Posted in Whathaveyou on September 4th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Church of Misery‘s current lineup — if there is one — is the stuff fire-emoji splurges are made of. I saw them less than a month ago at SonicBlast in Portugal (review here), so no, I’m not just basing that assessment on the record. Though, if I were, the work of Japanese doom rock legend, bassist and auteur Tatsu Mikami in riffcraft there would probably be enough for the statement to stand. The very definition of ‘on fire,’ or perhaps it would be more thematically appropriate to describe them as: killer.
Guitarist Fumiya Hattori, also in Tatsu‘s Sonic Flower side-project and visibly the youngest member of Church of Misery, is a huge part of why. I’ll allow that having Tatsu‘s riffs to work from is for sure a leg-up in that, but the character in his solos and what he brings to the material in his style, sitting right in the pocket on those Sabbath-worship grooves, new and old — that is, not only on Born Under a Mad Sign(review here), which is his first appearance with the band — is not to be understated.
He’s a special player, not the least because he’ll continue to grow. And yeah, Church of Misery run through personnel on the regular — even in in the post making it official with Fumiya, Tatsu notes they’re looking for singers and drummers — so it may or may not be forever, but hopefully his will be a career to follow. A player like that will always find someone in need of their services.
Here’s that post from Tatsu:
Fumiya Hattori (Sonic Flower) has joined Church of Misery as a guitarist.
After Sonic Flower’s new recording and Church of Misery’s two European tours, Fumiya Hattori (Gt.) has become an official member of Church of Misery.
<<< Vocalist, drummer wanted >>>
Vocalist and drummer are active with the cooperation of support members, so we are still looking for vocalists and drummers.
Those who have an understanding of this kind of music and can lead a life centered around a band, including overseas tours. Practice in the city. Cannot be shared with other bands. The drummer is male or female. It doesn’t matter whether you recommend yourself or others.
If you are interested, please contact the Gmail posted on the website.
It’s taken Church of Misery seven years to release Born Under a Mad Sign, their seventh album, and it has seven tracks, so perhaps mad signs abound on the seminal Japanese doom rockers’ latest LP for Rise Above Records. The band, led as ever by bassist Tatsu Mikami — who belongs in the conversation with the likes of Matt Pike and Leif Edling when it comes to Iommic inheritors — will cross the 30-year mark on the back of this 54-minute onslaught, which remains true to their modus of writing songs about serial killers and other cult figures.
In the past it’s been Ted Bundy and Aileen Wuornos coupled with a Cactus cover — that was 2004’s The Second Coming, by the way — here it’s Fritz Haarmann (as seen on the cover), H.H. Holmes and Haystacks Balboa‘s “Spoiler” being covered, so perhaps over time Tatsu has had to dig a little past the obvious in terms of people to write about and bands to cover, even if the essential formula remains consistent. The same could be said of the riffs, and make no mistake, the riffs are central both on Born Under a Mad Sign and throughout Church of Misery‘s catalog. While there’s plenty of the up-front Black Sabbath sludge boogie for which Church of Misery are so widely and so correctly lauded, Born Under a Mad Sign also stretches out in terms of jams and solos in a way that the band’s most recent album, 2016’s recorded-in-America And Then There Were None (review here) was less interested in doing.
Not particularly surprising since, Tatsu aside, the band is working with a completely different lineup. This too is part of how Church of Misery operate, with members coming and going over a course of decades and serving pretty much at Tatsu‘s say-so until the don’t. This collection brings back vocalist Kazuhiro Asaeda, who sang on Church of Misery‘s 2003 split with Acrimony, the recorded-in-1996-released-in-2007 Vol. 1 (reissue review here), and who featured on the 2022 offering Me and My Bell Bottom Blues (review here) from Tatsu‘s Sonic Flower side-project last year.
Kazuhiro is a big piece of what makes Born Under a Mad Sign work so well. To hear his guttural squeal amid the roll of closer “Butcher Baker (Robert Hansen),” like if Satan decided to stop teaching guitar and just play and sing the blues himself, or his rasps from under the lumbering tonal chaos of centerpiece “Murder Castle Blues (H.H. Holmes),” he is as organic a fit in terms of personality as Tatsu‘s lyrics have ever had, and in listening, I find I’m perfectly happy to not know the words save for picking up a few things here and there, as on the opener “Beltway Sniper (John Allen Muhammad),” which in addition to being one of the album’s upper-tier ass-kickers is interesting for crossing a line between someone who’s a serial killer and a mass murder. The difference, as I understand it, is serial killers go one at a time. Does this mean Church of Misery would write songs about mass shooters? And what response would they get to, say, a song about Columbine, or Sandy Hook, or Uvalde? Is that a line they would cross? Is there a line they wouldn’t?
One’s own sensibilities and interests will invariably inform opinions on what’s discussed and how throughout this or any other Church of Misery work, and it seems silly to feign moral pearl-clutching for something they’ve been doing almost since their start, but the chance the band take in exploring more modern murder in its various forms, particularly at the level they’re doing it, is that someone from outside the underground in which they reside will notice and call them out on the generally horrific nature of their themes. I’m not saying that will happen with Born Under a Mad Sign, though it could since people are still alive who remember David Koresh or the Beltway Sniper, but Church of Misery have trod this ground before and gotten away with it so there’s nothing to say they can’t again. All I’m saying is with riffs this good, they run the risk of being heard.
