Posted in Whathaveyou on March 28th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
London-based groove-conjurors Stonus will return to Cyprus, where they originally formed in 2015, to support Sweden’s Truckfighters in the coastal city of Larnaca. Don’t be surprised if they end up putting some new material in the set, since as of at least a few weeks ago, they were planning to record this summer and make a follow-up to their debut LP, Aphasia, which was released in 2020 and followed the next year by their Séance EP (review here). In the presumed interim time between now and the arrival of that yet-unrecorded full-length, Stonus will offer Live in Zen, for which you can see a brief teaser below.
Zen Production Studios is also located in Cyprus, and honestly I don’t know how much of the band lives there versus in the UK, etc., but you can see in the clip it looks like a classy establishment to showcase Stonus‘ riffery. Details are short at this point as regards things like a tracklisting — possible there could be new material on Live in Zen too, depending on when it was recorded and apparently filmed — and a release date, artwork, and so on, but if the repeating undulations of heavy rock and doom have taught anything in the last five decades-plus, it’s patience. So be patient.
And yes, I’m talking to myself there.
The following was cobbled together from social media:
Stonus – Live in Zen (TEASER)
“We have been waiting for a while for this one and we are super-excited to finally start sharing it with you all!”
Out soon on youtube and on vinyl via Electric Valley Records and Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug!!
We are currently working on our sophomore album which we are aiming to record this summer!
Couldn’t be more excited and we are eager to share with you some of our new material but till then we got work to do.
Recorded at Zen Production Studios in Nicosia, Cyprus Filmed by SevenSouled Photography Recorded & Engineered by Alexis Yiangoullis Mastered by Billy Anderson Lights by Nikolas Karatzas Artwork by Seven souled Photography & Rafael Marquetto
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 14th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
You know what was pretty awesome? Last year in Summer and Fall when Greek heavy rockers 1000mods partnered with Heavy Psych Sounds to do full-catalog reissues for their four full-lengths to-date (see here and here for full streams) and the band toured in the US for like a month and I got to see them at Desertfest New York (review here), that’s what.
I hadn’t seen the band in a decade, and in that interim they became arguably the most crucial Greek heavy rock act of their generation — a sonic spearhead for desert-heavy and those who’d branch elsewhere alike — and one of the staples of the broader European underground tour circuit. To wit, in addition to these April UK dates, they’ve got a show in Germany on May 30 and they’re set to play Hellfest in France on June 30. I would not be the least bit surprised if they did the entirety of the span between those two shows on the road.
The UK/Ireland dates were first announced almost a month ago but the band added to the tour the other day, so here they are now in all their currently-relevant glory as per social media:
***1000mods – UK & Ireland Tour 2024***
UK calling!
We ‘re so stoked to announce our first UK tour ever!
Upcoming Shows 04 Apr Bear Cave, Bournemouth, United Kingdom 05 Apr Rebellion, Manchester, United Kingdom 06 Apr Slay, Glasgow, United Kingdom 07 Apr Corporation, Sheffield, United Kingdom 09 Apr Voodoo, Belfast, United Kingdom 10 Apr The Grand Social, Dublin, Ireland 11 Apr The Bunkhouse Bar and Music Venue, Swansea, United Kingdom 12 Apr Garage, London, United Kingdom 13 Apr Thekla, Bristol, United Kingdom
Also: 30 May Colos-Saal Aschaffenburg, Germany 28 Jun Hellfest 2024, Clisson, France
1000mods is: Dani G. Giannis S. Giorgos T. Labros G.
Greek sludgeoners Sadhus, The Smoking Community are set to present their third full-length, Illegal Sludge, tomorrow, Nov. 17, through Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug Recordings. And while I’ll admit I’m not as up on Greek customs and politics as some might otherwise be, I’m pretty sure sludge isn’t really illegal. Think of the multitudes of Greek heavy bands who’d take to the streets, angrily, righteously demanding to steamroll and be steamrolled by riffs. A general strike (at last, everyone just stops going to work), boycotts, calls for regime change — no doubt shit would get severe — and the gnashing dogs on the cover of Illegal Sludge, well, I’m glad that guy’s in his car, and I feel like the terror portrayed in his bent fingers would be like what happened if you played the eight-song/39-minute wreckfest for your grandmother. Those look like German shepherds, despite the yellow eyes, so maybe that’s the cops siccing the dogs on our unsuspecting homeboy just trying to get a little spiritual catharsis on his way to the Costco. Ain’t nobody actually getting hurt, though you might not know that from the sound of the record.
