Posted in Whathaveyou on July 9th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Recent veterans of the New England Stoner and Doom Fest, Troy, New Hampshire’s Scuzzy Yeti have been snagged by Salt of the Earth Records for the impending release of their second album, Ruined. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we’re more than halfway through 2019 already and they’re still working on the album, so I think it might be 2020 before this one gets out — because delays happen, like life — but the five-piece’s earthy grooves as displayed on their 2017 self-titled debut (review here) make them a solid fit for the label, and I’ve little doubt that when it’s delivered, the new album will likewise deliver. I give them bonus points right out of the gate for calling it Ruined. Suits the self-aware humor of the band well.
They were in the studio at Sonelab in Easthampton, MA, doing vocals, and I’m not sure if there are overdubs or what for after, but if it’s vocals being done, then it’s a safe bet that at least the basic tracks are already down. Progress is being made, is what I’m getting at.
Here’s announcement from Salt of the Earth via the PR wire:
SCUZZY YETI signs with SALT OF THE EARTH RECORDS!
SALT OF THE EARTH RECORDS is proud as all hell to announce the addition of stoned to the bejeezus heavy ass fuzzrockers, SCUZZY YETI to the family! SCUZZY YETI plays heavy handed mountain rock that nods to 70s progressive riffing, tripped out psychedelia and hard hitting blues. And they do it with unrivaled passion. The band is currently hard at work on songs for their Salt Of The Earth Records debut, “Ruined”, Set for a fall/winter 2019 release on vinyl / CD / digital formats.
SCUZZY YETI played a mind blowing set at this years New England Stoner and Doom Festival, making many fans, and foreshadowing tracks from their upcoming release.
“We are SO stoked to be joining this family of high heaters, and riff worshipers! This is where we belong” – Joshua Wyatt Trumbull (Drums)
“We are psyched and honored to be working with Scott and SALT OF THE EARTH RECORDS on our debut album. The bands on their roster are unique and heavy as Hell. We think it will be a perfect match.” – Jason Lawrence (Guitar)
“Wait till you hear, see, and feel what these guys are creating! Unbelievable!! These guys are truly the Scuzz Of The Earth.” – Scott Harrington (Guy @ Label)
Posted in Reviews on March 30th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
From harsh doom to urban pastoralism to heavy blues rock to rolling doom nonetheless metallic in its defiance, Day Four of the Quarterly Review spins around a swath of styles and hopefully, hopefully, finds something you dig in the doing. It’s been a long week already. You know it. I know it. But it’s also been really good to dig into this stuff and I know I’ve found a few records that have made their way onto the already-ongoing 2017 lists — best short releases, debuts, albums, etc. — so to say it’s been worth it is, as ever, an understatement. Today likewise has gems to offer, so I won’t delay.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Unearthly Trance, Stalking the Ghost
Brooklyn’s Unearthly Trance make a somewhat unexpected reentry with Stalking the Ghost (on Relapse), their sixth album. In the years since 2010’s V (review here), guitarist/vocalist Ryan Lipynsky has delved into a wide variety of extreme genres, from the blackened fare of The Howling Wind to the deathly-doom of Serpentine Path, in which Unearthly Trance bassist Jay Newman and drummer Darren Verni also shared tenure, but reuniting as Unearthly Trance feels like a significant step for the three-piece, and on tracks like “Dream State Arsenal” and the darkly post-metallic “Lion Strength,” they remind of what it was that made them such a standout in the first place while demonstrating that their years away have done nothing to dull the surehandedness of their approach. At eight tracks/52 minutes, Stalking the Ghost is a significant dirge to undertake, but Unearthly Trance bring pent-up anguish to bear across this varied swath of punishing tracks, and reassert their dominance over an aesthetic sphere that, even after all this time, is thoroughly their own.
Probably a smart move on the part of Heavy Traffic spearhead guitarist Ian Caddick and drummer/vocalist Tav Palumbo to swap coasts from Santa Cruz to Brooklyn ahead of putting together their sixth (!) full-length in three years and Twin Earth Records debut, Plastic Surgery. Cali is awash in heavy psych anyway and Brooklyn’s been at a deficit (as much as it’s at a deficit of anything) since space forerunners Naam became one with the cosmos, so even apart from the acquisition of bassist David Grzedzinki and drummer Dan Bradica, it’s a solid call, and one finds the fruits yielded on Plastic Surgery’s dream-fuzzed blend of heft and roll, heady jams like “See Right Through,” the oh-you-like-feedback-well-here’s-all-the-feedback “Broth Drain” and winding “Medicated Bed” finding a place where shoegaze and psychedelia meet ahead of the low-end-weighted closing title-cut and the bonus track “White and Green,” which finishes with suitable push and swirl to mark a welcome and vibe-soaked arrival for the band. Hope you enjoy the Eastern Seabord. It could use you.
