism, but the closer works where it is simply because they make it fit. Confidence and songwriting can go a long way.

Some more grainy synth at the outset ties to “Prologue” and other flourishes throughout, and much as they did with “One for Sorrow” at the end of side A, they execute “Oceans of Time” seemingly with the stage in mind. They’re speaking to their audience, the invitation outright at the beginning, “Come. It’s time to explore This Heathen Land,” and everything that follows, one way or another, unites around that idea even as each song serves its own function in adding to and not detracting from the entirety of the album, demonstrating a mastery of their approach that codifies their earlier work, uses the space in its production to offer new ideas and perspectives, and leaves none of its goals unaccomplished. It is a landmark for Green Lung, and will only bring more converts to their leaf-covered altar.

Green Lung, “One for Sorrow” official video

Green Lung, “Maxine (Witch Queen)” official video

Green Lung, This Heathen Land (2023)

Green Lung on Facebook

Green Lung on Instagram

Green Lung website

Green Lung on Bandcamp

Nuclear Blast on Facebook

Nuclear Blast on Instagram

Nuclear Blast website

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Quarterly Review: Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Graveyard, Hexvessel, Godsground, Sleep Maps, Dread Spire, Mairu, Throe, Blind River, Rifftree

Posted in Reviews on October 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

the obelisk winter quarterly review

It’s been quite a morning. Got up at five, went back to sleep until six, took the dog out, lazily poured myself a coffee — the smell is like wood bark and bitter mud, so yes, the dark roast — and got down to set up this Quarterly Review. Not rushed, not at all overwhelmed by press releases about new albums or the fact that I’ve got 50 records I’m writing about this week, or any of it. Didn’t last, that stress-free sit-down — one of the hazards of being perfectly willing to be distracted at a moment’s notice is that that might happen — but it was nice while it did. And hey, the Quarterly Review is set up and ready to roll with 50 records between now and Friday. Let’s do that.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Slaughter on First Avenue

uncle acid and the deadbeats slaughter on first avenue

Recorded over two nights at First Avenue in Minneapolis sandwiching the pandemic in 2019 and 2022, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ 14-song/85-minute live album, Slaughter on First Avenue, is about as clean as you’re ever likely to hear the band sound. And the Rise Above-issued 2LP spans the garage doom innovators’ career, from “Dead Eyes of London” from 2010’s Vol. 1 (reissue review here) to “I See Through You” from 2018’s Wasteland (review here), with all the “Death’s Door” and “Thirteen Candles” and “Desert Ceremony” and “I’ll Cut You Down” you can handle, the addled and murderous bringers of melody and fuzz clear-eyed and methodical, professional, in their delivery. It sounds worked on, like, in the studio, the way oldschool live albums might’ve been. I don’t know that it was, don’t have a problem with that if it was, just noting that the sheer sound here is fantastic, whether it’s the separation between the two guitars and keys and each other, the distinction of the vocals, or the way even the snare drum seems to hit in kind with the vintage aspects of Uncle Acid‘s general production style. They clearly enjoy the crowd response to the older tunes like “I’ll Cut You Down” and “Death’s Door,” and well they should. Slaughter on First Avenue isn’t a new full-length, though they say one will eventually happen, but it’s a representation of their material in a new way for listeners, cleaner than their last two studio records, and a ceremony (or two) worth preserving.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats on Facebook

Rise Above Records website

Graveyard, 6

graveyard 6

Swedish retro soul rock forerunners Graveyard are on their way to being legends if they aren’t legends yet. Headliners at the absolute least, and the influence they had in the heavy ’10s on classic heavy as a style and boogie rock in particular can’t be discounted. Comprised of nine cuts, 6 is Graveyard‘s first offering of this decade, following behind 2018’s Peace (review here), and it continues their dual-trajectory in pairing together the slow, troubled-love woes emotionality of “Breathe In, Breathe Out,” “Sad Song” on which guitarist Joakim Nilsson relinquishes lead vocals, the early going of “Bright Lights,” and opener “Godnatt” — Swedish for “good night,” which the band tried to say in 2016 but it didn’t stick — setting up turns to shove in “Twice” and “Just a Drop” while “I Follow You,” closer “Rampant Fields” or the highlight “Just a Drop” finding some territory between the two ends. The bottom line here is it’s not the record I was hoping Graveyard would make, leaning slow and morose whereas when you could break out a groove like “Just a Drop” seemingly at will, why wouldn’t you? But that I even had those hopes tells you the caliber band they are, and whatever the tracks actually do, there’s no questioning them as songwriters. But the world could use some good times swagger, if only a half-hour of escapism, and Graveyard are perhaps too sincere to deliver. Fair enough.

