Posted in Whathaveyou on January 16th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
The obvious caveat here is that any show by any band might be their last. But putting aside vague, maybe morbid, potentialities, the Feb. 20 gig Sandrider will play at Neumo’s in their native Seattle, has a chance of being it for the band. They’re not quite outright calling it a day, but with guitarist/vocalist Jon Weisnewski set to move to south to California, how the band functions will obviously change due to the distance, and they note below that shows will be rare.
Sucks. In the decade and a half since 2010, Sandrider have issued four stellar full-lengths, singular in their righteous blend of heavy groove and noise rock, punk chicanery and metallic aural force — their latest, Enveletration (review here), was released in 2023 through Satanik Royalty (which also got behind catalog reissues) and answered by the complementary ’24 single Aviary/Baleen (review here) — and part of the reason I’m bummed out on this news is I’ve never seen them live.
They’ve never been a band on the road for eight months out of the year, and with Weisnewski relocating, that gets even less likely in logistical terms. The good news is remote songwriting and even recording is possible, but moving sucks unless someone else is paying for it (no clue if that’s the case here), and if it’s a couple years before Sandrider can settle into a new modus, it wouldn’t be a shock. Needless to say, a fifth LP would be welcome whenever it shows up in the unknowable future — 2027? 2029? these are numbers out of sci-fi movies to someone born in the 1980s — and perhaps being isolated from his bandmates will allow Weisnewski to further develop his genre-defiant Nuclear Dudes side-project, which released Compression Crimes 1 in November as the follow-up to 2023’s rad-as-your-face Boss Blades (review here).
Either way, best of luck to Weisnewski, and here’s hoping Sandrider yet show up someplace where and when I am so that I can see them and bang my head and then be sore for two days afterward. That would be just about ideal. Them never playing again and not being a band anymore — which feels like the alternative reality being hinted at here — would be markedly less so.
From social media:
Hey friends. Jon will be moving to California in March for a new job. This unfortunately means that the status of Sandrider will be a long distance operation. Shows are going to be pretty rare and involve a lot of travel and coordination.
Getting loud with you all in Seattle has been a true joy and the three of us haven’t taken any of it for granted for a second. Come party with us in Jan/Feb while it’s still easy. Love you all.
Alright this is it… Thu 2/20 @neumos_ with @darkmeditation206 and a special guest. LAST TIME FOR A LONG TIME. Come party with us ✈️❤️
SANDRIDER: Nat Damm – drums Jesse Roberts – bass, vocals Jon Weisnewski – guitar, vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 12th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Seattle heavy noise trio Sandrider already have one of the best albums of 2023 under their collective belt in Enveletration (review here), which came out in early March and is their fourth album overall and first for Satanik Royalty Records. That same label signed the band in 2021 at its launch and has been working through reissuing their back catalog. 2022 brought new pressings for their 2011 self-titled debut (review here) and 2013’s Godhead (review here), and to follow Enveletration because what is time anyway is 2018’s Armada (review here).
I actually revisited Armada ahead of reviewing Enveletration, and, well, it’s held up. I mean, that should be about as much a surprise as the sun rising on a given morning, but it was somewhat reassuring all the same. The more people who hear this band, the better, so whether that’s the new album, the third, second or first, whatever. Spend your money. The hell are you saving it for? Someday you’re gonna be a billionaire? Fuck that. Never happen. Get that preorder going instead and at least you’ll feel good about it when the package shows up. As regards advice, that’s the best I’ve got.
From the PR wire:
SANDRIDER: Satanik Royalty Records To Reissue Armada Full-Length From Seattle Loud Rock Trio On Limited Edition Vinyl July 21st; Preorders Available
Satanik Royalty Records will reissue Armada, the third full-length from Seattle loud rock outfit SANDRIDER, on limited edition vinyl on July 21st.
