Posted in Whathaveyou on September 2nd, 2019 by JJ Koczan
So Isaak haven’t released anything since 2015’s Sermonize (review here) and Chron Goblin are putting out their new record, Here Before (discussed here) at the end of September. Isaak are in Italy. Chron Goblin in Canada. These seem like two bands in very different situations, and yet this week they’ll team up for a cassette split that’s also the first tape ever to come out through Spikerot Records. You know what? I’d check that out. I like a tape, I like a split, and I’d like to know how these two bands got hooked up in the first place, so yeah, I’ll give this one a listen when the time comes. Why the hell not? Do the circumstances even matter? Of course not. The riffs matter.
Release is coming up quick, so keep an eye out for it. I’ll also be interested to see if it leads to more from Isaak anytime soon, as their last outing was a banger.
Here’s Spikerot‘s post about the tape:
Chron Goblin Vs Isaak. Split Tape through Spikerot Records
Spikerot has been all about Vinyls and CDs so far, but cassettes have dignity too, so why not?
We’re proud to be releasing our first tape ever under the banner of international Stoner Rock with two previously unreleased tracks from Canadian boogie facepunchers Chron Goblin and Italian riffalicious gang Isaak. Those who know each band’s signature sound will not be disappointed, both tracks are sheer energy, pairing melody with groove and distortion for a fresh interpretation of heavy music.
RELEASE DATE: September 6th
TRACKLIST SIDE A: Chron Goblin – Signs SIDE B: Isaak – Taste
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 28th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Void Cult Rising is the third full-length from Italy’s screamy post-metal lurchers NAGA and it’ll be released in November through Spikerot Records following three years behind Inanimate, which came out on Lay Bare Recordings. I didn’t get to write about that album, because I suck at this, but it’s available as a name-your-price download now, so that’s convenient, and if you happen to be unfamiliar with the band — possible — makes a likewise rousing and grim introduction, what with the plod and the atmosphere and whatnot. I’m gonna be telling you how to live your life all day today — it’s just that kind of day, sorry — but if you’ve got headphones handy and don’t care about blowing out your ears, do it up right.
The announcement came down the PR wire, like announcements do:
Blackened Doom Metal trio NAGA sign with Spikerot Records!
New album to be unleashed in November 2019
Spikerot Records is thrilled to announce the signing of the Italian Blackened Doom monster NAGA. The Naples-based three-piece is deeply grounded in the sulphurean atmosphere of their land and known to deliver a great amount of distortion, heaviness and nihilism. The band’s new album will be the third full-length after the fortunate ‘Hen’ and ‘Inanimate’ and it’s due to be unleashed in November 2019 under the name of ‘Void Cult Rising’.
“It is surely our most elaborate album to date” says NAGA’s frontman Lorenzo De Stefano. “Its development took longer than usual due to personal issues that have been affecting us in the last three years. Despite all this we find the final output fully satisfying, it’s the album where we dared the most and tried to find diverse solutions compared to our previous works, both on a musical and songwriting level, things that are leading us towards new territories”.
From a lyrical point of view “Void Cult Rising is a meditation on death from a personal perspective, like for example losing someone dear, but also a global one like the end of all things”.
About joining the Spikerot roster, De Stefano adds “We are so happy to start working with Spikerot Records, hence with our lifelong friend Davide. They’re an ambitious label and it’s been our first and last choice since the end of the recording sessions”.
NAGA pick up where they left off. Expect a masterpiece of grief and nihilism, a true bliss for fans of Tryptikon, Unearthly Trance, Craft and Amenra.
Watch out for many more news, details and album tunes to follow in the days ahead!
NAGA is: Lorenzo – (Vocals and guitar) Emanuele – (Bass) Dario – (Drums)
[Click play above to listen to Zippo’s Ode to Maximum in its entirety. The full remaster with bonus tracks is out Nov. 2 on Spikerot Records.]
