[Click play above to stream ‘III’ by 10,000 Years in full. It’s out Friday June 24 on Interstellar Smoke Records (LP), Death Valley Records (CD) and Olde Magick Records (K7).]

Like destructive clockwork, Sweden’s 10,000 Years offer their second full-length and third overall release, III, precisely one day less than a full year from its predecessor, II (review here). It is the final installment of a narrative trilogy that began on the Västerås-based trio’s 2020 self-titled debut EP (review here) — which they might honestly be calling a full-length by now just for the ease of it, I don’t know, but it was an EP at the time — but if a listener is new to the band, hearing them for the first time, that shouldn’t be taken as a barrier to entry. For those looking to catch up, here’s the story as they have it:

“III”

As the crew of the “Albatross” make efforts to repair the ship and prepares to take it out into orbit in order to travel back through the rift in the space-time continuum in an attempt to seal it and restore earth to what it was, the Green King mobilizes his unholy forces to stop them from erasing the latest addition to his interdimensional imperium from existence.

Through unspeakable trials and tribulations, the remaining crew manages to narrowly escape the Green Kings wrath and finally take the “Albatross” back into space. After piloting the damaged ship out of the atmosphere and back to the point of the tear, they take it through the rift once more.

As they once again travel to suns beyond for the fate and future of humanity, they face the terrible uncertainty of oblivion and a destiny unknown…

However it may tie into the entirety of their work to this point, there’s no mistaking III as the richest and most realized output yet conjured by the returning trio of guitarist Erik Palm, bassist/vocalist Alex Risberg and drummer Espen Karlsen. The defining influence to this point has been the furious Matt Pike riffs and marauding gallop/crash of High on Fire, and just in the interest of realism it’s been two years since they started, so is and definitely should still be a strong current across the eight songs and 46 minutes of III, but even in the “Fury-Whip”-ish-but-faster launch of “Cult Axe” and the alternating thrash and nod that ensues across that first track’s 4:57, the sense of the band reaching out creatively comes through.

To wit, the thrash. “Cult Axe” throws a gauntlet down for the band themselves, and feels like the result of a discovery of identity happening early in their overarching progression (maybe fast bands do things faster), with an apparently conscious decision to step back from playing to genre resulted in an inherently more individual take. 10,000 Years — who, yes, are still named after a High on Fire song; it’s not like they’ve ever been trying to get away with anything in terms of letting the listener know where they’re coming from — are raging here. It’s a logical step forward from a year ago in the end result, but it really is the palpable feeling of the three-piece pushing themselves physically as well as creatively that comes through in the material, whether that’s Karlsen‘s creative timekeeping in “Megafauna,” Palm‘s ripping solo late in the track after Risberg lets out a gotta-respect-it “ough” and raw-throats another verse, or the largesse of nod that ensues as “Desert of Madness” is introduced on a sweeping guitar lead and massive undulation.

What ensues there is further evidence of the band’s growth, finding a noise rock style that calls to mind Souls at Zero-era Neurosis while remaining the band’s own in terms of structure and course. There are these moments throughout III, whether it’s the momentary dip into tense, but mellow atmospherics in the instrumental “The Secret of Water,” the memorable hook and fierce cymbal crashes of “The Green King Rises,” or the outright Slayer idolatry on “Il Cattivo” (as opposed perhaps to ‘il bene’ or ‘il brutto?’) that will put the listener subtly in different places and moods. These are enhanced particularly during the most aggressive moments in “Megafauna” and “Il Cattivo” — the second half of which is a highlight bass-wise from Risberg — but it’s also driving toward the closing duo of “Escape From Earth” and “To Suns Beyond,” given all the more import as the final chapters of the story being told through their position.

They’re the two longest cuts at 7:47 and 8:56, respectively, and the point of arrival of a subtle build that’s been taking place since “The Secret of Water,” charged with tying together the varied elements at play throughout the record prior. They do, with Risberg pulling a more than respectable younger-days-Scott–Kelly-style vocal on “Escape From Earth” to coincide with a consuming groove that reminds of the kinship 10,000 Years began to form sound-wise with noisemaking countrymen like Domkraft or Cities of Mars, though like those bands, this one isn’t content to simply repeat what’s been done before. “Escape From Earth” crashes out — a breath; whew — at 4:40 and launches into a build toward a crescendo that, if it had ended III, one probably wouldn’t say anything was missing as it fades to silence, but that also finds a direct continuation in theme in “To Suns Beyond.”

