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Review & Full Album Premiere: Somnus Throne, Nemesis Lately

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on June 2nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan

somnus throne nemesis lately

[Click play above to stream the premiere of Somnus Throne’s second album, Nemesis Lately. It’s out Friday on Heavy Psych Sounds.]

Beginning with a sampled call for a return of readily-available quaaludes by Mike Caracciolo, aka “The Kid From Brooklyn” — who makes a convincing case — Nemesis Lately is the second full-length from Los Angeles trio Somnus Throne. The song is “Snake Eyes” and it’s one of six on the outing, which is the band’s first for Heavy Psych Sounds after issuing their self-titled debut (review here) in 2020 through Burning World Records. Honestly, that opening sample is over so quick you’d have to listen to it multiple times just to figure out what Caracciolo is saying, but it’s worth it for a bit of perspective on the riffery that ensues.

For a first impression on their second record, or at least a first-point-five, Somnus Throne — first-name-only guitarist/vocalist Evan, bassist Ansel Bretz and drummer Matt Davis — unload a fuzz that careens like Kyuss in its overarching groove but is played with High on Fire chop. Given the production by Matt Lynch of Snail, it’s classic stoner rock all the more when Evan‘s effects-treated vocals join in, and the swinging drums carry through a chorus about the devil and there’s a shoegazy solo, another sample, and a shift into a slower march that’s more purely Electric Wizard, the vocals going raw to match the riff, a swirling lead helping along the way. Eventually they jam back to a mid-paced nodder riff and a last verse that’s again as much Kyuss and Sleep and, golly, it’s been quite a seven minutes.

The sample is notable in part because they drop sampling after setting up the expectation for it to be in every song, since second cut “Lacquer Bones” starts with a clip from a Purdue Pharma promotional video for OxyContin. Yes, drugs. But near as I can tell that’s the last one. Perhaps more important is what’s happening behind it, as Somnus Throne are setting up what becomes the key sonic theme for the rest of the LP, as acoustic guitar plucks out notes that soon become a fuzzed-out progression that specifically draws from Colour HazeEvan going so far as to add far-back vocals to the atmosphere.

They make that riff their own almost immediately by putting it to a march, and the buzzing lead that ensues is a joy cutting into the first verse, duly bright like slowed down Torche, with the low end under the solos is warm enough to match. In true this-generation-learned-its-lessons-well form, “Lacquer Bones” also brings back the verse to finish out, but does so by slowing down the central riff, for which it may be one’s destiny to be an eternal sucker. It grooves. Hard. Not quiet as hard as the opening hits of “Dice and Scarecrow,” however, which shifts the vibe toward the aurally massive in Man’s Ruin-ifying a Monolordian roll with vocals that remind of Alice in Chains circa their self-titled. The Colour Hazed serenity has evaporated with the band’s pivot to a darker mood, finishing a side A that goes three for three in surprises and still has room for a highlight ripper solo.

Such malleability was an asset on their self-titled as well, and I don’t imagine Evan is sitting down with Bretz and Davis and saying, “and then this Colour Haze thing goes into this Monolord thing,” like they’re mapping out parts by band references, but all of these are brought into the context of Somnus Throne‘s emerging sonic personality, and it’s the overarching arrogance to take these different ideas and smash them together and have it work that is in no small part how their sound should be defined at this point. Nemesis Lately flows for the entirety of its 41 minutes, and does so greatly aided by the conversation between the different elements Somnus Throne are using to build their songs. This sounds like I’m saying they’re ripping people off. I don’t think they are, and that’s what I want to make clear. They’re working with influences in what sounds like an organic manner to create something of their own. Another listener may hear something differently in terms of references. That’s part of the fun. If I put band names here it’s to ground the ideas I’m trying to convey to somebody reading.

Here’s the thing: there’s a line in Somnus Throne‘s bio that goes like this, “Various music critics who each can’t seem to understand their origins at least agree that Somnus Throne is a 3-piece band that plays…” and I guess I took that to heart and tried to dig pretty deep into Nemesis Lately. It’s been an easy joy to do so, but that line still has me feeling insecure about my point of view on where the band’s coming from. So maybe I’m fucking wrong about everything I’m telling you. Maybe you’ll be like “Kyuss nothing, you lazy asshole,” and never come back to the site. Sorry, I guess, if that’s the case. They pay me the same nothing either way, but I took that sentence which goes on to list a slew of styles and bands as a challenge to really try to hear where Somnus Throne are coming from. I took friggin’ notes on this record last night. I’m doing my best.