Graveyard on Facebook

Nuclear Blast website

Hexvessel, Polar Veil

hexvessel polar veil

The thing about Hexvessel that has been revealed over time is that each record is its own context. Grown out from the black metal history of UK-born/Helsinki-residing songwriter Mat “Kvohst” McNerney, the band returns to that fertile ground somewhat on the eight-song Polar Veil, applying veteran confidence to post-blackened genre transgressions. Songs like “A Cabin in Montana” and “Older Than the Gods” have some less-warlike Primordial vibes between the epic melodies and tremolo echoes, but in both the speedy intensity of “Eternal Meadow” and the later ethereally-doomed gruel of “Ring,” Hexvessel are distinctly themselves doing this thing. That is, they’re not changing who they are to suit the style they want to play — even the per-song stylistic shifts of 2016’s When We Are Death (review here) were their own, so that’s not necessarily new — but a departure from the dark progressive folk of 2020’s Kindred as McNerney, bassist Ville Hakonen, drummer Jukka Rämänen and pianist/keyboardist Kimmo Helén (also strings) welcome a curated-seeming selection of a few guest appearances spread across the release, always keeping mindful of ambience and mood however raging the tempest around them might be.

Hexvessel on Facebook

Svart Records website

Godsground, A Bewildered Mind

Godsground A Bewildered Mind

Bookended by its two longest songs in “Drink Some More” (8:44) and closer “Letter Full of Wine” (9:17), Munich-based troupe Godsground offer seven songs with their 47-minute third long-player, working quickly to bask in post-Alice in Chains melodies surrounded by a warmth of tone that could just as easily be derived from hometown heroes in Colour Haze as the likes of Sungrazer or anyone else, but there’s more happening in the sound than just that. The melodies reach out and the songs develop on paths so that “Balance” is a straight-up desert rocker where seven-minute centerpiece “Into the Butter” sounds readier to get weird. They are well at home in longer forms, flashing a bit of metal in teh later solo of the penultimate “Non Reflecting Mirror,” but the overarching focus on vocal melody grounds the material in its lyrics, and that helps stabilize some of the more out-there aspects. With the roller fuzz of “A Game of Light” and side B’s flow-into-push “Flood” finding space between all-out go and the longer songs’ willingness to dwell in parts, Godsground emerge from the collection with a varied style around a genre center that’s maybe delighted not to pick a side when it comes to playing toward this or that niche. There’s some undercurrent of doom — though I’ll admit the artwork had me looking for it — but Godsground are more coherent than bewildered, and their material unfolds with intent to immerse rather than commiserate.

Godsground Linktr.ee

Godsground on Bandcamp

Sleep Maps, Reclaim Chaos

sleep maps reclaim chaos

Ambition abounds on Sleep MapsReclaim Chaos, as the once-NYC-based duo of multi-instrumentalist Ben Kaplan and vocalist David Kegg — finds somebody that writes you riffs like “Second Generation” and scream your ass off for them — bring textures of progressive metal, death metal, metal metal to the proceedings with their established post-whathaveyou modus. Would it be a surprise if I said it made them a less predictable band? I hope not. With attention to detail bolstered my a mix from Matt Bayles (Isis, Sandrider, etc.), the open spaces of “The Good Engineer” resonate in their layered vocals and drone, while “You Want What I Cannot Give” pummels, “In the Sun, In the Moon” brings the wash forward and capper “Kill the World” is duly still in conveying an apparent aftermath rather than the actual slaughter of the planet, which of course happened over a longer timeframe. All of this, and a good deal more, make Reclaim Chaos a heady feast — and that’s before you get to the ’00-era electronica of “Double Blind” — but in their reclamation, Sleep Maps execute with care and make a point about the malleability of style as much as about their own progression, though it seems to be the latter fueling them. Self-motivated, willful artistic progression is not often so starkly recognizable.