Sadhus, The Smoking Community — whose moniker I always manage to read in the same voice as, “Spaceballs: The Flamethrower!” — shouldn’t be outlawed, but they should probably come with a warning. Whatever they put on room-sized miter saws should be fine. They commence the beatings with the seven-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “Mel O.D.,” and within 45 seconds, a few key elements have solidified. One, the tones are muck-thick and set to malevolent chug. Guitarist Thomas G., bassist Mak and drummer Greg are at home dug into the marching “Mel O.D.,” and when the harsh screams of vocalist Stavros start, a big part of the personality of Illegal Sludge is unveiled. This is not nearly my first experience with the band. I recall checking them out when they were taking part in the unfortunately shortlived Desertfest Athens in 2016, and their 2018 LP, Big Fish (review here), had similar feelings on subtlety, but in putting Illegal Sludge on, it’s still a surprise just how much aural force is put into this music. Caution: contents are very, very nasty. Do not shake. Do not expose to the well-adjusted.
Shenanigans abound, from a freakout at the end of “Mel O.D.” with guest trumpet by Bassment Rats, to “Eye on Man” finally breaking out the “Iron Man” riff at the very end to the stomp-mosh of “Woodman,” with its sub-two-minute tempo burst and punkish-and-still-omnidirectional fuckall leading into the closing pair of “Filthy Trust” and “Hold Out.” As once did the mighty Darkthrone, with whom Sadhus have little ultimately in common aside, I expect, from an affection for old metal and raw recordings, the four-piece offer “Fuck Off and Die” with a sense of even stripping down the stripped down. Lyrics are minimal, really some repeated verse lines and the chorus, but as is the case throughout Illegal Sludge, the fucking point gets across coming out of the fast-then-slow “Fuckin’ Apes” prior, itself reversing the structure of the opener. “Fuck Off and Die,” like at least part of “Mel O.D.,” is a march, and it’s not the last one to show up with the title-track still ahead, but they open it some in the second half and release a bit of the tension they’ve amassed. Naturally, they’re nowhere near done yet, and through “Eye on Man” and the dug-in caustic plunder of “Illegal Sludge” itself, they remain intentionally vicious.
If you’d seek some relent after “Illegal Sludge,” you’re on the wrong record. Sadhus, The Smoking Community back the title-cut with “Woodsman” and double-down right at the moment when most acts might pull back on the severity, if just for an interlude or somesuch. That comes in the quiet guitar and for-a-walk drums at the outset of “Filthy Trust,” but it doesn’t last, and by about 90 seconds in, the penultimate cut has burst into its full grimy glory, a roll like Monolord eventually giving way to d-beat hardcore thrust as they find an opportunity to fuse dynamic without giving up the central disaffection at their core, punishing right to the end and carrying that momentum into “Hold Out,” which is a duly consuming finish and presented as a moment of arrival — the slaughterhouse toward which all prior assault was leading. They take that nod through the feedback-drenched conclusion and leave residual noise and bad feelings to linger. Everyone else seems to have already said “fuck it” and gone home.
Legit. After just under 40 minutes of crusty pummeling, I’m not sure how much mental capacity is left over for conversationalism anyhow. But as you make your way through, keep in mind that while Sadhus, The Smoking Community seem to be pushing themselves and common aural decency to their respective limits, this is exactly the functioning goal of the work to start with. As harsh as Illegal Sludge is, it is precisely what the band wanted it to be, and that intention resonates through even its most violent stretches. It’s how their community does it. Also stoned. May it and they ever be thus.
Have at you:
Exactly five years following the release of their second full-length “Big Fish”, Greek doom metal crew Sadhus the Smoking Community are gearing up to release their third album “Illegal Sludge” via Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug! on November 17th. Recorded and mixed by Iraklis Vlachakis and mastered by Brad Boatright, “Illegal Sludge” is like a dangerous and highly intoxicating whiskey made at an illegal distillery.
