It’s been almost two full years since I last interviewed guitarist/vocalist Laura Pleasants of Kylesa, and in that time the growth her band has undertaken is remarkable. Their latest album, Spiral Shadow (first for Season of Mist and fifth overall), is a progressive leap from anything the band has done before, Pleasants and fellow guitarist/vocalist Phillip Cope — who also produced — in particular focusing on writing memorable songs with an increased emphasis on melody.

The result of their efforts can be heard in tracks like “Tired Climb” or the unrepentantly hooky “Don’t Look Back,” which not only show a newfound maturity from Cope and Pleasants, but an increase in the chemistry between them as a team and the double-drum rhythm section of Carl McGinley, Tyler Newberry and bassist Corey Barhorst. Like its 2009 predecessor, Static Tensions, Spiral Shadow was a highlight of its release year. Hands down one of the least regrettable new-album purchases I made in 2010.

Whatever growth or breadth of influence they show, however, what remains consistent about Kylesa is a fierce will for exploration. They don’t follow the trend in modern metal, they help set it; their post-sludge breathing new life into a genre which often wills itself against sonic diversity. Coupled with the kind of songwriting prowess they show on “Spiral Shadow” and “Distance Closing In,” Spiral Shadow could easily be the marking point of a new stage in an already impressive career.

I’m getting ahead of myself. Just two days after the New Year, Pleasants checked in for a phoner to discuss the metamorphosis of Kylesa, the band’s recent tours with Clutch and Torche/High on Fire, and the working relationship of the band in the studio with Cope at the helm. Like last time, it was more of a conversation than a Q&A, but that’s nonetheless how it’s presented here.

Unabridged interview is after the jump. Please enjoy.

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Kylesa‘s first album for Season of Mist, Spiral Shadow became something of a lesson about life in the age of digital promos. In my review of the album, I raved about the genius of the 10-plus-minute title-track. Extensively. When I finally bought the record to include it in the Southcast, I found the title track to be half as long. I still don’t know what the story was, if they edited the song down, if there was some fluke in my mp3s or what. The songs on the physical product were also in a completely different order.

The result is I’m not sure which version of Spiral Shadow I like better, but suffice it to say both kick considerable ass. Hearing Kylesa embrace their inner prog was a high point of 2010 for sure, and between cuts like the aforementioned “Spiral Shadow” (still pretty good at 5:12), the stomping “Drop Out” and the viciously catchy “Don’t Look Back” — which is probably one of my favorite single songs of the year — there was just about no way Kylesa wasn’t going to make the top 10.

They’ve established a very solid chain of consistency between Spiral Shadow and last year’s Static Tensions, and with all the touring they’re doing (winter 2011 dates have been announced), they can only add to the momentum. Kylesa has never really had a steady lineup, but with the creative core of guitarist/vocalist/producer Phillip Cope, guitarist/vocalist Laura Pleasants and a duo of drummers, they nonetheless crafted one of 2010’s best albums in Spiral Shadow.

It’s an odd thing that’s happened over the course of the last couple years with the surge of blogs replacing print publications, but you have people (myself included) lining up to be the first place listeners can go to hear/view/download whatever. It’s interesting, like the White House press corps being too afraid to criticize George W. Bush in his first term for fear of losing access. I don’t know if it helps establish a critical aesthetic for these websites, but I find it fascinating nonetheless.

There’s an odd egalitarianism too it as well, though, because while anyone can be “the first” to post something and it’s their name that goes out in the press release, five minutes later, everyone else has it. To wit, the following Kylesa video for the track “Tired Climb” from their Spiral Shadow album. Stereogum got the premiere, got their name out there, got the hits, and here we are, with it posted below. Strange days we live in, my friends. Strange indeed.

Sometimes I think bands just use changing record labels as an excuse to screw with their own sound. Certainly Savannah, Georgia, sludge-bringers Kylesa have grown over the course of their four prior studio offerings, but with the latest, Spiral Shadow (their first for Season of Mist), they push their approach into new territory in terms of how it touches on both prog and pop, and come out sounding easily the tightest they ever have, but also the most melodically capable and farthest ranging.

It should say something that in a band with two drummers the guitars still dominate, but that’s the case with Spiral Shadow. By now it goes without saying that guitarist/vocalist Phillip Cope did an outstanding job with the production – his prowess in that area is well-documented and one can chart his growth as an engineer/producer over the course of Kylesa’s career – but on Spiral Shadow he seems to have smoothed out the band’s sound some. You can hear it in the tones of opener “Tired Climb,” or in the mixing of the ringing notes that mark the intro to second track, “Cheating Synergy.” Of course, the rhythm section of bassist Corey Barhorst and drummers Tyler Newberry and Carl McGinely is still essential to what Kylesa does, but Spiral Shadow’s focus seems just as much on bringing forward the five-piece’s instrumental and vocal melodicism as on pummeling with sludge or surprising with quick percussive turns.

Guitarist/vocalist Laura Pleasants made a breakthrough on Kylesa’s last album, 2009’s Static Tensions (their final album on Prosthetic Records), and here she refines and redefines her role in the band. Her interplay with Cope, as on “Drop Out” – which also features some of Spiral Shadow’s best performances from McGinely and Newberry – makes that track among the record’s strongest, but it’s on songs like the poppier “Don’t Look Back,” where Kylesa approaches Torche-like accessibility, and “To Forget” that she really demonstrates how much she’s come into her own in terms of clean singing. It’s strange to think of Kylesa as a band with a frontperson of any kind, since up to this point it’s always been about the group’s performance as a whole, but to call Pleasants’ work on Spiral Shadow anything less than standout is to undersell it.