Even more endemic to the personality of the record is the guitar work of Yukito Okazaki, whose bluesy pulls in the second-half solo of “Beltway Sniper (John Allen Muhammad)” and the density of the subsequent chug set a high standard that the songs that follow thankfully meet. With Toshiaki Umemura on drums, a(nother) new incarnation of Church of Misery is complete, and they sound extra vicious in so much of Born Under a Mad Sign, whether it’s the make-a-nasty-face nod of “Most Evil (Fritz Haarmann)” or the wah-complemented shove and shout of “Freeway Madness Boogie (Randy Kraft),” the groove loose and the danger of coming apart high as the band nonetheless hold it together as of course they would.
“Most Evil (Fritz Haarmann)” tops 10 minutes and “Freeway Madness Boogie (Randy Kraft)” is one of the shorter cuts on the 2LP at 6:16 — the shortest is “Spoiler,” the aforementioned Haystacks Balboa cover — but both are unabashed riff-fests, and the same holds true throughout. Church of Misery know who they are, what they want to be, and how they want to sound, and Tatsu, as the perceived auteur of that, could fairly be called a visionary. Listening through the swelling roll in the verse of “Murder Castle Blues (H.H. Holmes),” or the way in which “Come and Get Me Sucker (David Koresh)” picks up from the sample of its titular cult leader opining to this or that news organization about Americans arming themselves as a political position to unveil the full threat of its bassline and riff before the blowout verse actually takes hold ahead of the made-for-the-stage shout-along chorus delivering the title line, Tatsu‘s vision comes through clearly.
This is the underlying message of Born Under a Mad Sign, and of Church of Misery circa 2023 more broadly — that the group in whatever form it takes is beholden to Tatsu‘s will, and steered by his direction and whims. They end with “Butcher Baker (Robert Hansen)” and wah-drench the middle before going back to the verse and chorus before jamming out, but even as madcap as the song gets, Kazuhiro comes back on for a final verse to end out, because whatever else Church of Misery are, whoever else they are, as they approach the 30th year of their tenure, they are songwriters. Tatsu is a songwriter. They just make it sound like they’re completely out of control, and the methodical, almost ritualized nature of what they do is perhaps an even greater tie to their subject matter. They are masters of what they do. Wherever you sit on the scale of interest in serial killers or murder more generally, their mastery on display is something to appreciate.
Japanese psychedelic rockers Tō Yō will release their debut album, Stray Birds From the Far East, on Aug. 18 through King Volume Records and Kozmik Artifactz. With depth of arrangement enough to allow for the various effects and hand percussion, shifting moods coming and going, as well as funky grooves and broadened sometimes folkish vocal melodies from guitarist Masami Makino, the six-song/30-minute offering brings forth a vibrant, movement-ready psychedelia that’s not shy about freaking out in the wah-soaked, let’s-bang-on-stuff ending of “Tears of the Sun” or the thicker fuzz of the subsequent “Titania Skyline,” but the band introduce themselves gently if quickly on opener “Soaring,” as if in the first 45 seconds or so, they’re looking around at reality and saying, “Okay, we tried that, now let’s move on to this,” and citing the drift/strum guitars of Masami and Sebun Tanji, Issaku Vincent‘s boogie bass and Hibiki Amano‘s drumming and percussion as an alternate, perhaps preferable path to follow. The argument made is convincing.
Its personality is complex enough to be more than one thing even sometimes at once, but Stray Birds From the Far East never quite lets go of its abidingly mellow spirit, which even as “Soaring” moves into start-stop jangle near its finish, percussion going all-in underneath, holds steady. Funk is at the forefront on “Hyu Dororo,” which goes dream-tone in its bridge but returns to the verse, and side A’s capper “Twin Mountains” melts vintage heavy rock and psychedelia together so that the snare and hand-drum meet up on the beat as the howling guitar solo floats ahead before the second verse starts up in the same stratosphere. At 3:41, the song is short — the shortest on the LP, but not by a ton — but even in that more clear structure, the feel Tō Yō present is organic, prone to subtlety and given to a kind of communion with its own making.
One often thinks of the phrase ‘locked in’ as a way to convey a band effectively communicating with each other musically, perhaps to the exclusion of the outside world. The rhythm and melody and interplay of instruments becomes the thing. Tō Yō are locked in on Stray Birds From the Far East, but far from keeping listeners on the other side of the door, the warmth of their tones and sometimes soft vocals and the feeling of motion in the low end and percussion give an unmistakable feeling of welcome to the entire proceedings.
They might be locked in, but that doesn’t mean you’re not invited too. Talking about “Soaring” below, they call it danceable, which is true of much of the record thanks to the interplay of various rhythms, and as “Tears of the Sun” moves deeper into its second half, the build in intensity is resonant enough to feel in your blood, even if as much as I agree with the physical urgency there, I wouldn’t call the leadoff or anything that follows ‘primitive’ in either its construction or the end-product of the arrangements themselves, though there are certainly aspects of traditional Japanese folk music, as well as some hints of Mediterranean traditionalism and/or Afrobeat — one hates to use a phrase like ‘world music’ — to go along with a wash that might be familiar to those who’ve previously dived into the work of outfits like Dhidalah or others from the Guruguru Brain Records-fostered, deeply-adventurous current generation of J-psych.