After all the cacophony and onslaught prior, fast, not-as-fast, pummeling, not-as-pummeling, “To Suns Beyond” — the title of which answers the inevitable question asked by “Escape From Earth” — is another instrumental, expanding on what “The Secret of Water” did earlier, with a near-proggy tone in the guitar and an overarching fluidity that holds to the noisy underpinnings of the recording as a whole thanks in no small part to 10,000 Years‘ continued alliance with the famed Sunlight Studio and likewise famed producer/mixer Tomas Skogsberg, who also helmed II and their self-titled. They end big starting about halfway through as one would hope, but as Palm‘s guitar moves past the final shredding solo, there’s an exploratory, open feel to the manner in which the track comes about on a coursing fade of residual effects that could hardly sound more like an ellipse.

Which is to say, “to be continued…?” That last minute or so of “To Suns Beyond” may be a signal of future ground the band will continue to feel out — one wouldn’t be surprised either of a less-full-throttle piece like that or “The Secret of Water” had vocals next time around — and one is of course curious to know where they might go from here in terms of theme, if they’ll continue to tell stories or not or launch a new trilogy or call it quits altogether, their work done. I don’t have those answers for what they might do next as songwriters, but the least likely scenario in my mind is that they’d stop. Momentum like this isn’t easily let go, and as much as they’ve come into their own in III, the beastliness on display is emblematic of the fact that the band have more to say.

And if they should continue to push in multiple directions at once as they do on III, so much the better. As already noted, this is the most refined work 10,000 Years have yet done, and it is no less vicious for that refinement, seeming to build and tear down atmospheres as it goes. If you can manage to keep pace with the band, it’s quite a ride.

10,000 Years, “Cult Axe” official video

10,000 Years on Facebook

10,0000 Years on Instagram

10,0000 Years on Bandcamp

Interstellar Smoke Records on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records store

Olde Magick Records on Facebook

Olde Magick Records on Instagram

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

Death Valley Records on Facebook

Death Valley Records store

Announced as completed in January, the upcoming third releases from Sweden’s 10,000 Years has now been granted a June 24 release date through Interstellar Smoke Records (LP), Death Valley Records (CD) and Olde Magick Records (tape, with glitter no less!). The three-piece outfit from Västerås have been following a plot thread described as the ‘Albatross Trilogy’ through their first two outings, their 2020 self-titled EP (review here) and last year’s debut long-player, II (review here), and indeed, III would seem to bring about the ending of that story.

I’m a little bit left wondering what might come next for 10,000 Years, if they’ll simply begin a new story perhaps set in the same reality, abandon the conceptual ethic altogether or find some other way to manifest that impulse in their work. In any case, this conclusion for the ‘Albatross Trilogy’ marks a turning point for them that they’ve worked diligently over the last couple years to set up, so in the spirit of a “big rock finish,” I’m looking forward to hearing this album.

I did the premieres for the self-titled and II. Seems like maybe I should bug the band to see if I can follow-through here as well. They might have other plans, of course, but if not, there’s no sense in leaving the story untold.

First single lands March 21. From the PR wire:

THE TRILOGY ENDS

We are extremely proud to announce that June 24th will see the arrival of our new album “III”.

This is the third record we’ve done in two years and it is the final chapter in what’s become known as the Albatross Trilogy. We firmly believe that this is the crowning achievement of everything we’ve done so far, and we hope that you will enjoy it as well.

The first single, “The Green King Rises”, will be released March 21st with a second single, ”Cult Axe” complete with musicvideo, following in late April.

The album will be released in the following formats:
Cosmic Horror Edition vinyl from Interstellar Smoke Records
12″ purple vinyl with black splatter, A3-poster and 2-sided insert

CD from Death Valley Records
Limited to 100pcs including exclusive woven patch

Limited Edition cassette tape from Olde Magick Records
Clear tape with cosmic glitter housed in a classic-style case

The album will be available on Bandcamp and all the usual streaming services as well

Preorders for CD and digital will start on April 1st (which also happens to be Bandcamp Friday). Vinyl and cassette will be available from the respective labels in due time.

