Posted in Whathaveyou on October 25th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Finnish heavy rockers Craneium are barely one year removed from Oct. 2021’s Unknown Heights (review here), but they’ve finished putting their next full-length to tape, working with Joona Hassinen as producer, as they will, en route to mixing/mastering by the increasingly-esteemed Karl Daniel Lidén. That’s a whole process in itself, of course, but I saw the announcement the follows here and bothered guitarist/vocalist Martin Ahlö for more info, and as you can see below, a previously recorded single will arrive in February. To me, that says maybe a release in mid-summer?
Depends obviously on pressing delays, but being done tracking is an occasion worth marking just the same. Live dates coming soon? So much the better.
Unknown Heights came out through The Sign Records and I expect the next album, whatever they end up calling it, to do the same. Here’s what they had to say on it:
That’s a wrap! Recording your own music can be quite a nerve-racking experience. That’s why we wanted to do it at Studio Underjord together with Joona. He manages to take the stress out of the equation and has guided us through our process with calm and precision. We’re one big step closer to #craneiumvol4
Thanks for an unforgettable week ❤️ It was dreamy as fuck!
No release date is set for the album yet, but we had good songs written already and decided to hit the studio. We love working with Joona Hassinen so we went to his new studio in the Swedish forests. The mixing and mastering will be done by Karl-Daniel Lidén since we are amazed with what he did on the Greenleaf, Dozer, Lowrider albums (among others).
We will soon publish more live dates for the winter and spring, and a previously recorded single will be released in February.
Craneium is: Andreas Kaján – Vocals & Guitars Martin Ahlö – Vocals & Guitars Joel Kronqvist – Drums Jonas Ridberg – Bass
Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 14th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Turku, Finland’s Craneium released their new single, ‘Victim of Delusion,’ on Sept. 2 through The Sign Records. The thus-far digital-only offering is the band’s first inkling of moving forward from their 2021 third album, Unknown Heights (review here), though to be fair it hasn’t even been a year since that came out. And the grainy look of the video below directed by Joni Tuominen isn’t an accident either, matching as it does the rough aesthetic edges that permeate in most of the song.
There’s a surprisingly doomed feel throughout “Victim of Delusion.” At the halfway point into the just-under-four-minute piece, they drop out to a proggier break that feels specifically drawn from the European retro set — now almost retro itself — but gives way to an organ-laced (unless I’m hearing things) and charged solo before guitarist/vocalists Andreas Kaján and Martin Ahlö bring the chorus back around for a final runthrough near the end. With Jonas Ridberg‘s bass and Joel Kronqvist‘s drums added to the march, and lyrics like the standout line, “Good things will never come to pass for you nor me,” I feel like the nod to doom noted above is justified on more than one level, and it pulls away from some of the more psych moments on Unknown Heights, but there’s still plenty of ethereal energy to coincide with their terrestrial, dirt-dance riffing.
I’m not ready at all to declare a twist in the direction of Craneium as a whole — standalone singles are their own beast anyway, sometimes — but the harder edges in “Victim of Delusion” hits as something of a surprise and it seems worth noting for anyone else who’s followed the four-piece since at least the last record. Where will 2023 take them? Shows would be my guess. They’ve been a well-kept-secret of heavy for heavy heads, even releasing through labels like The Sign and Ripple Music — no minor shakes, as far as this kind of thing goes — so hopefully as the air continues to clear in the post-pandemic age and the everybody-tours-this-Fall-yes-we-mean-everybody-even-you-get-going leads to a more evened-out live music sphere, Craneium will be able to get out and be a part of it. They usually work at a three-year clip between records, so I’m not expecting a new record, but certainly I’ve been surprised before and am willing to be again.
For now, I hope you enjoy the video. PR wire info and comment from the band follow below:
Heavy fuzzrock outfit Craneium shares the standalone single ”Victim of Delusion”. The single is the first release from the Finnish four piece since their third studio album ”Unknown Heights” from 2021, and is released together with a music video.
