Posted in Whathaveyou on December 8th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Still not sure what witches ever did to these dudes, but Seattle Witch Ripper are set to debut on Magnetic Eye Records on March 3 with their second full-length, The Flight After the Fall, and accompanying that announcement is a shenanigans-fueled video for “Enter the Loop,” which leads off the record. By the end of it, you’ll likely agree the laser lightshow is well earned.
The LP is only five songs long, so I would expect maybe “Enter the Loop” at seven minutes to be pretty representative of where they’re coming from in that regard, but you can hear the metallic underpinning the PR wire talks about below, as well as all that proggy heavy rock flourish and groove that, you know, makes it fun. I dug their 2019 split with Brume (review here) — interesting that both bands have added a fourth member since — and though I’m kind of on the fence, I’m gonna give the record a shot when the time comes and see how it goes. Magnetic Eye‘s usually pretty on the ball. Worst that happens is I go ‘nah’ and leave it at that. Best that happens is lasers, figuratively speaking.
From the PR wire:
WITCH RIPPER release first video single ‘Enter the Loop’ taken from forthcoming new album “The Flight after the Fall”
WITCH RIPPER have released the tongue-in-cheek video clip ‘Enter the Loop’ as the catchy first single taken from the forthcoming album “The Flight after the Fall”. The sophomore full-length of the American melodic sludge metal outfit is slated to hit stores on March 3, 2022.
WITCH RIPPER comment: “We wanted to start off our new album with a musical bang, and ‘Enter the Loop’ is clearly making a statement about this band”, guitarist and vocalist Curtis Parker writes. “Yes, we can play heavy riffs with pummeling drums, we all know that. Yet with the addition of Chad on guitar and co-vocals, we’re now able to execute big dramatic musical passages inspired by bands that we love like Queen and David Bowie. ‘Enter the Loop’ represents a launching-off point for us both in lyrical and musical terms. It lets people know that they’re in for something special, and that this musical journey is just beginning.”
Tracklist 1. Enter the Loop 2. Madness and Ritual Solitude 3. The Obsidian Forge 4. Icarus Equation 5 .Everlasting in Retrograde Pt. I & II
Born and raised in the city of grey skies and loud music, Seattle in 2012, Washington’s WITCH RIPPER have seamlessly welded together the contemporary heaviness of such hard-hitting acts as MASTODON, GOJIRA, and BARONESS with the anthemic quality of classic rock artists.
WITCH RIPPER have created a loving pastiche of the legendary pulp science fiction stories of old. The story told on their sophomore full-length “The Flight after the Fall” has all those tasty ingredients: a mad professor, his dying wife, cryogenic chambers, a black hole as well as themes of love, failure, loss, and acceptance.
Release date: March 3, 2023
Engineered by Derek Moree Drums Aux at The Unknown, Anacortes, WA, USA Guitar, bass, Vocal recording at The Boiler Room, Seattle, WA, USA Mixed at Diamond Drives Studio, Black Diamond, WA, USA
Artwork and Layout by Chris Panatier
Line-up Chad Fox – guitar, vocals Brian Kim – bass, vocals Curtis Parker – guitar, vocals Joe Eck – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Check out Magnetic Eye Records, not-quite-quietly building a roster united by quality more than sound. Seattle’s Witch Ripper are the latest to join the fold, unless I’ve missed an email in the last 10 minutes, and they would seem to have a second full-length ready to go. I don’t see a release date, but if I’m reading it all correctly and I’m not sure that I am, gotta figure that’ll happen sooner or later.
Last I heard from the band was 2019’s split with Brume (review here), and their prior full-length debut, 2018’s Homecoming, was issued via DHU Records. They toured for that release and given the level the backing of Magnetic Eye puts them at, it seems entirely likely that more road time is in the works.
The signing announcement, courtesy of the PR wire:
WITCH RIPPER sign with Magnetic Eye Records
WITCH RIPPER have inked a multi-album deal with Magnetic Eye Records. The forward-thinking US sludge metal outfit will release their forthcoming third full-length via the label.
