Of the several pleasant musical surprises 2011 has thus far wrought, none have stuck with me quite so much as Red Fang‘s Murder the Mountains. The Portland, Oregon, four-piece’s debut full-length for Relapse (second overall behind a 2009 self-titled on Sargent House) is an unflappable 10-track rock monster fuzzily-photographed while running through the woods with scientifically-impossible gait. From the catchy rock songs like new single “Wires” and the start-stop “Human Herd” to the more metallic feel of opener “Malverde” or “Into the Eye,” Red Fang‘s sonic diversity feels natural and unforced, which is getting harder and harder to come by when it comes to heavy rock.

Murder the Mountains was recorded by Chris Funk of The Decemberists (the right choice, if only for the drum sounds he gets out of John Sherman) and mixed by Vance Powell, whose considerable resume boasts a Grammy win for his engineering work with The Raconteurs. Two unlikely picks for four dudes playing beardo rock from Oregon, but there’s no arguing with results. These tracks are neither light of weight nor -ista of fashion. Instead, they rip through the burly riffage of guitarists Bryan Giles and David Sullivan, both of whom also contribute vocals — as does bassist Aaron Beam — ignoring convention and the “no-fun” heavy metal ethic in favor of entertaining songs that don’t sacrifice their edge in the name of accessibility. They make the accessibility come to them.

They have a couple mega-tours lined up: Metalliance — with Saint Vitus, Crowbar, Helmet, Kylesa, labelmates Howl and The Atlas Moth — starts tonight, March 17, and later in the summer, Red Fang will join the traveling Mayhem Festival with Megadeth, Disturbed and Godsmack, which is bound to put them in front of a bunch of commercial-rock-loving douchenozzles, but will doubtless also earn them a slew of new fans. Nonetheless, as I spoke to Bryan Giles for the following interview, branching out to audiences beyond the heavy underground was just a fraction of what I wanted to get his thoughts on.

Giles was more than amenable. We talked just hours after I posted my review of the album and we discussed the band’s multi-faceted songwriting approach, the consideration of audience, the fact that he’s never heard Entombed before, the growth between Red Fang‘s self-titled and Murder the Mountains, what they’re saying on the message boards (which he insists he reads only for entertainment purposes), Orion Landau‘s excellent cover art, and much more. We were only on the phone for about half an hour, but like Red Fang‘s music, the interview was packed full and moved at a pretty good clip.

The complete 3,500-word Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

Read more »

Originally released in 2002, Rwake‘s Hell is a Door to the Sun is a fucking monster of an album. Long before post-metal solidified and was considered a viable genre, the Little Rock outfit were hard at work blending crushing sludge and darkened ethereal psychedelics in a way that has only become more their own over time.

Relapse Records is set to reissue Hell is a Door to the Sun next week, with a new mix from the ever-present and (why not?) effervescent Sanford Parker, a remaster job and artwork that does the disturbing sounds justice. If, like me, you came aboard the good ship Rwake with 2004’s If You Walk Before You Crawl, You Crawl Before You Die, or after, you really should hear this:

[mp3player width=460 height=230 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=rwake-reissue.xml]

Rwake‘s Hell is a Door to the Sun will be out on Relapse March 1, 2011. More info and pre-orders here.

There are hints of rock-era Entombed to be heard on “Malverde,” the first track on Red Fang’s Relapse Records debut, Murder the Mountains. The four-piece, who hail from the exalted grounds of Portland, Oregon, meld heavier-end stoner guitar-focus with Melvins crunch on that track and elsewhere on the album, the dueling vocals of guitarist Bryan Giles (mostly growling) and bassist Aaron Beam (mostly clean) providing variety over material that ranges musically from newer-school heavy progressive melodicism to all-out riff-metal abandon. Red Fang’s last album, a 2009 self-titled released on Sargent House, earned much acclaim for its heavy sounds and the comical video the band made for the track “Prehistoric Dog,” and with high-profile touring in the works alongside names like Saint Vitus and Megadeth for 2011, Red Fang is a safe bet for a band who’s going to come out of this year much bigger than they went into it. Fortunately for those who, like myself, are sticklers for this kind of thing, the Chris Funk-produced and Vance Powell-mixed Murder the Mountains has the chops to earn the band every bit of the acclaim/hype they get.