“Titania Skyline” is positioned ahead of closer “Li Ma Li” and starts its verse early to reground after “Tears of the Sun” left off with such a noiseblast. Backing vocals, a steady, jazzy snare and noodly rhythmic figure on guitar below the lead provide ample groove as a foundation, and after dropping a quick hint of Captain Beyond‘s “Mesmerization Eclipse,” they embark at 2:45 into a follow-up raucous jam to reinforce that of “Tears of the Sun” prior, never losing the underlying progression until it drops to a quick bite of feedback as preface to “Li Ma Li,” which begins with swirl behind a mellow-funk nod, spaces out the vocals engagingly and adds what sounds like organ or other synth that bolsters the classic vibe in a manner righteous and well-placed. The vocals reside in a kind of sub-falsetto upper register, and the shift is fascinating.
The song will solidify near the end — relatively speaking — around a steady riff and a bit of low-key scorch, but the proceedings are friendly regardless, and that initial gentle sensibility from “Soaring” is a further unifier of the material that enters Tō Yō into the vibrant fray of the Japanese psychedelic underground, showing them as willing to explore new ideas even as they bask in decades’ worth of lysergic aural influence. Subdued but not lazy, Stray Birds From the Far East finds its balance in fluidity and feels like the breakthrough point of a seed that will continue to flower over future outings. One hopes for precisely that.
You can stream “Soaring” on the player below, followed by some comment from Tō Yō and info from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Tō Yō, “Soaring” track premiere
Tō Yō on “Soaring”:
This track anticipates the beginning of the journey and is a good entry point into our world. The lyrics are spiritual, in that the land of the unseen is always inside of you. Imagine flying somewhere far away and returning home as completely synonymous.
The beat is very danceable, maybe not rock-like in a sense, but considering the connection between the slow tempo parts, this was the best way to create the most beautiful transitions. It’s obvious how many instruments are used to create the beat, but that’s not what we intended, in a way, the melody is almost entirely left to the vocals, which calls to mind a primitive form of musical expression. I think this primal juxtaposition helps induce a sense of spirituality.
Most of the tracks were created from jamming, and we thought about what percussion would be great for the track while recording, which is our style. Most of the percussion was improvised by our crazy drummer Hibiki.
Tō Yō, the Tokyo-based psychedelic quartet, has announced their debut record Stray Birds From the Far East—a dreamy, pop-infused psych/acid rock concept album about nostalgia for a place yet to be discovered—to be released through King Volume Records on August 18, 2023.
The Tō Yō sound is simultaneously unique yet familiar—but it’s also moving. “Our psychedelic sound is at times violent and at times naïve,” says vocalist and guitarist Masami Makinom, “but we also believe our sound is meant to awaken the most primitive senses in order to sublimate the rise of the soul and its uncontrollable impulses.”
Tō Yō is an ambitious band with an ambitious vision, so it’s no surprise some of their biggest influences are known for complex, groundbreaking visions; Far East Family Band, J. A. Seazer, Flower Travellin’ Band, Kikagaku Moyo, YU Grupa, Ali Farka Touré, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and Red Hot Chili Peppers all show up in the list of the band’s most important influences.
As a self-described jam band, hashing out Tō Yō’s songs in the studio was a necessity, but it also proved to be a strategic benefit, as working with engineer Yui Kimijima at Tsubame Studio (the mecca for today’s Japanese psychedelic rock) in Tokyo helped the band take their sound to the next level.
“He is not sparing in his experimentation,” says Makinom. “In fact, the studio has a wonderful atmosphere that inspires the imagination, with instruments that we have never touched, and things that were originally used for other purposes but can function as instruments. For example, in ‘Tears of the Sun,’ the glittering steel popping sound in the second half is actually the sound of a tarai—a tin tub.”
With Tō Yō, the band embarks on an ambitious journey of experimentation and musical risks, but this has led to a colorful and often unpredictable sonic tapestry that embodies their myriad influences while combining with the heroics of indie darlings Built to Spill, the shimmering charm of My Morning Jacket, the carefree spirit of surf rock, and the wild, swirling sounds of the psychedelic giants of the 1970s.
Recording: Yui Kimijima at Tsubame Studio in Asakusabashi, Tokyo Mastering: Yui Kimijima at Tsubame Studio in Asakusabashi, Tokyo Art: Todd Ryan White
Tracklisting: Side A: 1. Soaring 2. Hyu Dororo 3. Twin Mountains Side B: 4. Tears of the Sun 5. Titania Skyline 6. Li Ma Li
This week, Sonic Flower release what’s ostensibly their third album, Me and My Bell Bottom Blues through Heavy Psych Sounds, and perhaps with it make for themselves a new beginning. Formed more than 20 years ago by Tatsu Mikami of Church of Misery, who even by then had established himself as one of the world’s foremost conjurors of Riff — I mean that — the band first signed to Leaf Hound Records to release their entirely instrumental 2003 self-titled debut (reissue review here) before calling it quits during the making of what Heavy Psych Sounds unearthed last year to offer as a short second LP, Rides Again (review here), in 2005. If you’re reading this, you probably know a decent portion of the rest of the story. Church of Misery continued to take off internationally, became a firm priority for Tatsu even amid an ever-changing lineup, and apart from a prior reissue on Emetic Records in the US, Sonic Flower remained largely a footnote to be appreciated by those who were fortunate enough to have chased them down in the first place.