10,000 Years:
Erik Palm – Guitars
Alex Risberg – Bass/vocals
Espen Karlsen – Drums

http://www.facebook.com/TenThousandyrs
https://instagram.com/10.000yrs
http://10000years.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Interstellar-Smoke-Records-101687381255396/
https://interstellarsmokerecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.facebook.com/oldemagickrecords
https://www.instagram.com/oldemagickrecordsofficial/
https://oldemagickrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://facebook.com/dvrsweden/
https://deathvalleyrecords.bigcartel.com/

10,000 Years, II (2021)

Toronto heavy rockers Low Orbit have announced the addition of second guitarist Dave Adams to their lineup. Adams will make his live debut with the band later this month in their hometown as they continue to support last year’s have-riffs-will-groove full-length Crater Creator (review here), issued through Olde Magick Records and Pink Tank. Listening to the record — which of course you can at the bottom of this post — it makes sense why the band might seek to add another six strings to the arsenal. The album wanted nothing for richness of tone or overarching thickness, so the more the merrier.

A trio bringing in a fourth is no minor shift in dynamic for a band, but as Low Orbit are closing in on a decade’s tenure and Crater Creator is their best-received work to-date, looking to bring it to life in the most impactful way possible seems utterly reasonable. The email came in and I actually nodded and said, “Yeah, makes sense.”

Hope the show’s good. Here’s word from the band:

“A three piece since our inception a decade ago, we are no longer….today we add a fourth member. We would like to warmly welcome Dave Adams into the band. A heavy guitar player and great dude. He will play his first show with us on March 25th at Tail of the Junction. Hope to see you all there.”

Formed in 2013, LOW ORBIT emerged as the culmination of over twenty years experience in the Toronto hard rock, underground scene. The resulting birth is this power trio, who share a genuine passion for their craft, and who strive to play and create the heaviest music this side of the stratosphere.

Low Orbit are:
Angelo Catenaro – Guitars, Vocals
Joe Grgic – Bass, Synth
Emilio Mammone – Drums
Dave Adams – Guitars

https://www.facebook.com/LOWORBIT3
https://www.instagram.com/LOW_ORBIT_band/
https://twitter.com/Low_Orbit_band
https://loworbit3.bandcamp.com/
http://www.loworbitband.com/
http://www.pink-tank-records.de/
https://www.facebook.com/pinktankrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/pinktankrecords/
https://www.facebook.com/oldemagickrecords
https://www.instagram.com/oldemagickrecordsofficial/
https://oldemagickrecords.bandcamp.com/

Low Orbit, Crater Creator (2021)

Swedish riffcrunchers 10,000 Years have reportedly finished recording their next full-length, titled III, for release sometime later this year. No fewer than three different labels are on board to back the project, which is the second long-player from the trio behind last year’s II (review here) and their prior self-titled debut EP (review here), which came out in 2020.

To this point, they’ve worked pretty quickly from one outing to the next, as you can tell — for context, the entirety of their discography has come out “post-pandemic” — but if you heard the EP and subsequent album, you don’t need me to tell you there was palpable growth between the first and second releases.

The band announced they were done in a kind of short social media check-in, so I decided to bother bassist/vocalist Alex Risberg to find out more and he was kind enough to elucidate as follows:

The recording of ”III” is officially done. Due out later this year via Death Valley Records, Interstellar Smoke Records & Olde Magick Records.

We recorded the new album over three days in Studio Sunlight with Tomas Skogsberg producing. The material feels like a natural continuation and evolution from the last album. We’ve taken the stuff we feel worked best, like the thrasy High On Fire type stuff and the more epic stuff like ”Dark Side Of The Earth” and expanded on that. And there’s some weird stuff on there too.

As the title suggests its the third and final part of the Albatross trilogy. It ends with the remaining crew taking the ship back out into space back Through the wormhole in order to close it and it ends when they pass through so you never know If they made it or what happens.

CD/digital: Death Valley Records
Vinyl: Interstellar Smoke Records
Tape: Olde Magick Records

The mastering will be done by Magnus Andersson and the art by Negative Crypt Artwork.

No releasedate yet

We’re extremely happy with How it all came out and its quite an insane Record. Superstoked to get it out and hopefully people will dig it as much as we do.