Sleep Maps website

Lost Future Records website

Dread Spire, Endless Empire

Dread Spire Endless Empire EP

A reminder of the glories amid the horrors of our age: Dread Spire‘s Endless Empire — am I the only one who finds it a little awkward when band and release names rhyme? — probably wouldn’t exist without the democratization of recording processes that’s happened over the last 15-20 years. It’s a demo, essentially, from the bass/drum — that’s Richie Rehal and Erol Kavvas — Cali-set instrumentalist two-piece, and with about 13 minutes of sans BS riffing, they make a case via a linear procession of crunch riffing and uptempo, semi-metal precision. The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — holds that they got together during the pandemic, and the raw form and clearly-manifest catharsis in the material is all the backing they need. More barebones than complex, this first offering wants nothing for audio fidelity and gives Rehal and Kavvas a beginning from which to build in any and all directions they might choose. The joy of collaboration and the need to find an expressive outlet are the best motivations one could ask, and that’s very obviously what’s at work here.

Dread Spire on Instagram

Dread Spire on Bandcamp

Mairu, Sol Cultus

MAIRU Sol Cultus

A roiling post-metallic churn abides the slow tempos of “Torch Bearer” at the outset of Mairu‘s debut full-length, Sol Cultus, and it is but one ingredient of the Liverpool-based outfit’s atmospheric plunge. Across eight tracks and 49 minutes, the double-guitar four-piece of Alan Caulton and Ant Hurlock (both guitar/vocals), Dan Hunt (bass/vocals) and Ben Davis (drums/synth) — working apparently pretty closely over a period of apparently four years with Tom Dring, who produced, engineered, mixed, mastered and contributed saxophone, ebow, piano and additional synth — remind in their spaciousness of that time Red Sparowes taught the world, instrumentally, to sing. But with harsh and melodic vocals mixed, bouts of thrashier riffing dealt with prejudice, and the barely-there ambience of “Inter Alia” and “Per Alia” to persuade the listener toward headphones, the very-sludged finish of “Wild Darkened Eyes” and the 10-minute sprawl of “Rite of Embers” lumbering to its distorted gut-clench of a crescendo chug ahead of the album’s comedown finish, there’s depth and personality to the material even as Mairu look outside of verse/chorus confines to make their statement. Their second outing behind a 2019 EP, and again, apparently in the works on some level since then, it’s explorational, but less in the sense of the band figuring out who they want to be than as a stylistic tenet they’ve internalized as their own.

Mairu on Facebook

Trepanation Recordings on Bandcamp

Throe, O Enterro das Marés

Throe O Enterro das Mares

At first in “Hope Shines in the Autumn Light,” Brazilian instrumentalist heavy post-rockers Throe remind of nothing so much as the robots-with-feelings mechanized-but-resonant plod of Justin K. Broadrick‘s Jesu, but as the 14-minute leadoff from the apparently-mostly-solo-project’s three-song EP, O Enterro das Marés (one assumes the title is some derivation of being ‘buried at sea’), plays through, it shifts into a more massive galaxial nod and then shortly before the nine-minute mark to a stretch of hypnotic beat-less melody before resolving itself somewhere in the middle. This three-part structure gives over to the Godfleshier “Bleed Alike” (6:33), which nods accordingly until unveiling its caustic end about 30 seconds before the song is done, and “Renascente” (7:59), in which keys/synth and wistful guitar lead a single linear build together as the band gradually and with admirable patience move from their initial drone to the introduction of the ‘drums’ and through the layers of melody that emerge and are more the point of the thing itself than the actual swell of volume taking place at the same time. When it opens at about five minutes in, “Renascente” is legitimately beautiful, an echoing waterfall of tonality that seems to dance to the gravity pulling it down. The guitar is last to go, which tells you something about how the songs are written, but with three songs and three different intentions, Throe make a varied statement uniform most of all in how complete each piece of it feels.

Throe on Instagram

Abraxas Produtora on Instagram

Blind River, Bones for the Skeleton Thief

Blind River Bones for the Skeleton Thief

Well guess what? They called the first track “Punkstarter,” and so it is. Starts off the album with a bit of punk. Blind River‘s third LP, Bones for the Skeleton Thief corrals 10 tracks from the UK traditionalist heavy rock outfit, who even on the likewise insistent “Primal Urges” maintain some sense of control. Vocalist Harry Armstrong (ex-Hangnail, now also bassist of Orange Goblin) belts out “Second Hand Soul” like he’s giving John Garcia a run for his pounds sterling, and is still able to rein it in enough to not seem out of place on the more subdued verses of “Skeleton Thief,” while the boogie of “Unwind” is its own party. Wherever they go, be it the barroom punkabilly of “Snake Oil” or the Southern-tinged twang of closer “Bad God,” the five-piece — Armstrong, guitarist Chris Charles and Dan Edwards, bassist William Hughes and drummer Mark Sharpless — hold to a central ethic of straight-ahead drive, and where clearly the intended message is that Blind River know what the fuck they’re doing and that if you end up at a show you might get your ass handed to you, turns out that’s exactly the message received. Showed up, kicked ass, done in under 40 minutes. If that’s not a high enough standard for you in a band recording live, that’s not Blind River‘s fault.