Aside from virtually guaranteeing Red Fang cred in the hipster circuit, what attaching names like Funk (who produced The Decemberists) and the mightily-bearded Powell (who won a Grammy for engineering The Raconteurs’ album) to Murder the Mountains does is give the band more of a reach than they’d have if they worked with someone strictly limited to the heavier end of the spectrum. The difference between a lot of heavy rock and indie is mostly in the thickness of the guitars and bass and the presence of the drums in the mix. John Sherman’s drums show up here sounding natural and more than accounted for mix-wise, both Giles’ and fellow guitarist David Sullivan are given suitable heft tonally, and Beam’s bass tone on songs like “Number Thirteen” and the immediately accessible “Wires” makes for some of Murder the Mountains’ best listening. Little flourishes like the feedback off the snare on “Malverde” are interesting turns, and Red Fang are by no means suffering from not being “heavy enough,” whatever standard might be used to measure that.

The aforementioned “Wires” is one of several very catchy cuts – the crunchier “Into the Eye” and closer “Human Herd” also come to mind – that show ample growth in Red Fang’s songwriting since the self-titled (which wasn’t short of memorable tracks either), and there are a couple moments like that toward the end of “Throw Up” or the non-chorus of the opener where everything seems to take a back seat to “hey, check out this fucking awesome riff we came up with,” which is a nice touch to “Throw Up” especially, fading in, the whole band coming back, etc. Sherman’s drums are plodding but still active, finding a brief solo to open the shorter “Painted Parade.” Red Fang work in a number of modes on Murder the Mountains – perhaps speaking to multiple contributors in the writing or at very least a general open-mindedness – and the straightforward crush that comes forward on “Painted Parade” is most welcome, Beam’s vocals seeming to bridge a gap there where one might expect Giles to take the lead spot.

Read more »

You might know them from that video they made where the beardos attack the nerds or something like that, but Portland, Oregon, bashers Red Fang also kind of rule. Enough so that Relapse picked them up anyway, which as far as I’m concerned is living the dream. Go get ’em, guys.

The label checked in via the PR wire with the following info about the impending Red Fang full-length, Murder the Mountains. Getta loada this:

Portland, OR’s Red Fang has unveiled the title of their long-awaited full-length as Murder the Mountains. Murder the Mountains will see its North American release on April 12 (April 18 internationally) and is available for pre-order at this location along with a preview of the album artwork. Murder the Mountains, the follow-up to the band’s critically-acclaimed self-titled full-length, was recorded with producer Chris Funk (The Decemberists) and mixed by Vance Powell (The Raconteurs).

Red Fang has recently debuted two preview tracks taken from Murder the Mountains,  “Number Thirteen” and “Wires.“ “Number Thirteen” can be heard via the band’s Facebook and MySpace pages as well as downloaded as part of the free Relapse Records label sampler.

Red Fang has confirmed two mid-February shows for Olympia and Seattle with additional US dates to be announced soon. The band has also been confirmed for Hellfest 2011, the annual hard rock and metal fest held in Clisson, France in June. A full listing of Red Fang tour dates will be posted shortly.

When Tee Pee Records released Titan’s 2007 full-length debut, A Raining Sun of Light and Love for You and You and You, I recall being swept up in its far-ranging psychedelia, more structured than the likes of labelmates Earthless or The Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, but still of a similar blown-out, lysergic ilk. I liked it. I thought it was a good album. I listened to it for a while and put it away. Some albums you go back to, some you don’t. A Raining Sun of Light and Love for You and You and You managed to leave an impression, but it’s not something I put on regularly once I was done reviewing it. It’s still on my shelf, and I know it’s a cool album, but staying power wasn’t one of its great assets.

In a way, I feel the same about Titan’s more economically-titled sophomore outing, Sweet Dreams. Now signed to Relapse, the Brooklyn outfit emit five mostly-extended, mostly-instrumental cuts, upping the level of prog and losing some of the acoustic/jam feel of the first album. They do well at it, and the addition of bassist Steve Moore, also known for his work as half the synthy Relapse prog duo Zombi, has definitely affected Titan’s sound, twisting the embellishments on Sweet Dreams toward the more technically intricate and the seemingly cerebral. When all is said and done, though, I’m not honestly convinced I’m going to come back to Sweet Dreams any more than I went back to A Raining Sun of Light and Love for You and You and You. And that’s not even necessarily a statement about the quality of the album or of the four-piece’s performances therein, it’s just a fact that seemed worth mentioning.

Titan’s growth is palpable immediately from the opening of its kickoff title-track, which starts with a surprisingly heavy riff from guitarist Josh Anzano, offering a little adrenaline in the beginning that Sweet Dreams returns to later in its progression. The track evolves and twists through its 7:47 runtime, always keeping a mind of where it’s been and where it’s going. Drummer Dave Liebowitz contributes a few clever fills and has a good sense of where it’s appropriate to dial it back and let Anzano take the lead, backed by washes from Kris D’Agostino’s synths. That’s more or less the course the rest of Sweet Dreams takes, though as a whole Titan shift the direction of their flourishes enough on each track so as to let them maintain an individual edge while also acting as part of the whole, shorter second piece “Synthasaurs” having charm in more than just its title, which one imagines to be a reference to the analog and/or vintage equipment used to compose the song itself. I like this side of Titan; a kind of space-minded sub-prog, not unlike the cinematic feel Zombi brought to their last album, Spirit Animal. It’s shorter by more than half of the surrounding four tracks, but it nonetheless establishes a firm ground for Titan build on in the future. The future, incidentally, also being where the song sounds like it comes from.