#10000YearsIII
#TheTrilogyEnds

10,000 Years:
Erik Palm – Guitars
Alex Risberg – Bass/vocals
Espen Karlsen – Drums

http://www.facebook.com/TenThousandyrs
https://instagram.com/10.000yrs
http://10000years.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Interstellar-Smoke-Records-101687381255396/
https://interstellarsmokerecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.facebook.com/oldemagickrecords
https://www.instagram.com/oldemagickrecordsofficial/
https://oldemagickrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://facebook.com/dvrsweden/
https://deathvalleyrecords.bigcartel.com/

Day two, huh? Don’t know about you, but I’m feeling positively groovy after yesterday’s initial round of 10 records en route to 50 by Friday, and maybe that’s all the better since there’s not only another round of 10 today, but 50 more awaiting in January. Head down, keep working. You know how it goes. Hope you find something cool in this bunch, and if not, stick around because there’s more to come. Never enough time, never enough riffs. Let’s get to it.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Khemmis, Deceiver

Denver’s Khemmis are everything an American heavy metal band should be in 2021. The six-song Deceiver is the fourth LP from the band — now comprised of guitarist/vocalist Ben Hutcherson, guitarist/vocalist Phil Pendergast and drummer Zach Coleman — and it soars and crushes in kind. It is no more doom than thrash or epic traditional metal, with sweeping choruses from opener “Avernal Gate” onward, and yet it is intense without being boorish, accessible without being dumbed-down, dynamic in presentation. It commits neither to genre nor structure but is born of both, and its well-timed arrangements of more extreme vocalizations on “House of Cadmus” and “Obsidian Crown” are no less vital to its sonic persona than the harmonies surrounding. Even more here than on 2018’s Desolation (review here), Khemmis sound like masters of the form — the kind of band who’d make a kid want to pick up a guitar — and are in a class of their own.

Khemmis on Facebook

Nuclear Blast store

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Low Orbit, Crater Creator

Somebody in Toronto’s Low Orbit likes Dr. Who, as signaled by inclusions like “Tardis” and “Timelord” on the trio’s third album, Crater Creator. Also huge riffs. Working with their hometown’s house helmer Ian Blurton (Rough Spells, Future Now, Biblical, etc.), guitarist/vocalist Angelo Catenaro, bassist Joe Grgic and drummer Emilio Mammone proffer seven songs across two-sides bent toward largesse of chug and spaciousness of… well, space. The opening title-track, which moves into the lumbering “Tardis” and the driving side-A-capper “Sea of See,” sets an expectation for massive tonality that the rest of what follows meets with apparent glee. The fuzz-forward nature of “Monocle” (also the cowbell) feels straightforward after the relative plod of “Empty Space” before it, but “Wormhole” and “Timelord” assure the mission’s overarching success, the latter with aplomb fitting its finale position on such a cosmically voluminous offering. Craters accomplished, at least in eardrums.

Low Orbit on Facebook

Pink Tank Records website

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

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Confusion Master, Haunted

One assumes that the Cthulhu figure depicted breaking a lighthouse with its cthrotch on the cover art of Confusion Master‘s Haunted is intended as a metaphor for the coming of the German four-piece’s engrossing psychedelic doom riffery. The band, who made their debut with 2018’s Awaken (review here), owe some debt to Electric Wizard‘s misanthropic stoner nihilism, but the horrors crafted across the six-song/56-minute sophomore outing are their own in sound and depth alike, as outwardly familiar as the lumbering central riff of “The Cannibal County Maniac” might seem. It’s amazing I haven’t heard more hype about Confusion Master, with the willful slog of “Jaw on a Hook”‘s 11 minutes so dug in ahead of the sample-topped title-track you can’t really call it anything other than righteous in its purpose, as filthy as that purpose is on the rolling “Casket Down” or “Under the Sign of the Reptile Master.” Shit, they don’t even start vocals until minute six of 10-minute opener “Viking X.” What more do you want? Doom the fuck out.

Confusion Master on Facebook

Exile on Mainstream website

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Daemonelix, Devil’s Corkscrew

Sludge metal punishment serves as the introductory statement of Los Angeles’ Daemonelix, whose Devil’s Corkscrew EP runs just 18 minutes and four songs but needs no more than that to get its message across. The band, led by guitarist Derek Phillips, are uniformly brash and scathing in their composition, harnessing the punkish energy of an act like earlier -(16)- and bringing it to harsher places altogether, while still — as the motor-ready riff of “In the Name of Freedom” demonstrates — keeping one foot in heavy rock traditions. Vocalist Ana Garcia Lopez is largely indecipherable in her throaty, rasping growls on opener “Daemonelix” and the subsequent “Raise Crows,” but “In the Name of Freedom” has a cleaner hook and closer “Sing for the Moon” brings in more atmospherics during its slower, more open-feeling verses, before crushing once more in a manner that’s — dare I say it? — progressive? Clearly more than just bludgeoning, then, but yes, plenty of that too.

