Posted in Whathaveyou on December 19th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
I’m a little curious at this point how long Corrosion of Conformity‘s touring cycle for their early-2018 album, No Cross No Crown(review here), is going to grow. Granted, they’ve been flying other banners along the way, such as the 25th anniversary of Deliverance (review here) this year, but still, they were regularly touring before No Cross No Crown for a couple years, and they’ve only been at it harder ever since. They were already announced for Desertfest in London and Berlin, so a trip back to Europe was bound to happen, but now we have the dates. It’s Western Europe, which makes me think that they might get back at some point for the eastern half of the continent, but there’s also been word in the interim that guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan will head out this summer for festival dates with his other band, the supergroup Down, as they in turn celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album, Nola. So many anniversaries! I’m gonna run out of greeting cards.
So maybe after the early-2020 trip to Australia and New Zealand and the return to Europe around Desertfests, that’s a wrap for C.O.C. for now. For those curious — which is apparently an entire contingent on the band’s social media — I wouldn’t expect drummer Reed Mullin to be making either trek, but they’ve certainly done nothing but kick ass in his absence, if my own experience is anything to go by. Nothing against the dude, but C.O.C. aren’t taking the stage to deliver anything less than a stellar product, and sure enough, they don’t.
Here are the current upcoming dates. Spirit Adrift aren’t on all of the Euro shows, so check the poster too. Click either one to enlarge:
EUROPE DATES SPRING 2020 with Spirit Adrift SAT Apr 25 Dublin Ireland Academy SUN Apr 26 Belfast Limelight 2 TUE Apr 28 Glasgow Scotland Garage WED Apr 29 Manchester UK FRI May 01 London UK Camden DesertFest SAT May 02 Izegem Belgium Headbangers Balls Festival SUN May 03 Berlin Germany Desertfest Berlin TUE May 05 Salzburg Austria Rockhouse WED May 06 Munich Baskstage Halle THU May 07 Milan Italy Legend SAT May 09 Madrid Spain Sala Riviera SUN May 10 Barcelona, Spain Razmataz 2 TUE May 12 Paris, France le petit bain WED May 13 Rouen France Le 106 FRI May 15 Southhampton UK Engine rooms SAT May 16 Birmingham UK 02 institute 2
Corrosion of Conformity – Australian & New Zealand Tour Tour Dates: Tue 4 Feb – Auckland, Galatos Wed 5 Feb- Adelaide, Lion Arts Factory Thu 6 Feb – Perth, Amplifier Capitol Fri 7 Feb – Melbourne, Max Watt’s House of Music Sat 8 Feb – Brisbane, Crowbar Brisbane Wed 12 Feb – Sydney, Crowbar Sydney
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 26th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Maybe you saw Corrosion of Conformity live at some point this year in the US. Maybe you caught them at Freak Valley and other fests this year or you’re looking forward to seeing them in Europe next Spring as they make the rounds of the Spring festival circuit, doing Desertfest in London and Berlin, no doubt among a slew of other still to be announced. The point is, C.O.C. have been touring. Hard.
And even as they’ve been celebrating their past and landmark releases, they haven’t exactly been shy about showing love to 2018’s No Cross No Crown(review here), and neither should they be, honestly, both because it kicks ass and because it was a long time coming. I dug what the re-emergent Animosity-era three-piece of C.O.C. started doing abut a decade ago, but it’s a different animal, even if it’s most (or I guess half now) of the same people.
Well, Corrosion of Conformity haven’t been to Australia and New Zealand in six years, so as they continue to make the rounds on this significant-ass album cycle, they’re headed out that way in February for a round of shows presented by Silverback Touring, who posted the dates thusly:
We are stoked to announce the triumphant return of Southern rock legends, Corrosion Of Conformity, to Australia and New Zealand, and this time with Pepper Keenan up front. Pepper returned to the band for 2018’s massive “No Cross No Crown” album which charted around the world, including Australia.
These shows are not to be missed. Tickets on sale now.