WITCH RIPPER comment: “We are truly excited about signing a multi-album deal with Magnetic Eye”, guitarist and vocalist Curtis Parker writes. “As a band we want to push the heavy genre beyond the normal doom sludge songwriting tropes. Right away Magnetic Eye picked up on that. They have embraced our ideas and have been supportive of what we are trying to accomplish straight from the first phone call, and we can hardly wait to continue to grow as a band working with Magnetic Eye’s guidance. We feel like we have finally found a home, so hold onto your butts, because we are just getting started.”
Jadd Shickler adds: “We are stoked to welcome Witch Ripper to the Magnetic Eye family”, the Magnetic Eye director enthuses. “From the anthemic, vintage-tinged rock ‘n roll of Ruby the Hatchet via the brutality of Horsehunter to the angular riff-prog of Caustic Casanova, the sonic connections across the Magnetic Eye roster might not be obvious, but there is a common thread: engaging and dynamic heaviness. That can take lots of forms, and that is why signing Witch Ripper makes perfect sense and happened with zero hesitation. This is a band on the frontiers of modern metal, dipping into the galloping sludge of bands like Mastodon and Baroness while channeling the epic stadium rock of Queen into the ultimate hybrid of infectious riff-metal. We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome this foursome from the Emerald City, and can hardly wait to bring their new album to the masses!”
Born and raised in the city of grey skies and loud music, Seattle, Washington’s WITCH RIPPER are a sludge metal band that seamlessly welds together the contemporary heaviness of such hard-hitting acts as MASTODON, GOJIRA, and BARONESS with the anthemic bombast of classic artists in the vein of QUEEN and DAVID BOWIE.
With a self-titled EP and the debut full-length “Homestead” both previously released to critical acclaim, WITCH RIPPER continued to push their sound forward with the ambitious next album “The Flight after the Fall”. Infectious and challenging, this record harnesses the band’s sludgy roots while showcasing their broadened sonic spectrum with soaring melodies and prog-driven tempo shifts.
WITCH RIPPER have performed alongside heavy rock outfits such as MONOLORD, CONAN, and RUBY THE HATCHET as well as modern metal acts including SLIPKNOT, GOJIRA, and KHEMMIS among many others. These Americans follow the motto: big riffs, bigger hooks, and damn, that drummer!
Currently, WITCH RIPPER are preparing to hammer their second full-length into as many new ears as possible via Magnetic Eye.
Live 22-24 JUL 2022 Tacoma, WA (US) KVLT Fest II
Line-up Chad Fox – guitar, vocals Brian Kim – bass, vocals Curtis Parker – guitar, vocals Joe Eck – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 8th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
This is what you do when you believe in what you do. You find a way to make it work. Sorcia‘s summer tour of the Northwest is essentially three weekends in a row, one with three shows, one with two, one with one slated for this August. You think they should be out for five weeks in a row? Fuck that. I have said this over and over and over and over. When you believe in a thing, you find a way to make it work.
You can have a life and be a lifer for rock and roll. These things don’t need to be mutually exclusive and barring any substance abuse issues or alcoholism, they’re not even that incompatible. I’m talking about myself now, but it’s true of everybody. People think rock and roll needs to be put in this corner relegated to late nights in shitty spaces, a dirt secret thing, like fucking except nobody talks about sex lest they be thought of as homoerotic for spending so much time watching dudes on stage.
Alas, Sorcia are touring. They’re getting out and playing shows. Are they coming by you? Probably not. They’re not coming by me either — though I wouldn’t mind going to see them in Kalispell, Montana, a quick 36 hours in the car to check out at Old School Records, a cool-looking spot with some retro arcade games — but fine. They’re playing. I’m happy they’re playing. If you didn’t hear it, their 2021 single-songer EP Death by Design (discussed here) came out last year on Desert Records — the CD has a bonus acoustic track, if you want to talk about ‘old school records’ — and is a post-sludge banger immersive to a point of lulling away your consciousness only to smack you upside your silly head while you’re looking the other way. So, of note, pay attention if you go to a show, Montana or otherwise.