In the second Saturn album, Beyond Spectra, one can hear one of retro rock’s crucial next movements taking place. The Swedish four-piece, who debuted on Rise Above with 2014’s Ascending and return with a periodically explosive 10-track/45-minute outing here, find a niche for themselves in adding dual-guitar NWOBHM elements to ‘70s-style (also ‘10s-style) boogie, as on the scorching “Still Young” or opener “Orbital Command.” They’re not the only ones doing it – Rise Above alums Horisont come to mind readily – but they’re doing it well, and the last three years have clearly found them refining their approach to arrive at the tightness in the shuffle of “Wolfsson” and the creeping Priestism of “Helmet Man” later on. I’ll give bonus points for their embracing the idea of going completely over the top in naming a song “Electrosaurus Sex,” but by the time they get down to closing duo “Silfvertape” and “Sensor Data,” I’m left thinking of the subdued intro to “Orbital Command” and the interlude “Linkans Delight” and wondering if there isn’t a way to bring more of that dynamic volume and tempo breadth into the songwriting as a whole. That would really be far out. Maybe they’ll get there, maybe they won’t. Either way, Beyond Spectra, like its predecessor, makes a largely inarguable case for Saturn’s potential.
Measuring its impact between doomly traditionalism and attitudinal fuckall, Lucifer’s Fall’s II: Cursed and Damned (on Nine Records) is a doom-for-doomers affair that tops 55 minutes with its nine tracks, recalling Dio-era Sabbathian gallop on opener “Mother Superior” and landing a significant blow with the slow-rolling nine-minute push of “The Necromancer.” Shades of Candlemass, Reverend Bizarre, and the most loyal of the loyalists show themselves throughout, but whether it’s the crawl in the first half of “Cursed Priestess” or the blistering rush of the clarion centerpiece “(Fuck You) We’re Lucifer’s Fall,” there’s an undercurrent of punk in the five-piece’s take that lends an abiding rawness to even the album’s most grueling moments. One looks to find a middle ground in songs like “The Mountains of Madness” and closer “Homunculus,” but Lucifer’s Fall instead offer NWOBHM-style guitar harmonics and soaring vocals, respectively, only pushing their stylistic breadth wider, playing by and breaking rules they’re clearly setting for themselves rather than working toward outside expectation. As a result, II: Cursed and Damned keeps its fist in the air for the duration, middle finger up.
Over the course of six-minute opener “A New Architecture,” guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw gradually moves the listener from abrasive noise to sweet, folkish acoustic guitar backed by amplified wavelengths. It’s a slowly unfolding change, patiently done, and it works in part to define Uptown (on The Flenser), the Pelican guitarist’s six-song solo debut long-player. Noise and drone make themselves regulars, and there’s a steady experimentalism at root in pieces like “Distinct Frequency,” the low-end hum and strum of “You Were Sure,” and the should’ve-been-on-the-soundtrack-to-Arrival “Turn up for What,” which unfurls a linear progression from minimalism to consuming swell in eight minutes ahead of the more actively droning 11-minute sendoff “From the Black Soil Poetry and Song Sprang,” but de Brauw manages to keep a human core beneath via both the occasional acoustic layer and through moments where a piece is being palpably manipulated, à la the spacious distorted churn of “They Keep Bowing.” I’m not sure how Uptown didn’t wind up on Neurot, but either way, it’s an engaging exploration of textures, and one hopes it won’t be de Brauw’s last work in this form.
Someone in Scuzzy Yeti has roots in metal, and the good money’s on it being vocalist Chris Wells. Joined in the Troy, New Hampshire, five-piece by guitarists Brad Decatur and Jason Lawrence (ex-Skrogg), bassist Wayne Munson and drummer Josh Turnbull, Wells casts a sizable frontman presence across the five-tracks of Scuzzy Yeti’s self-titled debut EP, belting out “Westward” and “BTK” as the band behind him hones a blend of classic heavy rock and doom. The sound is more reminiscent of Janne Christoffersson-era Spiritual Beggars than what one might expect out of New England, and the band amass some considerable momentum as centerpiece “Conqueror” and the shorter shuffle “Knees in the Breeze” push toward slower, lead-soaked closer “Flare,” which finds the lead guitar stepping up to meet Wells head-on. They might have some work to do in finding a balance between the stylistic elements at play, but for a first outing, Scuzzy Yeti shows all the pieces are there and are being put into their rightful place, and the result is significant, marked potential.