A five-piece (four musicians plus a ‘rolling engineer’) band from Athens, Sadhus, The Smoking Community have released two full-length albums and two split releases to date where they deliver both hooky riffs and punchy rhythms via a caustic and heavy mix of a bluesy-driven sludge sound with extreme crust-style vocals.
Written & Performed by Sadhus, The Smoking Community Produced by Sadhus & Iraklis Vlachakis Recorded & Engineered by Iraklis Vlachakis at Crème Chalet Studio in Kallithea, Athens, GR, Nov – Dec 2022 Mixed by Iraklis Vlachakis Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, Oregon, USA Illustration & Layout by Fotini Kaklidi
TRACKLIST 1. Mel O.D. 2. Fuckin’ Apes 3. Fuck Off & Die 4. Eye On Man 5. Illegal Sludge 6. Woodman 7. Filthy Trust 8. Hold Out
Trumpet on MEL O.D. by Bassment Rats
Released by Ouga Booga & The Mighty Oug, November 2023
Sadhus, The Smoking Community are: Stavros – Vocals Thomas G. – Guitars Mak – Bass Greg – Drums Steve – Rolling Engineer
Sadhus, The Smoking Community, “Woodman” official video
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The play-whatever-the-hell-they-want Athenian heavy troupe Godsleep released their latest album, Lies to Survive (review here) earlier in 2023 through Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug and Threechords Records, and when they did so in Spring, they undertook a pretty significant tour to support it. That makes the upcoming ‘Permanent Vacation’ run — which takes its name from one of the songs on the record; I doubt they’re huge Aerosmith fans, but you never know — their second such stint of the year, and I think it’s even bigger. Starting in September, it carries them into December with a steady amount of live activity, and the band assures below that there’s more to come. It says it right there on the poster.
And about the poster. Usually it’s my modus to transcribe tour dates from a poster so that I can have the shows searchable by text. You never know when, eight years from now, you might need to know what date Godsleep hit Mixtape 5 in Sofia, Bulgaria, for whatever reason. I would do that here, but the wretched truth is I’m pressed for time and I wanted to post about the tour, so in the balance of writing out this entire covers-three-months list or posting about it at all, I went with the latter. I do hope that you’ll forgive me for skipping this usual step that I have absolutely no doubt you wouldn’t have noticed was missing at all if I didn’t mention it because, and here’s another wretched truth, I remain the only one who gives a crap about that kind of thing. So be it.
If you click the poster, the image gets big enough to read. If you click it again — or just give it a nudge with your finger if you’re on your fancyphone — it’ll go away. I promise I’m doing my best.
Their announcement on socials was short and appears below:
GODSLEEP – Permanent Vacation European Tour 2023
We are really happy to be back on the road this Fall to visit old friends but also excited to meet some of you for the first time!
These are the first dates of our “Permanent Vacation” tour and we will announce more dates shortly!
Let us know if we missed anything !
Powdered by: Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug / Tuned Tools Guitar Lab
Athens-based progressive heavy rockers Godsleep will release their new full-length, Lies to Survive, on April 7 through Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug Recordings and Threechords Records. It is their third album overall and second to be fronted by Amie Makris behind 2018’s Coming of Age (review here), which set a more varied course from the fuzz that launched them with 2015’s Thousand Suns of Sleep (review here) — it’s also their first for the 1000mods-adjacent label, if you want to do the full three-two-one — and it argues quickly that perhaps half a decade ago the band hadn’t really come of age as much as that title indicated.
With Lies to Survive, Makris, guitarist Johnny Tsoumas, bassist Fedonas Ktenas and (making his first appearance) drummer Dennis Panagiotidis, answer the expansion that Coming of Age brought in exponential style, breaking out of genre confines to bring in elements of pop, hip-hop, electronic music, space rock, noise, punk, sociopolitical themes all drawn together by a prevalence of attitude that pushes over to righteous arrogance across 11 songs and a CD-era-reminiscent 56-minute runtime somehow squashed onto a single LP (I actually don’t know that all songs are on the vinyl, but it looks like there are 11 listed in the gatefold lyrics of the mockup from their Bandcamp, as shown here; maybe some tracks are edited?).
