Posted in audiObelisk on June 25th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Brazilian duo Projeto Trator‘s Fall 2019 European tour took them to Belgium, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Poland, and Germany. Not necessarily in that order, but not necessarily not; they covered a lot of ground. On July 2, they’ll release Live in Leipzig through Crocodilo Discos, capturing their Sept. 18 show at Kopfsalat Gästeservice. In the company of the genre-blending Umbilichaos, guitarist/vocalist Paulo Ueno and drummer Thiago Padilha made their way through famed venues and festivals like Drugstore in Berlin, Psych Umami in the Czech Republic, and Sommafest in Rietschen, Germany, among others. It looked like a good run when it was announced, and there were still a bunch more dates they were hoping to fill in.
The Leipzig show was one of those, and somehow, listening to Live in Leipzig‘s 13-song/51-minute stretch, that seems fitting. Projeto Trator are not by any means a new band. They have three studio full-lengths under their belt — the latest of them, Humanofobia, came out in 2016 — and a slew of splits and EPs and other live records, so there’s plenty of documentation of their work going back to 2007, but Live in Leipzig presents a particularly chaotic vision of who they are as a unit, whether that’s the space rocking noisefest of “Tambores de Sangue” or the slower swirl of “Vermes,” feedback and effects and a cosmic lurch echo that would bring a smile to the face of Sons of Otis themselves all coming together in how-resilient-is-your-P.A. fashion, extreme in its way but still listenable if you’re willing to give yourself over to it.
Their set starts with a jam and ends with a jam, and in between, tempests like “Você Não é o Seu Emprego” and “Absurdos” bring High on Fire-style sub-two-minute raging to the berth of longer, wider avalanches in “No Orbita do Medo” and post-jam opener “A Foice” — they close with “A Valsa” ahead of that last jam, and though the translations “a sickle” and “a waltz” are a fun pairing, it wouldn’t seem symmetry between them was the point — and along the way, “Rua dal 7 Facadas” and the where-did-they-find-even-more-distortion-from “Rato Morto” cast an identity of brutal and exploratory psychedelic muck, willing to pummel as well as groove, and unwilling to compromise its purpose to be gentler on the ear. It’s easy to imagine that, if you were at Kopfsalat Gästeservice that night, you might’ve felt the volume in your chest had you been standing in front of the stage. The arguments for doing so are manifold here.
Projeto Trator released their latest studio EP, Corifeu, in March 2020, and if the punker underpinnings weren’t clear on Live in Leipzig — they were — then certainly the four-songer should help get the point across. I’ve included that stream from the band’s Bandcamp near the bottom of the post, as well as a video from the Leipzig show, in case you should find yourself wondering how two humans could conjure such a wash of noise.
Only one way to find out.
Enjoy:
Projeto Trator, Live in Leipzig official premiere
“Live in Leipzig” is the new audio live record coming from the Brazilian heavy sludge duo Projeto Trator. The recording was made in 2019 in their European tour at Kopfsalat Gästeservice in Leipzig, Germany where the band performed 15 shows in 6 countries. The band show us all our powerful psychedelic sludge wall in 13 noisy tracks from different releases of the band.