Me and My Bell BottomBlues hits this obscurity like a train on a grand and funky railroad, with seven fully realized verse-and-chorus songs — not pieces that might’ve been expanded, not instrumentals; nothing against either of those things, mind you — that brim with energy as Tatsu is joined by drummer Toshiaki Umemura, guitarist Fumiya Hattori and vocalist Kazuhiro Asaeda in an ace incarnation of Sonic Flower, built around the purpose of conveying the spirit of classic heavy rock while demonstrating their own righteousness in the form. With production by Eternal Elysium‘s Yukito Okazaki, the indication would seem to be that Sonic Flower are more of a band than they’ve ever been. I don’t know what Church of Misery have been up to since announcing they’d record a new album in August — also with Toshiaki on drums — but Sonic Flower do not sound like a side-project on these songs, and whether it’s the layered-in acoustics of “Black Sheep” or the swinging jam in “Poor Girl” or the riotous stomp of “Swineherd” that sets the high bar for what follows as the leadoff cut, there’s vitality, electricity, palpable. When they finish with the eponymous “Sonic Flower,” it feels declarative.
Wherever Fumiya came from, the young gentleman can shred and then some. It’s strum and slide acoustic in the beginning of “Quicksand Planet,” on “Sonic Flower” it’s a running heavy blues entrusted over Tatsu‘s bassline, and on “Love Like Rubber” he brings the start-stop groove forward as punctuated by Toshiaki‘s snare while Kazuhiro sneers out the verse lines in a style that is soulful and over-the-top in kind — just the right blend for a band who are spitting hot, distorted fire across the album’s entire span. And in that span, to hear them move as a unit from the balls-out swaggering proto-doom of centerpiece “Captain Frost” through “Quicksand Planet” and into the funky outset of “Poor Girl” (8:15) with the sprawling, not-coming-back jam taking hold before the track’s even hit its fourth minute, and then to answer that with the nine-minute “Sonic Flower,” inevitably expansive, but also rich in its vocal layering circa 3:10, and tease doing the same thing with a break before returning — led by Fumiya‘s guitar — to a triumphant structural bookend from whence they once more take flight and jam into the last fadeout only highlights the mastery at work in Tatsu‘s songwriting.
It’s hard not to think of the bassist as an auteur generally, but perhaps easier here since Fumiya, Toshiaki and Kazuhiro bring so much to the finished product and Me and My Bell Bottom Blues is so complete sounding in its still-manageable 46 minutes. But it is Tatsu at the heart of the band, and there’s a long history behind him of trading out members between releases, tours, etc., in this project as well as Church of Misery, so I won’t claim to know one way or the other what will follow for Sonic Flower. As it stands, though, Me and My Bell Bottom Blues is easy to be excited about because the music itself is excited as much as exciting, and with that, one struggles not to ponder the possibilities for this incarnation of the group. I’m not saying Sonic Flower could never release another good album if anyone left or was let go, only that Sonic Flower as they are in 2022 have put together something pretty special in these songs. Whatever else the future might bring — if it’s some more of the kind of hard boogie in “Love Like Rubber,” that’d be just fine, thanks — the declarations made within the tracks of Me and My Bell Bottom Blues and the overarching move-your-body feel of the entirety are not to be missed.
So don’t miss them. Full album is streaming below, followed by more from the PR wire.
Enjoy:
Sonic Flower, Me and My Bell Bottom Blues album premiere
SONIC FLOWER was formed as a side project of Church of Misery in 2001. Tatsu Mikami (Church Of Misery bassist) and Takenori Hoshi (guitarist on Church of Misery’s second album “The Second Coming”) teamed up to play more bluesy and instrumental heavy rock influenced by 70’s acts such as Cactus, Grand Funk Railroads, Groundhogs or Savoy Brown. Guitarist Arisa and drummer Keisuke Fukawa quickly joined them. In 2003, they released their bluesy heavy rock self-titled debut album ‘Sonic Flower’ on Japanese label Leafhound Records. This instrumental, improvised double guitar-charged record was internationally acclaimed, and they got the chance to support Electric Wizard, Bluebird or Acid King on their Japan shows.
In 2005, SONIC FLOWER went to the studio to record new material, but as Arisa was pregnant and day jobs prevailed, they put the band on hiatus after the recording session. These recordings have been sleeping in the vault for fifteen years until Tatsu decided to reform the band in 2018. This time he teamed up with former Church Of Misery singer: the result was their new album ‘Rides Again’, 2021 through Heavy Psych Records. Their brand new album ‘Me and My Bellbottom Blues’ sees guitarist Fumiya Hattori joining on guitar, for a late September release on the Italian label. Recorded in Tokyo in early 2022 and mixed by Japanese doom guru Yukito Okazaki of Eternal Elysium fame, “Me And My Bellbottom Blues” is “their biggest work to date”, according to Mikami.