But if Godsleep are pushing the limits of format, that’s just one on the longer list of limitations being exceeded. Fuzz riffing is still at least a definite part of their foundation, and plays a significant role in songs like the punker “Pots of Hell” (video premiering below), “Room 404,” the careening “Cracks,” or “Egonation” a short time later, as well as the penultimate “Permanent Vacation,” but in each of those songs, the job of the guitar goes further than ‘establish riff, play riff, repeat riff’ by a broad margin. To wit, “Pots of Hell” greets its rhythmic shove with rants and raps and resolves in an intensity that leaves Makris no choice but to let out a scream and drop the mic before it gets to its willfully choppy but immersive finish, while “Room 404,” which follows immediately, is an even more expansive nod, interrupting itself early with timely hits on snare and guitar that come across like they’re meant to be intrusive before opening to a vaster fuzz in the hook.
Yeah, sure, then they introduce the keyboard at about three minutes in and by the time they’re done, they’re in a psych-guitar-topped dub jam. Meanwhile, “Cracks” leans aggro in its hook in paying off the hint dropped by the punch of Ktenas‘ bass in the verse, dropping to stick clicks after its second chorus only to tear itself open and let the fuzz back out at a run before it’s three minutes into its grand total of four, “Egonation” uses up-strummed twanger fuzz at its outset but becomes a lesson in how to build tension and bring it to a point of explosion, and “Permanent Vacation” goes prog metal in its construction, vaguely Tool-ish but more restless (not a complaint) until maybe-probably-electronic percussion beats begin a midsection shift that grows larger until it opens to a triumphant play on Sabbath‘s “Hole in the Sky” before slipping back into the verse with a nigh-on-motorik thrust and more hypnosis that seems somehow also to answer the trance resulting from the dug-in ending of “Pots of Hell,” demonstrating the lethal consciousness at work behind Lies to Survive‘s sometimes manic procession.
And if it seems like I’m bouncing around the tracklisting here (you can see it listed below in order for reference), that’s not a coincidence. The songs are in part united by the tour de force performance put on by Makris, whose anarchist declarations in the initially-keyboard-backed leadoff “Booster” — “You won’t find an apologist here” among them — work to quickly establish a defiant tone that Godsleep reinforce by shifting within that three-and-a-half-minute cut to a crunch born of noise rock executed around the first but by no means last pattern of circular guitar from Tsoumas — see also “Pavement,” “Breakfast,” and the aptly-titled capper “Last Song,” where every now and then a little flourish is thrown in to remind that no, it’s not a loop — before “Pots of Hell” takes this cue and runs with it, the drums, bass and accent guitar backing Makris for the forceful, semi-spoken verse before the next bombastic hook.
It is by no means the last surprise in store on Lies to Survive, with “Saturday” dropping ’90s alt rock references lyrical and instrumental, delving into Soundgarden-ism in layered vocal harmonies before riding a suitably long guitar solo but shifting back to its chorus before it’s done, or the toying with pop and techno in the outset of “Better Days” prior to its own introduction of the guitar, a mini-epic for side B that feels at distant remove from, say, “Breakfast,” with its good-fun Casio-style backbeat and a rare fadeout to transition into “Pavement,” which ends its first verse with the line “Now it’s time to party” and seems very much to mean it if the brash and funky groove that ensues is anything to go by, topped with another impressive rant in the spirit of “Pots of Hell.”
In addition to Makris‘ standout work and the marked increase in stylistic range throughout, Lies to Survive is also the first Godsleep album not to be recorded by George Leodis (also of 1000mods), as the band partnered with John Sotiropoulos on production (John Fuho also co-engineered) and mixing at Wreck it Sound Studios in Corinth, and that choice very much becomes a part of the character of the whole work, whether it’s the bass emphasis in the last build of “Booster” or the forward vocal layers at the start of “Better Days” or even the ambient stretch that caps the record after the end of “Last Song,” where Makris enters at 6:45 into an otherwise instrumental eight-minute stretch to deliver a resonant epilogue to the proceedings. The production is another tie bringing the songs together, but that proves ultimately to be as much about consciousness of the choices being made as the tones or overarching flow, each song feeling thought-out and considered, getting what it needs in terms of arrangement while mainlining far too much adrenaline to be anything close to staid.