Corrosion of Conformity – Australian & New Zealand Tour Tour Dates: Tue 4 Feb – Auckland, Galatos Wed 5 Feb- Adelaide, Lion Arts Factory Thu 6 Feb – Perth, Amplifier Capitol Fri 7 Feb – Melbourne, Max Watt’s House of Music Sat 8 Feb – Brisbane, Crowbar Brisbane Wed 12 Feb – Sydney, Crowbar Sydney
Posted in Reviews on August 13th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
There’s a word for a band like Lightning Born, with a powerhouse singer, powerhouse riffs and a powerhouse rhythm section. Give me a minute, it’ll come to me.
In the meantime, the North Carolinian four-piece’s self-titled debut for Ripple Music willfully obliterates the line between any number of forms of heavy rock and roll, whether it’s classic doom and boogie or straightforward push and nod. The lineup is enviable, with Brenna Leath (The Hell No, also Crystal Spiders) channeling Stevie Nicks and Laura Dolan on songs like “Salvation” and “Out for Blood” while backed by guitarist Erik Sugg (also Demon Eye), bassist/recording engineer Mike Dean (Corrosion of Conformity) and drummer Doza Hawes (Mega Colossus, ex-Hour of 13), and at 11 songs and 51 minutes, their first outing is a substantial undertaking that signals the cues it’s taken from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath-era Black Sabbath in the lead riff of opener “Shifting Winds” and lives up to that standard throughout in both production and songcraft method.
Of course, they by no means limit themselves to that sphere, and broaden the palette in later cuts like “Out for Blood” and “Power Struggle,” or even the shuffle of second track “Renegade,” which recontextualizes the speedier riff from “Into the Void,” they show their will to create something new from their root influences. They seem most comfortable in the mid-paced groove of “Silence” and the semi-Southern blues-burner “Oblivion,” but do right to change up the tempo as they move forward through the material, or even within the songs themselves, as with “Salvation” and the seven-minute finale “Godless,” which caps the generally-more-patient side B with a rousing argument for viewing Lightning Born‘s Lightning Born as a first step en route to future more complex songwriting. I’m inclined to do that — that is to say: debut album is a debut album — but between the fluidity of the songs from one to the next and the reminder the album delivers of the all-important value of craft and performance in the final tally of the listening experience, one could hardly accuse them of merely getting their feet wet. More of a headfirst dive.
And fair enough. I’ll admit, there are few phrases that in my estimation are going to hurt your band less than “Mike Dean on bass,” but one would be remiss not to single out Leath‘s vocals as a defining factor in Lightning Born‘s approach. She toys some with layering, but by and large sticks to a single, stage-ready take that distinguishes itself from the hook of “Shifting Winds” onward as being malleable to the energy level of the song, as “Renegades” and “Wildfire” or the midsection slowdown of “Power Struggle” and the greater sprawl of “Godless” show. She’s forward in the mix, but that ends up feeding the notion of Lightning Born‘s heavy ’70s roots. The band aren’t shy about those anyway, but neither does that seem to have been the impetus behind their creation. I don’t imagine Lightning Born got together and said, “Okay, let’s form a classic rock band.”
Rather, their execution is organic enough to make one believe their material is based around what came out of jams among friends, eventually structured into bluesy verses and choruses, bridges, the start-stop softshoe of “You Have Been Warned,” and so on. Whatever the case, they’re certainly in conversation with the 1969-1974 era, but are by no means a retro band looking to simply recreate it. Once again, their material speaks more to their own forward potential than the past glories of others. It’s plain to hear in “Magnetic” as the guitar shimmers in the buildup to the hook and in how the bass and drums lead the subsequent final slowdown, the subtle layering from Leath adding ambience to what on the whole is a strikingly straightforward release. That is, there are some light moments of flourish here and there, but in the fine tradition of “nuthin’ too fancy,” Lightning Born stand tall in a stripped-down sound that doesn’t want for anything in making its intentions known or accomplishing its stylistic goals. It’s all about the songs.
Future releases might find Leath self-harmonizing, or Sugg topping solos with solos and solos, or even Hawes and Dean employing some manner of studio-based whatnot into their methods, but Lightning Born‘s first LP holds to a strikingly natural ethic. If you told me “Power Struggle” was recorded live, with the four of them in a room — or maybe Leath in a booth for isolation — I’d believe it. And that feel pervades throughout the entire record, ultimately proving central to its purpose, because while the members of Lightning Born aren’t strangers to the act of being in a group creating music, that’s clearly the spirit in which they’re most looking to revel in these 11 cuts. “Salvation” might be the point at which that’s most readily displayed, but “Godless” might stand as the means through which the band most signal their drive to progress as a unit.
