One thing I’ve noticed over the now-several times I’ve done this is that people have a tendency to apply some value to the ordering. It’s true that I try to lead off with a bigger release sometimes (as with today), but beyond that, there’s really no statement being made in how the albums appear. It usually has way more to do with time, when something came in and when it was added to the list, than with the quality or profile of a given outing. Just that final note that probably should’ve been said on Monday. Whoops.

Before we wrap up, I just wanted to say thank you again for checking any of it out if you did this week. It’s not a minor undertaking to do these, but it’s been completely worth it and I very much appreciate your being a part of it. Thank you. As always.

Fall 2015 Quarterly Review #41-50:

My Dying Bride, Feel the Misery

Led by founding guitarist Andrew Craighan and vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe, UK doom magnates My Dying Bride mark their 25th year with Feel the Misery, their 13th full-length and one that finds them right in their element practicing the melancholic death-doom style they helped forge on pivotal early works like As the Flower Withers (1992) and Turn Loose the Swans (1993). “And My Father Left Forever” starts Feel the Misery on a particularly deathly note, but it’s not too long before the 10-minute “To Shiver in Empty Halls” and the subsequent “A Cold New Curse” are mired in the grueling, poetic, beauty-in-darkness emotionality that is My Dying Bride’s hallmark. The album’s title-track is a chugging bit of extremity, but the record’s strongest impact winds up being made by the penultimate “I Almost Loved You,” a piano, string and e-bow (sounding) ballad that pushes further than “A Thorn of Wisdom” by daring not to get heavy and rests well between the lumbering “I Celebrate Your Skin” and the 11-minute closer, “Within a Sleeping Forest,” which fits well, but more reinforces the point than offers something new on its own. A quarter-century later, they remain an institution. One wonders how they’ve managed to stay so depressed for so long.

My Dying Bride’s website

Peaceville Records store

—

Glowsun, Beyond the Wall of Time

If French mostly-instrumentalists Glowsun are feeling pressed for time these days – and with the theme of Beyond the Wall of Time (out via Napalm Records) that shows itself in the ticking clocks that launch opener “Arrow of Time” and the like-minded titles “Last Watchmaker’s Grave,” “Against the Clock” and “Endless Caravan” – the material itself doesn’t show it. Opening with two nine-minute cuts, Glowsun’s third outing and the follow-up to 2012’s Eternal Season (discussed here) unrolls itself patiently across its seven-track span, leading one to wonder if maybe Beyond the Wall of Time isn’t intended as another means of expressing something outside of it, the expanse of tones and grooves created by guitarist/vocalist Johan Jaccob (also graphic art), bassist Ronan Chiron and drummer Fabrice Cornille on “Shadow of Dreams” and the centerpiece “Flower of Mist” intended to last after some eternal now has passed. I wouldn’t want to guess, but it’s noteworthy that the trio’s output is evocative enough to lead toward such speculations.

Glowsun on Thee Facebooks

Napalm Records store

—

Caustic Casanova, Breaks

As with their 2012 debut, Someday You Will be Proven Correct, Washington D.C.-based trio Caustic Casanova recorded their sophomore long-player, Breaks, with J. Robbins at The Magpie Cage in Baltimore. They’re also releasing the album through Kylesa’s Retro Futurist Records imprint, so they come nothing if not well-endorsed. With bassist Francis Beringer and drummer Stefanie Zaenker sharing vocal duties throughout – the trio is completed by Andrew Yonki on guitar – they run and bounce through a gamut of upbeat post-hardcore noise rock, thick in tone but not so much as to get up and move around, tempo-wise. Yonki brings some post-rock airiness to the early going of the nine-minute “Elect My Best Friend for a Better World,” but the album on the whole feels more about impact than atmosphere, and Caustic Casanova work up considerable momentum by the time they get around to paying off the 12-minute finale, “The Painted Desert.” Its melodies open up more on repeat listens, but not at the expense of the push so well enacted throughout.

Caustic Casanova on Thee Facebooks

Retro Futurist Records

—

Dead Sea Apes, Spectral Domain

An outwardly familiar conceptual framework – instrumental space/psychedelic rock – does little to convey how much of themselves Manchester, UK, trio Dead Sea Apes put into their new full-length, Spectral Domain. Released by Cardinal Fuzz in conjunction with Sunrise Ocean Bender, it’s the band’s sixth or seventh LP, depending on what counts as such, and bookends two north-of-10-minute explorations around three shorter pieces (though not much shorter in the case of the 9:50 “True Believers”) varied in color but uniformly galaxial in intent. “Brought to Light” rings out with a wash of drumless echo and swirl, seemingly in response to the tension of centerpiece “The Unclosing Eye,” and the whole album seems to take a theme from things seen and unseen, between “Universal Interrogator” and closer “Sixth Side of the Pentagon,” a vibe persisting in some conspiracy theory exposed as blissful and immersive truth with something darker lurking just underneath. Thick but not pretentious, Spectral Domain seems to run as deep as the listener wants to go.