somnus throne

“L-Dopatryptamine” presents another turn, beginning side B with a decidedly mellowed fuzz, the melody of Evan‘s vocals drifting as no less part of the trip than any of the tones surrounding, and they make their way into a chorus with even more churn behind it, obscure to a point of barely there as they journey through to cycle again before going faster — the use of wah brilliant and biting all the while — then slower and letting the song disintegrate into light before, in the last half-minute, the guitar very quickly hints back toward that Colour Haze-style rhythm, and sets up the essential piece that ties together side B in communion with “Lacquer Bones” earlier. The subsequent “Rubber Tramp” begins with a She Said-era sense of triumph in its warmly fuzzed solo, delivered in languid fashion on either side of a verse that’s harmonized like “Dice and Scarecrow” but dreamy like Jane’s Addiction, at least until after the four-minute mark when Evan starts referencing Baroness vocally with flashes of The Sword behind.

As a unit, they march into the fade nobly, with another flourish of lead guitar, and eight-minute closer “Calm is the Devil” begins with a returned acoustic guitar, quickly settled into a piece that evokes Colour Haze‘s “Grace” specifically even unto how it teases its heavier kick-in, but is under way soon, the first verse beginning at around two minutes in. There’s some Sabbath in the midsection, but they’re finishing more progressive, the vocal melody again calling to mind Steve Brooks or maybe even Rob Crow, but they cut at 4:25 and fade back into the acoustic guitar, setting up the final build, adding hand percussion and drums to lead smoothly back to a more weighted but still moderate roll, not quite gentle but not quite not, as it enters the final minute with a last highlight bassline on course for its fadeout.

So hey, maybe I missed it, right? Maybe I’m all wrong about Somnus Throne, but what I hear in the hypnotic finish of “Calm is the Devil” is a band realizing their sound, setting themselves up for their next step forward, having already changed their approach, shortened their songs from their first record and adopted tighter structures, creating the bookend of the longer “Snake Eyes” and “Calm is the Devil” around the others. They offer clues as to where they might be headed in terms of style, but no grounds for a prediction I’d be willing to put into words. What ultimately matters more is the fluidity with which the band execute the reaches of Nemesis Lately and that they’re bold enough as songwriters to think of them in the first place. These guys might be the real deal. Their next record or two will tell the tale, but for an act who haven’t had a shit-ton of hype around them as yet, they just made an absolute monster of an album. Let that be my take on it.

Somnus Throne on Facebook

Somnus Throne on Instagram

Somnus Throne on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

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Somnus Throne Sign to Heavy Psych Sounds; New Album Coming Soon

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 31st, 2022 by JJ Koczan

And so Heavy Psych Sounds moves one step further toward becoming the Roman Empire of the underground. Minus all that conquering, I guess, but you know what I mean. The label has newly picked up Los Angeles-based three-piece Somnus Throne and will next week unveil the details, preorders and first streaming track from their upcoming album, which, since they’re starting promo in April, it seems reasonable to expect will be out in July or maybe August at the latest, end of June at the earliest. That’s me reading tea leaves, mind you. I have nothing confirmed until next week, which will presumably bring the next press release on the subject. I do what I can, folks.

Somnus Throne‘s 2020 self-titled debut (review here) was issued through Burning World Records, which puts the band two-for-two on working with European imprints. I can’t help but wonder if that doesn’t signal some greater intention or focus on where they’ll look to support the new record live — obviously that’s something that hasn’t really been possible until now — but again, I know nothing.

Speaking of things I don’t know: Evan‘s last name. Whenever one person in a band chooses to stay first-name-only, my immediate thought is that they must have a really good job they don’t want to know about their secret life playing heavy music. No clue if that’s the case here, but it happens. Some of those bands in hoods are out there in middle management.

In any case, good for Somnus Throne. First album was killer, will look forward to more.

Alas. For now, we feast on the scraps the PR wire gives us:

somnus throne

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS signed the heavy psych doom band SOMNUS THRONE for the new album // presale + first track premiere April 6th !!!

We are so stoked to announce that the heavy psych doom riffers SOMNUS THRONE has signed a worldwide deal with Heavy Psych Sounds for their new album !!!

PRESALE + first track premiere: APRIL 6th

SAYS THE BAND:

“Heavy Psych Sounds was our first choice. They’re doing so much all over right now, it’s huge. We mostly sent it to them as a joke but I guess the riff gods were looking down on us or something because they got back to us quick and we’re stoked to hear that! The doom must flow.”