It’s not so radically different from some of what precedes it, but maybe more DioSabbath than later-Ozzy, and for the already-converted to whom the record is largely targeted, it is a striking enough distinction, marked out by a more gradual linear build over the first four minutes that give way eventually to some “Electric Funeral”-izing stomp and a slowdown apex given its due momentousness by the vocals that accompany. It’s the finish the album deserves, certainly, but something of a departure as well even from the likes of “Magnetic” and “Out for Blood,” which build on the initial shove and swing of “Shifting Winds” and “Renegade,” changing the structural flow of the offering even as it draws it to a close. This too is well within the tenets of heavy rock traditionalism in terms of style, but stands out owing to what Lightning Born make of it. They could go in any number of directions from here, and given the members’ other commitments I won’t try and predict when that might happen, but if this self-titled is what gets them in motion, that motion is more than infectious enough to make one look forward to what may come.
By the way, the word is powerhouse. I can’t think of one that fits them better.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 24th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I can think of fewer tour pairings less broken than Corrosion of Conformity and Crowbar, who were out together co-headlining earlier this year on what turned out to be the first leg of a tour that will continue this July. Of particular note is the addition of Lo-Pan this time around, who’ll be out supporting their new record, Subtle. That record is a beast and they’ll no doubt bring an infusion of energy to the run as they provide support and Quaker City Night Hawks open. Starland Ballroom, you say? That’ll be just about the most Jersey shit ever, methinks. See you there.
Though I wouldn’t mind catching C.O.C. at the Psycho Swim party in Vegas either. Really I’ll take what I can get.
Dates follow from the pr IWRE:
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY Announces North American Summer Headlining Tour With Crowbar + Band To Headline Psycho Las Vegas Pre-Party And More!
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will kick off the second leg of their North American headlining tour this July. The A Quest To Believe, A Call To The Void II Tour will commence on July 26th in Poughkeepsie, New York and run through August 25th in Providence, Rhode Island. Support will be provided by their comrades in Crowbar as well as Lo-Pan and Quaker City Night Hawks. Tickets go on sale this Friday at all local ticket outlets.
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will also play a special one-off show with country singer Cody Jinks next month in addition to festival appearances at Rocklahoma, Heavy MTL, KISW’s Pain In The Grass, and a headlining performance at Psycho Swim, Psycho Las Vegas’ annual pool-bound kick-off party where the band will be joined by Lucifer, Danava, ASG, Primitive Man, and more. In October, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will appear on the inaugural MegaCruise alongside Megadeth, Anthrax, Testament, Overkill, and so many others with more shows to be announced in the months to come. See all confirmed dates below.
No Cross No Crown is available on CD, digital, vinyl, and cassette formats. Various order bundles are available at nuclearblast.com/coc-nocrossnocrown.
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY: 5/09/2019 Coyote Joe’s – Charlotte, NC w/ Cody Jinks 5/24/2019 Rocklahoma – Pryor, OK
w/ Crowbar, Lo-Pan, Quaker City Night Hawks: 7/26/2019 The Chance – Poughkeepsie, NY 7/27/2019 Westcott Theater – Syracuse, NY 7/28/2019 Heavy MTL – Montreal, QC * 7/29/2019 Dallas Nightclub – Kitchener, ON 7/31/2019 Mercury Ballroom – Louisville, KY 8/01/2019 Elevation – Grand Rapids, MI 8/02/2019 The Rave II – Milwaukee, WI 8/03/2019 KISW’s Pain In The Grass @ White River Amphitheatre – Auburn, WA * 8/05/2019 Deluxe @ Old National Centre – Indianapolis, IN 8/06/2019 Pop’s – Sauget, IL 8/07/2019 Slowdown – Omaha, NE 8/10/2019 Fox Theatre – Boulder, CO 8/11/2019 Mesa Theater – Grand Junction, CO 8/13/2019 Knitting Factory Concert House – Boise, ID 8/14/2019 The Complex – Salt Lake City, UT 8/15/2019 Psycho Swim @ Daylight Beach Club – Las Vegas, NV * 8/16/2019 Encore – Tucson, AZ 8/17/2019 Sunshine Theater – Albuquerque, NM 8/19/2019 Come And Take It Live – Austin, TX 8/21/2019 1904 Music Hall – Jacksonville, FL 8/22/2019 The Tarheel – Jacksonville, NC 8/23/2019 Elevation 27 – Virginia Beach, VA 8/24/2019 Starland Ballroom – Sayreville, NJ 8/25/2019 Fete Music Hall – Providence, RI 10/13/2019 MegaCruise 2019 – Los Angeles, CA * * COC only
Posted in Reviews on March 19th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
I used to be pretty artsy and write poetry. Let’s give it a shot:
There was an old man who wore no-toe shoes.