Dead Sea Apes on Thee Facebooks

Sunrise Ocean Bender

Cardinal Fuzz Records

—

Bantoriak, Weedooism

A ritualistic spirit arrives early on Italian heavy psych rockers Bantoriak’s debut LP, Weedooism, and does not depart for the duration of the Argonauta Records release’s six tracks, which prove spacious, psychedelic and heavy in kind, playing out with alternating flourishes of melody and noise. “Try to Sleep” seems to be talking more about the band than the act, but from “Entering the Temple” through the rumbling closer “Chant of the Stone,” Bantoriak leave an individualized stamp on their heavy vibes, and that song is no exception. If Weedooism is the dogma they’re championing on the smooth-rolling “Smoke the Magma,” they’re doing so convincingly and immersively, and while they seem to have undergone a lineup shift (?) at some point since the record was done, hopefully that means Weedooism will have a follow-up to its liquefied grooves and weedian heft before too long. In an increasingly crowded Italian heavy psych/stoner scene, Bantoriak stand out already with their first album.

Bantoriak on Bandcamp

Bantoriak at Argonauta Records

—

Ahab, The Boats of the Glen Carrig

Though somewhat counterintuitive for a band playing their style of doom to start with, Ahab have only been met with a rising profile over their decade-plus together, and their fourth album for Napalm Records, The Boats of the Glen Carrig, answers three years of anticipation with an expanded sonic palette over its five tracks that is afraid neither of melodic sweetness nor the seafaring tonal heft and creature-from-the-deep growling that has become their hallmark. Their extremity is intact, in other words, but they’re also clearly growing as a band. I don’t know if The Boats of the Glen Carrig is quite as colorful musically as its Sebastian Jerke cover art – inevitably one of the best covers I’ve seen this year – but whether it’s the 15-minute sprawl of “The Weedmen,” which at its crescendo sounds like peak-era Mastodon at quarter-speed or the (relatively) speedy centerpiece “Red Foam (The Great Storm),” Ahab are as expansive in atmosphere as they are relentlessly heavy, and they’re certainly plenty of that.

Ahab on Thee Facebooks

Napalm Records

—

Zark, Tales of the Expected

One would hardly know it from the discouraging title, but all-caps UK progressive metallers ZARK do manage to catch one off-guard on their debut full-length, Tales of the Expected. Duly melodic and duly complex, the eight tracks rely on straightforward components to set deceptively lush vibes, the guitar work of Sean “Bindy” Phillips and Josh Tedd leading the way through tight rhythmic turns alongside bassist Andy “Bready” Kelley and drummer Simon Spiers’ crisp grooves. Vocalist Stuart Lister carries across the aggression of “LV-426” and hopefulness of “The Robber” with equal class, and while ZARK’s first outing carries a pretty ambitious spirit, the Evesham five-piece reach the high marks they set for themselves, and in so doing set new goals for their next outing, reportedly already in progress. A strong debut from a band who sound like they’re only going to get more assured as they move forward. More “pleasant surprise” than “expected.”

Zark on Thee Facebooks

Zark on Bandcamp

—

Pyramidal & Domo, Jams from the Sun Split

Paired up by style almost as much as by geography, Alicante, Spain, acts Pyramidal and Domo picked the right title for their Jams from the Sun split – a bright, go-ahead-and-get-hypnotized psychedelic space vibe taking hold early on the Lay Bare Recordings release and not letting go as one side gives way to the other or as the noisy post-Hawkwindery of “Uróboros” closes out. Pyramidal, who made their debut in 2012 (review here), offer “Motormind” and “Hypnotic Psychotic,” two 10-minute mostly-instrumental jams that progress with liquid flow toward and through apexes in constant search for the farther-out that presumably they find at the end and that’s why they bother stopping at all, and Domo, who made their debut in 2011 (review here), counter with three cuts of their own, “Viajero del Cosmos,” “Mantra Astral” and the aforementioned “Uróboros,” switching up the mood a little between them but not so much as to interrupt the trance overarching the release as whole. I remain a sucker for a quality space jam, and Jams from the Sun has 45 minutes’ worth.

Pyramidal on Thee Facebooks

Domo on Thee Facebooks

Lay Bare Recordings

—

Mammoth Salmon, Last Vestige of Humanity

After releasing a couple internet EPs (review here) and 2013’s Call of the Mammoth EP as the duo of guitarist/vocalist/bassist Paul Dudziak and drummer Mitch Meidinger, Portland, Oregon’s Mammoth Salmon enlist bassist Alex Bateman and drummer Steve Lyons for their first full-length, the Adam Pike-produced Last Vestige of Humanity, which rolls out plus-sized Melvinsery across six amp-blowing tracks of sludgy riffing and nodding, lumbering weight. The title-track, which ends what would and probably will at some point be side A of the vinyl version, picks up the tempo in its second half, and “Memoriam” teases the same in Lyons’ drums at the start, but of course goes on to unfold the slowest progression here ahead of “Shattered Existence”’s toying with playing barely-there minimalism off full-on crush and the 10-minute “Believe Nothing” rounding out with appropriately elephantine march. Sustainable in their approach and viciously heavy, Mammoth Salmon seem to have hit reset and given themselves a new start with this lineup, and it works to their advantage on this promising debut.