Daemonelix on Facebook

Metal Assault Records on Bandcamp

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Wooden Fields, Wooden Fields

While I’ll admit that Wooden Fields had me on board with the mere mention of the involvement of Siena Root bassist Sam Riffer, the Stockholm trio’s boogie-prone seven-song self-titled debut earns plenty of allegiance on its own, with vocalist/guitarist Sartez Faraj leading the classically-grooving procession in a manner that expands outward as it moves through the album’s tidy 38 minutes, taking the straight-ahead rush of “Read the Signs” and “Shiver and Shake” into the airier-but-still-grounded “Should We Care” before centerpiece “I’m Home” introduces a jammier vibe, drummer Fredrik Jansson Punkka (Witchcraft, etc.) seeming totally amenable to holding the track together beneath the extended solo. The transition works because no matter how far they go in “Don’t Be a Fool” or “Wind of Hope,” Wooden Fields never lose the thread of songcraft they weave throughout, and the melodies of closer “Endless Time” alone establish them as a group of marked potential, regardless of pedigree and the familiarity of their stylistic foundation.

Wooden Fields on Facebook

Argonauta Records website

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Plaindrifter, Echo Therapy

Surging forth with lush progressive heavy psychedelic rock, Plaindrifter‘s debut full-length, Echo Therapy, showcases an awareness of the context in which it arrives — which is to say the German three-piece seem to be familiar with the aesthetic tropes they’re working toward. Still, although their emphasis on bringing together melody and heft may result in flashes of Elder in the extended “Prisma” or the closer “Digital Dreamcatcher” or Elephant Tree in “New World,” with opener “M.N.S.N.” making its impression as much with ambience as tonal weight and centerpiece “Proto Surfer Boy” sneakily executing its linear build in space-creating fashion before its long fadeout, there’s an individual presence in the material beyond a play toward style, and from what they offer here, it’s easy to imagine their forward-thinking course will lead to further manifest individualism in subsequent work. That may be me reading into the possibilities cast by the melodies of “M.N.S.N.” and in the quieter break of “Proto Surfer Boy,” but that’s plenty to go on and by no means the sum of Echo Therapy‘s achievements.

Plaindrifter on Facebook

Plaindrifter on Bandcamp

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Spawn, Live at Moonah Arts Collective

The kind of release that makes me want to own everything the band has done, Spawn‘s Live at Moonah Arts Collective enraptures with four tracks of meditative psychedelic flow, beginning with “Meditation in an Evil Temple” and oozing patiently through a cover of “Morning of the Earth” — from the 1971 Australian surf film of the same name — before “Remember to Be Here Now” issues that needed reminder to coincide with the drift that would otherwise so easily lead the mind elsewhere, and the 13-minute “All is Shiva” culminates with a spiritually-vibing wash of guitar, sitar, bass, drums, keyboard, tabla and tantric vocal repetitions. Based in Melbourne, the seven-maybe-more-piece outfit released a studio EP in 2018 on Nasoni Records (of course) and otherwise have a demo to their credit, but the with the sense of communion they bring to these songs, studio or live doesn’t matter anymore. At just under half an hour, it’s a short set — too short — but with the heavier ending of “All is Shiva,” there’s nothing they leave unsaid in that time. This is aural treasure. Pay heed.

Spawn on Facebook

Spawn on Bandcamp

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Ambassador Hazy, Glacial Erratics

Formed as a solo-project for Sterling DeWeese, the lo-fi experimentalist psych of Ambassador Hazy‘s Glacial Erratics first showed up in 2020 after four years of making, and with a 2021 vinyl release, the 14-track/39-minute offering would seem to be getting its due. DeWeese — sometimes on his own, sometimes backed by a full band or just drummer Jonathan Bennett — delights in the weird, finding a place somewhere between desert-style drift (his vocals remind at times of mellower Mario Lalli, but I doubt that’s more than coincidence), folk and space-indie on “Ain’t the Same No More,” which is somehow bluesy while the fuzzy “Lucky Clover” earlier taps alterna-chic bedroom gaze and the subsequent “Passing into a Grey Area” brings in full backing for the first time. Disjointed? Yeah, but it’s part of the whole idea, so don’t sweat it. No single song tops four minutes — the Dead Meadowy “Sleepyhead” comes closest at 3:51 — and it ends with “The World’s a Mess,” so yeah, DeWeese makes it easy enough to roll with what’s happening here. I’d suggest doing that.