Things move at a different pace in the damp cold of the Northwest. Maybe that’s why Black Flag’s My War-era went over so well in Seattle while the rest of the country was agitated by its menacing crawl. Maybe that’s why the mid-tempo weight of grunge eclipsed Californian thrash metal in the early ’90s. And if it seems that Puget Sound lethargy has yielded too much sad-sucker folk-rock and tween indie pop in recent years, let SANDRIDER remind you of Washington’s long history of crushing thunderhead riffs.
Initially released in 2018 via Good To Die Records, on Armada, SANDRIDER continues to staunchly refuse to be anything other than the fiercest, grittiest, riff-driven rock band possible. Armada is an immaculately rendered documentation of the fury and fortitude of SANDRIDER, and Satanik Royalty is proud to re-release the Matt Bayles (Mastodon, ISIS, The Sword) engineered album to the masses on limited edition vinyl and digital formats.
There I was the other day, riding down Rt. 10 in Hanover in the car by myself, bellowing along to what I believe the lyrics are to the crescendo part of Sandrider‘s new album, Enveletration (review here). It had been a frustrating week to that point and something about that buildup in “Grouper” just took hold of my brain stem and told it in no uncertain terms to turn up the volume just as the big riff hit loud enough for me to feel like it was a weighted blanket. It was cathartic. The week was still mostly shit, but at least I had about 40 decent seconds that day.
I’ve talked a fair amount about the electric jolt that Sandrider provide throughout the 10-song/36-minute release, and I think if you read this site on any kind of happens-more-than-once basis you know I have a tendency to read too much into good records. Well, listening to this fourth LP from the Seattle three-piece, who sound utterly at home in their ragers not like they’ve established dominance of their sound in some chestbeating 17th century masculine artistic ideal, but like that running start to “Circles” — there’s a video premiering below; I like the colors and it’s not too manic — is a celebration of itself, of shared creativity, of community, of the energy put into making it. I hate to tie anything to the pandemic or even think about it at this point, but even in comparison to 2018’s Armada (review here), Enveletration sounds like it’s making a break for it. Freedom and revelry. American heavy punk rock. Caustic sometimes, unafraid to be pretty, driven rhythmically as if by a motor.
And as they suggest, maybe part of that comes from being cooped up. Sandrider don’t sound like the kids who sat still, and in these songs — as recorded by the esteemed Matt Bayles, who’s helmed all Sandrider‘s LPs — the sense of ‘play’ is palpable. I haven’t seen a lyric sheet, but I’ve picked up odds and ends just from listening (I’ve never been particularly good at deciphering when left to my own devices), and don’t think the lyrical content is about radical self-affirmation and exploring the value of art as a collective experience, but I do think the end result is fueled as much by joy as aggression, if not more, and hearing that a long half-decade after their last album and three years post-lockdown trauma, it’s genuinely refreshing in a way heavy music can’t always be. Why can’t the next thing be to be happy we made it through?
And not to put too fine a point on it, but “Circles” into “Tourniquet” is also the best one-two punch Enveletration has to offer. Not the only one, either. “Tourniquet” into the taut fuzz and emergent shove of “Weasel,” “Ixian” into the aforementioned “Grouper,” hell, even the stop after opener “Alia” turns to the title-track helps the one flow into the next. Shifting through the melodies of “Slumber” and “Proteus” into the crunch of “Priest” — I swear to you I’m just having fun now. Really. The album is a blast. I don’t know how else to put it or why I’d say it another way. If this post is how you hear it for the first or the 15th time, that’s a win as far as I’m concerned.
The spinning skull goes flying in the clip for “Circles” below. I’ve also included the videos for “Alia” and “Enveletration” — and if they make another video, I’ll probably post it all again, too — and the Bandcamp stream of the full album because damnit I think it’s a thing worth hearing.