I like bands playing shows. That’s the reality I want to live in, even if I can’t see the shows. Maybe eventually there heres and theres will connect. Till then, the more the merrier anyway:
SORCIA – TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT
Sorcia is taking this show on the road.
We are beyond excited to announce our 2022 Summer Regional Tour! After having to cancel our 2020 tour in support of our self-titled debut album (released 2 days before the world blew up) it feels amazing to be able to finally take this show on the road to support it along with our EP ‘Death By Design’ that we released through Desert Records last summer. We look forward to seeing our families and friends, to making new ones and to sharing our music live beyond the PNW. Be on the lookout for full show lineups being announced in the next week or so.
In other news, we are currently working on buttoning up the final bit of work on our next full-length, more info on that to come this fall, stay tuned! We can’t wait to share new music. Until then, see you out on the road!
•8/4- Kalispell, MT @ Old School Records •8/5- Salt Lake City, UT @ Aces High Saloon •8/6- Boise, ID @ The Shredder •8/12- Eugene, OR @ Old Nick’s Pub •8/13- Portland, OR @ The Hawthorne Hideaway •8/20- Carnation, WA @ Pete’s Club
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 3rd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
I’m of the firm belief that when a band tours with Voivod, they should receive some kind of award. It doesn’t have to be anything big or too grand, but even just a special backpatch or a pair of socks that say “I toured with Voivod” on them would be appropriate. It’s an occasion worth marking, in other words. Cred forever in my eyes.
Hard to believe it’s coming on three years since the last Year of the Cobra album, even considering the three years in question. I don’t expect they’ll have a new one by June unless they’re hiding it up their sleeves and the blurb below about working on new material is a misdirection — which why would it be? — so maybe that’ll be in 2023 sometime, or whatever unknown future might follow after that. In the meantime, they’re a touring band, so seeing them get out in a bigger way even than they did last Fall is welcome.
Here they go earning that patch:
YEAR OF THE COBRA joining VOIVOD on tour in NORTH AMERICA
YEAR OF THE COBRA will support VOIVOD on their “Synchro Anarchy Tour 2022” across Canada and the United States in June. This heavy road-trip will kick off at the L’entité in Trois-Rivéres on June 1, and after three more shows in Canada and eleven stations in the US will see the final curtain for this round fall in Boston, MA at the Brighton Music Hall on the 19th of June. Please see below for a list of all currently confirmed dates.
Seattle’s ultra-heavy psychedelic doom duo will be touring in support of their latest album “Ash and Dust” (2019), but YEAR OF THE COBRA are currently also working on new material, which means that you might catch a glimpse on things to come but obviously we cannot promise that for sure.
YEAR OF THE COBRA comment: “We are thrilled to hit the road with the awesome dudes in Voivod”, writes singer and bass player Amy Tung Barrysmith. “Their impact and influence on the heavy metal world can be heard and felt throughout the whole genre. Very few bands stay relevant after decades of touring, recording, and releasing albums, but they continue to be a standout and their new album Synchro Anarchy is proof of that. It’s awesome! This will be our first tour since the pandemic started, and those who know Year of the Cobra are aware that we love to be on the road and to play live. As we have not toured the east coast of the United States or Canada since 2019, we can hardly wait to see you all! We will bring along brand new merch that we have never printed before, which makes our shows your chance to grab some brand new Year of the Cobra gear!”