Ambassador Hazy on Facebook

Ambassador Hazy on Bandcamp

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Mocaine, The Birth of Billy Munro

A wildly ambitious debut — to the point of printing up a novella to flesh out its storyline and characters — The Birth of Billy Munro follows a narrative spearheaded by Mocaine guitarist/vocalist Amrit Mohan and is set in the American South following its title-character through a post-traumatic mental decay with material that runs a gamut from progressive metal to psychedelia to classic Southern heavy rock and grunge and so on. In just 43 minutes and with a host of dialogue-driven stretches — also samples like Alec Baldwin talking about his god complex from 1993’s Malice in the soon-to-be-churning “Narcissus” — the plot is brought to a conclusion on “The Bend,” which touches lighter acoustics and jazzy nuance without letting go entirely of the ’90s flair in “Psylocybin” a few tracks earlier, as far removed from the swaggering “Pistol Envy” as it seems to be, and in fact is. However deep the listener might want to explore, Mocaine seems ready to accommodate, and one only wonders whether the trio will explore further tales of Billy Munro or move on to other stories and concepts.

Mocaine on Facebook

Mocaine on Bandcamp

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Sun Below, Sun Below

Toronto riffers Sun Below would like to be your entertainment for the evening, and they’d probably prefer it if you were also stoned. Their 71-minute self-titled debut long-player arrives after a series of three shorter offerings between 2018-2019, and after the opening “Chronwall Neanderhal,” the 14-minute “Holy Drifter” lets you know outright how it’s gonna go. They’re gonna vibe, they’re gonna jam, they’re gonna riff, and your brain’s gonna turn to goo and that’s just fine. Stoner is as stoner does, and whether that’s on a shorter track like “Shiva Sativa,” the shuffling “Kinetic Keif” and the rumbling “Doom Stick,” or the 18-minute “Twin Worlds” that follows ahead of the 12-minute closer “Solar Burnout,” one way or the other, you get gargantuan, post-Pike riffage that knows from whence its grooves come and doesn’t care it’s going to roll out an hour-plus anyway and steamroll lucidity in the process. Is that a bongrip at the end of “Solar Burnout” or the end of the world? More to the point, can’t it be both?

Sun Below on Facebook

Sun Below on Bandcamp

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Let’s assume that if the abiding image you’re giving your listenership is of an asteroid slamming into the surface of… something…, leaving a crater behind, you’re dealing one way or the other with some heavy shit. Thus it is with Low Orbit‘s Crater Creator, the Toronto trio’s first LP in four years since 2017’s Spacecake (review here), which will see release Nov. 19. Apparently that’s like one week from now? I have no idea what day, week, or month it is anymore. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the Gimme Metal show making me write down a date once a fortnight, I’d probably still think it was 2018.

You fucking wish, old man. Ha.

Anyway, Low Orbit have the title-track of the Ian Blurton-produced new album up now, and you should put some headphones on and listen. That’s how I did it anyway, and no regrets for the additional low-end punch my brain received all the more directly for doing so. Balancing that with vocal echoes ain’t exactly unheard of as a methodology for creating a sense of space, but damned if it doesn’t work.

Looking forward to the rest of the album. For now, the following:

Low Orbit – Crater Creator

Album release date: November 19, 2021

Low Orbit is happy to announce the release of their third studio album entitled, Crater Creator. Recorded at ProGold Studio in Toronto, Ontario Canada. Produced and engineered by Ian Blurton (Change of Heart, C’mon, Public Animal).

Album mastering was completed by Brad Boatright (Pentagram, Sleep, Monolord) of Audioseige in Portland, Oregon USA. Recorded “live off the floor” over three days in August 2020. Vocal, guitar and synth overdubs were added over another three day period. A limited number of Vinyl Records, Cd’s and Cassettes will be available for purchase. Downloads and streaming via all major outlets will be available as well.

Track List:
Crater Creator (5:11)
TARDIS (4:30)
Sea of See (5:47)
Empty Space (5:26)
Monocle (5:00)
Wormhole (4:06)
Timelord (5:52)

Formed in 2013, LOW ORBIT emerged as the culmination of over twenty years experience in the Toronto hard rock, underground scene. The resulting birth is this power trio, who share a genuine passion for their craft, and who strive to play and create the heaviest music this side of the stratosphere.