Read more »

With the release of their second album, Ritual Abuse, through Relapse at the end of October, Virginian four-piece Cough made it known that they’re not here to fuck around. The band, who released their Sigillum Luciferi debut through Forcefield Records in 2008, have been touring hard ever since, and returning to their formidable recording partner in the form of Sanford Parker, Cough crafted one of the bleakest and most weighted sludge atmospheres to come from the American scene in a long time. If Eyehategod and Electric Wizard had a baby and left it down by the river…

But it’s the touring that always does it. It’s hard to grow in a practice space. You grow on stage. And that’s just what Cough has done. They’ve gotten out on the road — they’re currently on a month-long US tour and they’re headed to Europe next year around Roadburn time — and the maturation they’ve undertaken is evident on Ritual Abuse, when deformed psychedelia hits head first into sonic pummel and all you can do is embrace it because they’re taking you whether or not you want to go. The sounds on songs like “A Year in Suffering” and “Mind Collapse” (good for 24 of the album’s 53 minutes between them) are grotesque, and for a very specific kind of listener, essential.

I spoke to bassist/vocalist Parker Chandler as Cough was just beginning the tour in Florida, and aside from the weather, we discussed working with Relapse, the band’s sonic development, touring, more touring, recording, and just how he, guitarist/vocalist David Cisco and drummer Joseph Arcaro — second guitarist Brandon Marcey hadn’t yet joined the band — came up with the 19-minute track “The Gates of Madness” that serves as their half of the An Introduction to the Black Arts split with venerable UK doomers The Wounded Kings. That’s a pretty good story in itself.

Uncut Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

Read more »

Vicious Israeli sludgers Dukatalon make their Relapse Records debut with Saved by Fear, an eight-track (not to be confused with an 8-track, though that would also rule) beast of seething aural abrasion. Some music just feels like it’s cutting you while you listen, and that’s what Saved by Fear does. With songs like “Vagabond” and “Gate of Mind,” its heaviness comes as much from the oppressive atmospherics as from the thick bass of Lior Mayer, the riffs of Zafrir Zori or Yariv Shilo‘s drums. Any way you look at it, though, you’re basically getting your ass kicked for a solid 46 minutes.

“Electric Site,” at 9:01, is the longest slab on Saved by Fear, and I think also my personal favorite. It’s like the twisted bastard son of “Dopesmoker.” Relapse was kind enough to grant The Obelisk permission to host the track exclusively for your sonic punishment, so please, by all means, stream it on the player below and enjoy.

Dukatalon, “Electric Site” from Saved by Fear
Electric Site

Dukatalon‘s Saved by Fear is out Dec. 14, 2010, on Relapse Records. More info here and here.

It’s fitting, in a way. Electric Wizard more or less refuses to tour in the US, so the US gets its own Electric Wizard. That’ll show ‘em! Not that I seriously believe being a Stateside Electric Wizard was the goal or intent of Richmond, Virginia, outfit Cough when they formed in 2005 (though if it was, who could blame them for having such noble aims?), but with their second full-length album and Relapse Records debut, Ritual Abuse, it’s kind of where they’ve ended up. Opening with two massive 12-plus minute tracks — they also close with one — the record is a dirge-laden take on excessively drugged doom, in parts sounding like dark psychedelia that broke into the pharmacy after it was closed and at times so seethingly hateful it’s nearly black metal in its ambience.

In following their 2008 first offering, Sigillum Luciferi, Cough do much of the work growing into their sound through a riffing, crashing and wailing approach that will be welcome and familiar to experienced doomers. Again, Electric Wizard is the central point of reference for the four-piece, with the guitars of David Cisco offering similar plod. Cisco and bassist Parker Chandler split the vocal duties, and as much as the screams on “A Year in Suffering” set them apart, the cleaner approach that shows up throughout Ritual Abuse is so much in line with what Jus Oborn has done on the last couple Electric Wizard discs that it’s uncanny. And don’t for one second think that’s a complaint. Far from it, it sounds awesome to my ears, and the bass tone that comes out of “Crooked Spine” later in the record is so righteously doomed that I’m hard pressed to think of another American band better at this kind of musical lumbering, but original it ain’t.

Read more »