Posted in Whathaveyou on March 16th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
True, it’s been four years since Witchcraft released 2016’s Nucleus (review here), which was the successful follow-up to their 2012 Nuclear Blast debut and modernization-pivot Legend (review here), following the pioneering vintage style of their first three albums, but in the meantime, the band’s founder and frontman Magnus Pelander offered up the later-2016 solo outing, Time (review here), and the band have been around for fests and such, so while perhaps somewhat more reclusive than they once were, they haven’t entirely disappeared.
Interesting that Pelander is also the only member of the band listed as performing on Black Metal, and yet, rather than release it under his own name, the apparently-fully-acoustic offering coming as a Witchcraft LP. The song “Elegantly Expressed Depression,” which opens Black Metal lives up to the weighty expectations its title sets, and brims with the sincere-sounding fragility of Pelander‘s immediately recognizable vocals. Seems like perhaps sadness is something of a theme — at least going by track names like “Sad People” and “Sad Dog” — but we’ll see on May 1 when Black Metal is released.
Behold:
WITCHCRAFT To Release Acoustic Album! Black Metal Coming This May On Nuclear Blast!
Magnus Pelander’s Witchcraft have existed at the forefront of occult tinged classic rock ever since their formation in the year 2000, when Magnus decided to form the band so that he could record a tribute to his idols Roky Erickson and Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling. The pioneering band has never made excuses for their inspirations, but went on to craft numerous genre-defining classics themselves. Witchcraft’s illustrious career from their self-titled debut in 2004 through to the 2012’s Legend album to the wondrous Nucleus in 2016, became cult classics and propelled the band to new levels of reverence within their scene. When it comes to blending doom with classic rock and flourishes of masterful ambience, nobody could touch them.
Now, Magnus takes WITCHCRAFT in a brave new direction, setting forth into entirely new territory! Exhibiting the pure emotion that has always lived at the core of the band’s work, by moving forward alone: The band’s first new album in four years, titled Black Metal, is an entirely acoustic affair. From opener and the just premiered, first single, “Elegantly Expressed Depression,” it’s clear that this new facet of the band’s sound allows the rawness and fragility to shine in an entirely new light. The minimalism of Bill Callaghan, the tenderness of Elliot Smith and the air of slight discomfort that could only be WITCHCRAFT combine to make this record a truly unique spectacle, not only in the band’s catalogue, but in the world of guitar music as it stands in 2020.
Below is Black Metal’s track list:
1. Elegantly Expressed Depression 2. A Boy And A Girl 3. Sad People 4. Grow 5. Free Country 6. Sad Dog 7. Take Him Away
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 10th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Sweden’s Blues Pills will start the album cycle for their new record, Holy Moly!, well in advance of the actual June 19 release date. Nuclear Blast is behind the offering as they have been since they picked up their self-titled debut (review here), and the band begin playing shows this week in Uppsala. Sure, they took some time to record, but there’s a certain point at which the notion of a “cycle” becomes kind of irrelevant, i.e., a band just tours. Blues Pills have not been shy about hitting the road, I guess is what I’m saying.
“Proud Woman” is the first single from Holy Moly!, and though it’s tempting, I’m not going to sit here and mansplain to you how the idea of vocalist Elin Larsson feeling compelled to make such a declaration should be considered a quaint example of the band’s retro foundations rather than an urgent and relevant statement regarding current issues, but there you have it anyway. I’m also not going to sit here and mansplain how I just mansplained the thing I said I wasn’t going to mansplain. That’s what it’s like to be a dude. For what it’s worth, I’m not particularly proud. Ain’t like I earned any of this cultural privilege.
The PR wire has more interesting things to say:
BLUES PILLS Announce New Album Holy Moly! + Release First Single “Proud Woman”
Often compared to a jam session between Aretha Franklin and LED ZEPPELIN, BLUES PILLS’ career took them from an American garage to international glory within a few years. Their self-titled debut album (2014) entered the German album charts at #4 and two years later they went straight to #1 with the successor Lady in Gold. Starting in the smallest clubs the band suddenly found themselves playing on some of the world’s biggest stages from Rock Am Ring, Download, Sweden Rock and even the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival where DEEP PURPLE famously saw smoke on the water during Frank Zappa’s performance.
With the band’s 3rd album, Holy Moly!, to be released on June 19th, 2020 via Nuclear Blast, BLUES PILLS plan their return to a number of major festival stages, playing Download, Hurricane and Southside among many others throughout the summer.
But fans need not wait until summer for their first taste of the action. To support International Women’s Day on March 8th BLUES PILLS have released their first single “Proud Woman”. The band describe their intentions with the song: “With ‘Proud Woman’ we wanna give the fierce women and grrrls of the world a power anthem to turn on whenever they wanna feel empowered. Or just have fun. A song to everyone who stands behind the most obvious things of all. Equality and unity. Whoever you are, wherever you come from. Women will always be a driving force of change. And a change is gonna come.”
In regards to the lyrics of “Proud Woman” vocalist, Elin Larsson, says: “I’m a proud woman came out from my inner self and the first thing I thought was: someone must have written this before. And if not, why? Hey! It’s about damn time then!
To be a woman or non-binary in the music industry seems to be more about the gender then the music sometimes. As a woman you’re being belittled, threatened, scrutinized, made fun of, targeted and harassed in a way that the men in the industry aren’t. And even so, there are so many women in the industry who made and are making their mark just as mighty as the men, and they do that despite all of the hardships they get for simply being a woman and that makes their triumphs even greater.”
“I’m a proud woman. And I’m not the only one!”
BLUES PILLS live:
13.03. S Uppsala – Katalin (w/ BROR GUNNAR JANSSON) 14.03. S Norrköping – Arbis Bar & Salonger (w/ BROR GUNNAR JANSSON) 19.03. PL Warsaw – Antyradio Award Party @ Stodola 27.03. RUS Moscow – Pravda Club 28.03. RUS St. Petersburg – Club Zal 03.04. GR Thessaloniki – Fix Factory of Sound 04.04. GR Athens – Fuzz Club
02.05. UK London – Desertfest
12.06. UK Donington – Download Festival 13.06. F Tourcoing – Le Grand Mix 15.06. LUX Esch-sur-Alzette – Kulturfabrik 16.06. F Strasbourg – La Laiterie 18./20.06. B Dessel – Graspop Metal Meeting 19.06. D Neuhausen ob Eck – Southside Festival 21.06. D Scheeßel – Hurricane Festival 27.06. N Ekeberg – Tons of Rock 28.06. I Verona – Rock The Castle 09. – 12.07. CZ Vizovice – Masters of Rock 11.07. N Kvinesdal – Norway Rock Festival 23. – 26.07. RO Brezoi – Open Air Blues Festival 14.08. E Barcelona – Keeping The Blues Alive
BLUES PILLS are: Elin Larsson | Vocals Zack Anderson | Guitar André Kvarnström | Drums Kristoffer Schander | Bass
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 18th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
It was a put-up-or-shut-up moment for Sweden’s Truckfighters. Time to show who they really were going to be as a band and what their impact would be over the longer term. Their 2005 debut, Gravity X (discussed here), had certainly produced its share of memorable tracks, including “Gweedo-Weedo,” “Manhattan Project,” “Gargarismo” and its essential leadoff, “Desert Cruiser,” which over the years since would become the band’s signature piece. But 2007’s Phi seemed to be in an awkward place, with the Örebro three-piece adding a second guitarist in an experiment that ultimately wouldn’t last. It had been more than five years since they got their start on a split with bassist/vocalist Oskar Cedermalm‘s prior band, Firestone (discussed here), and as with so many third albums, it was time for Truckfighters to determine the direction they wanted their material to manifest.
On some level, conscious or not, they must have known it, because 2009’s Mania (review here) meets the formidable task before it in a way that’s nothing if not head-on. It’s the release by which I’ve judged every Truckfighters release since, and a significant standard to which a record might live up, taking the fuzz and memorable hooks of Gravity X and the somewhat moodier vibe of Phi and bringing them together is a way that showed heavy rock did not have to just be one thing. It didn’t just have to be out there, cruising in the desert. It could be progressive, heavy and energetic all at the same time. It could be richly melodic. It could be weighted and contemplative feeling. And in a quick turn, it could be fun, catchy, and nonetheless clear in its intention to engage the listener. With Mania, Cedermalm, guitarist Niklas Källgren and then-drummer Oscar “Pezo” Johansson solidified Truckfighters‘ sound around something that could grow in multiple directions, and thereby helped set the stage for what’s come after, both from them and from a generation of heavy rockers who’ve worked to some degree or other under their influence.
It’s debatable whether Truckfighters‘ greater contribution to heavy rock has been on stage or in the studio. Largely self-recorded and self-released, their fuzzy tones have become a signature that’s recognizable in their work as well as in plenty of other acts, but what they do live is perhaps even more immediately striking. Cedermalm and Källgren, as the two founders and essential figures in the band, have a reputation for onstage physicality that is well earned, and I’ve seen them play sets that look as much like an aerobic workout as an artistic performance. Not every band can or wants to do that, of course, but Europe over the last decade has seen a boom of similarly-inclined heavy rock delivery, in the UK, in Germany, in Greece and elsewhere, and certainly Truckfighters have toured enough in that time — including in North America — to spread their influence across borders.