Lies to Survive is not a record one would have predicted eight years ago that Godsleep would ever release, even before changes in lineup are considered. Still audible are the riffy roots and a current of Mediterranean roil, even as “Last Song” begins its long adventure through keyboard storytelling and proggy stomp, but the most powerful impression Godsleep make on third full-length is of having the ability to be genuinely untethered by genre considerations, to be free to go where the tracks — and, deeper, the parts of those tracks — take them, and to know when indeed to let the songs lead themselves. They do not sound at all like they’re finished exploring, but no question Lies to Survive is a landmark for them in unveiling the scope of their intent as it is today, pairing awareness of that with the knowledge born of experience that not all of their audience is going to be on board for the sundry turns in the material. The album is bolder for that, and its boldness might be the greatest unifier of all.
The video for “Pots of Hell” premieres below, followed by more from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Godsleep, “Pots of Hell” official video premiere
Formed in 2010, Godsleep have been working relentlessly since then, walking their way to entering the heavy rock pantheon. Having been described as one of the most promising bands of the heavy/psychedelic rock sound, from their very beginning, the Athenian heavy rock roller-coaster based its very existence on powerful live appearances, including the participation in high profile rock festivals all around Europe and a full European tour in support of their critically acclaimed debut album “Thousand Sons of Sleep” (Rock Freaks Records, 2015).
2018 welcomes the release of “Coming of Age”, Godsleep’s sophomore full length album, which was released by legendary Greek underground rock record label The Lab Records and garnered strong reactions from both press and fans. Having kept the core ingredients of their sound intact: heavy/fuzzy guitars, thick bass lines and powerful groovy drumming, Godsleep enriched their songwriting with uniquely addictive female vocals which vary from psychedelic howls and haunting melodies to throat-ripping edgy screams.
Now five years later, Godsleep return with their third album “Lies to Survive” to be released by “Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug” Records in April 2023. This new effort showcases the band’s penchant for layering fuzzy, infectious riffs with engaging melodies, yet time is also shows their eagerness to branch out into other areas bringing in elements of noise-rock and even punk-rock elements like on the raucous “Pots of Hell”.
Tracklisting: 1. Booster 2. Pots of Hell 3. Room 404 4. Saturday 5. Cracks 6. Breakfast 7. Pavement 8. Better Days 9. Egonation 10. Permanent Vacation 11. Last Song
All music written, arranged and performed by Godsleep Produced by John Sotiropoulos & Godsleep Mixed by John Sotiropoulos Engineered by John Sotiropoulos & John Fuho Recorded at Wreck it Sound Studios, Corinth, GR Mixed at Wreck it Sound Studios, Corinth, GR Mastered by John Sotiropoulos at Wreck it Sound Studios, Corinth, GR
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
[PLEASE NOTE: This tour is canceled as of Feb. 13, 2023]
Greek heavy rock forerunners 1000mods are fresh off a run of European tour dates that took them as far north as Helsinki, and they’ve just announced that early next year they’ll travel to Australia and New Zealand for further touring. I find myself wondering if they might go to herald a new album release; it’s been two years and will be going on three since they issued 2020’s Youth of Dissent (review here), and that’s an awfully long way to go for a record that’s not new. But of course, the time since Youth of Dissent‘s Spring 2020 release hasn’t exactly been accommodating to album cycles, so if they’re looking to give that record its due before moving onto the next, one could hardly hold it against them. It was a better collection of songs than perhaps its clean production led listeners to believe, and I don’t have to imagine those tracks going over well live because there’s a Rockpalast video streaming below from this year that demonstrates it plainly. So there.
Whether or not they’ve got a studio release in the works — and if they do, great, and if not, it’s still 1000mods — they’ll hit Wollongong on Feb. 15 and wrap in Auckland on Feb. 27. There are a couple long drives here — Sunshine Coast to Adelaide is 23 hours by car, reportedly — but hell’s bells that’s a cool tour.
Here are the dates as posted on social media:
1000MODS – ***AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND TOUR 2023***
Dear friends,
we are extremely happy to be able to visit again Australia and for the first time ever New Zealand! Tour is presented by HEAVY Magazine and Foundry Touring
See you Down Under!