YEAR OF THE COBRA supporting VOIVOD 01 JUN 2022 L’entité (CA) Trois-Rivéres 02 JUN 2022 Ottawa, ON (CA) Bronson Music Center Theatre 03 JUN 2022 Toronto, ON (CA) Phoenix Concert Theatre 04 JUN 2022 London ON (CA) The Music Hall 05 JUN 2022 Detroit, MI (US) Small’s 06 JUN 2022 Chicago, IL (US) Reggies 08 JUN 2022 Huntington, WV (US) The Loud 09 JUN 2022 Columbus, OH (US) Ace of Cups 10 JUN 2022 Philadelphia, PA (US) Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Festival 11 JUN 2022 Baltimore, MD (US) Ottobar 13 JUN 2022 Pittsburgh, PA (US) Crafthouse 14 JUN 2022 Buffalo, NY (US) Rec Room 15 JUN 2022 Cleveland, OH (US) Grog Shop 17 JUN 2022 Brooklyn, NY (US) Market Hotel 18 JUN 2022 Liverpool, NY (US) Sharkey’s Event Center 19 JUN 2022 Boston, MA (US) Brighton Music Hall
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 17th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
If you know Sandrider‘s late-2011 self-titled full-length debut (review here), then all you need is the date above. May 6, Satanik Royalty Records. There. If you don’t own it, you want to, and if you own it, you probably want to again. The word last year that the Seattle three-piece had signed to Satanik Royalty teased the possibility of new music, and that hasn’t materialized as yet — though I’ll take “ever” as a prospective release date in the absence of something more specific — but a reissue of the first record is just fine. I’m more than happy to have the excuse to revisit the album today as I put this post together.
I guess the difference between when it originally came out on Good to Die Records in 2011 and now is everybody gets the fact that the band’s name is a Dune reference. Still haven’t seen that movie. I tried, but it turns out it wasn’t Star Trek, and that’s a big factor not in favor. I’ll get there, or I won’t. Media persists as I ooze into middle-aged cluelessness on what’s relevant in popular culture and wait for my son to be old enough to explain to me why I need to care about Zendaya.
What we talking about? Oh yes. Riffs:
Satanik Royalty Records will reissue the eponymous debut full-length from Seattle grunge titans SANDRIDER on limited edition vinyl May 6th!
Initially released in 2011 on Good To Die Records, Sandrider was recorded at The Red Room by Matt Bayles (Pearl Jam, Isis, Mono, The Sword). While they drop the name of influences such as Pacific Northwest icons Mudhoney and Soundgarden, as well as such indie favorites like The Jesus Lizard and Drive Like Jehu, SANDRIDER hits on a sound that is all their own.
Sandrider will be released on vinyl in Yellow And Orange Splatter. Find preorders HERE: https://www.satanikroyaltyrecords.com/categories/albums
Sandrider Track Listing: 1. Children 2. The Corpse 3. Crysknife 4. Voices 5. Paper 6. The Judge 7. Scatter
In the mythology that is Frank Herbert’s Dune books, a sandrider is a person who has managed to capture and ride one of the gigantic sandworms that live on the planet Arrakis. If you can imagine someone managing to wrangle a huge wriggling creature, you have some sense of the musical power that the Seattle hard rock titans SANDRIDER has managed to tame and keep control of.
That should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the Seattle rock and metal scene, as SANDRIDER features three of the city’s most unstoppable forces: drummer Nat Damm and guitarist John Weisnewski of Akimbo, and bassist Jesse Roberts of The Ruby Doe.
Said Weisnewski, “I decided to start putting SANDRIDER together when I got an itch to start playing guitar in a band again. [Weisnewski played bass in Akimbo.] Originally it was just me and Nat playing around, but it didn’t really come together until we started talking to Jesse. I think we were bullshitting while he was tattooing me when I originally brought it up. He came down to our practice space and things clicked really well. After the first practice we were all pretty happy with how things were sounding.”
Things only improved from there. The band would be touted as one of the best bands in Seattle by alt-weekly The Stranger and quickly found themselves sharing the stage with other Pacific Northwest rock luminaries as Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth, Lesbian, and Helms Alee. Since then, SANDRIDER has released a total of three full-length albums and a split EP with Kinski with new music to be announced in the months to come.