Recorded at Litho Studios in Seattle by Matt Bayles (Soundgarden, Mastodon, Botch), Enveletration proves that SANDRIDER’s adrenaline-charged fun and unconquerable spirit is yet again a sonic refuge where you’re temporarily invincible. Across its ten tracks, the record captures the utter relief SANDRIDER – guitarist/vocalist Jon Weisnewski (Akimbo, Nuclear Dudes), bassist Jesse Roberts (The Ruby Doe, Kid Congo Powers, Old Iron), and drummer Nat Damm (Akimbo, Head Like A Kite, Automaton, Tight Bros From Way Back When) – felt when returning to the practice space for the first time after a year of early-pandemic isolation and anxiety. The experience of waking their stacks of amplifiers from their dormancy, feeling the drums rattle their chests and the bass vibrate through the floor, and reveling in the indescribably euphoric return to writing music together in person is palpable. The end result is a nod to Seattle heavy-rock forefathers Soundgarden with their “break my rusty cage and run” attitude, mixed with the unrelenting, stage dive-off-the-bar energy of Refused and noisy noodling of Hot Snakes.
Hello. I’d like to talk with you about Sandrider. Did you know that rock and roll can save your soul? Or remind you that even though souls are silly and don’t exist, life can still be worth living without the promise of eternity after? Say hello to Enveletration (review here), the Seattle trio’s fourth album.
Maybe you don’t yet have a personal relationship with the 10-tracker, which came out early last month on Satanik Royalty Records. Well, despite the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately-and-by-lately-I-mean-in-the-last-seven-minutes nature of digesting modern records in the digital age, it’s not at all too late to engage with Enveletration, and the band’s video for “Alia” below reminds that just because something is already out and maybe on your shelf doesn’t mean it needs to live there untouched forever. Especially for an act not overly likely to tour all over the place for months at a time, a video like this can do a lot of work to support the album, which if it needs to be said is a cause most definitely worth supporting.
“Alia” isn’t the first clip Sandrider have put out from Enveletration, and I sincerely hope it’s not the last. If they want to go ahead and do videos for the likes of “Weasel” or “Tourniquet,” “Circles,” “Ixian” or the finale “Grouper” from the record in similar band-in-a-box fashion for the rest of this year, I’m here for it. Monumentum can be difficult for a group not constantly bombarding social media with ‘content’ — sometimes vacuous, sometimes not — or hitting the road from one end of the country to the other let alone beyond its borders. Not a minor investment either in time or money, videos like this can do a lot of work in spreading the word about a release. Maybe someone sees this clip shared somewhere. Maybe someone sees the next one. And so forth. It’s not quite going door-to-door to riffhead houses nationwide, but it ain’t nothing either. Nothing is what most bands do after they put out a killer record.
And in addition to seemingly being the source of the photo that went with Jon Weisnewski‘s recent Obelisk Questionnaire — I’ll admit I was curious — and the song having previously served as the lead single, the video is well shot and well edited to emphasize the sense of movement in the track, which also makes it a fitting representation of Enveletration more generally. And as to why “Alia” and not one of the other tracks, well, it’s the first song, and it’s also the longest by almost two minutes. So maybe they’re trying to make as substantial an impression as possible. “Alia” is a worthy analog in that, too.
Of course, I don’t know anything (pretty much ever), so keep in mind that this might in fact be their last word on Enveletration, I just hope it’s not because I’d like the excuse to keep proselytizing about how killer it is and, even as they pay homage to defunct venues, god damn Sandrider are fun.
Either way, enjoy:
Sandrider, “Alia” official video
Seattle loud rock trio SANDRIDER today presents their latest video for “Alia.” Now playing, the track comes by way of their latest full-length, Enveletration, out now on Satanik Royalty Records. Video directed and edited by Sean Donavan. Shot by Michael Cooper. Produced by Satanik Royalty Records.
Adds the band, “We shot this video in the show space of Bar House which unfortunately no longer hosts shows. It’s a huge bummer to lose that space. If anything, the video can be an addendum to the Bar House live show tombstone. Pour one out!”
[Click play above to stream Sandrider’s Enveletration in its entirety. Album is out this Friday, March 3, through Satanik Royalty Records.]
