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Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean Announce Debut LP Obsession Destruction & April Tour; Premiere New Single

Posted in audiObelisk, Whathaveyou on February 23rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

chained to the bottom of the ocean

If you’ve got 66 minutes and a desire to be bludgeoned and flayed at the same time — as really everyone does whether they know it or not — Massachusetts extreme sludgers Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean hereby announce their debut full-length, Obsession Destruction, will be released through Connecticut’s Redscroll Records on May 12. They’re not through 10-minute opener “The Altar” before they’ve built one to weighted-slog duggery, atmosphere not neglected but willfully imbued with a sense of decay that spreads across the 2LP as a defining feature, the record a willful challenge to audience endurance whether doomed in tempo like the penultimate churner “Every Day a Weeping Curse” or, as on the earlier “The Chalice,” able to set their caustic feedback, biting screams and harsh intentions to move at more than a plod.

Those looking for letup should seek elsewhere. Even the three-minute “Hole in My Head” — hit single, anyone? — is driven to churn and pummel. Where there are quiet stretches, as on “The Gates Have Closed and They Will Never Open,” they are both momentary and seething. And as they move deeper into the procession, each of the final two sides has a cut over 12 minutes in “Ten Thousand Years of Unending Failure” Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean Obsession Destructionand album-closer “In the Feral Grace of Night, May the Last Breath Never Come,” so respite is damned along with just about everything else. In an attempt to bottom line it, there is more depth in tone and craft to Obsession Destruction than the raw misanthropic aggression on its impossibly contorted face might make it appear, but the litmus of consuming, angry misery is stench and sound in kind, cold on the skin like a New England winter night, imbued with a preternatural and abiding threat of dying by exposure.

It was a delight to have been ground into tiny bits last year by Come to Grief‘s When the World Dies, and Obsession Destruction makes a worthy successor; the apocalyptic malevolence that’s overarching throughout the eight component tracks here uniting them fluidly in purpose and intensity. Oh, and it’s really, really heavy too, just in case that point hadn’t gotten across.

Preorders are up as of now ahead of the May 12 arrival, and Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean will advance the album with a string of East Coast and Midwestern tour dates starting April 12 that are also being announced today. All info, links, etc., follows under the player below with the first audio to premiere from Obsession Destruction, courtesy of the band.

Good luck:

Vinyl CS CD preorder – http://redscrollrecords.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-chained-to-the-bottom-of-the-ocean-obsession-destruction-lp-cd-cs

Bandcamp link – https://chainedtothebottomoftheocean.bandcamp.com/album/obsession-destruction

Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean is a doom metal band based out of Western Massachusetts. Obsession Destruction is the band’s first full-length coming on the heels of 5 sold out releases spotted over the last 5 years. Chained has found a fan-base winning over crowds with unprecedented volume and uncompromising live sound.

Obsession Destruction is an eight song double LP clocking in at over an hour in length, housed in a stunning gatefold LP with artwork created by the late Mariusz Lewandowski (Bell Witch, Obituary, Fuming Mouth). This full length finds the band honing the songwriting and experimentation within their fundamental doom sound and elevating it to the highest caliber possible.

‘Obsession Destruction’ tracklisting:
1. The Altar
2. Summer Comes to Multiply
3. Hole in my Head
4. The Gates Have Closed and they Will Never Open
5. The Chalice
6. Ten Thousand Years of Unending Failure
7. Every Day a Weeping Curse
8. In the Feral Grace of Night, May the Last Breath Never Come

Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean Obsession Destruction tourChained to the Bottom of the Ocean live:
4/12 – New Haven CT @ The State House
4/13 – Sherbrooke QC @ Le Murdoch
4/14 – Toronto ON @ Bar Orwell
4/15 – Grand Rapids MI @ Pux Cider Taphouse
4/16 – South Bend IN @ The Krishna Den
4/17 – St.Louis MO @ The Sinkhole
4/18 – Memphis TN @ Hi Tone
4/19 – Atlanta GA @ The Earl
4/20 – Savannah GA @ Lodge of Sorrows
4/21 – Charlotte NC @ Milestone
4/22 – Richmond VA @ Ipanema Cafe
4/23 – Philadelphia @ Kung Fu Necktie

