Posted in Whathaveyou on February 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Cali instrumental burners Earthless have bounced hither and yon doing the album-cycle thing since they put out 2022’s Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (review here) — also for about two decades before that — touring as veterans and a band at the forefront of underground heavy consciousness. I saw them twice last year, at Freak Valley and at SonicBlast Fest, and both times their presence on stage had a veteran’s comfort and professionalism. You ever watch a band and think to yourself, “Wow, I bet these guys could just do this until they’re like 90, huh?” Well, I feel like if they wanted to, that could be Earthless.
Part of that is because they’re so much on their own level in terms of approach. They’ve established a fanbase and built it organically, and their influence only continues to spread — if you count the fact that they’re about to introduce their US audience to Japanese mellow-psych purveyors Minami Deutsch, that influence carries even more dimension — but watching the trio of guitarist/occasional vocalist Isaiah Mitchell, bassist Mike Eginton and drummer Mario Rubalcaba on stage, they look sustainable in a way that many bands, even after 20-odd years, never get to be. It’s not about being settled, or compromising, but about finding your place in sound and making it your life. It’s an admirable thing.
They dig into New England on this run, so if you’re in Maine or Vermont or Boston, heads up as I know not all tours hit north of NYC these days. The occasion is Austin Psych Fest on April 27, and the tour starts April 10 in St. Louis, as announced on social media:
🚨SPRING TOUR ANNOUNCED!!!🚨
So stoked to share that we will be trottin’ over to the Midwest, the East Coast and then down South this April! Minami Deutsch / 南ドイツ, an amazing band from Japan that you definitely do not want to miss, is comin’ along with us as well! Tix available at 10 am local time today:https://www.earthlessofficial.com/tour-dates 🤯🛸🤘🏽🎸⏰
2024 SPRING TOUR With special guest Minami Deutsch
April 10 – St. Louis at OFF BROADWAY MUSIC VENUE ** April 11 – Milwaukee at Club Garibaldi’s April 12 – Chicago IL at Empty Bottle April 13 – Chicago IL at Empty Bottle April 14 – Detroit MI at El Club April 15 – Cleveland OH at The Beachland Ballroom and Tavern April 17 – Somerville MA at Arts at the Armory April 18 – Portland ME at Oxbow Brewing Company April 19 – Brattleboro VT at The Stone Church April 20 – Brooklyn NY at Elsewhere April 21 – Philadelphia PA at Underground Arts April 22 – Washington DC at Black Cat DC April 24 – Atlanta GA at The EARL April 25 – Birmingham AL at Saturn Birmingham April 27 – Austin TX at AUSTIN PSYCH FEST LEVITATION
**without Minami Deutsch
Flyer by Branca Studio 🔥💀🔥
EARTHLESS Lineup: Isaiah Mitchell – Guitar & Vocals Mike Eginton – Bass Mario Rubalcaba – Drums
Posted in Reviews on March 24th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Alarm went off this morning at 3:45. Got up, flicked on the coffee pot, turned the heat on in the house, hit the bathroom and was back in bed in four minutes with an alarm set for 4:15. Didn’t really get back to sleep, but the half-hour of being still was a kind of pre-waking meditation that I appreciated just the same. Was dozing when the alarm went off the second time, but it’s day two of the Quarterly Review, so no time to doze. No time for anything, as is the nature of these blocks of writeups. They tend to be all-consuming while they’re going on. Could be worse. Let’s roll.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Khemmis, Doomed Heavy Metal
Denver four-piece Khemmis have made themselves one of the most distinctive acts in metal, to say nothing of doom. With strong vocal harmonies out front backed by similarly-minded guitars, the band bring a sense of poise to doom that’s rare in the modern sphere, somewhat European in influence, but less outwardly adherent to the genre tenets of melancholy. They refuse to be Paradise Lost, in other words, and are all the more themselves for that. Their Doomed Heavy Metal EP (on 20 Buck Spin and Nuclear Blast) is a stopgap after 2018’s Desolation (review here) full-length, but at 38 minutes and six songs, it’s substantial nonetheless, headlined by the Dio cover “Rainbow in the Dark” — capably done with just a flair of Slough Feg — with a take on Lloyd Chandler‘s “A Conversation with Death” and “Empty Throne,” both rare-enough studio cuts, for backing, as well as three live cuts that cover their three-to-date albums. The growls on “Three Gates” are fun, but I’ll still take the Dio cover as the highlight. For a cobbled-together release, it feels at least like a bit of thoughtful fan-service, and really, a band could do worse than to serve their fans thoughtfully.