The insistent push from punctuated Denver trio Urn.’s self-titled debut demo/EP is enough to remind one of the days when the primary impression of Mastodon wasn’t their complexity, but the raw savagery with which that complexity was delivered. Urn. – the three-piece of Scott Schulman, Graham Wesselhoff and Jacob Archuleta – work in some elements of more extreme metal to “Rat King” after opener “Breeder,” both songs under three minutes and successfully conveying an intense thrust. The subsequent “Stomach” ranges further and is the longest cut at 4:45, but loses none of its focus as it winds its way toward closer “To the Grave,” which in addition to maintaining the nigh-on-constant kick drum that has pervaded the three tracks prior, offers some hints of lumbering stomp to come. As a first sampling, Urn.’s Urn. is a cohesive aesthetic blast setting in motion a progression that will be worth following as it develops. Call it rager metal and try not to spill your beverage while you windmill, you wild headbanger.
2016 found San Diego aggressors Nebula Drag making their self-titled, self-released debut (review here) with a record that seemed to work in willful defiance of their hometown’s psychedelic underground while at the same time occasionally nodding to it. The forebodingly-titled Always Dying three-song EP does likewise, launching with a vengeance on “Crosses” before burying the vocals and spacing out behind the crashes of the more languid-rolling title-track and giving a bit of both sides with the four-minute closer “Flying Fuckers.” It’s almost as if the three-piece of Corey Quintana, bassist Mike Finneran and drummer Stephen Varns, having thus completed their first album, decided to boil it down to its essential stylistic components and the result of that was this 14-minute outing. An intriguing prospect, but it could also be these were leftovers from the prior session with Jordan Andreen at Audio Design Recording and putting them up for a free download was an easy way to give them some purpose. In any case, if you haven’t yet been introduced to the band, Always Dying is an efficient telling of their story thus far.
If their moniker doesn’t have you immediately running through the most legendary of cheat codes, congratulations on being born after 1990. Cleveland burl-sludge metallers Contra make their full-length debut on respected purveyor Robustfellow with the 10-track/41-minute Deny Everything, and if it sounds like they have their shit together – at least sound-wise – it should make sense given the pedigree of drummer Aaron Brittain (ex-Rue), bassist/guitarist Adam Horwatt (So Long Albatross), guitarist Chris Chiera (ex-Sofa King Killer) and vocalist Larry Bent (ex-Don Austin). Be it established that songs like “Snake Goat” and “Son of Beast” are nobody’s first time at the sludge rodeo. Fair enough. Doesn’t mean Contra don’t establish their own personality in the overarching fuckall and total lack of pretense throughout Deny Everything – hell, seven-minute closer “Shrimp Cocktail” proves that on its own – just that that personality has roots. What Contra wants to do with them still kind of seems up in the air, but something about these tracks makes me think the band likes it that way. See the aforementioned “fuckall.”
Comprised of four songs tracked live in the trio’s native Córdoba at 440 Estudio, the self-titled debut EP from Argentine trio IAH – guitarist Mauricio Condon, bassist Juan Pablo Lucco and drummer José Landín – would seem destined to catch the attention of South American Sludge Records if it already hasn’t. In the interim, the three-piece have made the instrumental EP available as a free download and its unpretentious heavy psychedelics and edge of rock-minded thrust on opener “Cabalgan los Cielos” and the early going of closer “Eclipsum” more than justify their intention to spread the word as much as possible. Set to a balance of post-rock guitar, the bassline of “Stolas” carries a progressive inflection, and the fuzz that emerges halfway into second track “Ouroboros” shows a desert rock influence that blends well into its surroundings as a part of a richer sonic entity. A nascent but palpable chemistry at work across its 26 minutes, IAH’s IAH could portend expansive ideas to come, and one hopes it does precisely that.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 8th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
Apparently deciding not to heed their own advice to “Keep on Skroggin’,” the Troy, New Hampshire trio announced over the weekend that they were done. Skrogg first got together in 2010, so while their run wasn’t all that long, it was productive, resulting in regional shows, 2011’s Raw Heatdemo (review here), and last year’s debut full-length, Blooze (review here), as well as biker-rally appearances and slots at Stoner Hands of Doom (review here) and, earlier this year, Eye of the Stoned Goat 4 (review here) in Worcester, MA, of which they opened the second day.