Recorded by Christ Teti at Silver Bullet Studios
Mastered by Magnus Lindberg
Artwork by Mariusz Lewandowski

Released by Redscroll Records
Redscrollrecords.com

Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean on Facebook

Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean on Instagram

Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean on Bandcamp

Redscroll Records on Facebook

Redscroll Records on Instagram

Redscroll Records store

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Buried Treasure: Redscroll Records on Black Friday

Posted in Buried Treasure on November 26th, 2011 by JJ Koczan

When I worked at KB Toys store #1051 in Morris Plains, New Jersey, they used to call it “Green Friday,” and as I started there when I was just turned 16, that was how I came to know Black Friday, which is what most people in the US call the day after Thanksgiving — the busiest shopping day of the year and the “official” kickoff of the holiday retail season.

Black Friday takes its name not from the shadow that consumerism at large casts on American culture, but from the simple fact that it’s the day that moves most stores from the red into the black for the year. It’s when they start turning a profit. Seeing an opportunity to continue their mission of promoting independent music culture, the fine folks behind Record Store Day got involved this year, bolstering the event with special releases and other initiatives. I’d expect more of that kind of thing next year.

Late last month, when I was at Redscroll Records in Wallingford, Connecticut, on my apparently annual autumn pilgrimage, I was given a flyer for their Black Friday specials, and knowing that I was going to be in the state for the Thanksgiving holiday, kindly suggested to The Patient Mrs. that I might like to wake up early and hit up the sale, which was 25 percent off everything in stock except for turntables.

So it was. My alarm went off yesterday at 5:35AM, and when I walked into Redscroll at 6:02 or thereabouts, the place was already full. Outside, the sun was just starting to think about rising. As I suspected I might, I had the CD racks mostly to myself (at least as compares to vinyl — LPs are by far the priority for the shop), but it was easily the most crowded I’d ever seen it. People were friendly, though, making way for each other and handing off releases to other potential buyers. I used the 25 percent discount as an excuse to pick up a few odds and ends, most of which I’d already heard, but hadn’t gotten full copies of, and other discs I’d wanted to grab this year that I hadn’t gotten the chance.

For example, I long since own Sovereign by Neurosis, but a quarter off the price was enough for me to grab the 2011 reissue, and stuff like CandlemassAshes to Ashes live record and Place of SkullsAs a Dog Returns had just kind of slipped through the cracks in terms of getting a physical copy. I bought The Body & Braveyoung‘s Nothing Passes to include in the next podcast (no big surprise: it sounds totally fucked), and was hoping to nab The Atlas Moth‘s An Ache for the End for the same reason, but they were out of it, and I drowned my sorrows in some cheap George Carlin, Goblin and Free instead.

Now that I’ve heard the low-end centric mega-grooves of Saturnalia Temple‘s Aion of Drakon, I’m officially stoked to check them out at Roadburn next year. And because I haven’t been able to leave there without doing so the last couple times I’ve been, I picked up a Cable CD, this time the 2008 reissue of their first album, Variable Speed Drive, the original version of which I’ve been hunting on eBay for a bit with no real success.

It was just over $100 for 10 discs, which wasn’t bad and was enough to earn me a free Redscroll t-shirt that I’ll wear proudly. I went back to the motel and crashed out for a couple more hours before getting up and heading south back to Jersey to go to work, and after that, on the way further south to Maryland, I requested yet another stop from The Patient Mrs., this one to Vintage Vinyl, to pick up that Atlas Moth record and settle the matter once and for all. I also got a full copy of Invisible White by Ancestors. Both at full price, and neither with any regret.

Vintage Vinyl in the evening was empty compared to Redscroll in the morning, which was troubling, since that’s pretty much the only shop in New Jersey where I can do something like stop in and pick up an Atlas Moth or an Ancestors CD and be confident that they’ll actually have such a thing. I know they had stocked some of the Record Store Day Black Friday special releases, but hopefully they come around to the sale stuff too, because god damn, I’d hate to lose that place as a resource.