There are shades of doom metal’s origins underlying Mutant Flesh‘s first release, the eight-song/33-minute Evil Eye, but the Philly troupe are too gleeful in their weirdness ultimately to be paying full homage to the likes of Witchfinder General, and especially in a faster song like second cut “Meteoric” and the subsequent lead-guitar-flipout-and-vocal-soar title-track, they tap into the defiantly doomed vibe of earliest Saint Vitus. That’s true of the crawling “Euthanasia” as well, which crashes and nods as it approaches the six-minute mark as the longest inclusion here, but even the penultimate “Blight” brings that twisted-Black–Flag-noise-slowed-down spirit that lets you know there’s consciousness behind the chaos, and that while Mutant Flesh might seem to be all-the-way-gone, they’re really just getting started. Maybe their sound will even out over time, maybe it won’t, but for what it’s worth, they do ragged doom well from the opening “Leviathan (Lord of the Labyrinth)” onward, and feel right at home in the unhinged.
Having just shredded their way across Europe, War Cloud took their set into the Earhammer Studio with Greg Wilkinson at the helm in an attempt to capture the band in top form on their home turf. Did it work? The results on Earhammer Sessions (Ripple Music) don’t wait around for you to decide. They’re too busy kicking ass to take names, and if the resulting 29-minute burst is even half of what they brought to the stage on that tour, those must’ve been some goddamn shows. Songs like “White Lightning” and the snare-counted-in “Speed Demon” and “Striker” feel like they’re being given their due in the max-speed-NWOBHM-but-still-too-classy-to-be-thrash presentation, and honestly, this feels like War Cloud have found their method. If they don’t tour their next album and then hit the studio after and lay it down live, or at least as live as Earhammer Sessions is — one never knows as regards overdubs and isolation booths and all that — they’re doing themselves a disservice. War Cloud play metal. So what? So this.
Void of Sleep return after half a decade with the prog-doom stylings of their third album, Metaphora (Aural Music), which stretches dramatically through songs like “Iron Mouth” (11:00), preceded by the intro “The Famine Years” and the shorter “Unfair Judgements,” preceded by the intro “Waves of Discomfort,” and still somehow manage not to sound out of place tapping into their inner Soilwork in the growled verses/clean choruses of “Master Abuser.” They get harsh a bit as well on “Tides of the Mourning,” which uses its 10:30 to summarize the bulk of the proceedings and close out the record after “Modern Man,” but that song has more of a scope and feels looser structurally for that. Still, that shift is only one of several throughout Metaphora, which follows the Italian five-piece’s 2015 LP, New World Order (discussed here), and wherever Void of Sleep are headed at any given moment, they head there with a duly controlled presence. Clearly their last five years have not been wasted.
As yet, Germany’s Pretty Lightning remain a well kept secret of fuzz-psych-blues nuance, digging out their own niche-in-a-niche-in-a-niche microgenre with a natural and inadvertent-feeling sense of just writing the songs they want to write. Jangle Bowls, which puts its catchy, semi-garage title-track early in the proceedings, is the duo’s second offering through Fuzz Club Records behind 2017’s The Rhythm of Ooze (review here), and seem to present a mission statement in opener “Swamp Ritual” before bringing a due sense of excursion to “Boogie at the Shrine” — damn that’s a smooth groove — and reviving the movement in “RaRaRa,” which follows. Closer “Shovel Blues” is a highlight for how it drifts into oblivion, but the underlying tightness of craft in “123 Eternity” and “Hum” is an appeal as well, so it’s a tradeoff. But it’s one I’ll be glad to make across multiple repeat visits to Jangle Bowls while wondering how long this particular secret can actually be kept.
The painted-blood-red cover of Rosy Finch‘s second album, Scarlet (on Lay Bare Recordings), and horror-cinema-esque design isn’t a coincidence in terms of atmosphere, but the Spanish trio bring a more aggressive feel to the nine-track outing overall than they did to their 2016 debut, Witchboro (review here), with additional crunch in the guitar of Mireia Porto (also vocals and bass) and bassist Elena Garcia, and a forward kick drum from Lluís Mas that hammers home the impact of a pressure-on-head squeezer like “Ruby” and even seems to ground the more melodic “Alizarina,” which follows, let alone the crushing opener/longest track (immediate points) “Oxblood” or its headspinning closing companion “Dark Cherry,” after which follows the particularly intense hidden cut “Lady Bug,” also not to be missed. Anger suits Rosy Finch, it seems, and the band bring a physicality to the songs on Scarlet that only reinforces the sonic push.
Brutal, gurgling doom-of-death pervades The Haunting Continuum from Denver one-man-unit Ghost Spawn, and while the guitar late in “Escaping the Mortal Flesh” seems momentarily to offer some hope of salvation, rest assured, it doesn’t last, and the squibbly central riff returns with its extremity to prove once more that only death is real. Multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Kevin Berstler is the lone culprit behind the project’s first full-length and second release overall (also second this year, so he would seem to work quickly), and across 43 minutes that only grow more grueling as they proceed through the centerpiece title-track and into “The Terrors that Plague Nightly” and the desolate incantations of “Exiled to the Realm of Eternal Rot,” there are some hints of cleaner grunts that have made their way through — a kind of repeated “hup” vocalization — but this too is swallowed in the miasma of cave-echo guitar, drums-from-out-of-the-abyss, and raw-as-peeled-flesh production. Can’t get behind that? Probably you and 99.9 percent of the rest of humanity. For us slugs, though, it’s just about right.