Low Orbit are:
Angelo Catenaro – Guitars, Vocals
Joe Grgic – Bass, Synth
Emilio Mammone – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/LOWORBIT3
https://www.instagram.com/LOW_ORBIT_band/
https://twitter.com/Low_Orbit_band
https://loworbit3.bandcamp.com/
http://www.loworbitband.com/
http://www.pink-tank-records.de/
https://www.facebook.com/pinktankrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/pinktankrecords/
https://www.facebook.com/oldemagickrecords
https://www.instagram.com/oldemagickrecordsofficial/
https://oldemagickrecords.bandcamp.com/

Low Orbit, “Crater Creator”

[Click play above to stream ‘II’ by 10,000 Years in full. It’s out Friday June 25 on Interstellar Smoke Records, Ogorekords and Olde Magick Records.]

Marauding, riff-led stuff-breakers 10,000 Years made a striking debut in 2020 with their self-titled EP (review here), finding a niche for themselves in post-High on Fire heavy all the more bolstered through the grit of a production at the famed Sunlight Studio by Tomas Skogsberg (Entombed, Grave, many, many more). With their follow-up debut long-player, somewhat confusingly titled II, the Västerås, Sweden-based trio of guitarist Erik Palm, bassist/vocalist Alex Risberg and drummer Espen Karlsen waste little time in letting listeners know how they’ve fleshed out their sound. Comprised of eight songs running a sharp 39 minutes, II is rife with dirt-coated efficiency, still casting its lot in Pike-style riffing, but finding sludge and noise rock aspects as well in Risberg‘s vocals, lending a rhythm that puts the band at least partially in league with the likes of Domkraft or Cities of Mars.

The songs by and large are a little longer than on the EP, but the main difference is that they’re more tied around the central concept, expanding on a sci-fi storyline set up on the EP that finds the crew of a spaceship crashed on an alternate reality future Earth populated by ancient gods and, apparently, riders on mooseback. Or such as “The Mooseriders” would have one believe. So it goes. Tempo shifts mark another point of growth, and again, 10,000 Years tip their hand early in that regard, with the speedy opener “Descent” — obviously setting up a crash landing via frenetic riffage — giving way not to a subsequent blast of an all-out speed-riff assault as it seems to telegraph, but to a mellower opening for “Gargantuan Forest” and the more nod-paced fare that ensues. I don’t know at what point the lyrics came into the picture, but the songs don’t bend to the story so much as set a fitting backdrop for what plays out across the span, trading intensity back and forth in a way indicative of the burgeoning dynamic in the band’s sound even as they willfully revel in some more familiar stylistic tenets.

For my own version of posterity, and to go with the stream above, below is the story as they tell it, quoted from their Bandcamp page:

After narrowly escaping the confines of the strange planet and its surrounding dimension, the “Albatross” and its crew finally returns home to Earth. The re-entry is rough and the ship crashlands in a forest. The earth that greets them is vastly different from the one that they left.

When the ship travelled back to earth through the wormhole it created a rift in the space-time continuum which propelled them far into the future as well as allowing the Green King and other ancient gods from the other dimension to cross over to our dimension.

They have since taken control of not just the earth, but the entire solar system.

After various harrowing experiences and encounters, the truth finally dawns on the surviving members of the crew. They are indeed back on earth, but ten thousand years in the future from when they started their journey. And to make matters worse, they find evidence that the Green King have been known and worshipped by secret cults and societies on earth for millennia, since before what we today know as humankind even existed.

The surviving members of the crew come to the conclusion that the only way to set things right again is to repair the “Albatross” and take it back through the rift again in order to close it.

The narrative brings depth to the proceedings but is by no means a crutch, and through the brash shove of “Spinosaurus” to the unmitigated good-time march that is “The Mooseriders” and into “Angel Eyes” with its ready lumber, 10,000 Years remain committed to their purpose both as storytellers and as songwriters. The latter track, at just four and a half minutes long, boasts a standout lead and a kind of jammier vibe, the rhythm and solo guitar layers working the band’s way into an instrumental finish that sounds as if it could easily go on longer than it does and, from a stage in a live setting, provide righteous hypnosis to the audience. In context, it sets up the transition to “March of the Ancient Queen,” “Prehuman Walls” and eight-minute closer “Dark Side of the Earth” on side B, and that is a worthy-enough cause in itself.