In the meantime, a package showed up in the mail yesterday from All That is Heavy with a copy of Master Sleeps by Hills, which is jammier than I thought it would be, and the Rise Above reissue of NecromandusOrexis of Death, which Tony “I Have Excellent Fucking Taste and Stone Axe is My Band to Prove It” Reed recommended a while back I make mine. Altogether, this probably represents the bulk of the music I’ll buy through the end of 2011, so it was good to send the year out with a bang. I should have plenty to keep me busy until January comes.

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Buried Treasure and Redscroll in Autumn, Pt. 2

Posted in Buried Treasure on October 28th, 2011 by JJ Koczan

Moments ago, as I was trying to think of a headline for this post, I recalled that I’d visited Redscroll Records in Wallingford, Connecticut, last year around this time. Creature of habit that I am, the date on that post is Oct. 25, 2010. Here we are, a year and three days later and I’m chronicling pretty much the same trip. Surprisingly, there was no band overlap. Small favors, I guess.

It had been or at least felt like a while since I did a good round of caution-and-common-sense-to-the-wind record shopping, which I find is good for the soul, and especially since my prior visit to the store had come up empty, I was stoked to make out pretty good this time. You can probably see the stack in the picture above, but in case you don’t feel like clicking to enlarge it, here’s the rundown:

Aldebaran, Buried Beneath Aeons
Cable, Cable
Desert Sessions, Vol. I/Vol. II
Desert Sessions, Vol. III/Vol. IV
Dove, Dove
Grayceon, All We Destroy
Orange Goblin, Time Travelling Blues
Patton Oswalt, Finest Hour
Reverend Bizarre, Death is Glory… Now!
Sunride, Magnetizer
VA, Judge Not…
Wooden Shjips, Dos
Wolves in the Throne Room, Celestial Lineage

Of those, I already own the Desert Sessions, Dove and Orange Goblin records — but I still have my reasons for buying each. The Orange Goblin was used, and as I looked at it on the shelf, I discovered it was the Japanese version of the record, with their cover of Trouble‘s “Black Shapes of Doom” for a bonus track. That cover originally appeared on the Bastards Will Pay tribute, and since I’ve never had any luck tracking down a copy of that (it’s in my canon of daily eBay searches), I figured all the more excuse to get the import on the cheap.

The Dove, on the other hand, is probably the least reasonable of the repeat offenses. Where the Desert Sessions stuff was priced new, it was also like $12 a pop, and screw it, if I’m already spending money, I’ll hit that up. I looked so hard for those CDs the first time around, I don’t mind having doubles. For the Dove disc, though, there really is no argument. It was there, it was used, and I bought it. It’s out of print, and I might use it in a trade or something at some point — hey, if anyone wants to switch it for that Trouble tribute, drop a line — but beyond that, it was an impulse and an excuse to revisit the album from the Floor offshoot, which I hadn’t heard in years.

Grayceon was one of two discs I knew I wanted to pick up going into the trip — the other was Rwake, which Redscroll was out of — and since I’ve had those songs stuck in my head for the last month, I was glad to have the full version of the album to sate that. That wasn’t used, but it is now. The Wolves in the Throne Room is also their latest record, which I had every intent of reviewing but never got around to, but only had a disc and top liner for. There’s always one or two tracks on their albums that justifies a purchase, and now I can take my time finding out which ones those are on Celestial Lineage. I don’t feel as bad for not reviewing it if I go out and buy the record.

I bought Sunride‘s Magnetizer (1998, Boundless Records) because of a discussion on the forum of the worst stoner rock albums ever. Not that it’s mentioned in there, but Sea of Green is, and I got the names mixed up in my head. I had wanted to buy it just to hear what the worst stoner rock ever sounded like. As Magnetizer isn’t even close to the worst stoner rock I’ve ever heard, I can’t help but feel like I inadvertently won out.

The Wooden Shjips I got because I need to review their new album, West, for work and wanted something to compare it to. It was used, as was the Underdogma Records compilation, Judge Not…, which proved yet again that I don’t like comps until they’re out of print and desirable for their obscurity. I don’t remember the last time I heard Ironboss (guns don’t kill people, they do), so I’ll take it, and with Gammera, Pale Divine, early The Quill and Puny Human on there, all the better. Two discs of heavy rock I didn’t own prior. Six bucks.