It’s kosmiche thrust and watery vibes when Agrabatti go Beyond the Sun. What’s there upon arrival? Nothing less than a boogie down with Hawkwind at the helm of a spacey spaced-out space rocking chopper that you shouldn’t even be able to hear the revving engine of in space and yet somehow you can. Also synth, pulsating riffs and psych-as-all-golly-gosh awakenings. Formed in 2009 by Chad Davis — then just out of U.S. Christmas, already at that point known for his work in Hour of 13 and a swath of other projects across multiple genres — and with songs begun to come together at that time only to be shelved ahead of recording this year, Beyond the Sun sat seemingly in some unreachable strata of anomalous subspace, for 11 years before being rediscovered from its time-loop like Kelsey Grammer in that one episode of TNG, and gorgeously spread across the quadrant in its five-cut run, with its cover of the aforementioned Hawkwind‘s “Born to Go” so much at home among its companions it feels like, baby, it’s already gone. Do you need sunglasses in the void? Shit yeah you do.
Four sprawling doom epics comprise the 2019 debut album — and apparently debut release — from Illinois four-piece Dead Sacraments, who themselves are comprised from three former members of atmospheric sludgers Angel Eyes, who finished their run in 2011 but released the posthumous Things Have Learnt to Walk That Ought to Crawl (review here). Those are guitarist Brendan Burchell, bassist Nader Cheboub and drummer Ryan Croson, and together with apparently-self-harmonizing vocalist/guitarist Mark Mazurek, they cast a doom built on largesse in tone and scope alike, given an air of classic-metal grandiosity but filtered through a psych-doom modernity that feels aware of what the likes of Pallbearer and Khemmis have done for the genre. Nonetheless, as a first record, Celestial Throne shines its darkness brightly across its no-song-under-nine-minutes-long lumber, and affirms the righteousness of doom with a genuine sense of reach at its disposal.
The languid and trippy spirit in opener “Solar Flares” is something of a misdirect on the part of organ-laced, Cologne-based heavy rockers Smokemaster, who go on to boogie down through songs like “Trippin’ Blues” before jamming out classic heavy blues-style on “Ear of the Universe.” I’m not saying they don’t have their psychedelic aspects, but there’s plenty of movement behind what they do as well, and the setup they give with the first two cuts is effective in throwing off the first-time listener’s expectation. A pastoral instrumental “Sunrise in the Canyon” leads off side B after, and comes backed by “Astronaut of Love” (yup, a lovestronaut) and “Astral Traveller,” which find an engaging midpoint between the ground and the great beyond, synth and keys pushing outward in the finale even as the bass and drums keep it tethered to a central groove. It’s a formula that’s worked many times over the last half-century, but it works here too, and Smokemaster‘s Smokemaster makes a right-on introduction to the German newcomers.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 16th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Bold move for any band to take on Dio, but Denver’s Khemmis aren’t really strangers to bold moves, so fair enough. And “Rainbow in the Dark,” no less. One salutes the chutzpah factor alone, never mind the actual outcome of the track. The hard-touring four-piece are allegedly getting ready to hit the road in Europe — as much as there will be a road in Europe to hit, pending government lockdowns owing to COVID-19, tour cancellations and so on — and will play both Monolith on the Mesa and Psycho Las Vegas later this Spring and Summer, and the doomed heavy metallers’ new EP, uh, well, Doomed Heavy Metal, is set to arrive April 17 through Nuclear Blast and 20 Buck Spin.
The EP brings together a studio version of the Dio cover with a couple other odds and ends and a live song from each of their records. Preorders and pre-saves — which I suspect will soon be a common-enough thing that I’ll eventually drop that hyphen: “presaves” — are available, with Nuclear Blast handling the digi end and 20 Buck Spin doing physical manifestation.
Doomed Heavy Metal. Kind of says it all, right?
To the PR wire:
KHEMMIS Unveil New Mini-Album Entitled, Doomed Heavy Metal + Release New Live Video For Their DIO Cover Of “Rainbow In The Dark”
Denver, Colorado based doomed heavy metal quartet KHEMMIS unveil their new mini-album, Doomed Heavy Metal, which will be released digitally on April 17th via Nuclear Blast.
The band comments: “As lifelong fans of ZZ TOP, ‘Fandango’ has been a consistent source of inspiration for the four of us. The combination of high-octane live cuts and rare studio recordings make the release stand out in the band’s discography. In that tradition, we are thrilled to announce Doomed Heavy Metal. This mini-album is similarly unique, combining sought-after singles and live cuts together on one record. We’ve topped it all off with a newly recorded version of DIO’s immortal ‘Rainbow in the Dark.’ For those who have clamored for the rerelease of the long out of print Empty Throne and Conversation with Death, your calls have been answered. We hope new and old fans alike will pick up the album, pour a tall glass of their favorite beverage, and party with us!”