Joel from Craneium comments:
“Our new single Victim Of Delusion is a straightforward rocker in true retro style. It’s fuzzy and it’s bluesy. Dare we even say it’s a bit proto metalesque? Lyrically the song talks about how nothing good comes out of trying to control people. Instead it’s easy to end up a delusional lonely person. To accompany the song we wanted to make a video that tips the hat to retro psychedelic filmmaking. We teamed up with music video maker Joni Tuominen who had an idea on a video with acid fried aesthetics. It turned out great and we had a blast doing it.”
Craneium’s latest studio album ”Unknown Heights” was released on The Sign Records during the autumn of 2021. The album is available on white/blue splatter vinyl, black vinyl, CD, and all streaming platforms.
Craneium has released two albums through California label Ripple Music, an independent cassette release and two split vinyls with 3rd Trip (FIN) and Black Willows (CH). Their third album “Unknown Heights” was recorded and mastered by producer Joona Hassinen (Studio Underjord) and released during the autumn of 2021 on The Sign Records.
Craneium: Andreas Kaján – Guitars and Vocals Martin Ahlö – Guitars and Vocals Jonas Ridberg – Bass Joel Kronqvist – Drums
Today’s Friday, and in most but a decreasing number of circumstances, that means a Quarterly Review is over. Not this one. Remember, doublewide means it goes to 100 albums. The really crazy part? It could go longer. I could add another day. It could go to 11! Have I done that before?
Probably. That Spinal Tap reference is too obvious for me to have never made it. In any case, I’ve got something booked for Monday after next already, so I won’t be adding another day, but I could just on the releases that came in over the last couple days. Onto the list for next time. Late September/early October, I think.
If you’re hurting for Quarterly Review in the meantime? Yeah, stick around. There’s a whole other week coming up. That’s what I’ve been saying. Have a great weekend and we’ll pick back up on Monday with another 10 records.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
The John Denver Airport Conspiracy, Something’s Gotta Give
Hail Toronto psych. The John Denver Airport Conspiracy released Something’s Gotta Give as a 16-tracker name-your-price Bandcamp download nearly a year ago, and vinyl delays give squares like yours truly who missed it at the time another opportunity to get on board. The 14-song LP edition runs 42 minutes, and it’s time well spent in being out of its own time, a pedal steel Americana-fying the ’60s drift of “Comin’ Through” while “Jeff Bezos Actually Works for Me” pairs garage strum-and-strut with a cavernous echo for an effect like shoegaze that looked up. “2000 November” and closer “The Lab” dares proto-punk shimmy and “Green Chair” has that B3 organ sound and lazy jangle that one can’t help but associate with 1967, “Ya, I Wonder” perhaps a few years before that, but “The Big Greaser” works in less directly temporal spaces, and the whole album is united by an overarching mellow spirit, not totally in a fog because actually the structures on some of these songs are pretty tight — as they were in the 1960s — but they’ve definitely and purposefully kept a few screws loose. Their sound may solidify over time and it may not, but as a debut album, Something’s Gotta Give is deceptively rich in its purpose and engaging in its craft and style alike. I wish I’d heard it earlier, I’m glad to have heard it now.
Avi C. Engel‘s experimentalist folk songwriting moves into and across and over and through various traditions and methods, but their voice is as resonant, human and unifying as ever, and that’s true from “O Human Child” through the softly echoing guitar pieces “Golden Egg” and “High Alien Priest,” the more ethereal “Glass Mountain,” and so on, while excursions like “I Drink the Rain,” “Cryptid Bop” and “Dead Tree March” earlier add not only instrumental flourish but an avant garde sensibility consistent with Engel‘s past work, even if as songs they remain resoundingly cohesive. That is to say, while founded on experimentalist principles, they are built into songs rather than presented in their rawest form. The inclusion of organ in finale “The Devils are Snoring” is striking and complements the minimalist vocals and backing drone, but by then Engel has long established their ability to put the listener where they wants, with the image of “Rowing Home Through a Sea of Golden Leaves” duly poetic to suit the music as demonstration. Gorgeous, impassioned, hurt but striving and ever moving forward creatively. Engel‘s work remains a treasure for those with ears to hear it. “I Drink the Rain” is an album unto itself.