Mammoth Salmon on Thee Facebooks

Mammoth Salmon on Bandcamp

—

Molior Superum, Electric Escapism

“Karma is a bitch that will definitely hunt you down for what you have done,” would seem to be the standout message of “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife,” the third and longest (at 6:34) of the four inclusions on Molior Superum’s new EP, Electric Escapism. The non-retro Swedish heavy rockers fire up righteous heft to put them in league with countrymen Skånska Mord, but ultimately have more in common with Stubb out of the UK in the loose-sounding swing of “Försummad,” despite the different language. I had the same opinion about their full-length debut, Into the Sun (review here), and last year’s The Inconclusive Portrait 7” (review here) as well. Can’t seem to shake it, but Molior Superum’s ability to switch it up linguistics – they open and close in Swedish, with the two middle cuts in English – is an immediately distinguishing factor, and whichever they choose for a given song, they kill it here.

Molior Superum on Thee Facebooks

Molior Superum on Bandcamp

—

Twenty-five years and 12 albums later, My Dying Bride have more or less just come out and said it. It’s hard to know if the title of their new record, Feel the Misery — out Friday on Peaceville — is an insistence, an invitation or a recommendation, but what’s plain is that the long-running UK outfit have been trafficking in that misery for a quarter of a century and they stand among the foremost experts in the world when it comes to its nuances and the dramatic effect it can have on a listener. Their ability to conjure bleak atmospheres into depressive, theatrical proclamations has influenced a generation of doomers, and they’re still the masters when it comes to crafting grand visions of downtrodden emotionality.

A new video for the title-track from Feel the Misery has just been unveiled, and between seeing frontman Aaron Stainthorpe play a loner artist in a candlelit basement — my understanding is that’s also the method by which is writes the band’s lyrics — and the fact that it takes its inspiration from the classic painting The Raft of Medusa, well, it’s hard to imagine a more suitable visual accompaniment for the track itself, right down to the strange shadowplay and British flag washed ashore at the end. Director James Sharrock ties it to the current migrant crisis in Europe, but whether you’re looking for current (unfortunately) political metaphor or not, the visual resonance holds, and My Dying Bride‘s grueling melancholy is as prevalent as ever.

Enjoy:

My Dying Bride, “Feel the Misery” official video

MY DYING BRIDE LAUNCHES “FEEL THE MISERY” MUSIC VIDEO

12th studio album “Feel the Misery” out September 18 on Peaceville

My Dying Bride’s latest opus and 12th full studio album, Feel the Misery, is set for release on September 18 on Peaceville Records. It can be pre-ordered on CD, vinyl, plus a special edition 2CD/2×10 vinyl set in deluxe earbook format with exclusive music and expanded booklet, online at: https://burningshed.com/store/peaceville/.

Using ‘The Raft of Medusa’ by French romantic painter Théodore Géricault as visual inspiration, as well as taking cues from the band’s own bleak and foreboding music, My Dying Bride’s latest video is a harrowing tale of tragedy and loss.

Filmed on the stunning Pembroke coast of South Wales, and in particular St. Govan’s Chapel, the scenes were set to play out the narrative as vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe takes the role of a lone musician and poet who stumbles upon a fallen maiden while combing the seascape for curiosities. Clearly the victim of a recent shipwreck, she is gathered up and removed to a suitable, somber resting place, all the while the mournful “Feel the Misery” plays alongside, marrying the rich visuals with the melancholic song.

Directed by James Sharrock (http://www.invadetvproductions.com/) and Ryan Mackfall, Sharrock explains: “The concept for ‘Feel the Misery’ has been in my head for a while. It is loosely based on the famous painting ‘Raft of Medusa’ by Theodore Gericault painted in 1819, and when I heard the song it invoked the creative idea I had been thinking about.

“In May this year I read in the news reports of a ‘Ghost ship’ carrying 350 starving Rohingya Muslims vanishing off Thailand. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand refused to engage in search-and-rescue operations, instead pushing the boats back to sea, letting the people starve and refusing to accept the asylum seekers – similar to the story behind ‘Raft of Medusa.’ It was only later in the year as we were filming the music video down around the Pembrokeshire coast that the media took a greater interest in the deaths of asylum seekers in the Mediterranean. The song has allowed me to bring to life not only issues that are currently facing us all, but a masterpiece that reflects a similar tragedy from centuries ago.”