Doomed Heavy Metal, is a unique collection of songs from the quartet. Side A includes a brand new cover of “Rainbow in the Dark” as well as a pair of rare singles–“A Conversation with Death” from the band’s 7″ split with SPIRIT ADRIFT and “Empty Throne” from the Decibel Magazine Flexi Series. Side B highlights the power and emotional intensity the group wields onstage with a selection of live recordings from 2018’s Two Nights of Doomed Heavy Metal showcasing one song from each of KHEMMIS’ albums.
Below is the Doomed Heavy Metal track list:
1. Rainbow In The Dark (DIO Cover) 2. A Conversation With Death 3. Empty Throne 4. Bloodletting (Live) 5. Three Gates (Live) 6. The Bereaved (Live)
Posted in Reviews on December 6th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
There isn’t enough coffee in the universe, but I’ve got mine and I’m ready to burn the living crap out of my tongue if that’s what it takes to get through. We’ve arrived at Day 4 of the Quarterly Review, and though we’re less than halfway to the 100-album goal set by some maniac sitting at his kitchen table with a now-burnt tongue, there’s been an awful lot of good stuff so far. More even than I thought going into it, and I slate this stuff.
That said, today’s list is pretty killer. A lot of these bands will be more familiar than maybe has been the case or will be on some of the other days of this Quarterly Review. It just kind of worked out that way as I was putting it together. But hey, a few bigger bands here, a few “debut EP” demos there. It’s all good fun.
So let’s go.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Earthless, From the West
Bonus points to whatever clever cat correctly decided that Earthless‘ 2018 studio album, Black Heaven (review here), needed a companion live record. With artwork mimicking a Led Zeppelin bootleg of the same name, From the West arrives through Silver Current and Nuclear Blast capturing the most powerful of power trios earlier this year in San Francisco, and it’s like the fire emoji came to life. With Mike Eginton‘s bass as the anchor and Mario Rubalcaba‘s drums as the driving force, guitarist Isaiah Mitchell starts ripping holes in the fabric of spacetime with “Black Heaven” and doesn’t stop until 64 minutes later as “Acid Crusher” dissolves into noise. Of course “Gifted by the Wind” from the latest LP is a highlight, and suitably enough, they cover Zeppelin‘s “Communication Breakdown,” but I’m not sure anything tops the extended take on “Uluru Rock” from 2013’s From the Ages (review here) — and yes, I mean that. Of course they pair it with the 1:48 surge of “Volt Rush,” because they’re Earthless, and brilliant is what they do. Every set they play should be recorded for posterity.
Encased in cover art that begs the Spinal Tap question, “what’s wrong with being sexy?” and the response that Fran Drescher gave it, Virginia classic heavy rockers Satan’s Satyrs return with their fourth full-length, The Lucky Ones (on RidingEasy and Bad Omen), which also marks their first record as a four-piece with guitarist Nate Towle (Wicked Inquisition) joining the returning lineup of bassist/vocalist Clayton Burgess, guitarist Jared Nettnin and drummer Stephen Fairfield, who, between the fact that Burgess founded the band and played in Electric Wizard, and all the lead guitar antics from Nettnin and Towle, might be the unsung hero of the band. His performance is not lost in the recording by Windhand‘s Garrett Morris or Burgess‘ own hefty mix, and as one would expect, Satan’s Satyrs continue to deliver deceptively refined ’70s-heavy vibes caked in cult biker horror aesthetics. Some songs hit more than others, but Satan’s Satyrs‘ dust-kicking approach continues to win converts.
One generally thinks of Hamburg duo Mantar as having all the subtlety of a bone saw caught on video, and yet, in listening to “Seek + Forget” from their third album, The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze (on Nuclear Blast), there are some elements that seem to be reaching out on the part of the band. Guitarist Hanno‘s vocals are more enunciated and discernible, there is a short break from the all-out blackened-sludge-punk assault that’s been their trade since their start in 2012, and “Obey the Obscene” even has an organ. Still, the bulk of the 12-track/48-minute follow-up to 2016’s Ode to the Flame (review here) is given to extremity of purpose and execution, and in pieces like the churning “Anti Eternia” and the particularly-punked “Teeth of the Sea,” they work to refine their always-present threat of violence. Closer “The Funeral” brings back some of the quiet moodiness of intro “The Knowing” and underscores the point of sonic expansion. I hope next time they use a string section.