SONIC FLOWER is: Tatsu Mikami – Bass Kazuhiro Asaeda – Vocals Fumiya Hattori — Guitar Toshiaki Umemura – Drums
Posted in Reviews on September 26th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Welcome back to the Fall 2022 Quarterly Review. It’s not quite the same as the Mountain of Madness, but there are definitely days where it feels like they’re pretty closely related. Just the same, we, you and I, persist through like digging a tunnel sans dynamite, and I hope you had a great and safe weekend (also sans dynamite) and that you find something in this batch of releases that you truly enjoy. Not really much point to the thing otherwise, I guess, though it does tend to clear some folders off the desktop. Like, 100 of them in this case. That in itself isn’t nothing.
Time’s a wastin’. Let’s roll.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
Boris, Heavy Rocks
One can’t help but wonder if Boris aren’t making some kind of comment on the franchise-ification of what sometimes feels like every damn thing by releasing a third Heavy Rocks album, as though perhaps it’s become their brand label for this particular kind of raucousness, much as their logo in capital letters or lowercase used to let you know what kind of noise you were getting. Either way, in 10 tracks and 41 minutes that mostly leave scorch marks when they’re done — they space out a bit on “Question 1” but elsewhere in the song pull from black metal and layer in lead guitar triumph — and along the way give plenty more thick toned, sometimes-sax-inclusive on-brand chicanery to dive into. “She is Burning,” “Cramper” and “My Name is Blank” are rippers before the willfully noisy relative slowdown “Blah Blah Blah,” and Japanese heavy institution are at their most Melvinsian with the experiment “Nosferatou,” ahead of the party metal “Ruins” and semi-industrial blowout “Ghostly Imagination,” the would-be-airy-were-it-not-crushing “Chained” and the concluding “(Not) Last Song,” which feeds the central query above in asking if there’s another sequel coming, piano, feedback, and finally, vocals ending what’s been colloquially dubbed Heavy Rocks (2022) with an end-credits scene like something truly Marvelized. Could be worse if that’s the way it’s going. People tend to treat each Boris album as a landmark. I’m not sure this one is, but sometimes that’s part of what happens with sequels too.
Along with the depth of tone and general breadth of the mix, one of the aspects most enjoyable about Mother Bear‘s debut album, Zamonian Occultism, is how it seems to refuse to commit to one side or the other. They call themselves doom and maybe they are in movements here like the title-track, but the mostly-instrumental six-track/41-minute long-player — which opens and closes with lyrics and has “Sultan Abu” in the middle for a kind of human-voice trailmarker along the way — draws more from heavy psychedelia and languid groove on “Anagrom Ataf,” and if “Blue Bears and Silver Spliffs” isn’t stoner riffed, nothing ever has been. At the same time, the penultimate title-track slows way down, pulls the curtains closed, and offers a more massive nod, and the 10-minute closer “The Wizaaard” (just when you thought there were no more ways to spell it) answers that sense of foreboding in its own declining groove and echo-laced verses, but puts the fuzz at the forefront of the mix, letting the listener decide ultimately where they’re at. Tell you where I am at least: On board. Guitarist/vocalist Jonas Wenz, bassist Kevin Krenczer and drummer Florian Grass lock in hypnotic groove early and use it to tie together almost everything they do here, and while they’re obviously schooled in the styles they’re touching on, they present with an individual intent and leave room to grow. Will look forward to more.
After being kicked out of black metallers Absu for coming out as trans, Melissa Moore founded Sonja in Philadelphia with Grzesiek Czapla on drums and Ben Brand on bass, digging into a ‘true metal’ aesthetic with ferocity enough that Loud Arriver is probably the best thing they could’ve called their first record. Issued through Cruz Del Sur — so you know their ’80s-ism is class — the 37-minute eight-tracker vibes nighttime and draws on Moore‘s experience thematically, or so the narrative has it (I haven’t seen a lyric sheet), with energetic shove in “Nylon Nights” and “Daughter of the Morning Star,” growing duly melancholy in “Wanting Me Dead” before finding its victorious moment in the closing title-track. Cuts like “Pink Fog,” “Fuck, Then Die” and opener “When the Candle Burns Low…” feel specifically born of a blend of 1979-ish NWOBHM, but there’s a current of rock and roll here as well in the penultimate “Moans From the Chapel,” a sub-three-minute shove that’s classic in theme as much as riff and the most concise but by no means the only epic here. Hard not to read in catharsis on the part of Moore given how the band reportedly came about, but Loud Arriver serves notice one way or the other of a significant presence in the underground’s new heavy metal surge. Sonja have no time to waste. There are asses to kick.