The material will be released officially in July, 2
SETLIST: 1 – Opening Jam 2 – A Foice 3 – Tambores de Sangue 4 – Na Rua das 7 Facadas 5 – Vermes 6 – Na Órbita do Medo 7 – Não Me Provoque 8 – Você Não é o Seu Emprego 9 – Rato Morto 10 – Delírios do Dr. Lilly 11 – Absurdos 12 – A Valsa 13 – Finishing Jam
Credits: Recorded by: Murai Mixing/Mastering by: Paulo Ueno Cover art by: Jonathan “Jow” Rissi
PROJETO TRATOR is: Paulo Ueno – guitar and vox Thiago Padilha – drums
Projeto Trator, Corifeu (2020)
Projeto Trator, “A Foice” Live in Leipzig, Germany, Sept. 18, 2019
Posted in audiObelisk on June 15th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
São Paulo-based doom rocking four-piece Weedevil present their new two-songer The Death is Coming tomorrow through Abraxas. Though it only runs about 12 minutes long, there’s no lack of punch in either “The Death is Coming” or the accompanying “Hi! I’m Lucifer” — the exclamation point in the title there bringing me more raw joy than I can possibly express in written language. They roll and they groove and Fabrina Valverde‘s vocals make a strong presence from the outset of the first verse, diving into modern cultistry via classic heavy blues, backed by the formidable tonality of Dani Plothow‘s bass and Caio Caraski‘s guitar and the crash and thick-popping snare of Flávio Cavichiolli‘s drums. It’s not a new formula, by any stretch of the imagination, and right up to the dual-layer soloing in “Hi! I’m Lucifer,” the Sabbath vibes run rampant, but if you’ve got a problem with that, there’s the door.
For the band, The Death is Coming follows up on the plague-era single “Follow the Smoke,” which was released last Fall and indeed was leading toward the riff-filled land. Some of that sense of Sleepy lumber shows up in “The Death is Coming,” and some of the chug in “Hi! I’m Lucifer,” but as if in answer to their earlier-2020 self-titled EP, which boasted some more stoner-rocking vibes in “The Illusionist” and “Icarus,” the band has grown darker and meaner in the subsequent months, at least if these songs are anything to go by. Could just be bleak times calling for heavy groove, but for Weedevil, who feel set on an inexorable course toward a debut full-length, the balance of the mix that they lock in on the newer tracks as compared to those still barely just 12 months old is telling in terms of their overarching progression.
As to where it all might lead, well, I hear great things about the Abyss of Lovecraftian Horror Riffage this time of year, if they might care to visit? One way or the other, this is the sound of a band finding their sound.
Enjoy:
With a life history that already had a potentially breathtaking birth the Brazilian stoner/doom band Weedevil started their journey in 2019 with the release of the single “Morning Star” and a subsequent participation in the renowned SIM SP with the well-known Swedish band Asteroid touring in Brazil. In May/2020 the band released their well-received debut EP via Abraxas Records and now the band brings us the powerful “The Death Is Coming”.
As always guided by the magnetic and engaging voice of Fabrina Valverde, the quartet completed by Flávio Cavichiolli (drums), Caio Caraski (guitar) and Dani Plothow (bass), all high-capacity musicians, brings us with “The Death is Coming” a great foreshadowing of his upcoming debut album. Recorded, mixed and mastered at Bay Area Studio in São Paulo in the month of April the release presents the band’s possible creative peak and most mature moment. With two well-crafted and striking compositions that immediately attract the listener, featuring Fabrina’s vocals at their best and with a full-bodied instrumental section, the Psychedelic, Doom and even Occult Rock aspects are precisely evoked inviting the listener to immersion and referencing names like Windhand, Purson, Acid King and others.
“The Death is Coming” will be released digitally in June, 16 through Abraxas Records.
Melissa release their debut album, Devil’s Mask, today. I think as of this post, actually. The record and the São Paulo-based group are both new, bringing together vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Melissa Rainbow with Dirty Grave bandmates in drummer Henrique Lima guitarist Pedro Barros along with bassist Anderson Vaca (also of PESTA), and after deciding to forge ahead with the project in January of this year, Rainbow wrote and recorded the 41-minute seven-tracker between then and March. It’s May, and again, today’s the release date. There is no substitute for efficiency.