He said, I’mma go do 60 reviews.
He was out of his head,
Should’ve gone back to bed,
But he loves him some dirty psych blues.
Years from now, when I link back to this post for a “(review here)”-type scenario, I’m going to see that and I’ll still think it’s funny. The planet’s dying. I’d say a bit of silly is more than called for.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Kungens Män, Chef
Krautrockers, assemble! Or, you know, whatever krautrockers do — I assume it involves homemade spacecraft that, yes, absolutely fly. Perhaps one of these days I’ll ask Stockholm’s Kungens Män, whose latest outing for Riot Season, simply titled Chef, is an outbound delight of psych-infused progressivism. Beginning with the opening throb of “Fyrkantig Böjelse” and moving into the volume swells, steady drum line and wandering guitar that starts “Öppen För Stängda Dörrar” on side A, its four extended tracks craft otherworldly textures through a meld of organic instrumental flow and waves of synth, the second cut building to a tense wash of distortion all the while keeping that hypnotic march. The two corresponding 10-minute-plus cuts on side B waste no time in offering cosmic boogie in “Män Med Medel” with a more active rhythmic flow, and closer “Eftertankens Blanka Krankhet” — longer than the opener by one second at 11:24 — fades in on meditative guitar and explores a serene minimalism that only underscores the all around joy of the album.
The self-titled, self-released debut full-length from Kiel, Germany’s PFUND arrives and departs with a guesting horn section, and while that inevitably adds a bit of grandeur to the proceedings, the bulk of the outing is dedicated to straightforward, semi-metallic heavy rock, held to ground even in the seven-minute “Spaceman” by a considered sense of structure and an earthy drum sound that draws the songs together, whether it’s the classic riff rock in “Sea of Life” or the moodier sway in the earlier “Lost in Rome.” Dual guitars effectively multiply the impact, and the vocals showcase a nascent sense of melody that one imagines will only continue to grow as the band moves forward. At nine songs and 44 minutes, it shows some breadth and nuance in “Exhaustion” and “Paranoia,” the former tapping into an edge of progressive metal, but the primary impact comes from PFUND‘s heft of groove and how it blends with a rawer edge to their production. The Kyuss-referencing centerpiece here might be called “Imbalance,” but that’s hardly representative of what surrounds, horns and all.
Three songs, 11 minutes and three distinct vibes from the aptly-titled Demo demo of North Carolinian three-piece Crystal Spiders. On “Tigerlily,” “Flamethrower” and “Devil’s Resolve,” the trio of bassist/vocalist Brenna Leath (also Lightning Born), guitarist/vocalist Mike Deloatch and drummer/backing vocalist Tradd Yancey careen from bluesy spaciousness to hard-driving catchiness and end up — because why not? — in repeating cult-sludge chants, “Come to the devil’s resolve!” like Black Widow trying to lure people to the sabbat, except shouting. If the purpose of a demo is for a new band to try different methods of working and thereby take a first step in discovering their sound, Crystal Spiders are well on their way, and for what it’s worth, there isn’t anything within their scope as they present it that doesn’t work for them. There are edges to smooth out, of course, but that too is a part of the process starting here.