It took me a few minutes to get to the heart of what my problem with Child‘s I EP is. Really, I was sitting and listening to “Age Has Left Me Behind” — the first of the three included tracks on the 20-ish-minute 12″ — and I had to ask myself, “Why is this annoying me?” The answer? Because it’s not an album. That’s it. It’s not enough. Kudos to the Melbourne, Australia, heavy blues trio on having that be the biggest concern with their latest release — it follows 2016’s righteously-grooved Blueside (review here) — and kudos to them as well for their cover of Spirit‘s “The Other Song,” but of course it’s the 10-minute jam “Going Down Swinging” on side B that’s the immersive highlight of I, as Child‘s balance of softshoe-boogie and expansive mellow-psych is second to none in their subgenre. It’s not an album, and that’s kind of sad, but as a tide-ya-over until the next long-player arrives, I still does the trick nice and easy. And not to get greedy, but I’d take a II (or would it be You?) whenever they get around to it.
T.G. Olson, Wasatch Valley Lady & The Man from Table Mountain
Across Tundras frontman T.G. Olson, who by now has well lapped that band’s output with his solo catalog, would seem to have sat down with his guitar sometime in the last week and put two songs to tape. The resulting 10-minute offering is Wasatch Valley Lady & The Man from Table Mountain, its component title-tracks stripping down some of the more elaborate arrangements he’s explored of late — his latest full-length, Riding Roughshod (review pending; it’s hard to keep up), came out in October — to expose the barebones construction at root in his Rocky Mountain country folk style. “Wasatch Valley Lady” and “The Man from Table Mountain” make an engaging couple, and while Olson has a host of videos on YouTube that are similarly just him and his acoustic, something about the audio-only recordings feel like a voice out of time reaching for human connection. The first seems to have a natural fade, and the second a more prominent rhythm showcased in harder strum, but both are sweet melodies evocative as ever of open landscapes and wistful experience.
The Deep Purple-referential Mk II title of Canyon‘s second EP, also the follow-up to their 2017 debut LP, Radiant Light, refers to the lineup change that’s seen Dean Welsh move to drums so that he and guitarist Peter Stanko can welcome bassist/vocalist Fred Frederick to the fold. The three included songs, the hooky “Mine Your Heart,” expansively fuzzed “Morphine Dreams” and bouncing “Roam” make a hell of a first offering from the reconstituted trio, who capture classic heavy naturalism in a chemistry between players that’s mirrored in the songwriting itself. Canyon‘s 2016 self-titled debut EP (review here) held marked promise, and even after the full-length, that promise would seem to be coming to fruition here. Their tones and craft are both right on, and there’s still some gelling to do between the three of them, but they leave no doubt with Mk II that this incarnation of Canyon can get there. And, if they keep up like this, get there quickly.
One man jams! Psych-jam seekers will recognize Daniel Sax as the drummer for Berlin-based trio Cosmic Fall. Circle of the Sun is a solo-project from Sax and Jams of Inner Perception collects six tracks for 39 minutes of adventuring on his own. Sax sets his own backbeat and layers bass and “effectsbass” for a full-lineup feel amid the instrumental creations, and those looking to be hypnotized by the space-rocking jams will be. Flat out. Sax is no stranger to jamming, and as one soaks in “Jamming in Paradise” or its nine-minute predecessor “Liquid Sand,” there’s little mistaking his intention. Curious timing that Circle of the Sun would take shape following a lineup change in Cosmic Fall — perhaps it was put together in the interim? — but whether Jams of Inner Perception is a one-off of the beginning of a new avenue for Sax, its turn to blues noodling on “Desert Sun,” thick-toned “Moongroove” and fuzzy roll on “Acid Dream” demonstrate there are plenty of outer realms still to explore.
Mythic Sunship, Another Shape of Psychedelic Music
The simplest way to put it is that Mythic Sunship‘s Another Shape of Psychedelic Music lives up to the lofty ambitions of its title. The Danish band is comprised of guitarists Kasper Stougaard Andersen and Emil Thorenfeldt, bassist Rasmus ‘Cleaver’ Christensen, drummer Frederik Denning and saxophonist Søren Skov, and with Causa Sui‘s Jonas Munk — who also produced the album — sitting in on the extended “Backyard Voodoo” (17:41) and “Out There” (13:53) as well as overseeing the release through El Paraiso, the band indeed makes there way into the far out reaches where jazz and psychedelia meet. It’s not about pretentiously saying they’re doing something that’s never been done. You’ll note it’s “another shape” and not a “new shape” or the “shape to come.” But immersion happens quickly on opener “Resolution” (14:23), and even quicker cuts like “Last Exit,” “Way Ahead” and “Elevation” carry the compelling spirit of forward-thinking creativity through their dynamic course, and if Mythic Sunship aren’t the shape of psychedelic music to come, it’s in no small part because there are so few out there who could hope to match what they do.