Though the initial push of doomer riffing and melodic vocals in the post-intro title-track “Weird Tales” reminds a bit of Apostle of Solitude, the hooky brand of heavy wrought by Chilean three-piece Cormano — vocalist/guitarist Aaron Saavedra, bassist/backing vocalist Claudio Bobadilla, drummer/backing vocalist Rodrigo Jiménez — on their debut full-length is more about rock than such morose proceedings, and in fact it’s the prior intro “La Marcha del Desierto” that makes that plain. They’ll delve into psychedelic airiness in “El Caleuche” — the bassline underneath a highlight on its own — and if you read “Bury Me With My Money” as a capitalist critique, it’s almost fun instead of tragic, but their swing in “Urknall” and the roll of “Rise From Your Grave” (second Altered Beast reference of this Quarterly Review; pure coincidence) act as precursor to the thickened unfurling of “Futuere” and “A Boy and His Dog,” a closing pair that reinforce Cormano‘s ultimate direction as anything but settled, the latter featuring a pointedly heavy crash before a surprisingly gentle finish. Will be curious to see where their impulses lead them, but Weird Tales is that much stronger for the variety currently in their influences.
Like the rest of reality, Baltimorean heavy psychedelic blues rockers Black Lung have undergone a few significant changes in the last three years. Guitarist/vocalist Dave Cavalier (also Mellotron) and drummer/synthesist Elias Schutzman (also Revvnant, ex-The Flying Eyes) bid farewell to fellow founding member Adam Bufano (guitar, also ex-The Flying Eyes) and brought in Dave Fullerton to fill the role, while also, for the first time, adding a bassist in Charles Braese. Thus, their first record for Heavy Psych Sounds, the J. Robbins-produced/Kurt Ballou-mixed Dark Waves is a notable departure in form from 2019’s Ancients (review here), even if the band’s core methodology and aesthetic are the same. The sound is fuller, richer, and more able to hold the various Mellotrons and other flourishes, as well as the cello in “Hollow Dreams” and guest vocals on “Death Grip” and guest keys on “The Cog” and “The Path.” Taking inspiration from modern global uncertainties sociopolitical, medical and otherwise, the band put you in a mind of living through the current moment, thankfully without inducing the level of anxiety that seems to define it. Small favors amid big riffs. With shades of All Them Witches and further psychedelic exploring transposed onto their already-a-given level of songwriting, Black Lung sound like they’re making a second debut.
Make a big space and fill it with righteousness. Finland’s Slowenya are born out of an experimentalist hotbed in Turku, and the three-piece do justice to an expectation of far-out tendencies across the nonetheless-concise 31 minutes and six songs of Meadow, their second long-player in as many years. There’s an undercurrent of metal as “Synchronized” holds forth with a resilient, earthy chug, but the melodicism that typifies the vocals running alongside is lighter, born of a proggy mindset and able to keep any overarching aggression in check. With synths, samples, and ambient sounds filling out the mix — not that the massive tonality of the guitar and bass itself doesn’t do the job — a breadth is cast from “Intro” onward through “Nákàn” and the gone-full-YOB swell of “Irrevocable,” which is yet another of the tracks on Meadow one might hear and expect to be 20 minutes long and instead is under seven. The penultimate “Transients” pushes deeper into drone, and “Resonate and Relate” (7:53) caps Slowenya‘s impressive second LP with a due blend of melodic wash and lurching rhythmic physicality, the screams into a sudden stop effectively carrying the threat of more to come. You want to hear this.