But Mania is also dynamic in a way that extends to being more than just a vehicle for a band to run back and forth and jump off drum risers while they play. Songs like the closer “Blackness,” the relatively mellow but still hooky leadoff “Last Curfew” and most especially the 13-minute “Majestic” and the later “Con of Man” actively, willfully push the Truckfighters sound and style to places it hadn’t yet been, reaching a new level of accomplishment as a result. This happened at the same time the early, drum-led “Monte Gargano” reconfirmed their desert rock mindset, and the subsequent “The New High” acted as a bridge from one side to another ahead of the arrival of “Majestic,” still relatively early in Mania‘s eight-song/50-minute run. The album sets up a back-and-forth dynamic, really from the start but especially from “Majestic” onward, that sees them push and pull between more straight-ahead fare and proggier impulses.
“Majestic” — which every bit lives up to its title via a sprawl the band has tried multiple times to recapture — and “Con of Man” are separated by the four-minute “Monster,” which emerges on revisit as a kind of lost standout. Surely overwhelmed by the sweep of what comes directly before and after, as nearly anything would be, its foundation in acoustic and electric guitar blend is itself a forward step for Truckfighters, and Cedermalm‘s laid back vocal there sets gives the song an all the more sunshiny vibe, only emphasizing the contrast in the severity of “Con of Man,” thereby enhancing the effect of both cuts on the audience. This, as well as the penultimate “Loose” — which seems like a direct answer stylistically and thematically to “Desert Cruiser” and is the shortest inclusion at 3:44 — bring a lightness to the end of Mania to keep it from taking itself too seriously. They remind that, hey, we’re all here to have a good time, and speak to a breadth in Truckfighters‘ songcraft that they’ve continued to develop in the years since.
It would be four years before they’d release anything else, but much of that time was spent touring. They came to America for the first time. They had a documentary made about them in 2012. They were on the road again and again in Europe, helping lead the charge of a booming underground heavy festival scene that continues to develop. An EP, The Chairman (discussed here), arrived in 2013, followed the next year by the Universe LP (review here) that seemed to pick up where Mania left off and present Truckfighters‘ growth as an ongoing process, and of course, more heavy road work. A licensing deal through their Fuzzorama Records imprint with Century Media resulted in wider distribution for 2016’s V (review here), and they complemented that with the self-released Live in London (review here) that same year, courting controversy as well for their video for “Calm Before the Storm” (discussed here) from the Valbum. After weathering that and yet more touring, they announced a “long, long” hiatus in 2018 that lasted just about a year before they got back together and decided to hit the road playing Gravity X in full. “You can’t escape from what you are,” their statement said at the time, seeming almost resigned to the fact. Fair enough.
Whatever happens with, to or for them next, Mania 10 years later still holds up as a high point of their output to-date. I won’t take anything away from their other studio releases, but no question this was a special moment, and in a put-up-or-shut-up scenario, they every bit exceeded all expectations and helped reshape what fuzz rock could be.
As always, I hope you enjoy.
—
That it? Is the week done? Is it ever really over? Nah, not these days.
Whatever.
Life with The Toddlerian Pecan — this strange pain-in-the-ass alien who’s replaced the gorgeous chubby-cheeked baby who was my son mere months ago — continues to provide an assortment of thrills and spills. The Patient Mrs. has had to work all week, as one will when one has, you know, a job — she gotta bring home that bacon to support my ever-expanding blogger-ass — and so it’s been me and him. Me vs. him. I forfeit. He wins. I used to say that if I died in the house by myself, I was cool with The Little Dog Dio eating my face to survive. I don’t know in what scenario it ever would’ve happened like that, but you know, yeah. Well, I’m pretty sure The Pecan is getting ready to eat my face while I’m still alive and then cha-cha-cha stompy-foot dance on my exposed skull. Laughing his adorable laugh all the while.
I’ve never done heroin, but I imagine that laugh is what it’s like.
So it was that kind of week. Especially yesterday morning, which was h-a-r-d. I know I’m not exactly doing the world a favor by having a kid in the first place. Great. One more white dude. That’s bound to make everything better. But man, some days it sure feels like I’m doing him a favor by not opening the door and telling him to go live in the woods. You like squirrels so damn much? Off you go!
He’d go, too. Probably build himself a treehouse, the little fucker.
He’s not yet two. That’s next week.
So. So, so, so.
Speaking of next week, I think I’m gonna go see The Well at the Vitus Bar on Wednesday. Could stand to get out for a bit, and that’s probably just enough traffic to set me right. Also look for reviews of the new Om live LP, an interview with Colour Haze about their new LP (that’s on Monday), a premiere of The Lone Madman and a review of the new Year of the Cobra. That’s your week, right there. I’m sure there will be other stuff. I can’t seem to get through laying out a week on a Friday lately without something changing that day.
Today, for example, my initial plan was the Ogre stream. Then the Bible Black Tyrant premiere came together. Fine. Then last night, the Via Vengeance premiere came together last-minute. Well, okay. So yeah. One day, three premieres, six posts, one of which is this already-gone-on-too-long chicanery. Call it madness, because it is.
Ah shit, Pecan’s awake. 6:20, for the record. I got up at 4, as ever.
Real life.
Not that fake life.
Real life.
Great and safe weekend. Forum and radio. I swear there’s new merch coming soon.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 15th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Two cryptic posts last week on thee social medias from Swedish heavy psych blues jammers Asteroid. The first: they’d be traveling to a new continent before the end of the year. I’m pretty sure they’ve been to Australia before, and I know they’ve sworn off North America while the current US administration is in power — there are plenty of days I think when a good portion of the country wishes it could do the same — so that led me to speculate South America was their destination, and it turns out, yes, Abraxas Produtura — among others — is bringing the trio from their Swedish home-base to play a set of four exclusive shows capping in Rio de Janeiro on Dec. 7 at the Festa da Firma.
Ending that run in Rio de Janeiro brings me to the second cryptic social medias post, which was that the band has new material in the works. That’s an awfully long way to travel to play four shows, even if one of them is a fest, so I had to wonder if they’d be recording with Gabriel Zander while in Brazil, and the band has yet to confirm anything in that regard. I don’t know if it would be a full album or what, but either way, it’d make for their first offering since 2016’s III (review here), and whatever shape it ultimately takes, there’s just about no way new Asteroid isn’t going to be welcome as far as I’m concerned, whenever it might show up.
Still good news all around and one more perhaps to look forward to in 2020.
Here’s the info:
Asteroid – South America Tour
Asteroid will hit South America this December. See you in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.
The legendary Swedish trio comes to review all their discography in a show that promises tons of high-flying fuzz rock, stoner rock and heavy psych on their first visit to South America that will include presentations in Argentina, Uruguay (within the framework from the second edition of the Noiseground Festival in that country) and Brazil.
Their latest album “III” released by Fuzzorama Records, record label commanded by the Truckfighters is considered by the specialized press as one of the most outstanding releases of the last 10 years within the heavy rock scene in Europe.
There will be gems like “Time”, “Doctor Smoke” and “Pale Moon” a traveling and super electric show, you can’t miss it!
Asteroid live: 12/04 Buenos Aires Casa Colombo 12/05 Montevideo Bluzz Live 12/06 Sao Paulo Jai Club 12/07 Rio de Janeiro Festa Da Firma
Asteroid is: Robin Hirse – Vocals & Guitar Johannes Nilsson – Vocals & Bass Jimmi Kohlscheen- Drums
Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 27th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Witchcraft, The Alchemist (2007)
I never liked Witchcraft‘s The Alchemist. Listening to it now, I can’t help but wonder why the hell not? In the narrative I’d constructed in my head, it was too clean, too much trying to be prog, and it had lost the simple charm of their 2004 self-titled debut (discussed here, albeit briefly) and its 2005 follow-up, Firewood — both records to which I feel some pretty significant fan attachment — and I recall being disappointed in the title-track, thinking it was boring and too long and pretentious in its forced-seeming 14-minute sprawl.
But wow, was I wrong.
I’m not sure the Magnus Pelander-led Swedish classic heavy rockers could ever have put out another album I’d reach for as often as the self-titled, but The Alchemist stands some 12 years later as testament to how prescient the band was in their craft, finding a way forward for retro rock that didn’t betray the vintage aesthetic but allowed for growth in songwriting. They didn’t quite “go prog,” but having recently given Black Sabbath‘s Technical Ecstasy (discussed here) a fair shake, The Alchemist doesn’t feel like an entirely dissimilar vision of creative evolution, whether it’s the referential nods in “Hey Doctor” — which seems not only to allude to Sabbath in its drum fills in the speedier second half, which is a compliment to the work of Fredrik Jansson, but indeed to Witchcraft‘s own prior work as well in its earlier riff — or the saxophone worked into the penultimate “Remembered.” Even the acoustic guitar John Hoyles (later of Spiders and now in Big Kizz as well) brings to “The Alchemist” itself and the flourish of organ from Tom Hakava deep in the mix alongside the bass of Ola Henriksson (now in Troubled Horse) make that song a richer experience in concept and execution alike. I won’t say it’s void of self-indulgence, but neither is it defined by that on an expressive level across its three-part spread. That middle section is gorgeous. I feel like I’ve been missing on enjoying it for over a decade.
Opener “Walk Between the Lines” launches the album with a strong sense of movement, something to sweep the listener into the proceedings with a clarity of strum front and center that even Firewood couldn’t claim in terms of production value, sharper as that record was than the debut. Layers of acoustic and electric intertwine in the solo section, perhaps prefacing the title-track on the album’s other end or at very least sounding cool, and rather than make their way back to the stomp of the song’s early going, they bend strings to twist their way to the song’s finish and instead pick up the thread with “If Crimson was Your Colour,” which was released as a standalone 7″ by Rise Above before The Alchemist came out, and remains one of the catchiest tracks they’ve ever written. “Leva” delves into Swedish-language lyrics for not the first time — recall “Schyssta Lögner” from the first album — and does so atop a creeping blues riff that’s a hook unto itself, while also subtly shifting the mood from the all-go momentum of the opening duo to the more rolling vibe that will continue to proliferate through “Hey Doctor” and “Samaritan Burden,” which brings a turn to gorgeous and folkish tonal wash that fades gently as it moves toward its conclusion and only leaves one wanting more.
That proves to be the perfect setup for “Remembered” to revive the thrust of the initial salvo, which it does while also leaving room for the aforementioned sax — courtesy of Anders Andersson — as well as some mellotron from Hakava, thereby working as well as a transition into “The Alchemist” via the added arrangement elements, broadening listener expectation again in subtle ways. And when they get there, the title-track is consuming in narrative and its patient delivery, with its long, open-feeling midsection, later return, and post-silence epilogue as it makes its way to its 14-minute finish. It wasn’t the first time Witchcraft surpassed the 10-minute mark — that would be Firewood closer “Attention!” — and they’ve done it a few times since, but “The Alchemist” is nonetheless a standout moment amid their work before or after, a complete idea realized at a new level of complexity and presentation.
So what was it that didn’t let me see that at the time? I’ve always been a first-two-records-only Witchcraft fan, and I guess when The Alchemist came out, I was too busy resenting the indie cred they’d amassed to appreciate the sonic progress they were making. It has been my loss, but I’m glad to have taken the opportunity to correct my error. It won’t make up for the 12 years over which I might’ve dug putting it on from time to time, but at least I know going forward that it’s a more than suitable follow-up to the brilliance of those other offerings I’ve so enjoyed for the last decade and a half. Never stop learning.
TheAlchemist was Witchcraft‘s last outing through Rise Above and the last to feature Hoyles on guitar. Henriksson would hold out on bass through 2012’s Nuclear Blast debut, Legend (review here), which greatly modernized their sound, and then indeed split with the band as well, leaving Pelander as the remaining founder. In 2016, they issued Nucleus (review here), which built on the steps that Legend had taken, and later that same year, Pelander under his own name released Time (review here), a solo full-length following a 2010 EP that seemed to preface more to come. Not to say it couldn’t happen, but Witchcraft have steadily been performing shows and at festivals — they flew to New York last Fall to play Le Poisson Rouge — and may or may not have new material in the works, which is to say I have no idea what’s going on with them.
Either way, The Alchemist isn’t the departure I’d so long thought it was, turning its back on the rawness of its forebears in Witchcraft‘s discography. It’s an outgrowth of those crucial first accomplishments, and an essential third in what’s been a trilogy all along. It’s not dropping off, it’s soaring.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
By Wednesday morning I was pretty ready to die. The Pecan was out of his mind. He’d had a cold earlier in the week and was getting over it but clearly not back up to 100 percent yet. And ugh. Hitting and biting and mad and not eating and just going from one thing to the next that he knows he’s not supposed to be doing. My laptop, the kitchen cabinets, slamming the fridge door, pulling on the oven — for which we’ve had to get a lock — just one to the next to the next without stopping. It gets so overwhelming. Pulling his mother’s laptop charger out of the wall. Trying to climb up behind the tv. Grabbing burning hot coffee. Climbing on me while I’m on the can. Dude, just bash my brains in and be done with it. Please. Please. I give. Mercy. Just kill me.
It was so bad that it was my 15th wedding anniversary and I told The Patient Mrs. that I found running a stoner rock blog more satisfying than parenting.
I said that shit.
Out loud.
And meant it.
And worse: I feel like I made a convincing case.
It took basically spending two hours at the park with the sandbox to set him right. Yesterday was better to some degree. It would almost have to be. Today he has baby-gymnastics, so I’m hoping that can take it out of him a little bit, let him work off some of whatever residual fuckall remains. We shall see. My severed head, on a pike made by Melissa & Doug.
He’s not yet two.
We were going to start potty training this weekend. No fucking way. I can’t even get the kid to sit down to put shoes on.
So that’s life. Real life.
No new episode of The Obelisk Show today on Gimme Radio. They had some production stuff going on this week and were overwhelmed and asked if I minded if we skipped the episode. Being overwhelmed myself, I said fine. Next week is the Quarterly Review anyhow, so yeah, plenty going on. I’m also flying to Norway for Høstsabbat. And I need to get those Acrimony liner notes finally done this weekend. So yes, I didn’t need to be cutting Gimme voice breaks yesterday afternoon, fun as that is to do.