If you’d asked, depending on which part of Deathspiration was on, I’d probably have called The Misery Men a bass/drum duo, but nope, that’s guitar. Tonally one is reminded of At Devil Dirt from Chile, but the Portland, Oregon, two-piece of vocalist/guitarist Corey G. Lewis and drummer Steve Jones are entirely more barebones in their craft, eschewing digital involvement of any sort in the recording or mixing process and sounding duly raw as a result throughout the subtle earworm of “C.W. Sughrue” and the lumbering “Harness the Darkness.” The subsequent “Night Creeps In” brings a Northwestern noise payoff to quiet/loud trades and the near-10-minute closer “Stoned to Death,” well, it seems to meet an end befitting its title, to say the least. As their stated intent was to capture the most organic version of their sound possible, and made a point of working toward that ideal in their recording, one could hardly fault them for the results of that process. They wanted something human-sounding. They got it.
Some — not all — of what one needs to know about Hubris‘ EP #II Live is right there in the title. Indeed, it’s their second EP. Indeed, it was recorded live. And indeed, like using a ‘#’ sign with a Roman numeral, there’s something about the way the three included songs from the Toulouse, France-based outfit sound that’s just a little bit off-kilter from what you might expect. “Zugzwang” (7:19), “Tergo” (19:58) and “Biotilus” (27:04) are arranged shortest to longest, and while the opener starts off like Queens of the Stone Age on an Eastern-tinged psychedelic bender, the lengthy jams that follow — the first of them with a fervent drum punctuation, the second a gradual intertwining of synth and guitar with hardly any percussion at all until after its 22nd minute. The instrumental flow that ensues from there is almost like a hidden bonus track, at least until they Hubris get to minute 26 and the whole thing explodes in crash and plod. The underlying message, of course, is that if you think you’re safe at any point, you’re not.
Lumbering fuckall pervades the debut full-length, Slake, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, sludgers Woorms — also stylized all-caps — which incorporates past singles “Find a Meal Find a Bed Find a God” and “Mouth is a Wound” amid the sample/noise barrage of “Our Lady of Perpetually Shitfaced” and the willfully brash “Racist Kevin” that follows. There’s an edge of Melvinsian chug to the proceedings, but Woorms‘ take, though presented in finished compositions, comes across as almost nihilistic rather than making a show of its experimentalism. That is, they’re trying to say they don’t give a fuck, and in listening, they make it kind of easy to believe, but there’s still something about the cohesiveness of “Veni Vidi Fucki” and “Rice Crispy” and the saved-the-best-nod-for-last finale “Sore Afraid” that undercuts the notion even while making the listening experience all the more pummeling, and from the intro “Corpse Corps” through “Urine Trouble Now”‘s echoing shouts and the closer’s unmitigated stomp, there’s still plenty of exploration being done.
Rebranded since their 2016 debut, Builders of Cosmos (discussed here), from their more phonetically intuitive original moniker, Orion, Italy’s Oreyeon issue a cosmically expansive spacescape follow-up in their six-song/40-minute sophomore outing, Ode to Oblivion, also their first release through Heavy Psych Sounds. Echoing vocals pervade “Big Surprise” after the introductory “T.I.O.” and “Trudging to Vacuity” establish the wide-cast mix and anti-grav rhythmic density, and the nine-minute side A finale title-track runs mostly-instrumental circles around most of what I’d usually call “prog” only after it lays down a sleek hook in the first couple minutes. After “Big Surprise,” the 8:45 “The Ones” trades volume back and forth but finds its breadth at about the sixth minute as the dramatic lead turns on a dime to desert rock thrust en route to wherever the hell it goes next. Honestly, after that moment, everything’s gravy, but Oreyeon lay it on thick with closer “Starship Pusher” and never neglect melody in the face of nod. Worth a deeper dig if you get the chance.
Sometimes you hear a record and it’s like the band is doing you a favor by existing. To that, thanks Melody Fields. The Gothenburg psych troupe lace their lysergic flow with folkish harmonies and an open sensibility on their self-titled debut that comes coupled with enough tonal presence to still consider them heavy not that it matters. They break out the sax on “Morning Sun” to welcome effect, and the sun continues to shine through “Liberty” and the garage-buzzing “Run” before “Rain Man” turns water droplets into keyboard notes and Beatlesian — think “Rain” — voice arrangements atop soothing instrumental drift, every bit the centerpiece and an excellent precursor to the acoustic-based “Fire” and the 10-minute “Trädgränsen,” which is the crowning achievement of this self-titled debut, which, if I’d been hip to it in time, would’ve made both the 2018 best albums and best debuts list. They cap with a reprise of “Morning Sun” and underscore the solid foundation beneath the molten beauty of their work throughout. To ask for another album seems greedy, but I will anyway. More, please.