While the trio won’t quite touch the same level of brash as “Spinosaurus” again, there’s still plenty of damage to be done on II, and they set about it with glee on “March of the Ancient Queen,” an interplay of chug and crash early giving ground later to an almost psychedelic careening solo in one channel, then the other, then both, atop galloping drums, finishing clean despite all the dust they’ve kicked up behind them. They get more under their proverbial fingernails in “Prehuman Walls,” perhaps, the penultimate cut shorter in its procession but as low down into sludge as 10,000 Years go on this first album, at least until about three minutes in, when they pause before kicking into higher gear once again, if momentarily ahead of a giant Sleep-style slowdown finish.

That sets up “Dark Side of the Earth” as the finale, which enters patient with quiet guitar and unfolds with tragedy-tinged vocals in its early verses before a quiet break leads to a rousing, cacophonous end. II, and not just for its title, makes it easy to forget that it is a debut. So assured is it on an aesthetic level, and so complete in its purpose, that it emphasizes how schooled 10,000 Years are in what they’re doing. That is to say, they are not strangers to the music they’re making, but fans themselves, and so even as they bring forth this pummel that can make one feel bashed about the skull by the time “Dark Side of the Earth” has turned, an abiding sense of joy is resonant in their presentation. Ultimately, that is the greatest takeaway from II, and one could hardly ask anything else of it than to express the richness and vitality that inspired it in the first place. It does this and more.

10,000 Years, “Gargantuan Forest” official video

10,000 Years on Facebook

10,000 Years on Instagram

10,000 Years on Bandcamp

Interstellar Smoke Records on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records store

Death Valley Records on Facebook

Ogorekords website

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

We’re a month away now from the June 25 release of 10,000 Years‘ deceptively-titled debut album, II, and the band have newly unveiled the second of presumably three tracks they’ll showcase before the big day comes. “Gargantuan Forest” is the second of the eight songs on the record and follows behind the previously-streamed “March of the Ancient Queen” with a new video that starts out in the woods and ends up in the band’s rehearsal space — also seen in the photo above (and in color!) as well as here — as they rock out and deal with being haunted by some unknown but apparently highly referential malevolence. You know, like you do.

It is good fun and accompanies the lyrics-when-we-feel-like-itn sludgily-shouted verses of the track well, bassist/vocalist Alex Risberg‘s gruff approach in a higher register but no more off-putting than it necessarily wants to be. His bass gets a highlight moment as the proceedings — the narrative as well as the song — lumbers into its second half and Erik Palm‘s guitar drops out to noise, leaving Espen Karlsen‘s drums and the low end to hold the tension in its place. They pick up again and riff the track to a suitably loud finish, and introduce listeners to the “Espbeast” in the process, finding that rare combination of drummer and mascot that makes the truly special bands stand out.

According to my notes for such things, I’m slated to stream II in its entirety on June 22, three days before it’s out. Stay tuned for that as you enjoy this, and you’ll also find “March of the Ancient Queen” at the bottom of the post for good measure.

Dig:

10,000 Years, “Gargantuan Forest” official video

The second single from our upcoming album ”II”.

In this ABSURD (1981) video 10,000 Years enter a FOREST OF FEAR (1980) as they access THE BEYOND (1981) and enter a BLOODBATH (1971) with THE BOOGEY MAN (1980), otherwise known as the Espbeast. The Espbeast stalks and haunts the bodies and minds of the characters in this C-grade homage to the horrormovies of yesteryear.

The characters FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE (1976) through insane NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN (1981). If they survive the AXE (1977) they may still end up in an INFERNO (1980) and risk to be EATEN ALIVE (1976). All the same risks face the viewer, so don’t watch with the lights out, don’t watch by yourself and DON’T GO IN THE WOODS ALONE (1981). Because after all, isn’t there an Espbeast in all of us?

Picking up right where the EP left off, “II” continues the story of the ill-fated Albatross-mission and its exploration of time and space through a skullcrushing mixture of stonerrock, doom- & sludge metal.

The album was recorded in the legendary Studio Sunlight with the equally legendary Tomas Skogsberg manning the controls.

10,000 Years:
Erik Palm – Guitars
Alex Risberg – Bass/vocals
Espen Karlsen – Drums

10,000 Years, II (2021)

10,000 Years on Facebook

10,000 Years on Instagram

10,000 Years on Bandcamp

Interstellar Smoke Records on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records store

Death Valley Records on Facebook

Ogorekords website

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp