Some records you just keep going back to. This year marks the 10th anniversary of deep-riffing Connecticut trio Curse the Son‘s second full-length, Psychache (review here, interview here, vinyl review here, also discussed here), and the band are celebrating with a well-earned remaster/limited reissue out Sept. 23 through Salt of the Earth Records. They’ve also got a new lineup around founding guitarist/vocalist Ron Vanacore and plans to record a new album for release next year.

That’s not irrelevant, as Curse the Son look back on Psychache‘s six songs/31 minutes, it’s easy to hear both how they’ve grown in the years since and why they’d look to strip back and re-simplify their sound — the album at 31 minutes and six songs is everything it needs to be. Released first by the band in 2012 as the foll0w-up to the previous year’s Klonopain (review here), it was pressed to CD in 2013 and vinyl in 2014, the latter through STB Records — they were ahead of their time in staggering formats, but also it was very much an organic, word-of-mouth kind of growth — and Psychache continues to resonate to a rare degree these 10 years after the fact with its red-eyed sludge rock, encompassing fuzz and languid rolling grooves. It was everything it needed to be and nothing it didn’t. Most bands never get to put out an album like that. A rare achievement of nigh-on-infinite listenability.

And no, I’m not just saying that because I’m hosting the stream — as you can see in the first paragraph’s many links, I’m not hurting for having covered the album — or because I wrote the intro to the liner notes (shout to Billy from Doomed & Stoned, who did the notes proper) accompanying this reissue. The truth is I do return to Psychache on the regular in my own listening, and at this point it feels like visiting an old friend. Its riffs unfold themselves at the center of each song, and around them dance the hooks of “Goodbye Henry Anslinger,” “Spider Stole the Weed,” the lurching “Somatizer” and the even-slower “The Negative Ion,” that finale a more agonized row that, in hindsight, would preface some of the more doomed fare on subsequent outings, 2016’s Isolator (review here) and 2020’s Excruciation (review here), the latter representing their most complex work to-date.

Psychache — fleshed out via the atmospheric meds-pun interlude “Valium For” and its instrumental title-track, the latter of which closes side A, the former opening side B — is best heard rather than read, so I’m going to spare you the glut of blah-blah-blah in the hope that you’ll instead take the time to hit play below and experience it for yourself. Its intangible strengths are right there in the music. The interplay of would-be burl tone and Vanacore’s pattern-setting vocals was upon initial release a sans-pretense prediction of a decade’s worth of Sabbath worship to come, and looking/listening back on it now, the vanguard feel is like a proven theorem. How many ways are there to say they nailed it? Front-to-back, that’s all they did. And for an outing that’s as cannabinoid — we called it “weed” back then — as Psychache is, if you find a wasted second in its 31 minutes, you’ll have to let me know because I’ve been listening to this record for a fucking decade now and I’ve yet to find one that doesn’t serve either the purpose of the song itself or the album as a whole.

Dig in. Whether you were on board when it first came out or if it’s completely new to you — all the better, really — the best advice I can give is to just follow the nod and enjoy. This is a celebration of an offering that defines cult classic.

Enjoy:

Ron Vanacore on Psychache reissue and new lineup:

“We have been working extremely hard to recapture and revisit the “original” Curse the Son sound after some years of experimentation. Preparing to play ‘Psychache’ in it’s entirety has been invigorating for us all. Dan and Brian are very excited to be a part of this and their enthusiasm has been infectious. We have already begun to write new songs as well, prepare for the HUGE guitars, fuzzy bass and monstrous drums of the old times. We will be playing “Psychache” in it’s entirety live as a treat for everyone (including ourselves)! Plans are to write this Winter and get back into the studio by Spring ’23 to record the next record. Fans old and new rejoice – we are back!”

Preorders: https://saltoftheearthrecords.com/product/815380

Doom metal stalwarts Curse The Son, based in Hamden, Connecticut, announce a new line-up and the tenth anniversary reissue of the album Psychache on Salt of the Earth Records!

Curse the Son has decided to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Psychache with a special reissue on Salt Of The Earth Records. Fully remastered by long-time Curse the Son engineer and co-producer Steve Wytas, the album sounds reborn.

This one-time limited run of 200 CD’s is packed with behind-the-scenes introspection into the songs, liner notes, photos, memories from the band, in addition to newly remastered audio.

“This is a labor of love,” frontman Ron Vanacore admits. “It has always been my favorite Curse the Son record not only due to the tunes and overall vibe, but also because it’s the record that truly put us on the map.”

Psychache is a reflective effort of the time and still feels as valid today as it did when it originally was released. Produced by Vanacore, the record was originally recorded at Underground Sound in East Haven, Connecticut, with engineer/owner Chris DelVecchio. Sessions began in December 2011 and mixing was completed in August of 2012.

The iconic photograph on the cover of Psychache is mysteriously haunting. Taken in the 1930s, this photo “spoke” to Ron Vanacore and was determined to be the album cover before a single note had been written for the record. “I love the menacing vibe as the
masked kid walks towards you brandishing an unidentifiable weapon,” he says. The album’s central theme being fear, Vanacore felt it was the absolute perfect visual representation for the music.

Curse the Son live:
September 23rd @ The Cellar On Treadwell (Hamden, Ct) CD Release Show w/Joetown and Fractured Reality
September 24th @ Keegan Ales (Kingston, NY) w/Geezer and Shadow Witch
October 7th @ New England Stoner/Doom Festival Prost Music Hall (Jewett City, Ct)
October 29th @ Country Tavern (Guilford, Ct) w/ Alcoholica

More dates TBA

Psychache – 2012 Line-Up:
Ron Vanacore (guitar, vox)
Cheech Weeden (bass)
Michael Petrucci (drums)

Curse the Son – 2022 line-up:
Ron Vanacore (guitar, vox)
Dan Weeden (bass)
Brian Harris (drums)

Curse the Son on Facebook

Curse the Son on Bandcamp

Salt of the Earth Records on Facebook

Salt of the Earth Records website

Psychache is the kind of record that makes everything else seem needlessly complicated. That’s not to say it’s dumbed down. It isn’t. The melodies are broad, structures are skillfully applied, the overarching flow between the songs is well considered, and I’m sorry, but nothing with Michael Petrucci drumming on it is dumb. The end result of Curse the Son‘s intention, however, strikes right to the heart of what stoner metal is and can be. Riffs, groove, melody, hooks, thick and full sound, sometimes oozing, sometimes shoving, but always righteous in the going.

First released by the band in 2012, Psychache (review here) was the follow-up to the Hamden, Connecticut, trio’s 2011 offering, Klonopain (review here), and for the purposes of narrative ease we’ll call it their third full-length. They’d issue it digitally and on CD in 2013 before seeing it picked up for a deluxe vinyl treatment through STB Records in 2014. In the interest of honesty, I’m kind of murky at this point on the actual release date. I tend to associate the album with the band’s performance in New London, CT, at day three of the Stoner Hands of Doom XII fest (review here). Founding guitarist/vocalist Ron Vanacore handed me a CD at that show, and after a long day of bands — of which Curse the Son had been a highlight — I put it on for the car ride back to where I was staying and, even having spent all day being assaulted by distortion and riffs, found myself blasting it full volume for its 31-minute duration on that trip. Call it love at first riff, but Psychache has held a special place in my heart ever since, whatever one might consider the day it actually came out.

The band at the time was Vanacore and his former Sufferghost bandmate, bassist Richard “Cheech” Weeden, and Petrucci, and they made Psychache at Underground Sound in East Haven, mixing as well at Higher Rock. The lack of pretense remains staggering. If you pull back and look at it, there are really four full songs included, with the title-track an instrumental — albeit a crucial one — and “Valium For?” (get it?) a noisy minute-long interlude, but on vinyl, the total six split into an even three tracks per side, and the bookending effect of its two longest pieces in leadoff “Goodbye Henry Anslinger” (6:21) and finale “The Negative Ion” (7:22) isn’t to be understated when it comes to immersing the listener in the tone and groove that are so, so, so central to the entire proceedings. Again, this isn’t a dumb record. It is willful, however, in its primitivism.

Imagine a complex circuit with wires all over the place. You don’t know what the wires do, but there are a lot of them and they’re all different colors. You start ripping out wires at random and you find that the circuit still functions as it should, so you keep going. You pull and you pull and maybe even the circuit starts to function more efficiently for your efforts. And after however long repeating this process, you see the circuit doing exactly the thing it’s supposed to do and you find yourself looking at all the wires on the floor and wondering why in the first place you thought needed all this bullshit? Psychache is that. It has everything it needs and nothing it doesn’t, and even through the haze of its tone and the lumbering nod of “Somatizator,” it’s a moment of clarity.

Side A builds through the midtempo chug of “Goodbye Henry Anslinger” — named for the man who banned marijuana use; it’s worth noting that weed was made legal in Connecticut this year for adult recreational use — and the slower highlight “Spider Stole the Weed” en route to “Psychache” itself, which starts with Weeden‘s bass and moves into a shuffle that carries through most of its first half changes its central riff in the second. All groove, but a speedier pace that adds to the reach of the album overall in subtle fashion, which “Valium For?” answers with its there-and-gone moment of weirdness ahead of the closing duo “Somatizator” and “The Negative Ion,” the former of which mirrors “Spider Stole the Weed” in its memorable chorus while pushing the vocals into a lower register instead of a higher one, and the latter, which meanders for about two minutes before suddenly kicking in at full volume.

There’s a bit of feedback at the end, but the bass is ultimately the last thing to fade out, and fair enough for what Weeden has by that point added in terms of thickness to the procession. By then, if you’re left wanting, it’s your own fault. In 31 minutes, Curse the Son crush and compact the pivotal aspects of their style into a collection that makes its own depth feel simple and that has continued to make the band undervalued in my mind ever since.

They’ve done two albums after this, with 2016’s Isolator (review here) coming out through Ripple Music and The Company and beginning a collaboration with producer Eric Lichter at Dirt Floor Studios that continued onto 2020’s Excruciation (review here), also on Ripple. In the meantime, between the two records, Vanacore would see an entire swap-out of the rhythm section, with Robert Ives taking over on drums for the 2020 outing and Brendan Keefe donning the bass for Isolator and pulling that duty as well as adding vocals to the darker-in-mood Excruciation, building on Curse the Son‘s melodic growth and pushing their songwriting in new, exciting and still-footprint-on-skull-heavy directions.

But Psychache remains a one-of-a-kind outing. If Curse the Son had moved forward and said they were going to do the same thing twice, it wouldn’t have been the same as the moment they captured here, in these songs. I won’t decry the work they’ve done since. They’re a better band now. What makes Psychache such a standout, though, is how much it offers and how casually it does so, how easy it makes it all sound, and how it has managed to shift into a kind of timelessness that one expects will endure precisely as a result of the aesthetic truths it tells.

Thanks for reading. As always, I hope you enjoy.

—

I got a call earlier this week from the school nurse to tell me The Pecan had been falling asleep in class. Unheard of. He’d had boogers for a few days, but that kind of fatigue from him is a firm ‘never’. He got home about a half-hour later, was way out of it and feverish. You know where this is going: To the doctor for a Covid test.

We spent the better part of Wednesday and yesterday sweating it out before at about 6:30 this morning — right after I finished the above — I refreshed the page where his test results would appear and they were at last there and negative. He was better yesterday and — more alert, more of a pain in the ass — but still nice to have the assurance. He also yesterday had a 45-minute nosebleed in the morning, first thing. Compared to that, wrestling him into an outfit for school today was a walk in the park.

We are much relieved, though both The Patient Mrs. and I were also already in the midst of making kid-has-plague-antibodies travel plans for if he did have it and came through without serious complications — she to a conference, I to Maryland Doom Fest — but I’m prepared to call it a fair enough trade for him to not be seriously ill in the first place.

Off to school with you.

Obviously a fair amount was hanging on that precarious balance, all joking aside. The anxiety level was high in the house yesterday and since I couldn’t really take him anywhere and it was raining, we were stuck reminiscent of early lockdown. The Patient Mrs. went to a work meeting in the early afternoon, which I understand on multiple levels. Neither he nor I was easy to be around at that point.

So I guess today’s after-school activities will involve going to places and breathing on stuff. Sounds like fun, right? Should be a blast.

Whatever you’re up to this weekend, I wish you the best. Next week starts the Quarterly Review, so that’ll be fun. I’ve got seven days’ worth of stuff and I very purposefully scheduled a premiere after that so I couldn’t go any longer. Because I would, you know.

Great and safe couple days. Have fun. Hydrate. Watch your head.

FRM.

The Obelisk Forum

The Obelisk Radio

The Obelisk merch

Nearly two years on from its initial self-issued CD version, Curse the Son‘s Psychache has gotten the release it deserves. In the capable hands of STB Records, the Connecticut trio’s Psychache (review here) has been pressed in three separate editions — a standard of 125 copies in gatefold with tri-color vinyl, an OBI strip edition limited to 100 with clear/black vinyl and a blood red splatter, a die hard edition limited to 75 with both the bone-grey and clear/black vinyl and the splatter, and a test press version — and as ever for the NJ-based imprint, the focus seems to be on reverence. Reverence for the music, for the form and, in this case, for an album that feels a long time in arriving.

From the opening riffs of “Goodbye Henry Anslinger,” Curse the Son‘s weedian roll finds a stylistic match in many other acts in all but quality. Guitarist/vocalist Ron Vanacore leads the charge with molasses tone — my stereo system never seems to have enough low end; Psychache is cavernous and warrants all it can get — and bassist Richard “Cheech” Weeden and drummer Mike Petrucci (now also of Lord Fowl) enact a stonerly nod that remains one of the best the last couple years have seen. As a reissue, I’m glad to have the chance to experience the album again, but as the first vinyl pressing, I also feel like I’m finally hearing Psychache the way the band intended, with the side split coming after the title-track and before the interlude “Valium For?,” creating a side A comprised of massive, catchy hooks in “Goodbye Henry Anslinger,” “Spider Stole the Weed” and “Psychache” and a side B that immediately delves further into the lysergic with “Valium For?” before slipping into the slower “Somatizator” and closing out with “The Negative Ion,” which opens ambient and then explodes into a thunderously plodding finish, Vanacore‘s voice a Sabbathian echo over the doomly churning.

At Stoner Hands of Doom XII in Sept. 2012 (review here), Vanacore handed me a CD in a plastic clamshell case of the mastered version of Psychache. I remember putting it on that night on my way back to where I was staying in Connecticut, and I’ve done the same many late nights since. Also afternoons, and pretty much whenever. This is an album I’ve lived with for two years, and aside from being gratified to see it get its due, I’m glad to have a new form in which to experience it. It’s one thing to know a record has two halves and another to actually have to get up and flip it over. That changes the personality of the listening experience, and after putting Psychache on so many times either with that CD or the digital version — they’ve intermittently made it available as a free download on Bandcamp — it’s somewhat jarring to have the raucous end of the title-track not give way immediately to “Valium For?,” but it works. The languid shuffle of “Spider Stole the Weed” finds a counterpoint in the more severe declension of “Somatizator,” and “Goodbye Henry Anslinger” and “The Negative Ion” feel even more complementary as the bookends between which the course of the release takes place, the righteous stomp of the closer coming across that much sweeter with the needle returning afterwards, as if there’s nothing more to say.

For some who picked up or who will pick it up, the vinyl version is their first experience of Psychache, and that seems like an advantage, since clearly this is how Curse the Son have wanted it to be heard all along. From my perspective, I’ll say that there aren’t a lot of records that, two years later, I’m still going to have such appreciation for seeing them show up again — opening the gatefold and seeing the live shot of the band, it looks like a classic — but Psychache was something special that first night I put it on and it remains something special now. My only hope is that, with this out, Vanacore, Weeden and Petrucci can get to work on their third album and be able to capitalize on what can only be considered the unmitigated success of Psychache. They remain an underrated band, but obviously the word is spreading, and if you’re fortunate enough to get a copy of the STB vinyl before it’s completely sold out, you’re likely to find it an endeavor worth revisiting.

Curse the Son, “Spider Stole the Weed” official video

Curse the Son on Thee Facebooks

Curse the Son on Bandcamp

STB Records webstore

STB Records on Thee Facebooks

An album that legitimately deserves to be heard by as much of its target audience as possible, Curse the Son‘s sophomore outing, Psychache (review here), has been brewing since this past winter in terms of actually getting a physical release. The Hamden, Connecticut, trio has busted its collective ass in an effort to give it a fitting home, and with the announcement today that STB Records will do a limited vinyl version of the album, it seems their work has finally paid off.

Remains to be seen when STB will release Psychache, and indeed whether or not the vinyl format can stand up to the formidable rumble the band brings to their sound, but for today, it’s good to see Curse the Son — guitarist/vocalist Ron Vanacore, bassist Cheech Weeden, and drummer Michael Petrucci — finding an outlet for what’s really one of the year’s most satisfying unabashed stoner doom records. STB previously released Doctor Doom‘s DoomO (review here) in a limited, glow-in-the-dark LP, and have worked with Dopethrone, Spelljammer, Druglord and others.

Says the label:

BIG NEWS!! STB Records and Curse The Son have joined forces to release the brand new record “Psychache”.. I can not be more please[d] and pumped to do this album for them!

Says the band:

All you folks that have been asking for vinyl……It is HAPPENING! STB Records is going to be putting out a limited edition of ‘Psychache’ on vinyl. More details to come soon.

That settles it. Good news from a cool band. Congrats to Curse the Son and here’s looking forward to the Psychache release date and where they go from there. For now, the album is still also available as a pay-what-you-want download through Bandcamp, so if you’re yet unacquainted, there’s time. Time which will inevitably slow down once you start listening.

Curse the Son, Psychache (2013)

Whether or not you take the band’s advice on smoking “a fatty” before you listen, Curse the Son‘s second offering, Psychache (review here), is definitely worth the cranking that the free download they’ve made available is allowing for. The Hamden, Connecticut, trio are proving to be yet-unsung masters of tone, and even as they give Psychache unto the ether that is the downloadable doomsphere, the really good news in their announcement below is that the three-piece — guitarist/vocalist Ron Vanacore, bassist Richard “Cheech” Weeden and drummer Michael Petrucci — have started working on a follow-up, which they’ll look to record in the fall.

Also fortunate is that the good tidings give me an excuse to revisit the album, which I’ve been wanting to do. Find the stream with the news below:

Curse the Son’s 2nd album “Psychache” is FINALLY available for HIGH quality digital download!

If you dug “Klonopain”, you are sure to love this batch of tunes.

Name your price, or if you’re broke…grab it for free, just make sure you share it with some buds. We still have some physical copies left if anyone is interested, as well as 1 sided T-Shirts and stickers.

We have begun work on our 3rd album and hope to begin recording in the fall.

Download it, smoke a fatty and CRANK IT!!!
Enjoy……..

http://cursetheson.bandcamp.com/album/psychache

Curse the Son, Psychache (2013)

It’s been about a year and a half since Connecticut stoner doom trio Curse the Son released their first album, and clearly in that time, they’ve been through some changes. That full-length, Klonopain (review here) was a charmingly druggy exercise in riff-led doom, more engaging tonally than in terms of the songwriting, but still a solid showing from a band getting their feet. The upcoming self-released sophomore outing, Psychache, outclasses the debut on every level. I’ll reiterate because it’s worth reiterating that I enjoyed Klonopain a lot – I broke it out recently in advance of the band’s performance at Stoner Hands of Doom XII and found it had held up pretty well – but with Psychache, Curse the Son push themselves further creatively, performance-wise, production-wise and in terms of their songwriting. A notable change is the swapping out of drummer Charles Nicholas for Mike Petrucci (also of Vestal Claret, King of Salem and a percussionist for the touring incarnation of the Blue Man Group), who brings a crisp sense of professionalism that rests well in the pocket with bassist Cheech and guitarist/vocalist Ron Vanacore (both formerly of Sufferghost), while still also showing a subtle bit of technicality in complex fills and varied timekeeping. Petrucci is no stranger to plod, and in the lumbering riff in the post-chorus bridge of early highlight cut “Spider Stole the Weed,” the drums do more than just highlight the groove – there’s an active drive there – all three members of the band not so much following the riff as pushing it forward. Might be a subtle difference, but it goes a long way, and Vanacore’s vocals have also developed in confidence and range, so all around, Curse the Son emerge through these six tracks/31 minutes as a more mature, professional act. They remain very much of their genre – that is, Psychache is without a doubt a stoner doom album – but the band seems not only to acknowledge this, but to embrace it in a way that few of their peers are willing to do. For that, for Vanacore’s tone, and for the memorable choruses that work their way into several of these songs, Psychache is a brief but potent excursion that leaves its own footprints in well trod sonic paths.

About Vanacore’s tone: Partnered up with Connecticut’s Dunwich Amplifiers, the guitarist gets deep, Sunn-esque low end specifically crafted for the kind of music he’s playing. With Matamp-style richness, the riffs are carried across full in their sound. The production is clearly a step up from that of Klonopain, but it’s still comparatively rough. Nonetheless, the guitar dominates and the songs are all the more dynamic for it. Whether it’s the straight-ahead riff and thud of “Spider Stole the Weed” or the creepy beginning of opener “Goodbye Henry Anslinger,” they remain natural while also holding firm to a modern clarity. That stays true as “Goodbye Henry Anslinger” gets underway with an instrumental introduction that comprises the better part of its first two minutes in establishing the riff before Vanacore’s well-layered vocals kick in. A sense of next-levelism is palpable. In “Goodbye Henry Anslinger,” the riff is a hook, the verse is a hook and the chorus is a hook, and though the track is over six minutes long, it remains catchy for the duration and accessible, showing growth in Curse the Son’s songwriting to match their presentation. The lines “Feels like a revolution/It comes from underground” serve as a memorable chorus and are delivered with classically doomed inflection in a vast echo that’s all the more appropriate for the hugeness of the guitar and Cheech’s bass. Structurally, it’s a basic verse/chorus/bridge/verse/chorus once the vocals kick in, but the psychedelia worked into the break following the first chorus gives the album an immediately varied base to work from, offsetting the riffly chug while Petrucci works a little funk out of the following verse on the bell of his ride cymbal. It’s a strong opening, and the momentum continues with “Spider Stole the Weed,” which boasts another commanding plod and some forceful use of wah in the guitar and bass prior to stopping at around 2:30 and restarting with a faster, more active pulse.

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