I needed to sleep.
Which is probably what I should’ve done this morning when the alarm went off as well. Took me about three minutes to get up and flick the on switch for the coffee pot, giving myself a little pep talk in the meantime. “Come on Cocksan, it’s just one post. Get off your ass and make that coffee and write it.” And here we are.
No rest this weekend, no rest next week with the Quarterly Review and the fest after that. I’m also going (I hope) to Acid King on Monday in Brooklyn, so I’ll have a live review of that. And yeah. I don’t know. The whole thing just feels overwhelming and supremely dumb to me at this point, but I keep going. And I guess by the whole thing I mean life. But hey, the new Iguana record is good.
Kaboom.
Thanks for reading. Great and safe weekend. Forum, radio, merch.
Even though it came out three years later, Graveyard‘s 2007 self-titled debut was the album that showed retro heavy didn’t just belong to Witchcraft. Yeah, I know that’s an easy narrative and there were other bands out there at the time digging into the heavy ’70s sound for inspiration, but frankly, not at this level, and even Graveyard‘s fellow Swedes had begun by then to pull away from the proto-doom rock of their first outing by ’07. The two groups were further linked by a common lineage in Norrsken, with guitarist/vocalist Joakim Nilsson and then-bassist Rikard Edlund having played in that outfit alongside Witchcraft‘s Magnus Pelander from 1996-2000 and produced several demos and singles as well as appearing on the tributes Bastards Will Pay: A Tribute to Trouble (discussed here) and Blue Explosion: A Tribute to Blue Cheer (discussed here) in 1999. But not only were Graveyard on the earlier end of Sweden and greater Europe’s retroist movement, and not only did they play a significant role in putting it into motion, but they showed there was more to it than Pentagram worship.
I’ll readily admit that the first time I saw them, in 2010 at Roadburn Festival (review here), I didn’t get it. I’d heard the self-titled, then three years old after coming out in the States on Tee Pee and in Europe on Transubstans. They were too cool-looking for me. Everything just seemed too perfect, it felt like a put-on for cool kids that just didn’t sit nearly as well with me as falafel I went outside and ate instead of watching them through the open doorway of the old Green Room at the 013 in Tilburg. I was wrong, of course. Not that Graveyard weren’t fashion-conscious in a way that even Witchcraft would never be and that Germany’s Kadavar would raise to yet another level, but I just got a mistaken impression. It was the end of a long weekend. I was tired. So it goes. Those more clued in to what Nilsson, Edlund, drummer Axel Sjöberg, guitarist Jonatan Ramm and guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Truls Mörck were creating in terms of vibe dug it plenty. The problem, in short, was me. As ever.
By then, Graveyard were already due for a follow-up to Graveyard that wouldn’t arrive for another two years. That long stretch between a first album and a second one would crush a lesser band looking to capture some audience share, but with Graveyard, it seemed only to let the nine-song/39-minute long-player — crafted with a focus on vinyl, which was rare in 2007 — simmer as a burgeoning social media word-of-mouth spread its legend. Graveyard became a thing you knew if you were in the know, and their boogie blues rock was perfectly suited for building a cult following. Capping with the mega-hook of “Satan’s Finest,” the album was a clarion to the converted that wasn’t to be missed, and whether it was the shuffle in Sjöberg‘s snare on “Thin Line” or the swapping out of lead vocals for side A closer “Blue Soul” and side B’s “As the Years Pass by the Hours Bend” and the bass/percussion arrangement in the penultimate “Right is Wrong” that seemed so distant from the rush that began the album on “Evil Ways,” there was so much to dig about what Graveyard were doing that even if you got sucked in by the vintage-style production of the whole outing, you were still only getting part of the story. It was at least as much about the band’s songwriting and performance, if not more so, than the aesthetic they so purposefully donned to present it.
“Evil Ways” and “Satan’s Finest” — the start and the finish — were powerful enough in themselves, and managed to embrace cliché enough to be fun while other tracks took a more emotionalist direction that, in hindsight, foreshadowed some of Graveyard‘s and particularly Nilsson‘s delving into soul-driven fare on subsequent offerings. But the self-titled’s more raucous moments, on the short side B leadoff “Submarine Blues” or the bouncing-down-stairs rhythm of “Lost in Confusion,” as well as the fluidity in “Blue Soul,” were a new branch of heavy rock springing up right in front of the listener, and they were received accordingly. I don’t think it’s a hard argument to make that Graveyard became one of the most essential heavy rock bands of this decade in the wake of this debut, and what they’ve gone on to accomplish in the years since — signing to Nuclear Blast to finally release the landmark sophomore full-length Hisingen Blues (review here) in 2011, followed on a quick turnaround by 2012’s Lights Out (review here), touring the universe and then releasing 2015’s more mature Innocence and Decadence (review here) and 2018’s Peace (review here) — is matched by an elite few who might still be considered underground acts.