We live in an age where albums come out twice all the time. A band records on their own and does a self-release, digital or sometimes physical, and then later on at some point that record is picked up by a label for wider distribution and/or a physical pressing. The difference with Zippo‘s Ode to Maximum is that it’s happening 12 years later. Probably fair, then to call the Spikerot Records vinyl version of the then-five-piece Italian outfit’s debut full-length a reissue, what with the Tony Reed remaster, new cover art, bonus tracks and all, but its core desert rocking approach and forays into psychedelia on “Night Jam” and “Crazy Forest” lend a sonic reach to the grounded material surrounding.
The band is currently a four-piece with Alessandro Sergente on guitar, but in 2006, Sergente was joined by fellow guitarist Silvio Spina and bassist Tonino Bosco (Paolo Garofalo handles bass now), as well as vocalist Davide Straccione and drummer Federico Sergente, both of whom remain with Zippo now. Based in Pescara on the Adriatic Coast, they’ve done three albums since Ode to Maximum in the form of 2009’s The Road to Knowledge (discussed here), 2011’s Maktub and 2016’s After Us (discussed here), and each time branched out someplace new from where they started with the original 10 tracks of Ode to Maximum, which from the Lowrider-style wah of “Forgotten Season” to the suitably named thick-toned stomper “The Elephant March” and the careening “Tukay’s Fury” that precedes, basks in the glory days of the heavy rock movement that started a decade before it was made.
It was the MySpace era, but Zippo concerned themselves more with the doings of Kyuss and certainly offshoot project Slo Burn, whose “July” is covered as one of the bonus tracks here, recorded in 2014, in the early and mid ’90s. With a raw-ish production and a mix that puts the bass as the foundation of songs like “Kid in the Desert,” however otherwise led by the riffs they may be, Zippo tapped early into what have since become some of the most enduring aspects of the original Californian desert rock movement — and we’ll throw some Sweden in there for Lowrider, too — while putting their own inevitable stamp on the approach with a sense of rhythmic quirk, gutted-out vocals and diverse songwriting.
Beginning with the intro “Alpha” and ending with the complementary “Omega,” Ode to Maximum unfurls a self-aware sonic blend of chunky-style riffing on “Tsunami Dust” with the fervent rumble establishing itself beneath the two guitars and Straccione‘s vocals. A departure into a playfully-malevolent break brings some element of Faith No More to the proceedings, but as “Tsunami Dust” moves into highlight cut “S.N.A.P.R.S.T.,” the jazzy interlude and aggro finish in the latter already has some context hinting toward its arrival. Clearly Zippo were never just about mimicry of the Californian scene, and the rest of Ode to Maximum bears that out.
Originally a 45-minute outing — the bonus tracks push that to 55 on the remaster — Ode to Maximum has a linear fluidity that speaks to the time of its release, when CD was still the dominant physical media, if in decline with the increasing reach of the digital sphere. The handclaps in “Forgotten Season,” either natural or keyboard — something about them is awfully consistent sounding — vocal layering and manic lead guitar are nonetheless standout factors emblematic of the manner in which songs are distinguished throughout. In addition to the new CD release, though, Spikerot has a 2LP version of the album, and one imagines the same distinguishing factors help establish a breadth as Zippo move from one song and one side to the next.
I won’t claim to know where the sides split, but “Night Jam” is a serene departure from “Forgotten Season,” and “Kid in the Desert” renews the quirked-up post-Kyuss thrust ahead of “Crazy Forest,” which is the longest cut on the album at eight minutes, and if that’s side B, then it’s a solid one. “Crazy Forest” taps into progressive nuance to go along with its standout nodder fuzz riff — something of a foreshadow for the seven-minute “The Elephant March” still to come — and ends with an almost hypnotic rhythm before a last-second shove leads the way into “Tukay’s Fury.”