SANDRIDER: Jon Weisnewski – guitar, vocals Nat Damm – drums Jesse Roberts – bass, vocals
On March 11, Seattle-based experimentalist Stahv will release Electric Youth, a rare whole-album covers album, taking on The Cult‘s Electric, originally issued in 1987. In the hands of Stahv‘s Solomon Arye Rosenschein, the work of Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy becomes the stuff of adventurous and occasionally weighted solo explorations. Songs range from acid desert folk “Aphrodesiac Jacket” to bedroom indie pop on “Love Removal Machine” to the fuzz ‘n’ crash treatment given to “Electric Ocean” and “Memphis Hip Shake” (both premiering below), to Mars Bonfire‘s “Born to Be Wild,” which gets the New Wave synth treatment it’s always secretly wanted.
You gotta really like a record to cover it in full, and more to release those covers to the public, so kudos to Rosenschein on literally and figuratively sharing the love. You can hear the premieres of “Electric Ocean” and “Memphis Hip Shake” below, and while they obviously don’t speak for everything on a record that seems to jump aesthetics as easily as it jumps from one track to the next — re-proving the universal application of quality songcraft — they do certainly represent Electric Youth in being both a good time and a sincere expression of what Rosenschein refers to as his “lifelong infatuation” with the subject matter.
Enjoy:
STAHV on Electric Youth:
It was 1987 when I discovered Electric by The Cult album in the vinyl section of the local library. The cover had gothic gargoyles, Ian Astbury’s raven locks, and Billy Duffy’s bone-white pompadour. My 11-year-old self was instantly bewitched. I brought it home, put it on the turntable, and began a lifelong infatuation with the record.
Sure, I recognized the touchstones like AC/DC and Zeppelin and the Stones from Bay Area rock radio. (Rest in peace, 98.5 KOME.) The Cult was a different animal—earthier and more ethereal at the same time. The unhinged vibrato-laced vocals and gratuitous pentatonic soloing transfixed that young man. “Wild Flower” into “Peace Dog,” “Electric Ocean” into “Bad Fun.” It was all too much fun. So, I flipped the album over it on and jumped off the couch to the sped-up finale of “Love Removal Machine.” Electric culminated with the stop-start showstopper “Memphis Hip Shake.” A fresh Cult member caught his breath.
After Electric, I went back and discovered Dreamtime, Love, and even Death Cult. I moved forward with the band and entered their Sonic Temple, joined their Ceremony. Still, Electric never left my bones. It was my first exposure to the group. I didn’t know some fans considered the album’s classic rock about-face a betrayal. They debated the fact that they hired hipster sonic savant Rick Rubin after attempting a version closer to their prior incarnation. Whatever. To me, it was absolute perfection.
My ensuing years as a musician, led me through many stylistic investigations: doom metal, southern rock, power pop, Americana. Electric stayed by my side. It remained a faithful friend, demanding nothing but providing the lifegiving power of riffs and throaty belting.
In 2021, I decided to cover the whole damn thing from start to finish. Electric Youth poured out of me in about ten days. Between dog walks and work commitments, I snuck in recording sessions. Like Ian and Billy under Rubin’s tutelage, I had a former bandmate who encouraged me every step of the way. He helped me let it all hang out in the ways that I knew. Yet, unlike The Cult’s single-minded approach, all sounds were open territory for me: folk, fuzz, synth, TR-808 bass drums. I can hear bits of Ty Segall, Soft Cell, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, St. Vitus. But to me, it’s faithful. Or, as an early listener friend put it, “the aesthetics of each song are polar opposite to the original but the ‘bouillon’ of the OG song is still intact.”
Maybe the primary element that connects Electric Youth to The Cult’s album is the power of song sequencing. As different as these takes are, when “Born to Be Wild” goes into “Outlaw,” the contrast is just as vital. (This, even though my version of the former evokes a space disco and the latter a spaghetti western.) Ultimately, Electric Youth is my 40-minute love letter to an album. Electric taught me, through its very shameless existence, that to rock is, indeed, a divine right.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 10th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
In case you missed it the other day — and maybe you did — I put up a video interview with Nebula‘s Eddie Glass and Tom Davies, ostensibly talking about reissues they’ve got out on Heavy Psych Sounds, but actually spending a decent amount of time discussing the band’s next record as well. If you didn’t see it, it’s at the bottom of this post, along with the stream of 2019’s Holy Shit (review here), which is the album they’ll be following up. I do not expect this to be the last tour Nebula will announce, and it’s my sincere hope that whenever East Coast dates should follow, they’ll also include Seattle’s Year of the Cobra, who — it should be noted — destroy.