DATES: 15.02.23: Wollongong – La La La’s 16.02.23: Sydney – Lansdowne 17.02.23: Gold Coast – Vinnies Dive 18.02.23: Brisbane – The Zoo 19.02.23: Sunshine Coast – Kings Beach Tavern 22.02.23: Adelaide – Lion Arts Factory 23.02.23: Hobart – Altar 24.02.23: Melbourne – Corner Hotel 25.02.23: Wellington, NZ – Valhalla 26.02.23: Christchurch, NZ – 12 Bar 27.02.23: Auckland, NZ – Whammy!
Posted in Features on April 21st, 2020 by JJ Koczan
The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.
Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.
Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan
Days of Rona: Labros G. from 1000mods (Chiliomodi, Greece)
—
How are you dealing with this crisis as a band? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?
First of all, thanks for doing this and thanks a lot for caring! The band is healthy and everyone is safe at home! The plan was to release our new album on the 24th of April and on the 1st of May embark on our headline European tour in order to promote the new album. The spring tour has been postponed and we are still waiting for the rest of summer dates, as we have already booked a lot of festivals and club shows for the whole summer.
The album release date was not affected.
What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?
We are in lockdown. The majority of business have been shut down and most of employees either work from home or have been seriously affected by losing their job or are unsure about their future when this is over.
People are only allowed to get outside for getting supplies, exercise (max two persons) or to walk their dogs and they have to send an SMS to the government in order to declare personal information, time and reason of transfer.
How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?
Since mid-March, all the gigs in Greece have been canceled, all the venues, bars, studios, merch printing companies etc. have been closed. A lot of bands from our scene are being forced to cancel/postpone their European and Greek tours. The music community is united and there have already been some online live sessions, or cover/jam challenges on social media. People try to deal with the quarantine with artistic expression, online socializing and humor.
What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?
? think the whole Covid-19 crisis is a chance to reconsider the structure of our society, the economical system and our future as a human species in general. It’s time for people to prioritize our needs and wants and realize that we are guided by irrational leaders, who reacted really slow on taking the situation seriously, chose to mislead the public with wrong information and prefer thousands of people dying — although we have the science and the technology to prevent this — just in order to continue supporting the rotten capitalistic system and favor the chosen few.
In every crisis there is opportunity for bigger gains and this is exactly what’s happening right now. The only positive outcome is that humanity finally gave nature some time to recover from an unstoppable destroy that takes place the last century. It’s real odd to see in real-time how much, our way of living affects the planet and how nature recovers with just a little bit of human absence. Of course this is not going to bring the solution to big nature problems, like climate change and planet’s overheating, but it clearly shows that if we want to change our planet’s future, we still can.
It’s 2020, we have moved a lot forward with scientific breakthroughs, amazing technology and we have reached a point where knowledge is shared instantly across the world. So I think there are no excuses. It’s in peoples’ hands to decide if we are going to continue the same way, or gonna change our perspective to a more humanistic society powered by solidarity and respect for each other, using all our knowledge and wisdom in order to make people’s lives better.
It seems to be the mark of generational shifts that one invariably criticizes the one after. Baby Boomers and Generation X. Generation X and Millennials. Millennials and Gen-Z and whatever they call the proverbial “kids nowadays” nowadays. Coming from Greece, which is a nation that has seen arguably more than its fair share of turmoil even before the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak — from economic upheaval to being an epicenter of Europe’s greatest refugee crisis in over half a century, to the all-encompassing apocalyptic linger that is climate change currently in progress — 1000mods appear to depart from this “when I was your age we walked uphill both ways” norm with Youth of Dissent, their fourth album and second to be self-released through their own Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug Recordings imprint.
The cover art and the general theme of the engrossing 11-track/55-minute long-player seems to be framed not around calling the youth lazy, but standing in admiration and being inspired by the likes of the school-walkout climate protests and other youth movements happening worldwide, and fair enough. Bassist/vocalist Dani G., guitarists Giannis S. and George T., and drummer Labros G. return accordingly with an energetic and powerful collection of songs, perhaps less directly politically oriented than one might think, but from the careening opener “Lucid” onward as the salvo continues into the crunch-riff/open-verse-combo “So Many Days” and start-stop shover “Warped” ahead of the slower roll of the seven-minute “Dear Herculine,” 1000mods offer the best summary of their purpose right there in the name of their first track. They are lucid. Strikingly so.