Buying Cable in Connecticut had some oddball novelty to me, and the 1997 comp of their early tracks was used and is raw as hell, so that was a yes, and I didn’t even know Patton Oswalt had a new record, but there it was. Since on his last special, he was talking all about his wife being pregnant, I figured this would be his “I have a kid now” material (every comic has it), and sure enough, it is. Still good. The Reverend Bizarre and Aldebaran discs were impulse buys — I grabbed the Aldebaran with all the forethought of snatching a pack of Reese’s on the way out of the grocery store — but reckless abandon is no fun if it’s not actually reckless, so there you go.

The Patient Mrs. — bless her heart — had come in a few moments prior to collect me so we could make our way back south to Jersey, but as we were leaving, the dudes behind the counter informed that they’ll be doing a special Black Friday sale post-Thanksgiving, opening at 6AM with markdowns on new and used CDs and vinyl — which, at this point, takes up a good deal of the room they have. Turns out I’ll be up that way for the holiday, so if I’m not all drowned out in vino and tryptophan, I may just make that happen for myself. Seems like it could be fun, anyway.

More info on that and the store is here, if you’re interested. I’ll spare you the lecture on preserving independent record-buying culture, because I think you probably know it by now, but anyway, they do good work.

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Buried Treasure: Pre-Record Store Day in Connecticut

Posted in Buried Treasure on April 21st, 2011 by JJ Koczan

I don’t really buy into the whole Record Store Day thing. It’s cool that the website has a map I can find stores on wherever I go, but honestly, I don’t buy vinyl and just about every payday is “record store day” for me. As an institution, I think the record store is something worth saving, which is why I go to record stores and spend my money on a regular basis. Well, that and the records, anyway.

As I’ve been out of the country three Record Store Days in a row, I thought I’d do a little pre-shopping this year and while I was in Connecticut for the weekend earlier this month, I swung by my favorite shop in the state, Redscroll Records in Wallingford. It’s always good to know you’re on friendly ground, and when I walked in, they were playing Black Pyramid‘s self-titled album, so I immediately felt at home. Time before last, if you’ll recall, it was Sleep‘s Dopesmoker.

It doesn’t quite match the batch of discs I pulled in last time I was there in the fall, but I still managed to find some good stuff. I grabbed yet another Monster Magnet promo CD — it’s amazing how many there are floating around — called Five Reasons to Testify that has the awful God Says No shot of them with Dave Wyndorf‘s metal codpiece on the front (I’m not even going to show it), as well as the first Firebird record, the first Quest for Fire and the 1999 Bong Load Custom Records issue of Fireball Ministry‘s Où est la Rock? Not a bad haul, all told.

The Firebird I’d picked up at the band’s merch table at Roadburn 2009, but that was the European reissue and this was the original on The Music Cartel, so I couldn’t resist. When I reviewed the second Quest for Fire album, Lights from Paradise, I said that I’d have to go back and buy the first, and it was good to do that, although I think I prefer the second anyway. I couldn’t remember if I owned the Fireball Ministry or not, but decided to take the chance anyway and it paid off. The record kind of rules. Very Fu Manchu, except maybe for the Obsessed-esque “Death Dealer,” which actually features Guy Pinhas on bass, but enjoyable throughout. Probably the most stoner rock of all their albums, which suits me just fine.

There’s a hole punched in the UPC of the Fireball Ministry, which means it was probably someone’s promo, and I always think that’s interesting, and wonder who got the record initially, what they did or didn’t do with it and how they came to sell it. Every time I get emailed another link to download a new release, I get that “born too late” feeling. I’ve gotten plenty in my day, don’t get me wrong, but when I think of the shit that could have come in my mail (all those Monster Magnet promos, for one) and all the silver-backed bootleg CDs I could have bought in the pre-CDR era, I get a little sad. I guess we make the most with what we’ve got. It’s fun hunting this stuff down, anyway.

Most likely I’ll be back at Redscroll before too long, but just figured I’d share anyway, since it’s a quality store and deserves to have the word spread about it as much as possible. Check them out here if you haven’t yet, or find them on that Facebook the kids love so much.

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