There’s a line in the song “Slumber” on Sandrider‘s Enveletration that repeats twice near the end. It says, “This sort of day doesn’t come around every year/This sort of day doesn’t happen every year.” It is delivered melodically — as much of the Seattle trio’s fourth album is — and it’s hard to resist the temptation to apply it to the album itself. This sort of record doesn’t come around every year.
On a practical level, literally-speaking, that’s true. It’s been the better part of five years since the heavy noisemaker three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Jon Weisnewski, bassist/vocalist Jesse Roberts and drummer Nat Damm offered the dug-in declarative assault that was Armada (review here), and that’s not the longest divide between full-lengths of Sandrider‘s tenure either, since their second album, 2013’s Godhead (review here) — which was recently reissued, along with their 2011 self-titled debut (review here), through their new label home, Satanik Royalty Records — had preceded on a similar time differential.
And just as that lyric — which is one of a multitude of clever turns of phrase to go with the onslaught of likewise clever instrumental twists and adventures in mood, dynamic and pace throughout Enveletration‘s 10 song and 36 minutes — reminds the listener of the gifted treasure that any given day can be when we allow ourselves to see it as such, so too does the front-to-back agility of Sandrider‘s work in these tracks reaffirm the thing-to-be-celebrated, life-affirming vitality in even their heaviest and most crushing moments.
Some things haven’t changed. Like all their output to-date, including the 2015 split with Kinski (review here) that eased the gap their second and third LPs, production on Enveletration was handled by Matt Bayles, whose corralling presence here brings to mind in some places — looking at you, midsection of “Circles,” payoff of “Ixian,” and pretty much all of you too, title-track — the tonal force that was harnessed with him at the helm so effectively and pointedly on Mastodon‘s Remission some 21 years ago. The collaboration between Bayles, Roberts, Weisnewski and Damm feels essential to the finished product of this record and the individual pieces that comprise it, but on a deeper level, in terms of the makeup of the tracks themselves, Enveletration is both the tightest and the broadest-reaching work Sandrider have ever done.
Their flexibility as a group is on display at the outset with the opening longest track (immediate points) “Alia,” a ringing note like Soundgarden at the very start building quickly into a run that crashes delightedly into the brick wall of the gang-shout hook before the first frantic solo and curve back around. The second half of “Alia” gets more melodic vocally and open in its own guitar lead, and its ending is drawn out in a way so as to speak to the put-the-closer-first ethic of Armada that is even more effectively done this time around in terms of toying with the balance and expectation of the listener as the rest of what follows works to many of the same ideas, but pulls them in multiple directions toward varied purposes, some teeth-clenchingly intense like “Tourniquet” or the early bombast of “Slumber,” others more attuned to scope and spaciousness like the first verses of the penultimate “Ixian” or in actual-closer “Grouper,” where they turn at 2:17 from the angular shimmer of the procession to that point to a riff that could’ve been on Weezer‘s blue album and make it the basis of their consuming, playfully grandiose finish.
As maddening and busy as it might get, at no point on Enveletration are Sandrider not in control of their craft. The vocal arrangements throughout speak to this, be it the growls added to underscore the build of “Enveletration” or “Circles,” the almost pop-ish ease with which they ride the careening riff in “Priest” or the higher-pitched Slayer screams from Weisnewski in “Alia” or that lead so gloriously into the standout chorus of “Tourniquet,” and so on, carefully placed in service to the songs and, by extension, the album as a whole. But it’s there too in the way “Weasel” shifts from the quirky fuzz-punk of its verse to its more willfully lumbering hook en route to its duly massive apex, the arrival at “Ixian” at the distortion-altar where the title line seems to have been waiting all along, and in the bassy push that goes gleefully over the top in “Enveletration,” and even the manner in which the brief second verse of “Circles” picks up from the chorus with such a smooth transition into the growl-topped assault that gives over to the bridge before they bring the verse back.