As it’s sandwiched between the two longest tracks, it would make sense that it’s the shortest (non-intro/outro) piece at 3:22, with starts and stops in the verses shifting into a high-gear hook with a high-energy delivery the whole way through until finally the thing seems to crash to its finish and directly into the start of “The Elephant March,” which is obviously intended as the apex of the record. And so it is. Big riffs get bigger as it courses through its second half, finishing at about six minutes in so the last minute can be consumed by a swell of insect noise, either flies or bees. Kind of a curious choice with “Omega” still to follow and lead the way out of the album as a whole, but it was 2006. Times were crazy. “Omega” fluidly answers “Alpha” with a minute or so of riffing and some sustained ringout that fades to a finish, leaving just “Night Jam #2” — heavier, proggier, more plotted — and the aforementioned Slo Burn redux to cap.
Though recorded later, “July” is a pretty fitting conclusion for Ode to Maximum, and the treatment they give it — again, the bass — does right by the original while allowing Zippo to make their mark on it as well. The album preceding functions in much the same way, portraying a band working their way toward an understanding of who they are as a group and what they want to bring to the tenets of their chosen genre. They’ve gone on to answer that question with subsequent albums, so in a way it’s like cheating to listen to Ode to Maximum and know the future, but a debut release is a special moment for a band that doesn’t come again, and this look back gives Zippo a chance to emphasize how far they’ve come since as well as the clarity of mission with which they started out.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 28th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Zippo‘s debut album, Ode to Maximum, originally came out 12 years ago as a self-release. Time for a reissue? Yeah, definitely. The Italian heavy rockers will put Ode to Maximum back out on Nov. 2 via Spikerot Records as their first release through the imprint as their 2016 long-player, After Us (discussed here), was on Apocalyptic Witchcraft. The first record has been given new art — see it below, also in your most colorful nightmares — and a remaster by none other than Tony Reed of Mos Generator. It will also feature two bonus cuts, one of which is a cover of Slo Burn‘s “July,” which, if it’s not already stuck in your head just by reading the title, I humbly submit you’ve probably never heard the song. I’m gonna be walking around the rest of the day going “Joo-li-hi.” There are worse fates.
The PR wire brings details and a link for preorders. Have at it:
ZIPPO – Ode to Maximum / Reissue 2018
Since 2004 Zippo have led the pack of the Italian Stoner Rock and Heavy Psych movement. Zippo have always been about the music, which is actually very hard to define as they include elements of Prog Rock, Psych, Stoner, Sludge, Doom, Noise and even Post-Metal.
Zippo thrive on creating different sounds and challenging people to use their very heart and soul to fully experience the band’s musical vision. A winning philosophy has seen Zippo release four critically acclaimed albums: Ode To Maximum (Self-released, 2006), The Road To Knowledge (Subsound Records, 2009), Maktub (Subsound Records, 2011) and After Us (Apocalyptic Witchcraft, 2016). Spikerot Records will take care of the re-issue of the band’s classic Ode To Maximum both on CD and Vinyl, giving it a new life after many years gone sold-out, with a completely new artwork by Davide Mancini (Dartworks.com) and tracks remastered by Tony Dallas Reed (Mos Generator, Stone Axe), including two bonus tracks.
There is one thing you can say about Zippo’s albums – They all sound different to each other. Zippo always push the boundaries of what is musically possible, which has seen them classed as one of Italy’s finest Heavy Rock bands currently out there. Zippo have played Live all over Europe to rapturous applause from fans and critics alike, being described as one of the coolest, loudest and dangerous bands you are ever likely to witness live.
release date: 02/11/2018 label: SPIKEROT RECORDS catalog number: SPK004 FORMAT: CD DIGIPAK / 2xLP / DIGITAL
TRACKLIST 1. Alpha 2. Tsunami Dust 3. S.N.A.P.R.S.T. 4. Forgotten Season 5. Night Jam 6. Kid In The Desert 7. Crazy Forest 8. Tukay’s Fury 9. The Elephant March 10. Omega BONUS TRACKS: 11. Night Jam #2 12. July (Slo Burn Cover)
CURRENT LINE UP Davide Straccione – Vocals Alessandro Sergente – Guitars Paolo Garofalo – Bass Federico Sergente – Drums