Okay, look, enough screwing around. It’s time for someone to sign Mammoth Grove. The Calgary natives have been putting out quality heavy psych rock since their 2011 self-titled debut (review here), and their latest long-player, the four-song Slow Burn is a righteous amalgam of peace-thru-rock that lives up to its freewheeling vibes in “Seasons” after the methodical opener “Valleys” and rolls out a bit of melodic ’70s biker rock bliss in “Black Meadow” before the side-B-consuming “Gloria” (18:42) asks early if you’re ready to go and then goes like gone, gone, gone, and gone further. Given the analog mindset involved and the heart on display throughout, there’s something fitting about it being pressed up in an edition of 100 hand-screenprinted LPs and 100 CDs likewise, but the more people who could hear it, the merrier, so yeah, some label or other needs to step up and make that happen, and I dare you to listen to the solo that hits past the 14-minute mark in “Gloria” and tell me otherwise. Dare you.
Since pared down to a trio from the four-piece incarnation they present here, Austin’s Crimson Devils first released their debut, A Taste for Blood, in 2017, but gave it a vinyl revisit last year and it’s little mystery why. The record comprises 11 sharply-composed tracks of Small Stone-style heavy rock, taking cues from Sasquatch in modern-via-classic modus, picking and choosing elements of ’70s and ’90s rock to conjure formidable groove and engaging hooks. There’s considerable swagger and weight in “They Get It,” and while opener “Dead and Gone” seems to show an influence in its vocal patterning from Elder, as the album unfolds, it’s more about the blast of “Captain Walker” or the penultimate “Nothing to Claim” and the straight-ahead vibes of “Bad News Blues” and “No Action” than anything so outwardly prog. There’s plenty to dig in the rock-for-rockers mindset, and it’s the kind of offering that should probably come with an octane rating. However such things are measured, safe to say it would not be low.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 28th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Taking their moniker from the first track on the debut album from Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Raleigh, North Carolina’s Crystal Spiders have unveiled their aptly-titled Demo ahead of making their first live appearance on Feb. 7 in their hometown. The release is comprised of three cuts giving three distinct looks at the trio as they move from the rolling doom rock and layered harmonies of “Tigerlily” through the rougher-edged thrust of “Flamethrower” with a classic metal riff careening through its sub-two-minute runtime, and into the catchy cultistry of “Devil’s Resolve,” on which bassist Brenna Leath — also of Ripple-signed heavy rockers Lightning Born — steps back from lead vocals to allow a shift to sludgy shouts ahead of a delve into the riff from Electric Wizard‘s “Witchcult Today” repurposed as the bed for an impressive solo from Mike Deloatch, backed by the swing of Tradd Yancey, who wins at names, outright.
It’s 11 minutes of material and does exactly what something called Demo should do: it lets the band get their feet under them and gives anyone listening fodder for future interest. Certainly with such variety over a relatively short period of time and the fact that the band has been together less than a full year, it’s probably safe to say they’re trying things out, but in so doing, they nonetheless give an encouraging look at their songwriting modus as well as some killer performances. If I was gonna be at the gig, I’d show up early. That’s all I’m saying.
Info and whatnot came down the PR wire, but the real point here is the stream, which you’ll find at the bottom of the post. So have at it:
Crystal Spiders – Demo
Formed by a punk rock kid, a crazed rock and roller, and later joined by a doom veteran, Crystal Spiders are rising from Raleigh, unleashing dynamic and powerful sounds speaking to the fundamental power of fuzz rock. Inspired by a slew of acts ranging from the Melvins and Kyuss to Fu Manchu, these scene veterans are tried and true worshipers of the riff. Featuring members of local favorites such as Lightning Born, Mind Dweller and Thirsty Curses, Crystal Spiders’ diverse mix of influences makes for music that separates them from the stoner rock rat race.
Brought together by a love of vintage gear, nasty licks, and ratty pedals, Crystal Spiders revel in the waves of volume commanded by their roaring amps. Frontwoman Brenna Leath’s dynamic voice soars above it all, guiding listeners from peak to sonic peak and fascinating the palate with her powerful delivery. She is perfectly complemented by her bandmate’s heavy vocals, joined by the roaring guitars of Mike Deloatch and the high-powered drums of Tradd Yancey. The legendary Raleigh rock scene has been a band breeding ground for years now, but rarely has something emerged from the crypt with the same passion and drive of this fuzz-possessed crew.