Islands / Öar — the second word being the Swedish translation of the first — is the 40-minute debut full-length from Gothenburg atmospheric heavy post-rock instrumentalists Svarta Stugan, who demonstrate in influence from Hex-era Earth on the opener “Islands III” but go on in subsequent tracks to pull together a sound distinct in its cinematic feel and moody execution. Five out of the seven component tracks are “Islands” pieces, which are presented out of order with “Islands IV” missing and “Islands Unknown” perhaps in its place, and the respective side A/B finales “Inner Space” and “Prospects Quatsi” standing apart. Both bring to bear a style ultimately consistent with the melancholy so rife throughout Islands / Öar as a whole, but they’re obviously intended as outliers, and so they seem to be. The LP release follows a couple shorter outings, issued over the past six-plus years, and it’s clear from the depths and range on display here in the build-to-crescendo of “Inner Space” alone that Svarta Stugan haven’t misspent their time in their progression to this point.
Largesse of scope and largesse of tone work in tandem on Bast‘s Nanoångström full-length on Black Bow, as they bring together aspects of post-metallic churn and more extreme metal methods to hone a style highly individualized, highly weighted and as much cosmic as it is crushing. Through six tracks and 57 minutes, the London trio (plus two guest spots from Chris Naughton of Winterfylleth) careen and crash and set an atmosphere of chaos without actually being chaotic, their progressive craft working to tie the songs together into a larger impression of the work as a consuming entirety. It’s the kind of record you pick up and still hear new things in by the time they put out their next one. Production from Chris Fielding at Skyhammer Studio only helps creates the heights and depths of their dynamic, and whether they’re rolling out the severity of closer “The Ghosts Which Haunt the Space Between the Stars” or laying out the soundscape of “The Beckoning Void,” Bast shape the tenets of genre to suit their needs rather than try to work within the barriers of any particular style. Nanoångström is all the more complex and satisfying for their efforts in that regard.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 12th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Presenting the biggest no-brainer of your day. On Sept. 28, Silver Current Records will issue the vinyl edition of a new live album from Earthless titled From the West. Nuclear Blast will follow-up with the CD and digital version on Oct. 19. The set was recorded in March as Earthless set to work heralding their already-a-landmark 2018 full-length, Black Heaven (review here), and as you can see in the tour dates below, that work continues. It’s pretty much been the theme of Earthless‘ year, much to the benefit of humanity in general.
If you need me to tell you to pick up a live Earthless record, you’ve either already decided you’re not into Earthless — which is fair, nothing’s universal — or you’ve already placed your preorder and you’re just like, “Dude, shut up, I know.” Also fair. Either way, here’s the info for it, because one likes to stay informed:
On the eve of the release of ‘Black Heaven,’ their debut for Nuclear Blast Records, Earthless turned in this incredible live performance in San Francisco on March 1st 2018, captured and released on vinyl by Silver Current Records on September 28th. (On CD & Digital by Nuclear Blast Records.)
Since their inception seventeen years ago Earthless has become an icon of 21st century heavy music and a cult unto themselves. They’ve toured across the world and rightfully become known as an unparalleled live experience.
On ‘From the West’ the bands signature high-volume drive and unbridled horsepower create an almost mantra-like repetition as a framework for infinite improvisation. That, and beer-can crushing, fist-pumping riffs and solos delivered by an unstoppable rhythm section.
‘From the West’ is a complete, hypnotic, psychedelic experience in a way that remains totally unique to the band’s virtuosic expression. A live album that captures Earthless at peak powers and a quintessential fan piece from one of the best live rock bands in the world.
Album tracks includes looser, rawer versions of ‘Black Heaven’ favorites, a nearly 20 minute version of their instrumental titan ‘Uluru Rock’ and a blazing cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Communication Breakdown.’
The jacket is a meticulous reproduction of the band’s favorite TMOQ Zeppelin bootleg. Recorded March 1, 2018. Recorded by Jon Hart. Mixed and mastered by Tim Green.
Tracklist: 1. Black Heaven 10:50 2. Electric Flame 8:46 3. Gifted by the Wind 6:04 4. Uluru Rock 19:26 5. Volt Rush 1:47 6. Communication Breakdown 4:16 7. Acid Crusher 13:42
EARTHLESS live: 09/25/18 Eugene, OR – Old Nick’s Pub 09/26/18 Seattle, WA – Chop Suey 09/27/18 Portland, OR – Dante’s 09/28/18 Boise, ID – Neurolux 09/29/18 Salt Lake City, UT – CRUCIAL FEST 09/30/18 Denver, CO – Marquis Theatre 10/02/18 Minneapolis, MN – Lee’s Liquor Lounge 10/03/18 Winnipeg, MB – Park Theatre 10/05/18 Saskatoon, SK – Amigos Cantina 10/06/18 Edmonton, AB – UP & DOWNTOWN MUSIC FESTIVAL 10/07/18 Calgary, AB – Dickens Pub 10/09/18 Victoria, BC – The Copper Owl 10/10/18 Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre 10/12/18 Oakland, CA – Starline Social Club 10/13/18 Long Beach, CA – Alex’s Bar 10/14/18 Desert Daze – DESERT DAZE
Earthless is: Bass: Mike Eginton Drums: Mario Rubalcaba Guitar & Vocals: Isaiah Mitchell
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 5th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
I haven’t heard the new album from The Vintage Caravan yet, which is kind of a bummer, but they’ve got a new track for all to check out. Preorders are up for the third album from the Icelandic heavy rockers, which is called Gateways and due out at the end of next month on Nuclear Blast, and accordingly, the three-piece have released the track “Reflections” to give a sample of what the record is all about. From here, it sounds like it’s about hooks, uptempo classic heavy rock swing, and a timeless approach to riff-led fare that the band has been making their own since the start. I know Nuclear Blast has some pretty heavy hitters in their lineup, what with the Graveyard and the Kadavar and the whatnot, but The Vintage Caravan are by no means to be lost in the shuffle when it comes to quality of output or effort put in supporting their stuff. As you’ll see in the list of tour dates below.