Or vibe, and Devil’s Mask has plenty of that. Billed by Rainbow and the band that bears her name as “slow heavy music” rather than doom or doom metal in the outright, the fare throughout is raw, but not at all without atmosphere for that. Opener “Perfect Soulmate” opens backed by a duly thickened chug, but has intertwining layers of guitar stretched across, and the vocals add a murky sense of foreboding. Drums and bass are tasked with keeping a mostly straightforward rhythm, but there’s room for flourish there too, and as the longest song of the album (immediate points), the leadoff feels designed to draw the listener into the lurking horror that awaits in the rest of what follows, beginning with the crawl of “Buried in a Body,” which feels more forward in its structure but still ends up in a swirling cascade of cultish incantations. Initial single “Swallowed by Blame” follows and reaffirms the otherworldly brooding in its more open midsection topped with multi-layer chants, building its way back up to the lumbering guitar and keyboard figure from whence it came, a curtain of mist drawing around as centerpiece “The Fire Eats” gets underway with its own patient consumption.
There’s a touch of grunge in the guitar progression of “The Fire Eats” — thinking Dirt-era Alice in Chains particularly — but the keys in the early and late going draw it together with “Swallowed by Blame” before, and while it’s “I, the Witch” that makes the most individual impression on Devil’s Mask as both the catchiest and most outwardly tonally weighted track, even that has both its layer of noise and keyboards well in check for the theatricality that arises amid the march of its second half, which, as ever, is directed downward, graveward, into a sonic abyss of the band’s own making. That leaves only the title-track to close out, and whatever grim gods have been invoked up to now, “Devil’s Mask” has its own presence, careening and raw and Lovecraftian and Hammer Horror all the while, a vague malevolence of low end circa two minutes in leading to the next round of layered vocals, some clean, some growled, some wailing, that accompany what in other contexts would simply be a Sabbath-style riff. Like the rest of Devil’s Mask, in Melissa‘s hands, that progression is twisted and repurposed like so much ethereal goo, turned hypnotic in its way and cut suddenly as if to preface another round of darkness on the horizon.
Given the pace with which Melissa‘s debut album happened, a quick sequel wouldn’t necessarily surprise, but what comes through clearest in this first offering is the sense of exploration of atmosphere and intertwining parts and layers to create a mood, songs as performance pieces even when recorded. It is doom, it is cultish, but Devil’s Mask pushes at the same time against convention, and is all the stronger for it. Whatever these impulses might lead to going forward, and when, the potential in the project comes from its immediate drive toward finding an individualized niche for itself. As to how far Melissa might continue to dig into that niche, that’s entirely up to them.
By all means, stream the album below and hear for yourself.
Enjoy.
Melissa is a Slow Heavy project by Melissa Rainbow (Dirty Grave, Mães Morrendo, Enxofre). Born in January 2021. Cult to slow heavy music.
Devil’s Mask is Melissa’s debut album, mixing heavy and slow riffs with gloomy melodies. Lyrics express a walk through a private hell surrounded by a veil of dramatic terror. Ode to Doom Metal with morbid environment in a psychedelism in dark tones.
Composed and recorded between January and March 2021
Record/mix homemade by Melissa Rainbow All lyrics and music by Melissa
DEVIL’S MASK tracklisting: 1. Perfect Soulmate 2. Buried in a Body 3. Swallowed by Blame 4. The Fire Eats 5. I, The Witch 6. Pulse 7. Devil’s Mask
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 13th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Formed just this past January, Brazilian four-piece Melissa will present their debut album, Devil’s Mask, next week. I’ll be streaming it — I think? — so this post is really just something of a heads up for that, but the first single from the thing is out today, and whether or not the subsequent stream is happening, “Swallowed by Blame” is a fascinating blend of goth atmosphere, raw doom and other cult-derived heavy. The band is fronted by Melissa Rainbow of Dirty Grave and finds her joined by that band’s drummer Henrique Lima and guitarist Pedro Barros, as well as newcomer bassist Anderson Vaca, also of Pesta. The record is formative but aware of where it wants to go, and loaded with potential in its level of craft. It’s not an entirely unfamiliar sound, but a fascinating one just the same. You might dig it.
So stay tuned for more on that, and in the meantime, here’s release info and whatnot below, courtesy of the PR wire:
Slow heavy music project MELISSA release debut single and announce album “Devil’s Mask”
Brazilian “slow heavy music” project MELISSA release first single “Swallowed by Blame” and announce debut album “Devil’s Mask”
In this May 13 the Doom-guided project MELISSA release their debut single “Swallowed By Blame”, part from their first studio álbum “Devil´s Mask”. Born in January and described simply as “Slow Heavy Music”, the project Melissa is a new work of Melissa Rainbow, the mind and heart behind bands like Dirty Grave, Enxofre and Mães Morrendo, all of them travelling through the paths of heavy music and touchin genres like Doom, Death Metal and Grunge.
Completed by their DIRTY GRAVE’S bandmates Henrique Lima (drums) and Pedro Barros (guitar) and the bass player Anderson Vaca (PESTA), the new project walk through the Doom Metal, Postpunk, Gothic and other sonorities, with the debut álbum “Devil’s Mask” due to May, 19 release in Bandcamp featuring seven dense and blazing tracks.
DEVIL’S MASK tracklisting: 1. Perfect Soulmate 2. Buried in a Body 3. Swallowed by Blame 4. The Fire Eats 5. I, The Witch 6. Pulse 7. Devil’s Mask
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 12th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
There’s a fair amount to unpack here, before you even get to the audio. To wit, Acavernus and Yantra are both solo-projects, belonging respectively to Paula Rebellato of Rakta and Douglas Leal of Deafkids. Those two outfits — both based in Brazil — are no strangers to collaboration, but the pairing specifically of Rebellato and Leal as Acavernus & Yantra manifested at least in terms of the debut studio recording, Gnose, as a pandemic-era exploration. The album is set to release digitally on Friday — no time to waste — with vinyl to follow in November through Peru’s Buh Records, and is a drone-laced rite of experimentalist craft, seven songs feeling their way into the unknown across 40 minutes of varied ceremonialism. It is not for the faint of heart and not to be glossed over in the details. The birdsong amid the percussion in “Enigma,” for example, is essential. And are those waves in the closing title-track? I think so.
This is a debut technically, but obviously there’s a familiarity between the two as regards process, and the results on Gnose are that much richer for it.
Here’s the art and info:
Buh Records presents ACAVERNUS & YANTRA – GNOSE
Pre Order / Digital: May 14 Vinyl Release: November 10
Buh Records presents “Gnose”, the joint full-length by the solo acts of Paula Rebellato (RAKTA) and Douglas Leal (DEAFKIDS), members of two of the most thriving and groundbreaking bands coming out of Brazil to the world lately.
Produced between 2019 and 2020 in São Paulo, Brazil, some of the compositions were first conceived for a live performance in late 2019 and then expanded into a full-length album, part recorded in studio and part at home during the first months of the pandemic.
Inspired by the ritualistic potentials of music, “Gnose” offers a vertical and circular narrative throughout its 7 themes, exploring atmospheres that may contribute to experiences of displacement and inner silence. The fusion of traditional and acoustic instruments with electronic and processed sounds highlights the strong characteristics of both projects, melted into a journey within timeless soundscapes.
Paula Rebellato is an artist based in São Paulo, Brazil. Her journey with music and sound started at young age and became a more consistent path when she co-founded the genre-bending group Rakta. Active since 2011 and with several releases, the group has performed extensively throughout Europe, North & South America, Mexico and Japan. Rakta has lived a vertiginous rise for a band that was born from the DIY punk scene of São Paulo. Paula’s solo project ACAVERNUS, active since 2013, incorporates sound, visual and written language. Inspired by sounds and atmospheres that evokes strangeness and beauty, she dives into memories and encounters that leads to her own center of intuitive and instinctive expressions, always trying to work and explore different tools and materials for composing. Her work with the voice, processed by different effect pedals, takes the listener to both comfortable and uncomfortable places.
YANTRA is the solo project by Douglas Leal, multi-instrumentalist, visual artist and founding member of the Brazilian psychedelic punk trio DEAFKIDS. Active with his band since 2010 with several releases and extensive touring throughout Europe, North & South America, Douglas’ solo project emerged in 2015 as a psychedelic and meditative audio-visual outlet for experimental/home-recordings, but has since evolved into self-released tapes and collaborative recordings, live soundtrack for yoga and meditation sessions and improvisation sets with many different artists from São Paulo. Inspired by the modal music from different cultures around the world and using the electric guitar as the main instrument for his excursions into drones, ragas and maqams, over time Douglas began to explore the use of acoustic sounds such as native wind instruments, the Greek Bouzouki, the Turkish Ney, mouth harps and etc, expanding the project’s color palette into unknown musical paths.”Gnose” is published in Black/Color Vinyl LP, Limited To 300 Copies. Artwork by Douglas Leal.
Posted in Reviews on October 6th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
We roll on with day two of the Fall 2020 Quarterly Review featuring another batch of 10 records en route to 50 by Friday — and actually, I just put together the list for a sixth day, so it’ll be 60 by next Monday. As much as things have been delayed from the pandemic, there’s been plenty to catch up on in the meantime and I find I’m doing a bit of that with some of this stuff today and yesterday. So tacking on another day to the end feels fair enough, and it was way easy to pick 10 more folders off my far-too-crowded desktop and slate them for review. So yeah, 60 records by Monday. I bet I could get to 70 if I wanted. Probably better for my sanity if I don’t. Anyhoozle, more to come. For now…
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Molasses Barge, A Grayer Dawn
Following up their 2017 self-titled debut issued through Blackseed Records, Pittsburgh-based rockers Molasses Barge present A Grayer Dawn through Argonauta, and indeed, in songs like “Holding Patterns” or the melancholy “Control Letting Go,” it is a somewhat moodier offering than its predecessor. But also more focused. Molasses Barge, in songs like stomping opener “The Snake” and its swing-happy successor “Desert Discord,” and in the later lumber of “Black Wings Unfurl” and push of the title-track, reside at an intersection of microgenres, with classic heavy rock and doom and modern tonality and production giving them an edge in terms of overarching heft in their low end. Riffs are choice throughout from guitarists Justin Gizzi and Barry Mull, vocalist Brian “Butch” Balich (Argus, ex-Penance, etc.) sounds powerful as ever, and the rhythm section of bassist Amy Bianco and drummer Wayne Massey lock in a succession of grooves that find welcome one after the other until the final “Reprise” fades to close the album. Its individuality is deceptive, but try to fit Molasses Barge neatly in one category or the other and they’ll stand out more than it might at first seem.
Yes, this. Slow Green Thing‘s third album, Amygdala, is melodic without being overbearing and filled out with a consuming depth and warmth of tone. A less jammy, more solo-prone Sungrazer comes to mind; that kind of blend of laid back vocals and heavy psychedelic impulse. But the Dresden four-piece have their own solidified, nodding grooves to unveil as well, tapping into modern stoner with two guitars setting their fuzz to maximum density and Sven Weise‘s voice largely floating overtop, echo added to give even more a sense of largesse and space to the proceedings, which to be sure have plenty of both. The six-track/44-minute outing picks up some speed in “Dirty Thoughts” at the outset of side B, and brings a fair bit of crush to the title-track earlier and lead-laced finale “Love to My Enemy,” but in “Dreamland,” they mellow and stretch out the drift and the effect is welcome and not at all out of place beside the massive sprawl conjured in side A capper “All I Want.” And actually, that same phrase — “all I want” — covers a good portion of my opinion on the band’s sound.