BIOGRAPHY

Somnus Throne is a three-piece formed way back in 2016 in a cacophony of underground heavy music shows, leaking warehouse ceilings, and perpetual sedation of one kind or another. While their members have haunted many a ‘5 dollar-at-the-door, Monday through Friday no rent crash-pad, repurposed crack-house turned venues’ from New Orleans to Portland, they are based in Los Angeles, California. They mostly flew under the radar until the release of their first album “Self Titled” on Burning World Records (of Roadburn Festival fame) in 2020.

Their current roster boasts one Matt Davis on drums, Ansel Bretz on bass, and Evan on guitar/vox. Various music critics who each can’t seem to understand their origins at least agree that Somnus Throne is a 3-piece band that plays doom, heavy psych, stoner and grunge akin to Dead Meadow, Acid King, Electric Wizard, Sleep, Black Rainbows, OM, Dopelord and Vokonis with a healthy dose of Black Sabbath (as always).

SOMNUS THRONE is
Evan – vocals/guitars
Ansel Bretz – bass
Matt Davis – drums

https://www.facebook.com/TrueSomnist
https://www.instagram.com/somnus__throne/
https://somnusthrone.bandcamp.com/
heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
www.youtube.com/user/MonoStereo79

Somnus Throne, Somnus Throne (2020)

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Review & Full Album Stream: Somnus Throne, Somnus Throne

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on September 22nd, 2020 by JJ Koczan

Somnus Throne Somnus Throne

[Click play above to stream Somnus Throne’s Somnus Throne in full. Album is out Sept. 24 on Burning World Records.]

Gutter riffs. Riffs to turn your soul green. The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — has it that Somnus Throne‘s self-titled debut was realized after years spent on the part of guitarist/vocalist Evan hobo’ing around the country, living in flops and finding himself in that very lost, druggy, American vastness, all the while accompanied by a latent urge for volume satisfied only upon discovery of amp-worshiping doom, sludge and stoner idolatry. As narratives go, it’s a pretty good one, and though one has learned over time to approach such things with a healthy raised eyebrow of curiosity if not outright skepticism, the fact that Evan, bassist Haley and drummer Luke — everyone in the trio seems to have lost their surname along the way — all hail from different cities would seem to speak to a certain transient nature behind their work.

Congregation, as it were, happened in Los Angeles to record the album, and Evan credits Luke for having it together enough to corral the band and make Somnus Throne happen, and if that’s the case, then those seeking immersive nod and back-to-zero distorted lumber will want to send a thank-you card — address it to “Luke in L.A.” and I’m sure it’ll get there — since the three-piece manifest four rolling, downer-vibing, what’s-this-again-oh-well-shrug-and-inhale subfloor slabs of weighted groove. Apart from the 47-second intro “Caliphate Obeisance,” there is nothing on Somnus Throne‘s first album under 10 minutes long — a statement in itself — and throughout “Sadomancer,” “Shadow Heathen,” “Receptor Antagonist” and the 14-minute finale “Aetheronaut – Permadose,” they bask in darkly-lysergic disaffection and a sense of abiding fuckall as few in the post-Electric Wizard strain of anti-artisans have been able to conjure. It is noteworthy that their first outing comes courtesy of Burning World Records, which was once responsible for unleashing Conan‘s early work, but what Somnus Throne represent is the stylistic going to ground of a new generation, digging to find the roots of what heavy has become over the last 20 years.

That has led Somnus Throne to a style that wouldn’t have been at all be out of place on Man’s Ruin Records during that era, with a sense of overarching fog that reminds of a more aggro Sons of Otis — so, say, earlier Sons of Otis — even when “Receptor Antagonist” kicks into its speedier second half. It wouldn’t be appropriate to call it a “fresh” take on that style, because sounding “fresh” is far from the intent of these songs — fetid, more like — but the energy they bring to the material is unmistakably that of a group who are excited about what they’re playing as they’re playing it, who are realizing something new for them even if the aesthetic scope is playing toward genre. Throughout “Sadomancer” and “Shadow Heathen” especially, this happens with a palpable sense of will behind it. Somnus Throne are letting their audience know that their mission is to harness the primitive.

somnus throne other art

Think of how the first Monolord record seemed so simple on its surface that one could almost miss its innovation, or even earlier Conan to some degree. Somnus Throne operate in a similar fashion, but are rawer in their substance and still manage to offer hints of variety in the changes in vocal approach from Evan. There are moments that sound like call and response as his voice shifts from one line to the next. If indeed that is all him and not, say, Luke, taking on a backing role — information is purposefully sparse in this regard — then that malleability is an asset already working in the band’s favor that one can only expect to do so even more as they move forward. As it stands, the plodding wash in “Shadow Heathen” is enhanced, and the rough edge that emerges circa nine minutes into “Aetheronaut – Permadose” and directly winks at ’90s-era Sleep being a further sense of character to the songs, and however barebones the offering may feel as a whole, there’s no taking away either from the effectiveness of those changes or the fullness of tone in the mix that surrounds them. Somnus Throne, in short, know their shit.