The Chiliomodi four-piece have never exactly been shy about their purposes. Their 2016 full-length, Repeated Exposure To… (review here), back through 2014’s Vultures (review here), 2012’s Valley of Sand EP (discussed here), 2011’s breakthrough debut, Super Van Vacation (review here; discussed here), 2009’s Liquid Sleep EP (review here), and 2006’s Blank Reality EP all one way or another have made heavy rock and roll the root of what they do. From an early fascination with desert vibes in Super Van Vacation and Valley of Sand, they’ve shifted toward a more straight-ahead approach to weighted tones and riff-led fare, with Vultures capturing the transition in action ahead of further realization on Repeated Exposure To…, which before Youth of Dissent, was their most mature release to-date. That title has been usurped, and in somewhat ironic fashion given Youth of Dissent‘s homage to upstart-ism.
Still, it is the clarity of their intention and the feeling of purpose in their songwriting that comes through so much in the material on Youth of Dissent, with “Dear Herculine” displaying a more patient take, which the duly wistful “Young” and the slow progressive build of closer “Mirrors” will bear out later, and while that’s a consistent theme across the 1000mods‘ work from their earliest days of Kyuss worship, the sense of just how much they’ve adopted and adapted their own approach is hard to ignore in these songs, and the effectiveness of their work has yet to sound so broad in its reach. That is to say, Youth of Dissent feels worldlier, speaking not just to a heavy underground, but a wider audience of anyone who might hear it. It is an album with a message it hopes to convey to as many ears as possible.
In making it, 1000mods traveled to Washington to record with producer/engineer Matt Bayles, who’s best known in heavy circles for his work with Mastodon, Isis, Sandrider and multitudes of others in the Pacific Northwest noise sphere. And to be sure, Youth of Dissent accordingly lacking nothing for volume. It comes out in the stage-ready drive of “Warped” and the later pair of “Pearl” and the well-we’re-in-Seattle-so-let’s-make-a-Nirvana-song “Blister” ahead of “Young,” but as can be heard in the comfortably floating melody of “Less is More,” the centerpiece interlude “21st Space Century” and even the gallop of the penultimate “Dissent” — which also brings about some of the record’s most physically dense riffing — it wasn’t simply volume so much as dynamic that the band wanted to hone in the recording.
Bayles brings a keen ear for performance, which is unsurprising given his pedigree, but through that, Youth of Dissent also highlights how much 1000mods‘ approach to has to offer at this stage in their now-15-year tenure. There is an overarching professionalism to pieces like “So Many Days” and the recent speedy single “Pearl” that offer a vision of heavy rock intended for a mass audience. They are not just preaching to the converted here, as they otherwise might. They’re trying to win new converts. And there is a sizable distinction between the two in terms of boldness and, again, lucidity.
While not cloying in the way of commercial hard rock, stripping away personality in search of a universal lowest common pop denominator of dumbed-down (usually white) male aggression, Youth of Dissent makes its own willful rebellion in its refusal to isolate itself. It’s true the dominant social narrative of the day may have shifted out from under the record’s feet to some degree — plagues happen, apparently — but that doesn’t make 1000mods‘ message any less relevant. Their pointed admiration and you-inspire-us point of view comes through as surely as any of the guitar, bass, drums or vocals, and gives an impression that lasts right alongside the strongest of hooks in “So Many Days,” or “Pearl” or “Young” or “Dissent,” etc., and invariably, they’re speaking to an audience beyond the bounds of the heavy rock norm. Maybe even a younger one.
Their worldlier perspective and veteran status are both remarkably well earned. Even in the last five years, the band have toured extensively through Europe as well as hitting North America and Australia, and their audience has only continued to grow, making them not only ambassadors and spearheads of the vibrant Greek heavy underground, but one of the foremost acts of the European live circuit. They translate that experience into the tracks of Youth of Dissent, and if what they’re drawing in terms of inspiration is the energy of the young itself and the fervency of belief in what they’re doing, then the success of the album is writ large across its near-hour runtime. There seems also to be an undercurrent of hope throughout the proceedings, and along with their craft generally, that too feels more crucial now than ever.