Blind River on Facebook

Blind River on Bandcamp

Rifftree, Noise Worship

Rifftree Noise Worship

Rifftree of life. Rifftree‘s fuzz is so righteously dense, I want to get seeds from it — because let’s face it, riffs are deciduous and hibernate in winter — and plant a forest in my backyard. The band formed half a decade ago and Noise Worship is the bass-and-drums duo’s second EP, but whatever. In six songs and 26 minutes, they work hard on living up to the title they gave the release, and their schooling in the genre is obvious in Sleepery of “Amplifier Pyramid” or the low-rumbling sludge of “Brown Flower,” the subsequent “Farewell” growing like fungus out of its quieter start and “Brakeless” not needing them because it was slow enough anyhow. “Fuzzed” — another standard met — ups the pace and complements with spacey grunge mumbles and harshes out later, and that gives the three-minute titular closer “Noise Worship” all the lead-in it needs for its showcase of feedback and amplifier noise. Look. If you’re thinking it’s gonna be some stylistic revolution in the making, look at the friggin’ cover. Listen to the songs. This isn’t innovation, it’s celebration, and Rifftree‘s complete lack of pretense is what makes Noise Worship the utter fucking joy that it is. Stoner. Rock. Stick that in your microgenre rolodex.

Rifftree on Facebook

Rifftree on Bandcamp

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Green Lung Post “Maxine (Witch Queen)” Video; This Heathen Land Available to Preorder

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 8th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Of course it’s about an actual witch. What, you thought Green Lung were gonna half-ass it? The London-based champions of sweeping and melodic heavy cult rock aren’t the type to roll out without their source material in order, and as discussed below — because I promise you I’m not going to try and pretend I’d heard of her before the clip — “Maxine (Witch Queen)” takes its basis from Maxine Sanders, who with her husband Alex in the 1960s led a revival of Wiccan practice. Green Lung bringing out a few actual people involved in Alexandrian Witchcraft at the time is fun trivia in a video that’s delightfully over-the-top, with fake blood and some eyeliner on vocalist Tom Templar and a club show at Helgi’s Bar in London turned into a debauched cultish celebration — as it inevitably would.

Green Lung‘s This Heathen Land full-length arrives on Nov. 3 and will be their first for Nuclear Blast. “Maxine (Witch Queen)” follows “Mountain Throne” and reinforces the band’s penchant for sharply-constructed mini-epics that are shy neither in their metallic delve nor poppish hookmaking. All good fun until the devil shows up, so yes, all good fun.

The PR wire sent the following:

green lung

GREEN LUNG RELEASE VIDEO FOR ‘MAXINE (WITCH QUEEN)’ THE SECOND SINGLE FROM THIS HEATHEN LAND

THIS HEATHEN LAND WILL BE RELEASED ON NOVEMBER 3RD

Pre-order on various formats at: https://greenlung.bfan.link/thllp.yde

Occult rock darlings GREEN LUNG have released a new video for ‘Maxine (Witch Queen)’, the second single from their hotly anticipated new record This Heathen Land, which will be released on November 3rd via Nuclear Blast Records.

Vocalist Tom Templar comments “We’ve celebrated British witchcraft in our lyrics since our first EP, and with this new single we wanted to celebrate the most iconic witch of the modern era – Maxine Sanders. The High Priestess at the heart of Alexandrian Witchcraft, Maxine is an unsung national treasure, and one of the first people to connect genuine witchcraft with rock ‘n roll back in the early Seventies. ‘Maxine (Witch Queen)’ is a love song to Maxine from the perspective of a member of her coven, and melds pounding riffage with psyched-out combo organs and stacked, multi-layered vocal harmonies. We were honoured to have several members of Maxine’s real life coven appear in the music video, and advise on the ritual elements. Ultimately, the song is intended as a celebration of Maxine Sanders, which we hope will introduce new initiates to her life’s work, and help her legend to live on.”