Each cut has a plan at work, and that plan varies more than it ever has before, strips down structures to their essential parts — only “Alia” and “Grouper” touch the four-minute mark in terms of runtime, and there’s not a spare moment to be found there or anywhere else — and allows pieces like “Slumber” and “Proteus,” which follows, to highlight a sense of breadth corresponding to the outright crunch of “Tourniquet” or the physical-feeling forward shove of “Priest.” They’ve always had some facet of grunge to their style, but Enveletration reads even more like a take on heavy noise rock that’s mature without the word “mature” being a substitute or “lame” or “watered down.”
Quite the opposite. A clear focus on craft lets complex material breathe, or not, depending on what’s called for at the time in question, while memorable choruses imprint themselves on the consciousness without coming across as cloying or crutches on which the surrounding parts lean. Sandrider circa 2023 are able to mellow out at the start of “Ixian” with no sacrifice of the overarching momentum that’s been built along the way, and the triumphs that are cast amid the sundry movements of “Enveletration,” “Circles,” “Weasel,” “Tourniquet,” “Proteus,” “Ixian,” “Grouper” et al, are infectious, affecting, and so too is the underlying spirit of fun, the gleeful chicanery, that provides a charge like if you could power your home by throwing a toaster in the bathtub. And Damm puts more personality into the kick drum in the parts before and after the big-riffy build-up in “Grouper” — god damn I want to know the lyrics there — than many entire bands do on entire albums. That doesn’t hurt either.
Because it’s been a few years — recall the lyrics from “Slumber” cited above — and because its component songs hit with such a jolt, it’s tempting to think of Enveletration as a moment of arrival for Sandrider, but this is an oversimplification of what they accomplish in bridging ferocity and purpose. The truth is that among the four, there hasn’t been an album yet that hasn’t felt like or actually been a landmark for them upon its arrival, and whether one regards Sandrider as stewards of West Coast noise more generally, the inheritors of a pedigree of unhinged-sounding, tonally weighted hardcore, or the most uptempo doom band e’er to walk the earth, they are definitively in a place of their own. Enveletration is a wonder to be explored, engaged with, and appreciated; a miracle of the everyday that doesn’t come along every day.
Posted in Questionnaire on February 15th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jon Weisnewski of Sandrider
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
Took me a few minutes of thinking to realize I have no idea. I’ve literally never tried to define it. The thing I do know with ultimate certainty is that I am unable to NOT write and perform music. It’s a deep part of me and my identity. I learned pretty ruthlessly in the first year of Covid lockdown that my mental health tanks when that part of my life is taken away from me. I couldn’t say how I came to do it, it seemed inevitable. I grew up with hippy parents, my dad is a musician and music teacher, they both helped foster a love and appreciation for art, I had access to musical instruments… Would have been weird if I didn’t end up with some kind of musical affinity. I’m now in my 40s and have been going to band practice and playing shows without interruption since I was 14. It’s just how I do life.
Describe your first musical memory.
The first memory I’d consider a “musical memory” is driving on a long road trip as a little kid with my Dad. He had a tape player in the car and we listened to The Beatles Revolver over and over. It was the first time I’d ever sat still and really paid attention to music and let it soak.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
There are so many I don’t think I can isolate a ‘best’. Close to the top of the list is a show my old band Akimbo played in a wine cellar underneath a wine shop in France. It was a last minute show, only 20 or so people showed up, but the place exploded with energy. It stands out as one of the wildest performances I’ve ever been a part of. Another one (and I admit this is weird for me) is going to see U2 in a stadium on the Joshua Tree tour they did. We had nosebleed seats, couldn’t have been further away from the stage, and I don’t know how they pulled it off but the band sounded perfect. It’s so hard to get an arena show to sound good, and it was like seeing them in a small concert hall. I’m not a U2 fan. I respect U2 and they have some songs that are very powerful, but I’m not a fan. All that aside I was absolutely floored by the show, especially with The Joshua Tree material. I still get chills when I think about seeing ‘New Years Day’ and ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’ that night. It was such a grounding moment, a reminder that you can tell yourself all these REASONS why a band is dumb or why so-and-so’s music is lame, but at the end of the day people performing and creating with heart and THE JUICE is the only thing that matters.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Did I ever tell you about the time I went to a U2 concert?