When Graveyard announced they were calling it quits in 2016, it seemed fair enough. After four records, they’d never hit a snag, and as they’d taken on a more modern production sound and toured hard for about half a decade, it was understandable they might have burnt themselves out. The breakup didn’t take, and when they got back together, with Oskar Bergenheim on drums in place of Sjöberg (since of Big Kizz) and Mörck back in the band on bass instead of guitar, with Ramm and Nilsson as the remaining founders, the revamped rhythm section changed the character of the band. That was evident on Peace, though the songwriting was consistent and arguably the broadest it had ever been. I don’t know what the future holds for Graveyard, except perhaps more touring — they announced last week they’ll be on the road with Clutch in Europe for a quick run this December — and headlining festival gigs if they want them, but listening back to their self-titled, it’s astounding how vital and assured this band was of what they were doing.
There are no shortage of acts out there who aim toward and eventually capture some sense of individuality. Who you put on and immediately know what you’re listening to. Graveyard would prove identifiable by the time the three and a half minutes of “Evil Ways” were done and wherever they’ve gone in terms of their sound, they’ve never lost that. While of course the context of their career since helps, I don’t think you can really look at their debut as anything other than a pivotal moment for this generation of heavy rock.
As always, I hope you enjoy.
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Gonna keep this quick if I can. A plug:
Today at 1PM Eastern is The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio. It’s the first time it’s airing in its new timeslot. I hope you get the chance to listen, and if you do, I hope you dig it. Please, if you can check it out, I’d very much appreciate it. I should be in the Gimme chat for it as well if you want to say hi.
Then later on tonight, The Patient Mrs., The Pecan and I are flying to Ireland. It’s been a hell of a week. We loaded and brought a truckload of stuff — including CDs, the packing of which was a task both mentally and physically — to the house in New Jersey where we’ll be living by the end of this summer, on Tuesday. We were there for Wednesday hanging out with family and whatnot, then came back north yesterday to Massachusetts so The Patient Mrs. could go to a farewell work party, and today we have a bunch of running around to do and packing to go on this trip, which is one of the last things she has going for Bridgewater State University: a study-abroad excursion to Ireland with another professor and 15 students. I’m going basically so she doesn’t have to be away from the baby for two weeks, though it means flying on a red-eye with an 19-month-old, stuffing him onto a bus multiple times and sleeping in the same room with him, which we haven’t done in a little over a year. It’s going to be… interesting. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about all of it.
Fortunately, we’re bringing his headphones. He has a little pair of blue wireless over-ears that The Patient Mrs. bought on Amazon. I loaded a micro-SD with the Beatles catalog and it’s an immediate calm-down for him. He can be in the midst of an absolute shit-fit and you put the headphones on him and it snaps him out of it. It’s astounding. Dude loves it. I just have to make sure he doesn’t get to “Revolution 9.” I don’t think children should be exposed to such horrors.
The plan though is to stop in and visit Slomatics though while we’re in Belfast, so I’m looking forward to that, and I may hit a record shop somewhere along the way. We’ll see. I don’t really know. I haven’t even looked at shows as compared to our itinerary or anything, mostly because I have no idea what our itinerary is. I’m really just along for the ride and the child-care on this one.
Because I love flying so much.
But it’s Ireland until June 6, then back to MA, then down to Jersey to see Solace with a bunch of other badass bands on June 8, then back to MA June 13 for more dental work — the saga continues! — then south to NJ, then further south for Maryland Doom Fest, then up to CT for a bit to cover babysitting my niece and nephew, and somewhere in there maybe we’re going to redo the kitchen in NJ before we actually move in? Oh yeah, and the place in Massachusetts goes on the market today, so if this place sells we’ll have to be out by some appointed closing date, then actually sort finances with buying the house in NJ and do that, finish packing — ugh, vinyl — and actually move. It’s a ton of shit, and completely overwhelming. That’s what it is.
All you can do is keep your head down and keep working.
But putting my head down, I notice on the baby monitor that The Pecan is up. Coming on 6AM, so that’s fair. Gonna go grab him and start the day. Laundry to do and whatnot.
Have a great and safe weekend. Forum, radio, merch at Dropout.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 8th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
For anyone who might look at the list of Graveyard dates below and wonder, hey, where’s the US tour?, well, they were just here with Uncle Acid. What more could you possibly want? Out of life? In the aftermath of that righteousness, the Swedish kingpins of heavy rock and roll are keeping plenty busy, touring Latin America starting on Friday in Guadalajara, Mexico, and wrapping May 19 in Rio de Janeiro, before heading back to Europe for festivals then returning to the US for Psycho Las Vegas — like you do — before shipping themselves out a week later to Australia for a quick run of shows there. They’ll also be at a big, commercial-type metal festival in Tennessee this October called Exit 111 that has a bunch of bands you’ve heard of. Someone actually recommended Fever 333 to me not so long ago. I should’ve been like, “Thanks brah, but I’m more of a Graveyard kind of guy.” It’s a shame sometimes the only one living in my head is me.