My Dying Bride’s website

My Dying Bride on Thee Facebooks

Peaceville Records

The odds have been overcome, the story has been told, and really all that’s left for Pentagram at this point is to keep the momentum going. Their return to Peaceville Records comes with Curious Volume, their second full-length after 2011’s Last Rites (review here) reunited one of the most pivotal pairings in American doom: vocalist Bobby Liebling and guitarist Victor Griffin, and one could easily argue that it finds Pentagram — Liebling, Griffin, bassist Greg Turley and drummer “Minnesota” Pete Campbell as the latest addition in place of Sean Saley, now in The Skull — with the highest public profile they’ve ever had. 40 tumultuous (to put it mildly) years later, Bobby Liebling is legitimately a rock star, headlining at festivals like Psycho California and touring to packed houses on both coasts and in between.

It’s worth noting that part of that notoriety is owed to the 2012 documentary, Last Days Here (review here), but the band having a back catalog of largely-underrated doom classics has helped them influence an entirely new generation of listeners and artists. It boasts few surprises, but the 43-minute/11-track Curious Volume works well within Pentagram‘s strengths and proves a solid outing that will keep them on the road as they continue to expand their fanbase. One wouldn’t go into it expecting or even wanting much by way of experimentalism, and accordingly, Pentagram deliver on the promise of blending classic doom and Liebling‘s charismatic persona — see “Misunderstood” — and do justice to the band’s decades-spanning underground legacy. Recorded by Mattias Nilsson with additional vocal tracking by Travis Wyrick, it draws together with professional clarity and poise the best of Pentagram as they are today.

In doing so, it bears a significant stamp of Victor Griffin‘s songwriting. Guessing when Pentagram material was written is a trap — they had more than a decade of material before their first album came out — but songs like, “Lay Down and Die,” “The Tempter Push,” “Dead Bury Dead,” “Curious Volume,” “Close the Casket,” “The Devil’s Playground” and the closing “Because I Made It” carry a distinct feel that one can trace back through Griffin‘s work in In~Graved and Place of Skulls to Death Row, so whether the parts are new or old, they’re his. Near as I can tell, the only cut on Curious Volume that previously appeared on a Pentagram release is “Earth Flight,” which showed up on 2003’s A Keg Full of Dynamite live outing (good luck finding it), recorded in 1978, but that’s hardly the only inclusion on Curious Volume with a classic feel.

Following the opening rush of “Lay Down and Die” — which seems to directly acknowledge the notion of a live audience in its lyrics — second cut “The Tempter Push” nods directly at Deep Purple‘s “Strange Kind of Woman.” Its tense intro marked by Campbell‘s steady kick, “Earth Flight” has a classic-style shuffle, and the doomly “Sufferin'” and speedy good-timer “Misunderstood” follow suit. They could be brand new and “Dead Bury Dead” could’ve been written by Liebling or original drummer Geof O’Keefe for Stone Bunny circa 1970, but in terms of feel there’s a fair amount of variety between tracks in their approach — on “Walk Alone,” more rocking, on the title-cut, more morose, and so on — but Griffin‘s best-in-class tone and Liebling‘s vocals both tie the songs together, so that the entirety of Curious Volume remains cohesive across its span, speaking the crowd on “Lay Down and Die,” “Curious Volume” and “Because I Made It” — the opener, centerpiece and closer — but keeping listeners engaged throughout with its quality of craftsmanship and performance.

More perhaps than any other song on Curious Volume, the closer sums up the band’s position. “Because I Made It” finds Liebling and Griffin both on the other side of addiction struggles, each party very much in need of the other, and while I won’t downplay the role Turley‘s low-end plays in setting the heavy vibe of “The Devi’s Playground” or “Dead Bury Dead,” or the job Campbell does in stepping into the drummer role right before entering the studio, no question the focuses for most listening are the vocals and guitar. As much as anyone can in doom, they have made it. With Last Rites, the question going into it was whether or not Pentagram would be able to carry a full-length record across after seven years and a yet-again revamped lineup.

On that level, Curious Volume is an even more difficult record to make, because unlike its predecessor, the simple fact that it’s coming out doesn’t automatically stand it up as a triumph. It’s fortunate, then, that Pentagram have been able to sustain the momentum from their live shows and bring that energy and presence to the recording. The reflecting point of view of “Because I Made It” — in some ways, it and a couple of the other songs here seem to be retelling “Amazing Grace” — feels justified, especially given the context of Last Days Here, and the band make their victory through the classic doom that Pentagram helped to shape. No question that spectacle is a factor post-documentary, but there’s nothing one could reasonably expect of a Pentagram record 30 years after Relentless first surfaced that Curious Volume doesn’t deliver.