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Abject poverty! And also, hopefully more art! There’s a very satisfying cycle of finding an idea, building it up, executing it, and then moving on to the next project. Progression doesn’t have to mean someone got more skilled or “better”. Progress can just be finishing something and starting something new. Most creatives are happy when they’re doing the creating. Embracing that cycle helps prevent me from being a perfectionist as well. It’s good to be able to stand back from a work of any medium, look at it and call it done. There will be another chance to try new things, see what can improve, and continue to lose money.
How do you define success?
For me it is sustainability. I want my creative endeavors to be sustainable both materially and emotionally. Success would be breaking even (and continuing to break even) on the cost you put into a project, and having that not consume your ability to be a happy, functional human in the process. Did you see that trick I did? Define success at a shamefully low bar and then tell yourself you succeeded!
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I was a first responder to a traffic accident where a person attempted to cross the freeway on their bicycle and got hit by a car going full speed. I was two cars behind the driver. I saw every detail before, during, and after up until they took the person away in the ambulance. An off duty doctor was also a responder so we got to help him turn the body to keep the spine straight. I’m trying to think of a funny thing to add to counterbalance that bummer of an answer, but hey there it is. We’re all sentient bags of fluid wiggling around until we can’t wiggle anymore. Eat at Arby’s.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I have a solo project called Nuclear Dudes. So far I’ve just done traditional albums, but I’m really looking forward to making one off covers of other songs, try my hand at game or film soundtrack stuff, and do some collaborations with other artists. There’s also a Sandrider project we’ve talked about doing for years that I really hope we can launch at some point. I’m not going to say what it is here because it’s so awesome someone will probably steal it and do it first. In fairness though, we kinda stole it from another band that did a similar thing a while back. Still not telling.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Ah jeez… I grow weary of the debating of art. That’s not a dig at the question at all, just a little venting that it’s even a topic. In the interest of forcing myself to use words for an answer someone will probably eviscerate me for, I will declare that the most essential function of art is to experience art. Get in there. Feel it. Absorb it. Think about it. Pay attention to it. Stop looking at your phone during the movie (it’s ok I do it too). I think that applies to artists as well as enjoyers of art. When you do it for a long time it’s easy to lose some of that spark, or get focused on superficial side distractions that come with pursuing a life in the arts. Stay connected to the magic. Recognize that feeling of excitement or inspiration when it hits and hold it close.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Covid being ‘for reals’ over, instead of people ‘pretending-it’s-not-still-running-rampant’ over.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 12th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
You know how it is. Sometimes you hope for a thing while kind of feeling like you don’t dare hope for that thing. That’s me and a fourth Sandrider album. Certainly the Seattle three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Jon Weisnewski, bassist/vocalist Jesse Roberts and drummer Nat Damm don’t owe anyone anything after 2011’s self-titled debut (review here), 2013’s Godhead (review here), 2015’s split with Kinski (review here) and 2018’s Armada (review here), but listening to “Alia,” the opening track of their fourth record, Enveletration, I’m only glad they’re still ripping it up. 10 new tracks from Sandrider is only going to make this year better.
March 3 is the digital release, March 17 for the vinyl. I don’t see a CD, but so it goes. Whatever size platter it’s on when it arrives will barely contain the band’s electrified heavy noise anyway, so take what you can get and get ready for the kind of living room mosh that, if anyone saw you, you wouldn’t even be embarrassed because Sandrider are so fucking righteous. Mosh on, homebody.
From the PR wire:
SANDRIDER: Seattle Loud Rock Trio To Release Enveletration Full-Length This March Via Satanik Royalty Records; New Track Streaming + Preorders Available
Seattle-based loud rock trio SANDRIDER will release their long-awaited fourth full-length, Enveletration, this March via Satanik Royalty Records, today unveiling the record’s cover art, track listing, and first single.
“Enveletration” is a word SANDRIDER vocalist/guitarist Jon Weisnewski came up with after pondering a question his friend asked him many years ago at a party: “Why is it always about penetration, and never about envelopment?”