Anyone bemoaning the state of traditionalist doom metal would do well to get their pants kick’d by Haze Mage, and when that’s done, it’s time to let the stoned zombie sludge of Tombtoker rip your arms off and devour what’s left. The two Baltimorean five-pieces make a righteously odd pairing, but they’ve shared the stage at Grim Reefer Fest in Charm City, and what they have most in common is a conviction of approach that comes through on each half of the four-song/19-minute offering, with Haze Mage shooting forth with “Sleepers” and the semi-NWOBHM “Pit Fighter,” metal, classic prog and heavy rock coming together with a vital energy that is immediately and purposefully contradicted in Tombtoker‘s played-fast-but-is-so-heavy-it-still-sounds-slow “Braise the Dead” and “Botched Bastard,” both of which find a way to be a ton of fun while also being unspeakably brutal and pushing the line between sludge and death metal in a way that would do Six Feet Under proud. Horns and bongs all around, then.
Oldschool newcomers White Dog earn an automatic look by releasing their self-titled debut through former Cathedral frontman Lee Dorrian‘s Rise Above Records, but it’s the band’s clearcut vintage aesthetic that holds the listener’s attention. With proto-metal established as an aesthetic of its own going on 20 years now, White Dog aren’t the first by any means to tread this ground, but especially for an American band, they bring a sincerity of swing and soul that speaks to the heart of the subgenre’s appeal. “The Lantern” leans back into the groove to tell its tale, while “Abandon Ship” is more upfront in its strut, and “Snapdragon” and opener “Sawtooth” underscore their boogie with subtle progressive nods. Closing duo “Pale Horse” and “Verus Cultus” might be enough to make one recall it was Rise Above that issued Witchcraft‘s self-titled, but in the shuffle of “Crystal Panther,” and really across the whole LP White Dog make the classic ideology theirs and offer material of eminent repeat listenability.
The only thing that might save you from being swallowed entirely by the deathly mire Brazil’s Jupiterian craft on their third full-length, Protosapien, is the fact that the album is only 35 minutes long. That’s about right for the robe-clad purveyors of tonal violence — 2017’s Terraforming (review here) and 2015’s Aphotic (review here) weren’t much longer — and rest assured, it’s plenty of time for the band to squeeze the juice out of your soul and make you watch while they drink it out of some need-two-hands-to-hold-it ceremonial goblet. Their approach has grown more methodical over the years, and all the deadlier for that, and the deeper one pushes into Protosapien — into “Capricorn,” “Starless” and “Earthling Bloodline” at the end of the record — the less likely any kind of cosmic salvation feels. I’d say you’ve been warned, but really, this is just scratching the surface of the trenches into which Jupiterian plunge.
It’s an archival release, recorded in 2014 and 2015 by the Buenos Aires-based band, but all that really does for the three-song/hour-long Vol. I is make me wonder what the hell Experiencia Tibetana have been up to since and why Vols. II and III are nowhere to be found. The heavy psych trio aren’t necessarily inventing anything on this debut full-length, but the way “Beirut” (18:36) is peppered with memorable guitar figures amid its echo-drifting vocals, and the meditation tucked into the last few minutes of the 26:56 centerpiece “Espalda de Elefante” and the shift in persona to subdued progressive psych on “Desatormentandonos” (14:16) with the bass seeming to take the improvisational lead as guitar lines hold the central progression together, all of it is a compelling argument for one to pester for a follow-up. It may be an unmanageable runtime, but for the come-with-us sense of voyage it carries, Vol. I adapts the listener’s mindset to its exploratory purposes, and proves to be well worth the trip.
Filth-encrusted and lumbering, Yanomamo‘s sludge takes Church of Misery-style groove and pummels it outright on the opening title-track of their four-song No Sympathy for a Rat EP. Like distilled disillusion, the scream-laced answer to the Sydney four-piece’s 2017 debut, Neither Man Nor Beast, arrives throwing elbows at your temples and through “The Offering,” the wait-is-this-grindcore-well-kinda-in-this-part “Miasma” and the suitably destructive “Iron Crown,” the only letup they allow is topped with feedback. Get in, kill, get out. They have more bounce than Bongzilla but still dig into some of Thou‘s more extreme vibe, but whatever you might want to compare them to, it doesn’t matter: Yanomamo‘s unleashed assault leaves bruises all its own, and the harsher it gets, the nastier it gets, the better. Can’t take it? Can’t hang? Fine. Stand there and be run over — I don’t think it makes a difference to the band one way or the other.