Pentagram, “Walk Alone”

Pentagram on Thee Facebooks

Pentagram’s website

Curious Volume at Peaceville Records

You might recall that when it was first announced, the release date for Pentagram‘s Curious Volume was set at Aug. 28 through Peaceville. Well, that’s a week late. In fact, the legendary doomers’ return to Peaceville Records is out this Friday, Aug. 21. My understanding is it’s not a matter of the album being pushed up, but it works out to be the same anyway — it’ll be out a week sooner than we thought. The timing means that instead of being on the West Coast for a quickie run around their slot at North West Hesh Fest in Portland (info here) when the album is released, it’ll already be out, but I doubt anyone hitting up that fest or any of the other shows will mind a chance to get to know the songs for a few days first.

So, one more time, the takeaway: Curious Volume‘s out Aug. 21, not Aug. 28. Pentagram have a slew of other tour dates recently announced, and you can find them below as hoisted off the PR wire:

PENTAGRAM ANNOUNCES U.S. HEADLINING TOUR

New album ‘Curious Volume’ out August 21 on Peaceville; album trailer posted online

Legendary U.S. heavy/doom metal band, Pentagram, has announced a U.S. headlining tour, set to kick off in Philadelphia, Pa. on September 30. Electric Citizen and Satan’s Satyrs will join Pentagram for the nine city trek.

Frontman Bobby Liebling commented: “Pentagram is extremely excited about our upcoming tours in the U.S. and Europe this fall. We all are itching to perform some of our songs off of our new album ‘Curious Volume’ for you. We feel that they fit well within the other heavy numbers from the bands near 45 year history. Of course, the set is packed with the classics you know and love and ones that you may not even expect. Bring your earplugs; we are going to blow off the roof with our curious volume!”

Pentagram recently reunited with Peaceville Records for its new studio album, Curious Volume, due out August 21.

Featuring 11 classic heavy metal compositions with catchy hooks from core band members Victor Griffin, Greg Turley, and Bobby Liebling (Pete Campbell on the drums completes the band’s line-up), Curious Volume was recorded with Swedish producer Mattias Nilsson at studios located in Maryland and Virginia. Additional recording took place in Tennessee with Grammy-nominated producer Travis Wyrick, who also produced Pentagram’s previous album, Last Rites. The album’s cover artwork was provided courtesy of Richard Schouten.

Pentagram live…
8/27 – Portland, OR @ Dante’s
8/28 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
8/29 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst

Pentagram w/ Electric Citizen, Satan’s Satyrs…
9/30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
10/01 – Providence, RI @ The Met
10/02 – Amityville, NY @ Revolution
10/03 – Washington, DC @ Rock N Roll Hotel
10/06 – New York, NY @ Saint Vitus
10/07 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Smalls
10/09 – Chicago, IL @ The Abbey
10/10 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme
10/11 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop

Pentagram is…
Bobby Liebling – vocals
Victor Griffin – guitar
Greg Turley – bass
Pete Campbell – drums

http://www.PentagramOfficial.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pentagramusa

Pentagram, “Walk Alone”

Two and a half decades after getting their start, UK morose doom pioneers My Dying Bride are getting ready to release their 12th full-length. Titled Feel the Misery, the new record will follow 2012’s A Map of Our Failures and its subsequent EP companion, The Manuscript and is set to arrive via Peaceville on Sept. 18. A band who, even 25 years later, continue to polarize audiences, no doubt My Dying Bride will make the titular misery palpable across the included eight tracks, their long-established theatrical sensibilities remaining perpetually dark, no matter where their sound actually takes them.

An offering then, from the PR wire:

MY DYING BRIDE ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM “FEEL THE MISERY”

12th studio album out September 18 on Peaceville

My Dying Bride’s latest opus and 12th full studio album, Feel the Misery, is set for release on September 18 on Peaceville Records. With crushing epic doom spanning eight tracks, and featuring the return of original guitarist Calvin Robertshaw to the fold, this is undoubtedly amongst the band’s heaviest, darkest and most majestic works to date, marking My Dying Bride’s 25th anniversary in punishing style, with the title track also set to feature as the album’s debut video.

Feel the Misery sees a notable return to the band’s old haunt, Academy Studios in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, for recording where all of My Dying Bride’s classic early albums were produced. Mixing once more takes place at Futureworks in Manchester, U.K. with the band’s long-time studio engineer/producer, Mags.

The band commented on the themes of Feel the Misery: “Contained within are all the grandeur and mastery of the melancholic one would expect to find on a recording from this group of musicians.

“The crushing of hearts and the solemn farewells to friends and lovers twinned with the destruction of flesh and the passions of cruelty are laid neatly for the listener to devour and savour.

“Eight new compositions detailing the path of life through dark doors and the burdens we all must endure simply to make it to the end, My Dying Bride have returned with a foreboding new album which may enlighten, delight and consume the soul in one epic sitting.”