Everything from the power dynamics in sex, how things are built, the way we think about weapons and armor, and advertisements for new technology is described in terms of male-centric power fantasies. But who really holds the power: the one breaking through something, or the one engulfing it? Are you truly overpowering someone or something if the recipient of the action is choosing to absorb you completely?
Enveletration, the forthcoming studio album from Seattle’s wildly fun and hypnotizingly heavy rock unit SANDRIDER (and its title track, for that matter), has absolutely nothing to do with the aforementioned concept. But the word, a portmanteau of “penetration” and “envelopment,” sounds cool as hell, right? And it gives you something to ponder as you spend thirty-six minutes in the ring with one of the heaviest, highest-voltage bands the Pacific Northwest has to offer.
Made-up words aside, SANDRIDER might be the perfect sonic backdrop for analyzing the dynamics of domination. With a primal combination of monstrously exultant riffs, soaring guitar solos, and catchy, triumphant choruses created by Weisnewski (Akimbo, Nuclear Dudes), bassist Jesse Roberts (The Ruby Doe, Kid Congo Powers, Old Iron), and drummer Nat Damm (Akimbo, Head Like A Kite, Automaton, Tight Bros From Way Back When), the band sounds like the soundtrack to victory. But as evidenced by many of the lyrics on Enveletration, SANDRIDER’s brand of victory is a defiant one – wherein fun is an act of cathartic resistance and escape. Under the album’s layers of metaphor and amplifier feedback, you will find themes of political anger and modern malaise: “Tourniquet” unpacks the bleak and overwhelming feeling of helplessness in the face of the unending and seemingly inevitable threat of mass shootings. “Weasel” laments the political success given to those who talk the loudest, despite lies and empty promises. “Circles” condemns the circular logic used by systemic power structures that divide rather than unite people, and asks: Is it possible for humans to evolve into a species that cares about each other and the world?
But despite the world’s madness and constant bad news, there are many ways to relish our own small escapes and victories in life. The band has consistently found inspiration in the dystopian sci-fi world of Dune, to which they pay homage in the song “Alia” and even the band name itself. And, as Weisnewski sings on Enveletration’s closing track “Grouper,” sometimes the most satisfying wins can be found during what SANDRIDER and their pals call “Warlock Hour:” that time of the night when everyone else in the house has gone to bed and you can finally sit down, put tomorrow off a little longer, pour a glass of whiskey, and just be you for a bit. Not all victories are loud; some are quiet and serene.
The sentiment of defiant victory is made even more real when you consider that the band was experiencing it themselves firsthand: Enveletration captures the utter relief the three members felt when returning to the practice space for the first time after a year of early-pandemic isolation and anxiety. The experience of waking their stacks of amplifiers from their dormancy, feeling the drums rattle their chests and the bass vibrate through the floor, and reveling in the indescribably euphoric return to writing music together in person is palpable. The end result is a nod to Seattle heavy-rock forefathers Soundgarden with their “break my rusty cage and run” attitude, mixed with the unrelenting, stage dive-off-the-bar energy of Refused and noisy noodling of Hot Snakes.
Across its ten tracks, Enveletration proves that SANDRIDER’s adrenaline-charged fun and unconquerable spirit is yet again a sonic refuge where you’re temporarily invincible. Whether you listen at home, or you’re lucky enough to experience a rare live show while standing in the beams of their blinding yellow stage lights, it’s hard not to walk away feeling ready to take on any foe – real, imaginary, or within ourselves.
In advance of the release of Enveletration, today SANDRIDER drops the record’s first single, opening track “Alia.” Offers the band, “The song is lyrically inspired by the character from Frank Herbert’s Dune novel [Alia Atreides] that arguably has one of the most interesting arcs of all his characters. Her mom drank worm bile meant for spice orgies when she was pregnant with her, and it ended up making Alia fully aware of herself and her entire heritage of witch mothers while she was still in the womb. So, she starts life as an almost omniscient tortured genius with thousands of personalities in her mind but she’s just a damn baby and, avoiding spoilers, she of course goes on to do insane things in an insane world from that point. Musically we just wanted to write a loud ripper, so that’s what we did.”
