Granted, I’m perpetually late with news, but while Juneteenth is already past, the money from Goatsnake‘s single, Breakfast with the King b/w Deathwish, still goes to Color of Change. Three dollars doesn’t seem like too much to ask, and yes, I say that as someone who just paid it in order to secure a download for what’s been presented as a limited-time-only release. Though they were previously issued on a special 2LP edition of Goatsnake‘s 2015 album, Black Age Blues (review here), and they come from those same studio sessions — if you were thinking they were brand new, I’m sorry to disappoint; I don’t think we’re getting new Goatsnake anytime soon, though I’d only be happy to be wrong about that — I hadn’t yet heard the hooky “Breakfast with the King” and its speedier counterpart “Deathwish,” so I’m glad for the chance to do so. Some bands, you take it however it comes.

You’ll note the cover art here is similar to Black Age Blues as well. I actually had that album on the other day, apropos of nothing so much as wanting to hear it as it had been a while. Yes, it’s held up to the subsequent half-decade, and yes, I’m still bumming about never having seen Goatsnake live. Like my saggy old-man-ass itself, it is a weight I carry everywhere I go.

With that, to the PR wire:

GOATSNAKE Issues Two Unreleased Tracks From Black Age Blues Sessions To Benefit The Color Of Change Organization For Juneteenth 2020

Southern California’s GOATSNAKE has unveiled two rare tracks from the recording sessions of their Black Age Blues LP. The band has issued the tracks to raise money for the Color Of Change organization, in conjunction with Bandcamp’s no-fee charity day this week.

The two GOATSNAKE tracks, “Breakfast With the King” and “Deathwish,” are two burners from the Black Age Blues album sessions. They were previously only available as bonus tracks on the double vinyl version of Black Age Blues and have been introduced to the digital realm for the ongoing charity drives the band is supporting for Juneteenth 2020. The songs are only available at Bandcamp for a limited time.

The band writes, “Greetings Goat fiends! We hope all of you are keeping your heads up during these challenging times. We are making available two rare ‘Snake tracks that have not been available digitally until now! Proceeds will be donated to the Color Of Change organization to help further their absolutely vita work they do. Racial justice is an issue for everyone, and we all need to be proactive in working towards the goal of equal justice and fair treatment for everybody.”

Join GOATSNAKE in making a heavy donation to Color Of Change and check out “Breakfast With the King” and “Deathwish” at Bandcamp RIGHT HERE.

GOATSNAKE released their lauded Black Age Blues LP in June of 2015. Featuring guest contributions from David Pajo (Slint, Aerial M, Papa M) and soul vocal trio Dem Preacher’s Daughters and more, the LP was recorded and mixed at Rock Falcon Franklin, Tennessee by Nick Raskulinecz (Queens Of The Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Alice In Chains, Mastodon, Rush) and mastered by Brian Big Bass Gardner (N.W.A., Stevie Wonder, Parliament).

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Goatsnake, Breakfast with the King b/w Deathwish (2020)

I guess what I find so interesting about this latest collaboration from SunnO))), which partners the American masters of drone with Norway’s post-black metal progenitors Ulver, is that I have no idea what it might sound like. Drones? Big riffs and moody vocals? Acoustic folk ballads? It’s wide open for different avenues of exploration on the part of both acts, which is likely why they decided to team up for the album, which will be called Terrestrials, in the first place.

Also interesting in that although SunnO))) have put out live records and even another collaboration with Nurse with Wound, it’s been more than four years at this point since their expansive 2009 outing, Monoliths and Dimensions (review here), was released. That album was hardly just Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley, but still, they’re about due for a SunnO))) proper outing, so one wonders if maybe Terrestrials isn’t the only SunnO)))-related project in the works.

The PR wire’s mum on that but has plenty to say otherwise:

SUNN O))) & ULVER: Collaborative Work Entitled Terrestrials Due For February 2014 Release Via Southern Lord

SUNN O)))’s most recent studio album, 2009’s Monoliths and Dimensions, and ULVER’s 2013 album, Messe I.X-VI.X,found both evolving and longstanding groups venturing into the world of acoustic arrangement and contemporary orchestration. Besides arriving at this seeming parallel in vision, the pair’s long standing camaraderie was initiated during SUNN O)))’s 2003’s White1 sessions with the track “CutWOODED” which was produced by ULVER, in tribute to deceased film director Ed Wood.