Feel the Misery will be released on CD, vinyl, plus a special edition 2CD/2×10 vinyl set in deluxe earbook format with exclusive music and expanded booklet.

1. And My Father Left Forever
2. To Shiver in Empty Halls
3. A Cold New Curse
4. Feel the Misery
5. A Thorn of Wisdom
6. I Celebrate Your Skin
7. I Almost Loved You
8. Within a Sleeping Forest

My Dying Bride has been the leading light of doom metal since its debut album, As the Flower Withers, was released on Peaceville Records back in 1992, and the band’s heavy atmospherics and expertly crafted compositions makes it among the most essential and legendary acts of the gothic doom/death genre.

My Dying Bride will play festivals in Europe over the summer. A full list can be seen below.

Stay tuned for more information on My Dying Bride and Feel the Misery, out this September on Peaceville.

My Dying Bride live…

7/31 – Wacken Festival – Germany
8/02 – Rock Off Festival – Istanbul, Turkey
8/07 – Rock Part Festival – Lake Balaton, Hungry
8/08 – Party San Metal Open Air – Schlotheim, Germany
8/29 – Seinajoki Metal Festival – Rytmikorjaamo, Finland

My Dying Bride is…
Aaron Stainthorpe – Vocals
Andrew Craighan – Guitar
Calvin Robertshaw – Guitar
Lena Abé – Bass
Shaun MacGowan – Keyboards / Violin

www.mydyinbride.net
https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Dying-Bride-Official-uk/282179138510618

My Dying Bride, Live at Graspop Metal Meeting 2015

It would seem to have been a quiet couple of months from the camp of legendary doomers Pentagram, but after announcing their having joined forces with Peaceville Records, the Bobby Liebling-fronted and Victor Griffin-guitared outfit — also Greg Turley on bass and “Minnesota” Pete Campbell on drums — set about putting the finishing touches on their new album, which today is revealed as being titled Curious Volume. It is set to release on Peaceville Aug. 28.

The final art and tracklisting for the album has also been unveiled and tours have been teased, so expect much more to come ahead of the release of the follow-up to Pentagram‘s 2011 studio comeback, Last Rites (review here), but for now, here are Curious Volume preliminaries off the PR wire:

Pentagram to release new album “Curious Volume” this August on Peaceville

Legendary U.S. heavy/doom metal band, Pentagram, reunites with Peaceville Records for its new studio album, Curious Volume, to be released on August 28.

Featuring 11 classic heavy metal compositions with catchy hooks from core band members Victor Griffin, Greg Turley, and Bobby Liebling (Pete Campbell on the drums completes the band’s line-up), the album was recorded with Swedish producer Mattias Nilsson at studios located in Maryland and Virginia. Additional recording took place in Tennessee with Grammy-Award-winning producer Travis Wyrick, who also produced Pentagram’s previous album, Last Rites. The album’s cover artwork was provided courtesy of Richard Schouten.

To support the new album, the band has tours planned in North America and Europe throughout 2015/2016.

1. Lay Down and Die
2. The Tempter Push
3. Dead Bury Dead
4. Earth Flight
5. Walk Alone
6. Curious Volume
7. Misunderstood
8. Close the Casket
9. Sufferin`
10. Devil`s Playground
11. Because I Made It

Formed in the early 1970s with a debut album Relentless releasing in 1985, Pentagram has survived through more than four decades filled with adversity and triumph to become the legendary international act it is today, firmly stamping its name into the heavy metal history books. Although once viewed as a cult act but with a strong and dedicated global fan base, Pentagram has enjoyed a recent surge in popularity due in part to the 2011 documentary, Last Days Here, which follows the trials and tribulations of a troubled rock star, Pentagram’s lead singer Bobby Liebling. With a DVD release set for this fall on Peaceville’s label, the documentary has garnered international recognition on the film festival circuit and has won several awards, including “Best Music Documentary” at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam.

The band recently released its double DVD collection, All Your Sins, featuring over 7 hours of live footage spanning a period of three decades.

Stay tuned for more information on Pentagram and Curious Volume, out this August on Peaceville.

http://www.PentagramOfficial.com
https://www.facebook.com/pentagramusa
http://www.peaceville.com/

Pentagram, Live at Baltimore Soundstage, Oct. 29, 2014

Acrimony, Tumuli Shroomaroom (1997)

Who doesn’t want to get down with a little Acrimony? In the thrilling world of demographic research, there is a class of people known as “early adopters.” As a group, they want to be the first with a new piece of technology, new gadget, etc. They embrace new ideas and ways of thinking. I can’t come up with a better phrase than that to position UK outfit Acrimony when it comes to stoner rock’s ’90s heyday. While Electric Wizard wouldn’t release their self-titled debut until 1995 and Orange Goblin‘s Frequencies from Planet Ten didn’t surface until 1997, Acrimony issued their Hymns to the Stone debut in 1994. Yeah, it’s produced like a metal album — that was very much Acrimony‘s background; not a coincidence they wound up on Peaceville Records — but by the time they got around to 1997’s sophomore outing, Tumuli Shroomaroom, that metallic bite had smoothed out to a killer heavy rock and roll vibe, and Acrimony‘s groove help set the high standard to which the UK underground continues to aspire, songs like “Million Year Summer,” “Find the Path” with its “give me some Valium” urgings and the all-over-10-minutes closing trio of “Motherslug (The Mother of all Slugs),” “Heavy Feather” and “Firedance” consuming listeners with brilliantly executed nod that, if it showed up in my mailbox this week, I’d still be stoked on it.