Mos Eisley Spaceport, The Best of Their Early Year
They mean the title literally — “early year.” Bremen, Germany’s Mos Eisley Spaceport — who so smoothly shift between space rock and classic boogie on “Further When I’m Far” and brash tempo changes en route to a final jam-out on “Mojo Filter,” finally unveiling the Star Wars sample at the head of organ-inclusive centerpiece “Space Shift” only to bring early Fu Manchu-style raw fuzz on “Drop Out” and finish with the twanging acoustic and pedal steel of “My Bicycle Won’t Fly” — have been a band for less than a full 12 months. Thus, The Best of Their Early Year signals some of its own progressive mindset and more playful aspects, but it is nonetheless a formidable accomplishment for a new band finding their way. They lay out numerous paths, if you couldn’t tell by the run-on sentence above, and I won’t hazard a guess as to where they’ll end up sound-wise, but they have a fervent sense of creative will that comes through in this material and one only hopes they hold onto whatever impulse it is that causes them to break out the gong on “Space Shift,” because it’s that sense of anything-as-long-as-it-works that’s going to continue to distinguish them.
One doesn’t often hear “the Wolfowitz Doctrine” brought out in lyrics these days, but Chicago heavy noise metallers Of Wolves aren’t shy about… well, anything. With volume inherent in the sound no matter how loud you’re actually hearing it, conveyed through weighted tones, shouts of progressions unified in intensity but varied in aggression and actual approach, the three-piece take an unashamed stance on a range of issues from the last two decades of war to trying to put themselves into the head of a mass shooter. The lyrics across their sophomore outing, Balance, are worth digging into for someone willing to take them on, but even without, the aggro mosh-stomp of “Maker” makes its point ahead of the 17-second “Flavor of the Weak” before Of Wolves dive into more progressively-structured fare on the title-track and “Clear Cutting/Bloodshed/Heart to Hand.” After “Killing Spree” and the aural-WTF that is “Inside (Steve’s Head),” they finish with a sludgecore take on the Misfits‘ “Die, Die My Darling,” which as it turns out was exactly what was missing up to that point.
Comprised of four-fifths of what was Virginian outfit King Giant, it’s hard to know whether to consider Pimmit Hills a new band or a name-change, or what, but the first offering from vocalist David Hammerly, guitarist Todd “TI” Ingram, bassist Floyd Lee Walters III and drummer Brooks, titled Heathens & Prophets and self-released, hits with a bit of a bluesier feel than did the prior outfit, leaving plenty of room for jamming in each track and even going so far as to bring producer J. Robbins in on keys throughout the four-song/29-minute release. I suppose you could call it an EP or an LP — or a demo? — if so inclined, but any way you cut it, Heathens & Prophets plainly benefits from the band’s experience playing together, and they find a more rocking, less moody vibe in “Baby Blue Eyes” and the harmonica-laced “Beautiful Sadness” that has a feel as classic in substance as it is modern in sound and that is both Southern but refusing to bow entirely to cliché.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 11th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Alright, so I don’t know much more here than you. At some point presumably later this year, Brazil’s Jupiterian will release a follow-up to their 2017 album, Terraforming (review here). That record, if you’ll recall, fucking crushed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the forthcoming Protosapien did likewise, melding extreme sludge and death-doom with murky atmospheres and a ritualized sensibility emphasized in the robes that accompany all that crackling-amp tonality. Transcending Obscurity will have the album out, but when the band first posted the tracklisting it was last Spring and they were talking about it for a 2019 release, so what the hell that might mean or what might’ve been behind the delay — if it was being pushed back now, it would be glaringly obvious — I wouldn’t want to guess.