ULVER’s decision to emerge from the shadows into live performance, in 2009, unveiled a new facet of showmanship and presentation which took their audiences to an unforeseen level. SUNN O)))’s presence has continuously been felt — whether in the prospect of their hundreds of legendary live concerts, the reissue of out-of-print albums in devotion to their loyal fanbase, or the recent unveiling of their new website — and the anticipation of something new was heightened beyond belief recently when the label posted online the words, “SUNN O))) & ULVER 2014”.

Yes. At long last they have come together for a more developed collaborative work.

Today, it comes with great pleasure to confirm that these words, SUNN O))) and ULVER, together, represent an astonishing yet somehow totally tenable matrimony of these two earthshakingly powerful forces, coming together like tectonic plates. The result of this union is a three-track recording entitled Terrestrials; a trio of movements which flow like magma beneath the Earth’s crust, sonically uninhibited, unpredictably cosmic, haunting and stirring, yet simultaneously ceremonious and beautiful.

Southern Lord shall release Terrestrials in February 2014. Over the course of the next month we shall be revealing the story of how this alliance and recording came to be, revealing the insight of the musicians involved, attempting to answer some of the burning questions which we have, for now, left hanging in the air.

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Ulver, Messe I.X-VI.X (2013)

Their fifth album, Pelican‘s Forever Becoming is noteworthy immediately for being the band’s first outing since their 2001 inception to not feature the guitar work of Laurent Schroeder-Lebec. Schroeder-Lebec made his last recorded appearance with the band on 2012’s Ataraxia/Taraxis EP, and has since been replaced by The Swan King‘s Dallas Thomas, who joins founding guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw and the rhythm section of bassist Bryan Herweg and drummer Larry Herweg in one of the last decade’s most quietly influential groups. Not a bad gig, and while I wouldn’t want to trivialize the inevitable change in dynamic that losing an original member after more than a decade of playing together would invariably bring about in any band, Forever Becoming (released on Southern Lord) at least shows Pelican have weathered the storm well in terms of holding onto their original sonic mission and blending post-rock atmospherics and open-spaciousness with unbridled tonal crunch and low-end weight derived from doom and heavy rock. In that regard particularly, Forever Becoming should offer thrills to longtime followers left cold by the pastoral wanderings of 2009’s What We all Come to Need (review here), as it pares down some (not all) of that record’s airiness in favor of a heavier push, not quite as much as did 2007’s City of Echoes coming off of 2005’s The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw and Pelican’s landmark full-length debut, 2003’s Australasia, but it’s worth noting that though tracks like “Immutable Dusk” and “The Tundra” have their ambient stretches and that Forever Becoming‘s 51 minutes aren’t lacking for atmosphere, it is at times a surprisingly heavy record. Since it’s been four years since the last one — twice Pelican‘s pace up to this point — I’m not inclined to chalk all the difference up to the acquisition of Thomas for the second guitar slot, but it’s a shift that’s apparent even on LP bookends “Terminal” and “Perpetual Dawn,” which are about as dreamy as Pelican get here.

It’s the former cut given the duty of opening Forever Becoming, and it does so with foreboding tom hits from Larry that come accompanied by rumble and lurching, mechanized-sounding feedback (my mind went immediately to The Book of Knots). Between the title and the bleakness of the song itself, it’s a dark note to start off on, even with a few peaceful seconds of softer guitar before the thud and distorted rumble resumes, giving a quiet lead-in for the rush of “Deny the Absolute,”  probably the fastest track on the album and one that engages quickly with a post-hardcore feel, discernible structure, and that peculiar intensity — “hurry up and think!” — that Pelican have developed as their own over the course of their time together and many others have tried to emulate to varying levels of success. Already the band have established an overarching flow and they stick to it for the duration, as “Deny the Absolute” gives way to the somewhat slower but similarly constructed “The Tundra,” which breaks in the middle for a moment of atmospheric exploration before resuming its crushing course in one of Forever Becoming‘s most satisfying linear builds. A turn comes with the more angular riffing of “Immutable Dusk,” but Thomas and de Brauw‘s guitars work well together such that the movement into a more open-vibing “chorus” makes sense coming off the prior progression and leading to a lengthier, more subdued post-rock break, which patiently rebuilds over the next several minutes — fluid, in motion as it mounts tension — until just before five minutes into the total 7:13, a vicious chug emerges that is traded off one more time before the song’s real apex arrives to cap the linear drive, drums, bass and guitars all headed in a single direction and even injecting some last-minute churn into what makes for an exciting finale, leaving the quiet opening of “Threnody” to give a breather before  it gets underway with warm, prominent low end and a bounce that seems to be culled from a more traditional heavy rock feel, but which is developed over the next several minutes into an otherworldly exploration, bass and drums holding the momentum together in the second half while Ebow guitar adds echoing depth to the mix.

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