Seven-minute opener ends in a War of the Worlds-style radio announcement of an alien invasion underway after the initial fuzzed rollout of the song fades, and between that and the subsequent interlude “Funeral March,” Reverend Mother‘s intent on Damned Blessing seems to be to throw off expectation. The Brooklynite outfit led by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Jackie Green (also violin) find even footing on rockers like “Locomotive” or the driving-until-it-hits-that-slowdown-wall-and-hey-cool-layering “Reverend Mother,” and the strings on the instrumental “L.V.B.,” which boasts a cello guest spot by High Priestess Nighthawk of Heavy Temple, who also returns on the closing Britney Spears cover “Toxic,” a riffed-up bent that demonstrates once again the universal applicability of pop as Reverend Mother tuck it away after the eight-minute “The Masochist Tie,” a sneering roll and chugger that finds the trio of Green, bassist Matt Cincotta and drummer Gabe Katz wholly dug into heavy rock tropes while nonetheless sounding refreshing in their craft. That song and “Shame” before it encapsulate the veer-into-doom-ness of Reverend Mother‘s hard-deliver’d fuzz, but Damned Blessing comes across like the beginning of a new exploration of style as only a next-generation-up take can and heralds change to come. I would not expect their second record to sound the same, but it will be one to watch for. So is this.
The pedigree here is notable as Umbilicus features founding Cannibal Corpse drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz and guitarist/engineer Taylor Nordberg (also visuals), who’s played with Deicide, The Absence and a host of others, but with the soar-prone vocals of Brian Stephenson out front and the warm tonality of bassist Vernon Blake, Umbilicus‘ 10-song/45-minute first full-length, Path of 1000 Suns is a willful deep-dive into modernly-produced-and-presented ’70s-style heavy rock. Largely straightforward in structure, there’s room for proto-metallurgy on “Gates of Neptune” after the swinging “Umbilicus,” and the later melodic highlight “My Own Tide” throws a pure stoner riff into its second half, while the concluding “Gathering at the Kuiper Belt” hints at more progressive underpinnings, it still struts and the swing there is no less defining than in the solo section of “Stump Sponge” back on side A. Hooks abound, and I suppose in some of the drum fills, if you know what you’re listening for, you can hear shades of more extreme aural ideologies, but the prevailing spirit is born of an obvious love of classic heavy rock and roll, and Umbilicus play it with due heart and swagger. Not revolutionary, and actively not trying to be, but definitely the good time it promises.
Not as frenetic as some out there of a similar technically-proficient ilk, Lawrence, Kansas, double-guitar instrumental four-piece After Nations feel as much jazz on “Féin” or “Cae” as they do progressive metal, djent, experimental, or any other tag with which one might want to saddle the resoundingly complex Buddhism-based concept album, The Endless Mountain — the Bandcamp page for which features something of a recommended reading list as well as background on the themes reportedly being explored in the material — which is fluid in composition and finds each of its seven more substantial inclusions accompanied by a transitional interlude that might be a drone, near-silence, a foreboding line of keys, whathaveyou. The later “Širdis” — penultimate to the suitably enlightened “Jūra,” if one doesn’t count the interlude between (not saying you shouldn’t) — is more of a direct linear build, but the 40-minute entirety of The Endless Mountain feels like a steep cerebral climb. Not everyone is going to be up for making it, frankly, but in “}}}” and its punctuationally-named companions there’s some respite from the head-spinning turns that surround, and that furthers both the dynamic at play overall and the accessibility of the songs. Whatever else it might be, it’s immaculately produced and every single second, from “Mons” and “Aon” to “))” and “(),” feels purposeful.
With the over-the-top Danzig-ian vocals coming through high in the mix, the drums sounding intentionally blown out and the fuzz of bass and guitar arriving in tidal riffs, Denmark’s Holy Dragon for sure seem to be shooting for memorability on their second album, Mordjylland. “Hell and Gold” pulls back somewhat from the in-your-face immediacy of opener “Bong” — and yet it’s faster; go figure — and the especially brash “War” is likewise timely and dug in. Centerpiece “Nightwatch” feels especially yarling with its more open riff and far-back echoing drums — those drums are heavy in tone in a way most are not, and it is appreciated — and gives over to the Judas Priestly riff of “Dunder,” which sounds like it’s being swallowed by the bass even as the concluding solo slices through. They cap with “Egypt” in classic-metal, minor-key-sounds-Middle-Eastern fashion, but they’re never far from the burly heft with which they started, and even the mellower finish of “Travel to Kill” feels drawn from it. The album’s title is a play on ‘Nordjylland’ — the region of Denmark where they’re from — and if they’re saying it’s dead, then their efforts to shake it back to life are palpable in these seven songs, even if the end front-to-back result of the album is going to be hit or miss with most listeners. Still, they are markedly individual, and the fact that you could pick them out of the crowd of Europe’s e’er-packed heavy underground is admirable in itself.