CREDITS:
Directed by: Billy Howard Price
Director of Photography: Jacek Zmarz
1st Assistant Cam: Arthur Attenborough
Gaffer: Jock Norton
Colourist: John O`Riordan
Starring: Manko as Maxine
Starring: Lolita Postelthwaite as “The Girl”
Filmed on Location at Helgi`s Bar, London

Find out more about Alexandrian Witchcraft: https://www.alexandrianwitchcraft.org

GREEN LUNG on tour:
https://greenlung.co.uk/#LIVE
25 Oct. Bonn, Germany Harmonie
26 Oct. Hamburg, Germany Indra
27 Oct. Berlin, Germany Badehaus
22 Nov. Glasgow, UK Cathouse
23 Nov. Manchester, UK Gorilla
24 Nov. Nottingham, UK Rescue Rooms
25 Nov. Sheffield, UK Corporation Sheffield
26 Nov. Bristol, UK Thekla
30 Nov. Wolverhampton, UK KK’s Steel Mill
1 Dec. Norwich, UK Norwich Arts Centre
2 Dec. Southampton, UK The Joiners
10 Dec. London, UK Scala

Green Lung Is
Tom Templar – Vocals
Scott Black – Guitar
Joseph Ghast – Bass
John Wright – Organ
Matt Wiseman – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/greenlungband
https://www.instagram.com/greenlungband/
http://www.greenlung.co.uk/
https://greenlung.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/nuclearblastusa
https://www.instagram.com/nuclearblastrecords/
http://shop.nuclearblast.com/en/shop/index.html

Green Lung, “Maxine (Witch Queen)” official video

Green Lung, This Heathen Land (2023)

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Graveyard Post “Breathe In, Breathe Out” Video; 6 Preorder Available

Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 5th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

graveyard

So at this point two tracks have been made public from the forthcoming Graveyard full-length, 6. The first one, “Twice,” arrived in a video with the album announcement, and was a burner. Released just today, “Breathe In, Breathe Out” — a handy reminder if e’er there was one — is the second, and its melancholy will be recognizable to those who’ve followed the progression of the Swedish band through their more recent output. Granted, their still-latest-as-of-today album is 2018’s Peace (review here), so perhaps ‘recent’ with some context, but “Breathe In, Breathe Out” still tracks with the duality that has emerged in their approach.

Two ends of their style, hmm? One is the uptempo boogie, all-go shove topped with high-register howls from guitarist Joakim Nilsson, and the other is the downer soulful blues represented by “Breathe In, Breathe Out” as the four-piece begin to reveal some of the scope of 6. Much of the record works to find a middle-ground, or at least a fluid balance between these two poles, and while Graveyard are a popular enough act that there are people who prefer one side or the other — the “old stuff” vs. the “new stuff,” as opposed I guess to bands who aren’t so big and can do whatever they want without catching shit for it on the internet?; the world is weird — but as they have done since 2011’s landmark Hisingen Blues (review here), they remain true to all aspects of their expression, and on an apparently pretty windy day so covered with clouds that it turned the picture black and white, they took to the shoreline to make their new video.

No, Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson don’t show up, but there are some hints of Bergman just the same. And I assume the bearded, pipe-smoking fisherman was just hanging out by the docks when they got there. Check out the video below, you can’t miss him.

From the PR wire:

Graveyard, “Breathe In Breathe Out” official video

Swedish blues rock institution GRAVEYARD have released a new single titled ‘Breathe In, Breathe Out’, the second single from their upcoming album 6, that’s set to be released on September 29th via Nuclear Blast Records.

The band comments “Our 2nd single from the upcoming album 6 is rolling in like a fresh breeze from the west coast for all of you to enjoy. We are happy and thrilled about it, hope you will feel the same”

Graveyard’s new album 6 is out on Sept 29th: https://graveyard.bfan.link/6-album.yde

New single ‘Breathe In, Breathe Out’ out now: https://graveyard.bfan.link/breathe-in-breathe-out.yde

Directed by Emil Klinta
Director of photography – Johan Forsberg
Colorist – Oskar Larsson / Tint
Site Manager Göteborg – Adam Gårdsmed
Make-Up – Rebecca Nilsson
Sea captain – Stig Karlsson
Chief engineer – Jesper Strandberg
Master gunner – Martin Mörck
Location Grötö – Familjen Kleiner-Sedin
Location Vinga – Bea Bengtsson
Thank you’s – Vinga vänner & Amir Chamdin
Produced by Our Man Klint Productions

GRAVEYARD is
Joakim Nilsson – vocals, guitar
Jonatan Ramm – vocals, guitar
Truls Mörck – vocals, bass
Oskar Bergenheim – drums

Graveyard, “Twice” official video

Graveyard on Facebook

Graveyard on Instagram

Nuclear Blast on Facebook

Nuclear Blast on Instagram

Nuclear Blast website

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