Reeking of smoke and drenched in distortion, their demo has just been self-released in January of 2019 and is guaranteed to reap minds and destroy souls, foreshadowing a debut album that will make waves in heavy circles. Excited for the opportunities to come, Leath says, “You know you’re doing something right when you look down at the speedometer and you’re doing 20 miles over with no idea of how you got there. 1-part vintage gear, 1-part doom, a dash of punk and a sprinkle of germanium. That’s how.”
All songs written and recorded by Crystal Spiders (Mike Deloatch, Brenna Leath, Tradd Yancey). Mixed and mastered by Jim Griffin, Shadetree Studios, Raleigh, NC. Art by Tyler Pennington. Layout by Alex Traboulsi.
[Click play above to stream New Light Choir’s Torchlight in full. Album is out this Friday, Nov. 23, on Svart Records.]
Near the end of organ-laced second track “Queen of Winter” there is a lyrical turn. The driving 4:34 piece arrives following opener “Grand Architect” on the New Light Choir‘s Svart-delivered third album, Torchlight, and is the final chapter in a quick initial salvo before the six-minute “Firebird” takes hold as the longest cut included. It happens in the last stretch of the song. The line, “Before the winter begins,” is being repeated following a suitable tempest of riffs and rhythm, as the Raleigh, North Carolina, self-recording, studio-only two-piece of guitarist/vocalist John Niffenegger and drummer Chris Dalton seem to reinvent progressive, blackened and traditional metals in their own image, and at 4:15, the lyric changes for the last go. Instead of, “Before the winter begins,” it’s, “Before her winter begins,” and on paper that’s not a huge shift, but its nonetheless emblematic of the level of detail and precision put into Torchlight as a whole.
Right down to one word in one of 10 songs for one line on a 45-minute album, every moment of Torchlight feels like it’s doing exactly what New Light Choir has intended it to do. The narrative around the album is one of stylistic reach, and indeed, there’s plenty of it, but across the tumult of “Omens” and the what-if-Rush-had-invented-black-metal “Psalm 6,” all frenetic drumming and poised vocal melody and blindingly progressive figures and structures, but it’s not just about taking two or three or four different styles and smashing them together. There are bands who do that and make it work to varying degrees of success, but rather than highlight the divisions between the various elements at play — and it is very much play — across Torchlight, New Light Choir work to erase the boundaries of genre in the first place. It’s as if their goal was to sit down and construct a record where every individual moment was geared toward rendering “File Under” moot.
New Light Choir made their debut with a self-titled LP in 2010, and songs from it carried almost a Wovenhand-style sense of space (thinking of “Choral” near the middle of the tracklist), but as they followed that with Volume II in 2014 — High Roller Records released it in 2015 — and found themselves working more in a classic production-style with an overarching theme, the creative development was palpable. The same is true in sitting that second outing next to Torchlight, as “Adamantine” seems to have found the blend of fullness and rawness in the recording itself that the first two full-lengths seemed to be driving toward, and their lyrics about an unbreakable metal there could hardly be more appropriate. While I don’t know what the circumstances of the recording were, the band worked on Torchlight across three years from later-2015 through February of this year, and while that could’ve just been a matter of their not having time to get into Studio 775 for anything other than laying down snippets at a time, as Niffenegger intones the line “Heavy metal in my veins” shortly before the acoustic guitar and choral keys lead the way out and into the thrashier start of the aforementioned “Psalm 6,” the material indeed sounds like it’s been lived with.
It’s thought through, but not staid. From “Grand Architect” onward, Dalton‘s drums are a catalyst for the melded aesthetics, whether it’s in that leadoff as they bring classic doom and thrash into heady coexistence, or on “Golden Ring,” as the graceful lyric “And so it goes” is met with a corresponding instrumental turn on the way to its last verse. Atmosphere is no less central throughout, but on a sheer performance level, Torchlight is a triumph in its uncompromised look at what metal can do and can be. If it took an actual three years of work from top to bottom to make it, I could hardly be surprised listening to the balance of lead and rhythm guitar layers in “Omens” earlier on or the running toms that start and crash into the beginning of the penultimate “Last March,” which nearly blasts through its earlier moments before reimagining Primordial-style post-black metal with that ever-present touch of prog in the vocals but a locked in half-time megagroove after its midpoint that seems to make the journey on that march all the more worthwhile.