Acrimony were also way more unabashedly stoner rock than many of their contemporaries. Their final release, a compilation titled Bong on – Live Long! came out in 2007, preceded by a 2003 split with Church of Misery, and while Acrimony may have been ahead of their time, Tumuli Shroomaroom is a record whose legend has continued to grow in spite of the band’s dissolution. Most of Acrimony — guitarist Stuart O’Hara, bassist Paul Bidmead and drummer Darren Ivey — can be found these days in Sigiriya, whose second offering, Darkness Died Today, was released earlier this year as their Candlelight Records debut following 2011’s re-debut, Return to Earth. Still, Acrimony‘s work stands out for what they did, how well they did it, and when they did it. They didn’t invent stoner rock, but they sure as hell got the gist of it quickly. I know these guys are at the top of a lot of reunion wishlists, and I wouldn’t complain about seeing them live at some point, but particularly with Sigiriya kicking around, I’m content to leave Acrimony‘s legacy untouched if that’s what the band would rather do. This record’s gonna kick ass forever one way or another.

Hope you enjoy.

—

Late night, right? I got back a bit ago from seeing Elder‘s return show in Cambridge. It was Elder, Rozamov, Summoner and Set, which is quite possibly the best all-local lineup I’ve seen since I moved here. I’ll have to go back and check the archive on that one to be sure, but it certainly felt like it when I was at the show. I’ll have a review on Monday with some pictures from the so-dark-it-made-everyone-look-grim-and-black-metal Middle East Upstairs, but the quick version is it was an excellent time.

Also Monday, look out for a track premiere from Latitude Egress as they cross the line between blackened doom and doomed black metal, and later on in the week, new tracks from Larman Clamor and Angels of Meth, whose demo is being reissued — the band became Phantom Glue — on tape. Also hoping to get to see Earth on Tuesday and Uncle Acid on Thursday, so it’s going to be quite a week. Somewhere in there, I’d also finally like to give All Them Witches‘ Lightning at the Door a proper review, since they’ve now given it a proper release, but we’ll see how it is with hours in the day, there being only so many of them and whatnot.

Thanks to everyone who checked in for Vinyl Week this week, took a look at the records, entered a contest (or two), etc. It was a lot more work than I thought it was going to be, but a good time on the whole, so I appreciate you indulging me. I still have a bunch more vinyl to write about, so the week may be over, but the pile remains. More to come.

But not tonight. It’s well after 2AM here — early Saturday morning in the UK; I’ll confess I had GMT in mind when I picked Acrimony to end the week — and that’s time to put on some Mystery Science Theater 3000 and call it a night. If you’re in New York and attending the Uninvited festival this weekend, you have my jealousy, but wherever you might be and whatever you might be up to, I hope it’s fantastic. Be safe, have a blast, and we’ll see you back here on Monday.

Please don’t forget to check out the forum and the radio stream.

The Obelisk Forum

The Obelisk Radio

 

 

These are a little later than I’d prefer, but if I ran everything on time around here as much as I wanted to, it would probably take me 24 hours a day. Sometimes you have to go to the post office, or to The Patient Mrs.‘ workplace to scam free printer paper. I’m just saying things come up that can alter the course of your planned afternoon. One can either be flexible or go insane.

So, better (perpetually) late than never, and I hope you’ll agree with me that this stuff was worth waiting for.

Adds for June 17, 2014:

Earthless Meets Heavy Blanket, In a Dutch Haze

Behold the megajam: The jam that launched a thousand jams, and insert further hyperbole here, because this one earns it. At Roadburn 2012, the illustrious lineup of J. Mascis (Witch, Dinosaur Jr.) and his Heavy Blanket bandmate Graham Clise (also Witch and Lecherous Gaze) joined forces with Earthless‘ rhythm section, bassist Mike Egington and drummer Mario Rubalcalba for a one-time-only, off-the-cuff instrumental jam that has since become the stuff of legend. Yes, a legend two years later. Now dubbed “Paradise in a Purple Sky,” that hour-long one-track excursion into pure heavy psychedelic bliss is available as Earthless Meets Heavy Blanket‘s In a Dutch Haze, and the vibe is less that of a live album than a historical document. Call it lightning in a bottle, call it any other cliche you might want, but chances are In a Dutch Haze is going to be the best live release you hear this year, and if the echoing intertwining guitar solos and unhindered thudding groove — immaculately captured by Marcel van de Vondervoort — aren’t enough to stir your soul and drive you to creation, then I’ve got nothing for you. This is heavy psych at its most vibrant and righteous. Burning World Records, Outer Battery Records.