Enveletration was recorded at Litho Studios in Seattle by Matt Bayles (Soundgarden, Mastodon, Botch) and will be released on Satanik Royalty Records — who recently reissued SANDRIDER’s first two full-length albums, Sandrider and Godhead — digitally on March 3rd with a limited edition vinyl edition to follow on March 17th.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 16th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Ugly are soon enough to release their sophomore LP, so I know I’m not the first person to ever write about them. Therefore, although I don’t really feel entitled to do so, I’m still going to say they come across like they named the band after their sound. Cue mouthfart.
The Prescott, Arizona, four-piece are delightfully nasty though, and though the overall vibe is leaning more toward post-metal, I’m reminded a bit of defunct AZ sludge metallers Godhunter in the particular bent toward apocalyptic fare not necessarily beholden to the vision of sludge either on the more rocking West Coast or the more Southern-informed Eastern Seaboard. It’s in its own place, in other words. Which it is anyway.
Satanik Royalty picked Ugly up for the release of Autograph, the aforementioned new album, and the PR wire brought the narrative:
UGLY: Arizona Doom/Sludge Outfit Signs To Satanik Royalty Records; New Full-Length, Autograph, To See Release In Spring 2023
Arizona doom/sludge quartet UGLY have joined the Satanik Royalty Records roster for the release of their forthcoming new full-length in Spring 2023.
“Now you will be broken.”
This is the epitaph UGLY preaches with every ounce of boiling vitriol. The sounds are falling bombs and the words are the aftermath of a scorched, burned-out world unknown. Everything about their music comes from a painful place. Conceived in August of 2016, the group set out with one mission in mind: to make a sonic backdrop that reflects the current state of the world as they interpret it. The reality we cohabit is cruel, devious, and relentless and UGLY’s output inherently reflects the sentiment.
Taking conceptual queues from bands like Swans, Dystopia, and Noothgrush and adding musical complexity and depth to arrive at something disgusting all its own, UGLY is at once melodic, looming, and horrific. UGLY builds a tonal environment that is at times, angelic… just long enough to win your trust; then tries to kill you by dragging you to the depths with primal, flesh-upon-gear, rhythmic upheaval of any notion of good faith and wellbeing.
Comments Satanik Royalty Records owner and deathCAVE bassist Freiburger, “I have always admired both Krysta [Martinez] and Brandon [Hayden]’s bands. We have all been playing music together within the underground metal scenes for a long time. When UGLY came together, I immediately got the album and was super hyped on their new project. It’s heavy, loud, and pissed – all things I love to hear in music. Then on the last deathCAVE tour, they came out and played three shows with us through the Four Corners area. My love for the band turned into obsession once I saw the energy and vigor live a few nights in a row. When Brandon reached out about us working together on their new full-length which is completed and ready to press, there was zero hesitation.”
Adds the band, “We are very happy to be joining forces with SRR! We have known Frei for a long time and to see his efforts as a loyal and dedicated believer in music payoff is inspiring. I’ve never known someone who puts as much care and attention to detail into the appreciation of art than him. He is someone who believes in the work to his very core… that is who we want to be collaborating with. Our mutual dedication is matched pound for pound”
2023 will see the release of UGLY’s second full-length, Autograph. As their most refined, progressive, and abysmal contribution to date, Autograph focuses the theme on deep-seated illusions of vanity, acceptance, and fanatical egocentric ideology that blights human beings to the core. This music is the culmination of thoughts and feelings left out in all that cold and darkness too long. We all love a little self-sabotage, don’t we? Come get your daily dose of deprivation. Just turn on your stereo and listen for the answers…
UGLY: Brandon Hayden – bass, vocals Krysta Martinez – synth, vocals, loops, aux percussion Chris Stevens – guitar Ben Black – drums