Before that, they delve into a rousing cascade on the three-minute “Moondawn Mirage III,” which eschews lyrics until turning to acoustics in its final movement and is the shortest track on the album but still well more substantial than an interlude, and after, they bring forth the finale, “Stardust and Torchlight,” which feels less like a summary than a culmination. With a steady gallop in its initial verse and chorus, it’s black metal but for the vocals, and even after a momentary slowdown just past the halfway mark, the turn into a mid-paced progression and a winding, plotted lead feels smooth and as natural as any of the many other headspinning changes that have preceded it. As they do with “Moondawn Mirage III” and “Adamantine,” they finish “Stardust and Torchlight” with a move into acoustic guitar, residual feedback holding out beneath a few quick plucks and a final strum that once again serves a reminder of just how purposeful Torchlight is in its directed nuance.
Different listeners will hear various references in the songs, but ultimately New Light Choir‘s style belongs to no one so much as to the duo itself, and the manner in which they’re able to make it own is as much a reshaping of metal as it is an homage to it. I’m not sure if it’s fair to call them experimental, if only for the connotation of well-let’s-try-this-and-see-what-happens that seems to bring, where Dalton and Niffenegger execute their work in a not-makeshift way, but very much befitting their status as a studio project. That’s not to say the tracks on Torchlight wouldn’t work live if a full lineup came together around the two founders, just that that’s what it would take for the material as it is to be brought to life on a stage. Whether that happens or not — it’s been eight years since their debut and it hasn’t yet, so I’ll hazard a guess that it’s not top priority — the clarity of their vision is one of their greatest assets throughout Torchlight, and if that’s the thread that carries them through the next several years of work on their next round of material, it can only be a win.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 9th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Hey look, I don’t usually post ticket links with tour announcements. Looks shitty — you know I’m all about vanity — makes it harder to read the dates, and if you’re on any form of the internet reading about music you already know how to use said internet to buy tickets. But this isn’t just any tour. Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar and Mothership teaming up with Weedeater and The Obsessed rotating in and out for stretches. It’s fucking significant. And tickets are on sale today, so yeah, I’m posting the links. Can’t help but notice there are three days off after the New York show. Have to wonder what’s up there… Hmm…
Anyway, I don’t know how else to put it but this tour is pretty astounding, so yeah, just get tickets. Whatever. You know these bands. You know why you need to be there. So mark your calendar and go. Easy as that.
Here’s the info (and links) from the PR wire:
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY Announces 2019 North American Headlining Tour With Support From Crowbar, Weedeater, The Obsessed, And Mothership; Tickets On Sale This Friday
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will kick off 2019 with a long-anticipated North American headlining tour! Set to commence January 19th in San Antonio, Texas, and run through February 27th in Nashville, Tennessee, the month-long trek will include support from Crowbar and Mothership as well as Weedeater and The Obsessed on select shows. Tickets go on sale this Friday! See all confirmed dates below.
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY released the critically-acclaimed No Cross No Crown full-length earlier this year via Nuclear Blast Entertainment. Captured in North Carolina with longtime producer John Custer, the record marks the first studio recording with vocalist/guitarist Pepper Keenan in over a decade and, earning the #67 spot on the Billboard Top 200 Chart, #12 on the Billboard Top Current Albums Chart, and #3 on the Top Hard Music Albums Chart upon its first week of release, is the highest charting album of the band’s career.
No Cross No Crown is available on CD, digital, vinyl, and cassette formats. Various order bundles are available at nuclearblast.com/coc-nocrossnocrown.
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY w/ Crowbar, Weedeater (1/19 – 2/13), The Obsessed (2/16 – 2/27), Mothership:
1/19/2019 Alamo City Music Hall – San Antonio, TX [tickets]
1/20/2019 Diamond Ballroom – Oklahoma City, OK [tickets]
1/21/2019 The Riot Room – Kansas City, MO [tickets]