—

Thine, The Dead City Blueprint

The Dead City Blueprint (out on Peaceville Records) is actually the third full-length from UK-based Thine, but it’s also their first since 2002, so the feel winds up somewhat like a debut anyway. What happened in the interim? Well, drummer Dan Mullins from the two-guitar five-piece has doubled in My Dying Bride since 2006, so that could at least partially explain the delay. Whatever else may have caused the stoppage, Thine make up for the years with 10 deep explorations of dark, melancholic rock. “Out of Your Mind and into a Void” is almost singularly indebted to Damnation-era Opeth, and opener “Brave Young Assassin” finds Thine somewhere between a less keyboarded Katatonia and a more active version of Anathema at their moodiest, but “The Precipice” provides an early peak to The Dead City Blueprint with a surprise reinterpretation of NWOBHM guitar intricacy and wonderfully arranged vocals from Alan Gaunt, whose performance takes the piece to someplace entirely the band’s own. Winding, airy lead lines in “The Rift” will be a dogwhistle to those in the know, but the piano-inclusive apex of “Scars from Limbo” and ambient finale “Adrift through the Arcane Isles of Recovery” speak to an individuality in development, and if Thine get a follow-up out sometime before 2026, I wouldn’t be surprised to find them grown further into their style. Thine on Thee Facebooks, Peaceville Records.

—

Dwellers, Live at Bar Deluxe 29-04-2014

As the title hints, Live at Bar Deluxe 29-04-2014 is a new live release from Salt Lake City heavy rockers Dwellers, recorded in their hometown at the end of April. That puts it prior to the street date for their second album, Pagan Fruit (review here), but two cuts from that — “Rare Eagle” and “Totem Crawler” — make appearances anyway alongside highlights drawn from the first Dwellers offering, 2012’s Good Morning Harakiri (review here). Both those records were on Small Stone, but this 34-minute set is a self-release free download, essentially a band-endorsed bootleg to be spread around. The audio quality is definitely in the “audience recording” vein, but clear enough to let the spaciousness of “Old Honey” sink in as it flows out of “Ode to Inversion Layer,” and as this is as close as I’ve yet come to seeing Dwellers — the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Joey Toscano, bassist Dave Jones and drummer Zach Hatsis — live, I’m more than inclined to take it. Hearing Toscano nail the chorus to “Totem Crawler” as well as he does here only emphasizes how much I need to catch a gig sooner rather than later. Maybe it’s a fan piece, but screw it, I’m a fan. Dwellers on Thee Facebooks, Dwellers on Bandcamp.

—

Fever Dog, “Iroquois”

Just a quick look from these jammy Palm Desert youngsters at what their forthcoming sophomore full-length, Second Wind, will hold, but “Iroquois” bodes well, and in its two-minute span one can hear space rock ideals beginning to make themselves felt amidst a still tonally weighted push, the band’s confidence emerging as their sound continues to expand. Comprised of guitarist/vocalist/thereminist Danny Graham, bassist/noisemaker Nathan Wood and drummer Joshua Adams (also synth), Fever Dog show they have a clear dedication to being more than a heavy rock band, and as brief as “Iroquois” is, the immediateness with which it enacts a vibe puts Second Wind on my list of most anticipated albums for the second half of this year. Lot of potential for the desert’s next generation. Fever Dog on Thee Facebooks, Fever Dog on Bandcamp.

—

Electric Lucifer, Coming to the Mountain

Not to be confused with Cincinnati’s Electric Citizen, Cleveland-based triple-guitar stoner rollers Electric Lucifer get down to some post-Electric Wizard idolatry on their Dec. 2013 Coming to the Mountain three-track EP. The nod is central and effective, and with three guitars at work, riffing is obviously half the point, though the leads mesh naturally with well-held grooves on “Electric Lucifer,” which leads off, and the subsequent “Phantoms from the Outer Rim” and “Red Wizard,” the last of which finds Electric Lucifer at their most blown-out, proffering stoner rock for stoner rockers with a clear passion for the tenets of the genre. There isn’t much fancy about it, but with a reemerging interest in straightforward Sabbath worship and a subsequent full-length released shortly after from Electric Lucifer, easy to think the five-piece would hit a nerve for heads already converted and looking to nod out. Electric Lucifer on Thee Facebooks, Electric Lucifer on Bandcamp.

—

Also added this week were releases by John Garcia and Swedish stoner punkers Lightsabres. For the full list of updates and more, check out The Obelisk Radio updates page.

Thanks as always for reading and listening.