The breakup comes as Skrogg were preparing their second full-length, Done a Bad, Bad Thing, which presumably will be shelved, wherever they may have been in progress with it. In February, they released a single called “Wheels, Women and Whiskey” that — in addition to serving as a mission statement for their band ethic overall — furthered the catchy blend of rolling stoner rock grooves and heavy blues that Bloozemade sound so natural and fluid. They played that song at Eye of the Stoned Goat, and jammed out the skeletal riffs of another, and it seemed to me in watching them that they were moving to a more open direction, building on the chemistry between guitarist/vocalist Jeff Maxfield, bassist Jason Lawrence and drummer Felix Starr, who played together smoothly but with more than an air of punkish fuckall while still keeping a mind for hooks and catchier rhythmic bounce.
Foremost, they were a good band, so it’s a bummer to see them go. I don’t know where they were in the process of putting together Done a Bad, Bad Thing, whether they were still writing or had begun or perhaps even finished the recording, but maybe something more than “Wheels, Women and Whiskey” will surface from that album at some point. Skrogg announced their demise thusly:
The end time has come apon us. Skrogg has come to an end. It was a beautiful ride and I wouldnt want it any other way. That is just the way it goes when ya take a trip to outter space with only a few milky ways and a marrs bar. Thanks to those who enjoyed what we did as a band. You all got what you got when you got Skrogged.
And Maxfield further commented:
This breaks my heart. It really does. I love my bandmates and I guess, in the end, all we’re really seeking is our own little niche. Our happiness. Skrogg will go down in the annals of my personal history as the best band I’ve ever had the privilege of being a part of. Enjoy the music. We poured our hearts into it, for you.
Posted in Reviews on October 29th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
What better to call the boozy blues? New Hampshire trio Skrogg make their full-length debut with the well-portmanteaued Blooze on Drug Rug Records, and follow up their engaging 2011 Raw Heat demo EP (review here) with like-minded backwoodsery and classically heavy rock push. Guitarist/vocalist Jeff Maxfield, bassist Jason Lawrence and drummer Felix Starr have taken on a bluesier sound than they had last time out — something their obviously aware of, given the title and shading of the artwork — and that sits well alongside the other elements in their approach, which is like heavy Southern rock gone North, and shows itself immediately on the bare intro of “Someone up there Must Like Me/Kentucky Bourbon (in 80 Grit),” with its off-mic vocal and foot-stomp percussion. Naturally, thicker tones kick in and Bloozeshows more of its true course in the Sabbath-via-Goatsnake push of “Kentucky Bourbon (in 80 Grit),” but the context of that intro remains and continues to pepper the atmosphere throughout the rest of the album, whether it’s the bluegrass bounce of “Cool, Clean Mountain Rain” — which goes so far as to include a fiddle — or the twangy acoustics of the penultimate “A City Girl ain’t No Woman.” These latter two are instrumentals that act as complements to longer cuts like “Gran Torino” (12:05) and closer “One to Nothin'” (5:06), but even within the depths of those songs or the suitably inebriated second cut, “Born to Blooze” (8:27), that vibe isn’t lost, and Skrogg find their niche within that blend of thick grooves and countrified fuckall.
Maxfield‘s vocals are high in the mix and mostly dry — somewhat ironic, given the title — which holds to the sans-bullshit ethic of Raw Heat, but his and Lawrence‘s tones mesh well together over top of Starr‘s thudding toms, captured by Clay Neely (BlackPyramid) and Anthony Cimino at Mojo Studio in Franconia, about two hours south of the band’s home in Troy, in a sound that’s rough but satisfyingly heavy on low end and still able to convey the catchy push of the upbeat “Kentucky Bourbon (in 80 Grit)” and “Gran Torino.” Those two boast the strongest hooks on the album, but ultimately have different aims. Where the opener stands pretty clearly at the head in order to grab the listener and give a sense of what’s coming by switching off between its two parts, the brief “Someone up there Must Like Me” and the subsequent song itself, “Gran Torino” has more space to stretch out and finds Maxfield, Lawrence and Starr engaging a classic, Deep Purple, Made in Japan-style stoner jam, smooth and quiet but for sampled motorcycle revving until the nodding groove of the verse riff kicks in. That they’d couple that jam and one of Blooze‘s most effective choruses together speaks well of their songwriting and dedication to a natural feel, but ultimately it’s the semi-title-track “Born to Blooze” that provides the biggest surprise of the album, moving deftly from thick fuzz to a more open jangle. Lawrence‘s bass fills out the bottom — and of course Starr‘s drums lack nothing for push — but the guitars play it subtler, and Maxfield‘s woman-left-me lyrics get a richer feel for what proves to be something of a departure in terms of the record overall.