Lincoln, Nebraska, trio Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships are right there. Right on the edge. You can hear it in the way “Beg Your Pardon” unfolds its lumbering tonality, riff-riding vocals and fervency of groove at the outset of their second album, Consensus Trance. They’re figuring it out. And they’re working quickly. Their first record, 2021’s TTBS, and the subsequent Rosalee EP (review here) were strong signals of intention on the part of guitarist/vocalist Jeremy Warner, bassist Karlin Warner and drummer Justin Kamal, and there is realization to be had throughout Consensus Trance in the noisy lead of “Mystical Consumer,” the quiet instrumental “Distalgia for Infinity” and the mostly-huge-chugged 11-minute highlight “Weeping Beast” to which it leads. But they’re also still developing their craft, as opener “Beg Your Pardon” demonstrates amid one of the record’s most vibrant hooks, and exploring spaciousness like that in the back half of the penultimate “Silo,” and the sense that emerges from that kind of reach and the YOB-ish ending of capper “I.H.” is that there’s more story to be told as to what Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships have to offer in style and substance. So much the better since Consensus Trance has such superlative heft at its foundation.
Kind of funny to think of Menticide as a debut LP from Deer Creek, who’ve been around for 20 years — one fondly recalls their mid-aughts splits with Church of Misery and Raw Radar War — but one might consider that emblematic of the punk underpinning the sludgy heavy roll of “(It Had Neither Fins Nor Wings) Nor Did it Writhe,” along with the attitude of fuckall that joins hands with resoundingly dense tonality to create the atmosphere of the five originals and the cover medley closer “The Working Man is a Dead Pig,” which draws on Rush, Bauhaus and Black Sabbath classics as a sort of partially explanatory appendix to the tracks preceding. Of those, the impression left is duly craterous, and Deer Creek, with Paul Vismara‘s mostly-clean vocals riding a succession of his own monolithic riffs, a bit of march thrown into “The Utter Absence of Hope” amid the breath of tone from his and Conan Hultgren‘s guitars and Stephanie Hopper‘s bass atop the drumming of Marc Brooks. One is somewhat curious as to what drives a band after two full-length-less decades to make a definitive first album — at least beyond “hey a lot of things have changed in the last couple years” anyhow — but the results here are inarguable in their weight and the spaces they create and fill, with disaffection and onward and outward-looking angst as much as volume. That is to say, as much as Menticide nods, it’s more unsettling the more attention you actually pay to what’s going on. But if you wanted to space out instead, I doubt they’d hold it any more against you than was going to happen anyway. Band who owes nothing to anyone overdelivers. There.
Following the mid-’90s C.O.C. tone and semi-Electric Wizard shouts of “Black Lotus Trance,” “Detroit Demons” calls out Stooges references while burl-riffing around Pantera‘s “I’m Broken,” and “Loose” manifests sleaze to coincide with the exploitation of the Never Sleep at Night EP’s cover art. All of this results in zero-doubt assurance that the Brazilian trio have their bona fides in place when it comes to dudely riffs and an at least partially metal approach; stylistically-speaking, it’s like metal dudes got too drunk to remember what they were angry at and decided to have a party instead. I don’t have much encouraging to say at this juncture about the use of vintage porn as a likely cheap cover option, but no one seems to give a shit about moving past that kind of misogyny, and I guess as regards gender-based discrimination and playing to the male gaze and so on, it’s small stakes. I bet they get signed off the EP anyway, so what’s the point? The point I guess is that the broad universe of those who’d build altars to riffs, Riffcoven are at very least up front with what they’re about and who their target audience is.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 20th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
It’s a well-established science-fact that Cursed Monk Records signs some way out there, extreme of the extreme shit. That goes for bands that are all-in aggro and others who, like Tattered the Wall are perhaps less outwardly about pummel but inflected with rampant and cacophonous noise. The debut album from Tattered the Wall is titled Shedding Season and it will be released on Sept. 3 as the band’s first outing through Cursed Monk — preorders tomorrow, if you’d like to set an alarm; I’m not joking, by the way, I set alarms for that kind of shit — and the follow-up to their 2021 three-songer-and-that’s-probably-plenty-for-an-introductory-statement EP, which was self-titled.
That’s streaming below, should you wish to be inundated in anti-genre-but-still-heavy, sometimes-tinged-with-electronica fuckery. And if you don’t, congrats on probably being something close to normal. But if you’re the sort of oddball who gets down on this kind of noise, you’re gonna have a blast here.
This was posted in the Obelisk group on the ol’ Facebook. Thanks to label head Rodger Mortis for that.
Dig:
Tattered The Wall Sign To Cursed Monk Records
We are thrilled to announce that Tattered The Wall have signed to Cursed Monk Records.
Tattered The Wall are a three-piece, guitarless, instrumental, sludge/industrial/junk band with bass, drums, and noise, based in Tokyo.
The band started in 2017 when UV and YSK started playing together in the studio.
Then Marie joined the band as drummer and started full-fledged activities in 2019.
They released their first demo sounds on Bandcamp in 2020.
They released a self-titled EP independently in August 2021.
Then released it on CD-R and cassette via German label Econore Records, and Ukrainian label Depressive Illusions Records respectively.
Tattered The Wall’s tracks are influenced by breakcore, doom, sludge, and noise. It is extreme music with electric sounds sprinkled throughout.