And The Patient Mrs., I guess. She’s all up in there.
In any case, more Graveyard touring, wherever and whenever it happens, certainly isn’t going to hurt anybody. After all, we got a taste of the world without them during their brief breakup in late 2016, and that was enough to begin a riding tide of troubling right wing populism that even their reformation hasn’t been able to stem. That’s right. I’m blaming the outcome of the last US election on Graveyard‘s breakup. Live with it.
Stay tuned for more hard-hitting political analysis:
TOUR DATES GRAVEYARD 2019-05-10 Guadalajara (Foro Independencia) MX 2019-05-11 Monterrey (Café Iguana) MX 2019-05-12 Mexico City (Foro Indie Rocks) MX 2019-05-14 Lima (C.C. Festiva) PE 2019-05-16 Santiago (Rock y Guitarras ) CL 2019-05-17 Buenos Aires (Teatro Vorterix) AR 2019-05-18 São Paulo (Fabrique Club) BR 2019-05-19 Rio de Janeiro (BCO) BR 2019-06-08 Nürnberg (Rock im Park) DE 2019-06-09 Nürburg (Rock am Ring) DE 2019-06-13 Interlaken (Greenfield Festival) CH 2019-06-14 Fuengirola (Rock The Coast) ES 2019-06-16 Donington (Download Festival) GB 2019-06-21 Clisson (Hellfest) FR 2019-07-12 Kristianstad (Rockfest) SE 2019-08-08 Moledo (Sonic Blast) PT 2019-08-16 Las Vegas, NV (Psycho Las Vegas) US 2019-08-23 Brisbane (The Brightside) AU 2019-08-24 Sydney (Crowbar) AU 2019-08-25 Melbourne (Corner Hotel) AU 2019-10-12 Manchester, TN (Exit 111) US
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 25th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
With the announcements that they would play Psycho Las Vegas in August and Keep it Low and Into the Void in October, a full Truckfighters reunion was more or less assumed, but confirmation is always nice. The Swedish fuzz mavens are back after a hiatus announced last February that at the time was said to be “long, long.” Well, so much for that. There’s a certain amount of resignation in the tagline with which they’re returning — “You can’t escape from what you are” — but there’s little doubt Truckfighters will bring their trademark energy back to the stage as they tour celebrating their 2005 debut, Gravity X (discussed here), ahead of its 15th anniversary in 2020.
The short version of this story is I’m glad these guys are back. Not only are they one of the best heavy rock live acts of their generation, but I genuinely think they had more to say as a band, as their last album, 2016’s V (review here), plainly demonstrated. I’ll look forward to whatever they do next, including, it would seem, a good amount of touring.
Word came down the PR wire as it does:
The truck of fuzz is refueled and ready to hit the road…
You can’t escape from what you are.
The answer could be as simple as that.
Almost two years off the grid the band returns with a world tour to celebrate their first album ‘Gravity X’. Originally released 2005 in Europe (2006 USA) the genre classic turns 15 years in 2020. The band gives the celebration a jump start second half of 2019 with selected shows in North America and a big European tour. The rest of the world to follow in 2020-2021.
This time the plans don’t go further, what happens happens. There’s only so much you can control in life.
If ever there was any doubt, this time off has shown the band members who they really are. With the ambition to play enough shows to satisfy their inner urge without losing the motivation, it is safe to say the touring will be less frequent than the most intense years of the band. Just as safe as is it to say that the shows will be better than ever and as always with a hell of a fuzzy sound!
Truckfighters ‘GRAVITY X – from finish to start world tour’. (More shows to be announced) Aug 18:th @ Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas (USA) – Psycho Las Vegas Festival Aug 22:nd @ Sala, Mexico City (MEX) [ Tickets on Sale April 20th] Oct 4:th @ Posthof, Linz (A) – Night of fuzz Oct 5:th @ Szene, Wien (A) – Night of fuzz Oct 6:th @ Beatpol, Dresden (D) Oct 8:th @ Hydrzagadka, Warsaw (P) Oct 9:th @ Festsaal, Berlin (D) Oct 10:th @ Knust, Hamburg (D) Oct 11:th @ Universum, Stuttgart (D) Oct 12:th @ Feierwerk, München (D) – Keep it low festival Oct 13:th @ Helios, Köln (D) Oct 14:th @ the Garage, London (UK) Oct 17:th @ Petit Bain, Paris (FR) Oct 19:th @ Neushoorn, Leeuwarden (NL) – Into the void festival