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How do I know Kylesa‘s new album, Spiral Shadow, is bad ass? I’m listening to it right now! Plus, as though to confirm the assessment I just made (and the one I’ll make in longer form when I review the record tomorrow), the band has posted the opener, “Tired Climb” now on something called MySpace. Being “so totally into this Facebook thing,” I don’t know what that is, but there’s a link provided in the PR wire info below that you can click if you’re feeling adventurous.

Kylesa‘s Spiral Shadow is due out Oct. 26, and the band join High on Fire and Torche for a five-week US tour starting Sept. 29. You’ll find the dates after the jump:

Savannah-based Kylesa have unveiled “Tired Climb,” a new track from their forthcoming Season of Mist debut, Spiral Shadow, on the band’s MySpace page.

The band, who recently wrapped up a European tour with Converge, recorded the new album at the Jam Room in Columbia, SC, earlier this summer with band member and renowned producer Phillip Cope (Baroness, Withered) once again at the helm.

Kylesa is currently working on a video for “Tired Climb” and will return to the road on Sept. 11 with a performance at Raleigh‘s Hopscotch Festival before joining High on Fire and Torche for a five-week US trek.

Click “Read More” below for those dates and others.

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As I do with most records that come my way bearing some measure of hype – because, as I’ve been told, I’m a prick and once someone else decides they like something I have to not like it – I put off reviewing Taste the Sin, the sophomore full-length outing and Relapse Records debut of the trio Black Tusk. Culled from the metallically fertile fields of Georgia which have already given rise to Kylesa, Baroness and a little band called Mastodon, Black Tusk maintain strong sonic connections to the definition of progressive whereby trapeze riffs and tempo changes meet with heady drum fills, but set themselves apart when it comes to attitude. A song like Taste the Sin opener “Embrace the Madness” has no obvious connections to classic literature. In fact, if you pay attention to the words, it’s kind of dumb, and I think that’s what Black Tusk are going for.

It works to some degree, but even taking the attitude shift into consideration, Black Tusk, who formed in 2005 and issued their first album, Passage Through Purgatory, on Hyperrealist in 2008, aren’t really bringing in anything we haven’t already heard, despite skillfully incorporating thrashing elements from the likes of High on Fire. That said, it’s easy to see why many listeners would latch onto them as a candidate for the vaulted “Next Big Thing” in underground metal. Baroness won’t have an album out this year, and Black Tusk fill that void nicely, constructed as they are of familiar parts with just enough individuality behind them to stamp out any bitchy critic-types who might say, “They sound just like whoever.” Basically, Taste the Sin is thinky-thinky sub-prog stoner metal you don’t actually have to think all that hard about. The riffs of guitarist/vocalist Andrew, while too busy to be memorable in the Sabbathian sense, do what they’re supposed to do, and a song like “Way of Horse and Bow” has more than enough edge to get by.

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While you and I are sitting on our lazy asses, ostensibly “remembering” the contributions of the veterans who’ve made our empire so very great and laid the foundations for the evil which our leaders have wrought, Savannah, Georgia‘s Kylesa will be in the studio, working hard on their new album. It’s going to be their first record for Season of Mist, and especially coming off the oh-so-badass Static Tensions, I’m stoked to hear what they come up with. Best of luck to the band. I’ll keep them in my thoughts while grilling and/or grabbing a beer from the cooler.

Sayeth the PR wire:

Between extensive tours of Europe, Kylesa will enter the studio on May 31 to begin recording the follow-up to the critically-acclaimed album Static Tensions. The new album is the band’s debut for Season of Mist Records. The sessions will take place over the month of June at the legendary Jam Room in Columbia, SC with Phillip Cope at the helm as producer. The band is very excited about the new material, with writing ongoing since January of this year. After the completion of the recording the band will return to Europe supporting Converge through August, with US touring plans to be announced shortly.

I’ve never experienced one myself, but I’d imagine summer in Savannah, Georgia, is about as hot as you get without actually lighting your face on fire. Nonetheless, Kylesa have bravely chosen to record their album starting in May and finishing in July — right about kerosene time, for anyone paying attention one sentence to the next. Good thing they’re headed north to do it… all the way to South Carolina. Much better.

Straight from the “Didn’t See This Coming” Dept. is the news that Kylesa has signed to Season of Mist, who seem to be making a play at the metal bigtime. Good for them, good for them too, and good for us all because we’ll get a new Kylesa record hopefully before the end of the year. If you missed out on last year’s Static Tensions, it did quite rule.

Says the wire of PR:

Kylesa, whose 2009 album Static Tensions was one of the most critically acclaimed metal albums of last year, has signed with Season of Mist with work already underway on the follow-up.

“We’re very happy to announce our new partnership with Season of Mist for the next Kylesa release, which we are hoping to get out later this year,” said the band. “We are stoked to be working with SOM on this next album. They are a forward-thinking label and they have all been very accommodating and a pleasure to work with.”

Regarding the new album, Kylesa adds, “The writing process for the new record has been intense, taking up the better part of each day since January (that’s why you haven’t heard from us lately), but in return we have some new material that we’re very proud of. The studio sessions at The Jam Room in Columbia start in May and end in early July; we’ll try to have a few reports for you along the way.”

The band is currently touring Europe until early May and will perform at the Roadburn festival in Tilburg, The Netherlands on Apr. 15. Check out the band’s MySpace page for more information on tour dates.