Nebula & Year of the Cobra Western US Tour
Kicking the next tour off with Year of the Cobra this Cinco de Mayo in San Diego!!! Check the dates.
Nebula & Year of the Cobra: 05.05 San Diego CA Soda Bar 05.06 Mesa AZ The Underground 05.07 Albuquerque NM Launchpad 05.09 El Paso TX Raves Club 05.10 San Antonio TX Lonesome Rose 05.11 Houston TX 05.12 Lafayette LA Freetown Boom Boom Room 05.13 Dallas TX Three Links 05.14 Nashville TN The 5 Spot 05.15 Louisville KY Portal @ Fifteentwelve 05.17 Chicago IL Reggie’s 05.18 Milwaukee WI Cooperage 05.19 Sioux Falls SD Bigs Bar 05.20 Omaha NE Dr. Jack’s Drinkery 05.21 Denver CO HQ 05.22 Salt Lake City UT Aces High 05.24 Seattle WA El Corazon 05.25 Vancouver BC Rickshaw 05.26 Portland OR High Water Mark 05.27 Sacramento CA 05.28 Heavy Psych Sounds Fest CA 05.29 Heavy Psych Sounds Fest CA
NEBULA is: Eddie Glass (guitars-vocals) Tom Davies (bass-backing vocals) Michael Amster (drums)
Posted in Buried Treasure on January 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Someone posted this record the other day in the Obelisk group on Facebook — thanks, Ted Parsons — and I’ve been glad ever since that they did. Release through the venerable 20 Buck Spin in 2012, Samothrace‘s second full-length, Reverence to Stone (review here), is a lesson that one can bludgeon and offer breadth at the same time. Tracked by Brandon Fitzsimons of Black Queen and Wormwood (among others), the 34-minute long-player from the Seattle-by-way-of-Lawrence-Kansas was not the first offering even from the West Coast to bring together such elements — nor was it claiming to be — but it made the point beautifully across its crawling reaches and in its most dug-in moments of sweep alike, manifesting an post-Earth heavy Americana from the outset of “When We Emerged” (14:21) in a manner that’s droning and impossibly weighted, the screams and growls of guitarist Bryan Spinks completely indecipherable as they join in the initial lurch built up from its softer foundation. There’s something happening there but you don’t know what it is yet. This is how they welcome you to the proceedings. Like Kids in the Hall: “I’m crushing your head.”
Spinks is joined in this incarnation of Samothrace by fellow founders Renata Castagna (who sat in for Chris Fielding of Conan after the two bands toured together in 2015) on guitar and Dylan Desmond (now more known for his work in Bell Witch) on bass, as well as Joe Axler (Theories, Book of Black Earth, etc.) on drums, and the four-piece work quickly and smoothly to demonstrate one of the great strengths of Reverence to Stone. As the lead cut continues to unfold, it reveals itself to be a massive thing, and the dragging tempo would be excruciating were it not for the exacting work on the part of the band tonally. It is the depth of tone that comes through in the recording — there’s just a hint of shimmer on the high end that had me looking back at pictures from seeing the band in 2014 (review here) to see what amps they were using; Oranges, Marshalls, etc. — that gives the listener so much room to get lost. They’re about one-tenth of the way through what’s still a pretty short album release, and they’ve already managed to build much of the world they’ll inhabit for the duration.
“When We Emerged” crashes and drones and seems to sway in the breeze of tis own making, but the (relative) speed kicks in just before the six-minute mark, and it becomes not only a sweep of momentum, but seemingly also the emergence hinted at in the title. A pattern of setting lead guitar soaring over the riffs is already established and put to good use, soon joined by Desmond‘s bass in a singularly righteous stretch. At their loudest, most forceful, the vocals return and are cavernous in the midst of that apex, a storm brought to bear that they start to draw down at around eight and a half minutes, making their way into a chasm of noise and feedback. There’s still a rhythm to it, but honestly, it’s hard to know where the wash ends and the undulations begin, and that’s the point.