Also, check out the fucking song at the bottom of this post. It’s a good ‘un.
Blah blah blah PR wire:
THE VINTAGE CARAVAN – new single + track listing + album pre-order
Icelandic classic rock trio THE VINTAGE CARAVAN are back! Featuring 10 new stirring tracks, their highly-anticipated 4th studio album Gateways, will be released on August 31st, 2018 through Nuclear Blast. Today, the band can finally present a first taster of their upcoming record in the form of the first single, ‘Reflections’.
Guitarist/vocalist Óskar Logi comments, “We are so pleased to finally give you guys the first taste of Gateways. The track is a powerful one, heavy and melodic. The song came quickly together in the songwriting process but we spent a lot of time during the mixing and mastering to get the song (and the entire album) sounding as good as possible. We are super proud and we hope you’ll enjoy ‘Reflections’!”
Gateways will be available in the following formats: – DIGI – 2LP (black, white) – DIGITAL
Gateways track listing: 01. Set Your Sights 02. The Way 03. Reflections 04. On The Run 05. All This Time 06. Hidden Streams 07. Reset 08. Nebula 09. Farewell 10. Tune Out Bonus Track (DIGI and 2LP only!) 11. The Chain (FLEETWOOD MAC Cover)
The band commented on their upcoming record, “We are very proud to present our new album, Gateways! Recorded in the legendary Sundlaugin Studios in Iceland (owned by Sigur Rós). Produced by Ian Davenport (BAND OF SKULLS, GAZ COOMBES). Overall we think this album feels more mature than the previous ones. We really pushed ourselves to make this album sound as great as possible. I won’t name any names but some people have been heard saying this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. We can’t wait for you all to hear it/taste it.”
The band will be touring extensively in support of their new album. Recently, Spanish dates have been added to the itinerary. All dates are below.
THE VINTAGE CARAVAN live: 11.07. IS Neskaupstaður – Eistnaflug (Performing »Voyage« in its entirety) 12.07. IS Neskaupstaður – Eistnaflug 28.07. D Neuensee – Rock im Wald 04.08. E Gijón – Tsunami Xixón
»2018 Gateways Tour« w/ supports 13.10. NL Hengelo – Beerland 15.10. D Hamburg – Molotow 16.10. D Berlin – Lido 17.10. PL Warsaw – Hydrozagadka 18.10. PL Pozna? – Pod Minog? 19.10. A Vienna – Arena 20.10. D Kempten – Rock The Box 22.10. D Leipzig – Moritzbastei 23.10. D Munich – Strom 24.10. D Karlsruhe – Substage 25.10. D Cologne – Luxor 26.10. F Paris – Backstage 27.10. F Rennes – Garmonbozia 30.10. E Bilbao – Santana 27 *NEW* 31.10. E Madrid – Nazca Club *NEW* 01.11. E Barcelona – Sala Bóveda *NEW* 08.11. UK Nottingham – Rescue Rooms 09.11. UK Camp HRH – Hard Rock Hell 10.11. UK London – The Borderline 12.11. UK Glasgow – King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut 13.11. UK Manchester – Rebellion 14.11. UK Bristol – Exchange 16.11. B Brussels – Ancienne Belgique
w/ FLYNOTES 01.12. RUS St. Petersburg – Mod 02.12. RUS Moscow – Zil Arena
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 14th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
German noise/onslaught duo Mantar have announced an Aug. 24 release for their new album, The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze. Set to arrive in the middle of the band playing what seems to be every single festival in Europe, the on-theme-titled third Mantar record will be the follow-up to 2016’s Ode to the Flame (review here) and 2015’s Death by Burning (review here) and finds them more acclaimed than ever for their brutal and scathing attack. Think they’ve gone soft this time? Yeah, me neither. So what’s the question here? How is new Mantar not a given? Oh wait, it is. Okay.
One assumes more tour dates to come, but as you can see below, there are already plenty on deck.