Their debut album Shedding Season will be out on CD and Digital Download, September 3rd, via Cursed Monk Records, and preorders will begin this Friday, July 22nd.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Hebi Katana self-released their second album, Impermanence, this past February in their native Japan, and the impending Argonauta-backed edition of the record will broaden that distribution and bring the Tokyo trio to wider recognition well earned by their riffs. For what reportedly began as a pandemic project — I had one too; it was called not leaving the house — Hebi Katana have been distinctly productive since their outset, and as you can see below in their video for “Pain Should I Take” and indeed in the full-length as a whole, which is streaming in its entirety on their Bandcamp, their heart is well in the right place when it comes to heavy, doom infused chicanery.
This isn’t the first time band and imprint have worked together either, as the PR wire informs:
Japanese Doom Metal Trio HEBI KATANA Announces New Album With Argonauta Records!
Impermanence coming out on June 24th!
Tokyo, Japan-based doom metal trio, HEBI KATANA, has announced the worldwide release of their latest, sophomore studio album, Impermanence. Following an exclusive Japanese edition, the album will be released on June 24, 2022 via Argonauta Records!
HEBI KATANA was formed in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. Of what started in extensive jam sessions and first demo recordings on an iPhone, should soon become a monolith of a heavy doom debut, when the trio took the heavy music community by storm with their self-released album. In 2021, the Samurai doomsters teamed up with the Italian powerhouse label Argonauta, who released their first full-length album as a part of the Argonauta LTD100 Vinyl-series.
While HEBI KATANA‘s second album, Impermanence, was distributed earlier this year, in February via Unforgiven Blood Records (Disc Union) in Japan, heavy and classic doom metal fans, who have a soft spot for 70’s vintage rock, dark melodies, big groove and a hint of grunge, should give ear and watch out, when Impermanence will be available in the rest of world this summer! To get you in the mood, the band has just unleashed a music video for Pain Should I Take, watch the clip right here.
Impermanence was recorded by HEBI KATANA at studio Koyama and Yasuzo place in Koenji, and was produced, mixed and mastered by Yukito Okazaki (Eternal Elysium) at studio ZEN.
Impermanence track listing: 01. Dirty Moon Child 02. Pain Should I Take 03. Devastator 04. Unforgiven Blood 05. Aqua De Vida 06. You Don’t Lie 07. Running In My Vein 08. Take My Pills 09. Underneath The Sky
HEBI KATANA is: Nobu – Vocals, Guitar Yasuzo – Bass Max – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Man, people are gonna be stealing this band’s shit forever. Like, 40 years from now there will be white-boy psych-prog bands playing in plagued-out bombshelters hiding from post-climate-apocalypse cannibal marauders looking for water and flesh upon which to cruelly feast, and those bands will sound like Kikagaku Moyo. I’m dead serious. These guys were never huge, never the most popular kind of act, but their sound is set up for a slow-burner influence that might really resonate for decades. They’re going to be the kind of band who, if you’ve seen them, you’ll be glad you did.
One last album in May on Guruguru Brain, a veritable buttload of tour dates — a Fall run on the West Coast still TBA — and then they’re done. I know we never say never when it comes to bands breaking up and reuniting and whatnot, but you can’t argue with the ethic of wanting to go out while they’re still having a good time. Seems like a killer way to spend a decade.
From social media:
Happy New Year, everyone!
We hope you all had great holidays despite the ongoing pandemic.
Today, we have important news to share with you.
After much discussion between the five of us at the end of last year, we have decided to go on an indefinite hiatus after 2022. This means 2022 will be our last year as Kikagaku Moyo.
We have come to the conclusion that because we have truly achieved our core mission as a band, we would love to end this project on the highest note possible. Since first starting as a music collective on the streets of Tokyo in 2012, we never, ever imagined being able to play all over the world for our amazing audiences. It is all because of you that this was ever possible…and to this we are eternally grateful.
With this in mind, our very last album will be released by Guruguru Brain on May 2022.
We enjoyed making this album so much and are incredibly excited to finally release it this spring for you.
Following our last album release, we will do our very last tours this spring and fall.
Tickets for the spring tours will go on sale on Jan 21st, and will be available for purchase on our new website.
Please do not miss this chance to get your tickets, because there will be no next time
We sincerely thank all of you for your continuous support and cannot wait to see you all at our shows one last time.
SPRING TOUR 2022 -East Coast N.America- May 11 Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace May 12 Montreal, QC – La Tulip May 13 Winooski, VT – Waking Windows May 14 Boston, MA – Royale May 17 Brooklyn, NY – Elsewhere May 18 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer May 19 Asheville, NC – Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre May 20 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse May 21 Nashville, TN – The Basement East May 23 Madison, WI – Majestic Theatre May 24 Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall May 25 Detroit. MI – El Club May 27 Napa, CA – Bottle Rock Festival
-EU & UK- June 6 Paris, FR – Trabendo June 9 Oslo, NO – Loaded Festival June 11 Beekse Bergen, NL – Best Kept Secret June 12 Tourcoing, FR – Le Grand Mix June 13 Brussels, BE – Botanique Orangerie June 14 Cologne, DE – Gebaude 9 June 15 Copenhagen, DK – Punpehuset June 16 Berlin, DE – Festsaal Kreuzberg June 17 Prague, CZ – Futurum June 18 Vienna, AT – Flex June 20 Lausanne, CH – Les Docks June 21 Zurich, CH – Mascotte June 22 Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso June 26 London. UK – Clapham Grand