A few patterns have been set. The separation of instruments is huge, particularly so in the overarching affect the space between them has on the listener. As the more extended “A Horse of Our Own” (20:29) launches and solely comprises side B, one guitar holds down the riff with the bass and drums, another shreds, and then by the time the second cut is into minute four, Samothrace have shifted into a section of quiet, intertwining guitar lines, far-back drum march and spacious, empty prairie tension. This is hypnotic, and that’s a strength into itself, but it is the smoothness with which they execute that transition and others to follow that helps make the song so undeniably immersive. “A Horse of Our Own” picks up shortly before 7:30 and unfurls not so much in a snap to reality as an organic surge, the land making waves around deceptively angular riffing before the next lead takes hold with a more fervent chug behind it.
Again, the tone. Even that guitar solo feels dense, and not just because of the bass and other guitar behind it or the shove of drums. Its fuzz is headphone-ready in its detail but still carries over as a wash and can move; it is the best of all worlds, and though it’s relatively brief and Samothrace are back to quiet again for an even-more-minimalist ambient stretch that takes them further into the track’s second half, they again make those details count. The march resumes as it inevitably would, but suddenly we’re back on familiar ground, reviving the riff and rhythm of the earliest minutes of the song as a bed for more roaring verses and a long stretch of deconstructing drone, the song spreading itself so wide ultimately that it disintegrates to a conclusion of residual noise. The final impression when one is oozed out the other side of all this morass might be “holy shit that was heavy” — and that’s not wrong, mind you — but part of the reason the weight is so present is because of the dynamic changes that bring it about. Even the final howls near the end of “A Horse of Our Own” have purpose as a part of that. Inhuman and inhumane as they might feel, they are a part of the land and reverence seemingly being depicted.
There was talk of a third Samothrace LP in the works circa late-2017/2018 — about a decade after their 2008 debut, Life’s Trade — but Reverence to Stone still stands as the to-date-latest studio release, followed by Live at Roadburn, which came out the next year and captured the above-linked set with Dorando Hodous (Fungal Abyss, ex-Lesbian) on bass. With all the upheaval and creative reshuffling of priorities of the last few years, it would make a weird kind of sense for another record to show up, but as to who would be in the band with Spinks and Axler and what on earth such a thing might sound like, I won’t speculate. I wouldn’t mind finding out, though.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
Hi, I can’t keep up with email. If I owe you an email back or a Facebook message or whatever and you’re seeing this, I’m sorry. It’s a lot. I don’t have a lot of time and I need to write. Yesterday I had like two hours plus whatever I could sneak in my phone throughout the day. I’m doing my best.
I’m thinking about going to see the Atomic Bitchwax next week with Mirror Queen and Sun Voyager. It’s in Brooklyn at the Knitting Factory. Maybe I’ll go, maybe I won’t, but I’m thinking about it. It’d be nice to see a real show again. Swallow the Sun were killer, but somehow I feel like going to New York is a different animal. But I want to see Uncle Acid and King Buffalo in a couple weeks, so this feels like a decent precursor to that. We’ll see if either happens. Sad.
The kid’s in school right now. His bus is for shit. It’s snowing and maybe we’re supposed to get a bunch more this weekend and maybe we’re not — nobody really knows — but I’ve got two nephews with birthdays this weekend, so I’m not sure what’s going on. My family is coming for dinner tonight and I’m going to make chaffles before they get here so that when everyone comes in they can be immediately be handed cheese and that can help stem the hanger that might otherwise define the evening while we wait for takeout.
Life.
I need to shower, so I’m going to cut out early and hope to finish doing that before the for-shit bus brings The Pecan home and it’s lunchtime and blah blah blah.
I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Have fun, watch your head, hydrate. I’ve got a gallon of water on one side of me and a cup of ice on the other. You do what you gotta do, damn it.