From the PR wire:
MANTAR Announces Details Regarding New Album, “The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze”
New Album Out August 24, 2018 via Nuclear Blast
More Information + Pre-Orders Coming Soon
Monstrous black/doom/punk chimera MANTAR have announced details regarding their upcoming third studio album. The band’s new album, The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze, will include 12 songs and is set to be unleashed on August 24, 2018 via Nuclear Blast.
The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze is a title in-keeping with MANTAR’s symbolic obsession with fire on albums previous; this time disavowing mankind’s tendency to blindly follow those that would lead us into oblivion. This isn’t necessarily a political statement; but rather a morbid fascination with current smoldering tensions that threaten to set the minds of the masses on fire.
Stay tuned for more information coming soon regarding the release of The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze.
MANTAR is currently on the road, playing select club shows as well as Europe’s biggest festivals. See dates below.
MANTAR Tour Dates: Cold Summer 2018 07.06.2018 Greenfield Festival Interlaken Switzerland 08.06.2018 Chronical Moshers Open Air Hauptmannsgrün Germany 09.06.2018 Scheune Dresden Germany 16.06.2018 Download Paris Brétigny-sur-Orge France 17.06.2018 Alter Schlachthof Lingen Germany 22.06.2018 Tons of Rock Halden Norway 23.06.2018 Umbaubar, Oldenburg Germany 24.06.2018 Graspop Dessel Belgium 29.06.2018 Tuska Open Air Helsinki Finland 01.07.2018 Fusion Festival Lärz Germany 11.07.2018 Eistnaflug Neskaupstaður Iceland 13.07.2018 Eulenglück Braunschweig Germany 14.07.2018 Dong Open Air Neukirchen-Vluyn Germany 27.07.2018 Metaldays Tolmin Slovenia 03.08.2018 Wacken Open Air Wacken Germany 05.08.2018 Sylak Open Air Saint-Maurice-de-Gourdans France 10.08.2018 Sonic Blast Moledo Moledo Portugal 12.08.2018 Bloodstock Derbyshire England 24.08.2018 Kulturkombinat Bunker Rostock Germany !!!NEW!!! 25.08.2018 Reload Festival Sulingen Germany
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 5th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Three years in the making, the third full-length from Icelandic classic heavy rockers The Vintage Caravan arrives following a busy time of touring, pushing their sound forward with each new stop, city, country, etc. And like its two predecessors, 2015’s Arrival (review here) and their 2012 debut, Voyage — which unless I’m remembering wrong was comprised of two earlier EPs — its title gives a sense of motion and travel from one place to another. That running theme hardly seems like an accident for a young band who both groove so voraciously and are on the road so steadily, and as you can see below, in addition to a few summer fests, The Vintage Caravan also have dates in Germany, the UK and Russia to support the new album after it’s out. One expects more touring announcements to follow.
As well as videos, promo audio and so on. Very interested to hear what they come up with this time around. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if, with all the experience of the last three years behind them, they really put together something special. The potential’s been there all along. Keep an eye out and I’ll do the same.
From the PR wire:
THE VINTAGE CARAVAN To Release New Studio Album Gateways On August 31, 2018!
Their very first, 2-month European headline tour, a Latin American headline tour, 2 UK headline tours, supporting the legendary EUROPE in the European mainland & Scandinavia, performing at 60+ festivals… The time after the release of THE VINTAGE CARAVAN’s latest studio album Arrival in May 2015 was full of highlights. But during the last year, the Icelandic classic rock trio had retired and focussed on writing and recording their 4th studio album entitled Gateways. Now it’s a wrap and will see the light of day on August 31st, 2018 through Nuclear Blast.
The band comments, “We are very proud to present our new album, Gateways! Recorded in the legendary Sundlaugin Studios in Iceland (owned by Sigur Rós). Produced by Ian Davenport (BAND OF SKULLS, GAZ COOMBES). Overall, we think this album feels more mature than the previous ones. We really pushed ourselves to make this album sound as great as possible. I won’t name any names but some people have been heard saying this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. We can’t wait for you all to hear it/taste it.”
Stay tuned for further information!
THE VINTAGE CARAVAN live: 23.06. B Dessel – Graspop Metal Meeting 11. – 14.07. IS Neskaupstaður – Eistnaflug 28.07. D Neuensee – Rock im Wald 04.08. E Gijón – Tsunami Xixón
Gateways Tour 2018 w/ special guests 15.10. D Hamburg – Molotow 16.10. D Berlin – Lido 20.10. D Kempten – Rock The Box 22.10. D Leipzig – Moritzbastei 23.10. D Munich – Strom 24.10. D Karlsruhe – Substage 25.10. D Cologne – Luxor
08.11. UK Camp HRH – Hard Rock Hell
w/ FLYNOTES 01.12. RUS St. Petersburg – Mod 02.12. RUS Moscow – Zil Arena