Here’s one for your “Coming Soon” file. By the time it comes out on Sept. 20, Skrogg‘s full-length debut, Blooze, will follow almost two years to the day behind the band’s 2011 demo EP, Raw Heat. The demo (review here) was an awesome opening statement from the Troy, New Hampshire, beer rockers, and from its Roberta Pedon artwork to the beardo swagger of “Cajun Lady” and Sabbathian dirt of “Evil Eye,” it stood Skrogg out immediately from a pack of similarly minded bringers of burl. The trio of guitarist/vocalist Jeff “Reverend Goathead” Maxfield, bassist Jason “Jasper Gloom” Lawrence and drummer Felix “Killabrew” Starr seem to have kept the vibe heading into their first album.
So it would seem from the sound of “Kentucky Bourbon in 80 Grit,” anyway. Skrogg — who also killed at SHoD last year in Connecticut — posted the audio from the track on YouTube today and though in terms of production, it smooths out some of the rougher aspects of the demo, as you’d have to expect, you’ll find it’s got no lack of rolling groove and put-it-on-a-forklift tonal weight. It’s more than enough to make one look forward to the record’s release Sept. 20, which was likely the idea in putting it out ahead of time in the first place.
Posted in Reviews on November 28th, 2011 by JJ Koczan
From the state that brought forth the slogan “Live Free or Die,” a mountain shaped like an old man’s face, Laconia Bike Week and Scissorfight come the burly grooves of Skrogg. They have some post-Clutch riff-led beard-fodder – think Omegalord, Sugar Daddie, Borracho – in common with the Granite State Destroyers, or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part. Either way, the rock on Skrogg’s five-song Raw Heat EP (Drug Rug Records) is mean but fun and thoroughly boozed. At 29 minutes, it gives a firm showing of what will probably later seem like Skrogg’s rudimentary beginnings, but shows them as having the basics down when it comes to thick and heavy rock. The “These go to 11” This is Spinal Tap sample that precedes opening cut “Cajun Lady” acts as an immediate indicator that their hearts are in the right place, and the wah guitar of “Reverend” Jeff Maxfield (Tractorass) that kicks on to introduce the bouncing riff is steady confirmation. Mostly the material covers familiar ground thematically, with witches, space, motorcycles, etc., but Maxfield, who also handles vocals, seems well aware of the fact that these ideas have been presented before. For Skrogg on their first outing, it seems to be more about the riff and the nod than any kind of grandstanding.
And that suits Skrogg well on these five tracks, which are unpretentious enough to last longer than the half-hour listening to them requires. The “Cajun Lady” and “Anita Ride” follow similar structures and make the most of a catchy chorus, with bassist Jason “Jasper” Lawrence and drummer Felix Whitty filling out and nailing home the groove. “Anita Ride” cuts out after the solo section at about halfway through its 5:37 and moves back into its verse in a way that leaves the impression that Skrogg just weren’t sure how to make the transition, but the song’s strengths remain nonetheless, and Lawrence’s bass tone is definitely among them, adding wah funk to the central riff and veering into fills here and there while Whitty crashes behind. Maxfield’s vocals – he’s got a touch of the “stoner rock voice” going – are mixed high, and that holds true on Raw Heat’s bluesy title and centerpiece track, which takes a 12-bar structure and gives it a ride in Fu Manchu’s boogie van. At over seven minutes, it breaks following the third verse/chorus tradeoff into a long instrumental riff jam that culminates with a surprising smoothness (they could just as easily have let it fall apart and no one would think twice) that’s worthy of any next-gen stoner rock comparison you want to make of it. Maxfield takes a pronounced solo that cuts through the rough production surrounding, and comes back in time to meet Lawrence and Whitty for a single riff cycle that speaks to the precision and thought put into the arrangement of “Raw Heat,” no matter how jammed and loose it might otherwise feel.