And to take it back for a second to the narrative, to the context of the album’s making, one can hear the disillusion. They’re not hiding it. Even in “Sadomancer” with all the discussion of witches and spells and samples about the devil and other trappings of turn-of-the-century sludge-doom, the atmosphere feels genuine, and being aware of that background changes the listening experience, making Somnus Throne all the more relevant as a record of a particular On the Road American experience set to task by and for a generation who came of age in a time of rampant corruption, economic collapse, climate change and endless war. Throw in governmental collapse and a global pandemic for the next album, and how else should it sound? Somnus Throne don’t tackle these issues directly — again, witches, spells, monsters, etc. — but their material feels affected and influenced by the moment of its creation in an intangible drudgery throughout. Plod born of turmoil. So be it.

Even the use of the word “caliphate” in the title of the intro — which is a sample offering young people an experience of a quaint, gourmet drug culture that gives way to noise — speaks to the time in which the album was made and the generation of its makers. The question is what Somnus Throne might do next. If this album represents a turn toward stability and sustainability as a band, despite the members living in different places between Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles and San Antonio — if they can find a way to operate — they’ve given themselves a crucial first outing from which to progress; and should that progression keep or enhance the rawness here, that’s still progression, not regression, in aesthetic terms. Even if they can’t or don’t, or whatever, and Somnus Throne becomes a one-off, what-could’ve-been footnote of a heavy release in arguably the worst year to put out an album in the last half-century, it does its part to capture the wretchedness of the time and turn it back on itself with disgust that is righteous and heavy in kind.

Somnus Throne on Thee Facebooks

Somnus Throne on Instagram

Somnus Throne on Bandcamp

Burning World Records website

Burning World Records on Bandcamp

Burning World Records on Thee Facebooks

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Somnus Throne to Release Self-Titled Debut Oct. 9

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 11th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

When Burning World Records takes notice of a new band, your ears should perk up. Somnus Throne would seem to be a project for an era of working remotely, with members spread throughout multiple cities, and though their origins are murky, that’s nothing compared to their riffs. They come big and slow on the band’s self-titled debut, which will be out Oct. 9, topped with samples and a free-your-mind lumber that’s thoroughly genre-based and it knows it.

Digging it as I am, I sent an email about doing a premiere since I guess the digital release is Sept. 23 and I’ve got this coming Monday open as of now. I haven’t heard back about that, but maybe it’ll come together and maybe it won’t. If it does, it’ll be a little bit of double coverage with this news post in such close proximity, but I sincerely doubt anyone cares half as much as I do about that kind of thing. In case that doesn’t happen — there’s no audio out from it yet — I wanted to post this just as a heads up that the record is a good time and coming out to the few people who might see this post and get turned onto it. New band, new record. You like new bands and new records, right? Me too.

Here’s one:

Somnus Throne Somnus Throne

With members spread out across New Orleans, Los Angeles, Portland and San Antonio, Somnus Throne is a new heavy and psychedelic doom band that pays homage to legends such as Sleep, High On Fire and Pentagram.

The band’s self-titled debut album is now set for release on October 9 via Burning World Records and sees Somnus Throne playing some Sabbath-tinged, mammoth-size and hypnotic doom riffs across five epic tracks. Each riff is so spine-asphyxiating heavy as if they possess the power to create a seismic tremor in the walls of your houses.

Somnus Throne proves that the music Black Sabbath birthed decades ago can still hit hard and sound engaging after all these years.

Tracklisting:
1. Caliphate Obeisance 0:45
2. Sadomancer 10:17
3. Shadow Heathen 10:13
4. Receptor Antagonist 10:15
5. Aetheronaut – Permadose 14:30

https://www.facebook.com/TrueSomnist
https://www.instagram.com/somnus__throne/
https://somnusthrone.bandcamp.com/
https://www.burningworldrecords.com
https://burningworldrecords.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/burningworldrecords

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