Most important of all is the track slays. I know I already said once today that my head was locked in escapist peaceful psychedelia, but so help me robot jeebus, there’s always a spot reserved in my bitter, depressive heart for precisely this kind of oppressive, monolithic doom. So I guess it’s either space out or be buried alive these days. One extreme to the other. That in itself feels pretty appropriate.
You can hear “Starless” at the bottom of the post. No clue when Transcending Obscurity are starting Protosapien preorders, but I bet if you asked nice they’d tell you.
Here to decay:
Jupiterian – Protosapien
“Starless” taken from the upcoming album ‘Protosapien.’
Pre-orders for the massive new JUPITERIAN full length Protosapien are up next. Brace yourselves.
Artwork by Mariusz Lewandowski (EREMIT, ROGGA JOHANSSON)
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 21st, 2019 by JJ Koczan
…Aug. 22, to be exact, which, yes, is this week. The São Paulo sludge/heavy rockers go as ambassadors of Brazil’s fertile underground scene, and will make stops at festivals here and there along the way of their month-long stint on the European continent. That’s a pretty good run — a month — and with shows about to start, there are still some TBA dates in there, as well as off-days, so I’m thinking if you’re in Europe someplace along their path, you’ve probably got a fair chance of getting Projeto Trator to play wherever you’re at. House show? Back yard gig? It’s time to fill those slots, people. I’d figure toss them some cash for making the stop and, you know, give them food and a place to crash, and it’d probably turn out to be an awesome tour stop. As you can see below, they made their “Vermes” video from clips on tour last year in Argentina. Maybe you could be in the next video.
Either way, if you can help, help. Scene unity and all that.
Projeto Trator‘s latest EP is out now through Abraxas Records, and “Vermes” comes from it. They were writing new material this Spring, but I’ve yet to see word yet of a follow-up. Doesn’t it mean it won’t happen, just means I don’t know.
Alright, here are those dates:
Projeto Trator – European Tour
Projeto Trator is a sludge/doom metal duo from São Paulo/Brazil. Formed in 2006, the band has released 10 works and toured extensively in Brazil and South America many times.
Finally: in August and September 2019 will be the first tour of the Projeto Trator in Europe. There will be more than 20 shows from 8 countries (Germany, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland & Hungary). Half of the shows will be sharing the stage with the Umbilichaos (industrial-noise-one-woman-band), longtime partner of the Projeto Trator in shows and releases.
It will be an unmissable opportunity for anyone who can see live one of the best bands of “doomed” music in Brazil.
Projeto Trator live dates: 08.22 Kopi Berlin DE 08.23 Eldorado Hamburg DE 08.24 Gazarach Bratislava SK 08.27 TBA Ostrava CZ 08.28 Hospoda Brouk Prague CZ 08.29 Marie Antoinette Berlin DE 08.31 TBA Brussels BE 09.01 Mest Fest Hoegaarden BE 09.03 TBA Courtrai BE* 09.04 TBA Gent BE* 09.06 Acu Utrecht NL* 09.07 13 Times Fest Geel BE 09.10 TBA Amsterdam NL* 09.11 TBA Hoorn NL* 09.13 Potse Drugstore Fest Berlin DE 09.14 TBA Estetino PL 09.17 TBA Leipzig DE 09.18 TBA Halle DE 09.19 Basta! Gorlitz DE 09.20 Psych Umami Fest Vernerovice CZ 09.21 Sommafest ’19 Rietschen DE 09.22 TBA Vienna AT 09.23 Edison Bar & Ink Budapest HU * with Umbilichaos
the space rocking noisefest of “Tambores de Sangue” or the slower swirl of “Vermes,” feedback and effects and a cosmic lurch echo that would bring a smile to the face of Sons of Otis themselves all coming together in how-resilient-is-your-P.A. fashion, extreme in its way but still listenable if you’re willing to give yourself over to it.