As their growing fanbase immediately set about waiting for their third full-length after 2021’s Electric Temple, Norwegian heavy-broodgaze trio Superlynx issued at the very end of the year the Solstice EP, combining covers from Saint Vitus, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Nat King Cole (because obviously he’d be third on that list) and Nirvana with two originals in “Reorbit” and “Cosmic Wave.” As bassist/vocalist Pia Isaksen has already put out a solo release in 2022, drummer Ole Teigen has a blues band on the side among other projects, and one assumes guitarist Daniel Bakken is up to something else as well, Solstice serves as a welcome holdover of momentum after the album. It’s worth the price of admission (eight Euro) for the take on Nirvana‘s “Something in the Way” alone, but the so-slow-it-sounds-like-it’s-about-to-fall-apart “Reorbit” and the leadoff adaptation of “Born Too Late” enforces that song’s message with a modernized and made-even-more slogging sense of defeat. Maybe we were all born too late. Maybe that’s humanity’s fucking problem. Anyway, after you get this, get Isaksen‘s solo record as Pia Isa. You won’t regret that either, especially with the subdued vibe in some of the material on this one.
The always-hit-record ethic of multinational conglomerate jammers Øresund Space Collective pays dividends once again as Oily Echoes of the Soul emerges publicly — it was previously released in a different form to Bandcamp subscribers — as carved from a session all the way back in 2010. At the time I’m pretty certain all members of the band actually lived in Denmark, but sitarist K.G. Westman, who appeared here while still a member of Siena Root, is from Sweden, so whatever. Ultimately the affair is less about where they’re from than where you’re going while hearing it, which is off to a laid-back, anything goes psychedelic improvisation, beginning with the funky and suitably explorational, half-hour-long opener “Bump and Grind ØSC Style” before moving into the sitar-led “Peace of Mynd” (13:27) and the 24-minute title-track’s organic surges and recessions of volume; proggy, ’70s, and unforced as they are. Before twang-happy and much shorter closer “Shit Kickin'” (4:10), the 15-minute “Deep Breath for the EARTH” offers affirmation of the project’s reliably expansive sound. I’ve made no secret that I listen to this band in no small part for the emotionally and/or existentially soothing facets of their sound. Those are on ready display here, and I’ll be returning to this 12-year-old session accordingly.
Recorded in Dec. 1997 at Zone Six‘s practice space, the two-song Beautiful EP portrays a much different band than Zone Six ultimately became, with Australian-born vocalist Jodi Barry and then-Liquid Visions members Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt (bass, effects), Hans-Peter Ringholz (guitar, noise) and drummer/recording specialist Claus Bühler as well as keyboardist/etc.-ist Rusty and bringing two longform, molten works of pioneering-at-the-time heavy psychedelia. I mean, we’re talking 20 years ahead of their time, at least, here. It’s still forward-thinking. The guitars and breathy vocals in “Something’s Missing” are a joy and “Beautiful” plays off drone-style atmospherics with intermittently jazzy verses and a more active rhythm, winding guitar and pervasively spaced mindbending. Imagining what could’ve been if this record had been finished, one could repaint the scope of 2010s-era European heavy psychedelia as a whole, but on their own, the two extended inclusions on the 23-minute EP are a gorgeous glimpse at this fleeting moment in time. It is what it says it is.
LINK
TO THE PAST
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The Cimmerian, Thrice Majestic
Thrice Majestic and four-times barbarous comes this debut EP release from Los Angeles’ The Cimmerian, a new trio featuring Massachusetts expat David Gein (ex-bass, The Scimitar, etc.) on guitar, and the brand of heavy that ensues readily crosses the line between metal and doom, as the galloping “Emerald Scripture” reinforces directly after the eight-minute highlight and longest groover “Silver and Gold.” Drummer David Morales isn’t shy with the double-kick and neither should he be, and bassist/vocalist Nicolas Rocha has a bark that reminds of Entombed‘s L.G. Petrov, and that is not a compliment I’m ever going to hand out lightly. Lead cut “Howls of Lust and Fury” promises High on Fire-ist thrash in its opening, but The Cimmerian‘s form of pummel goes beyond any single point of inspiration, even on this presumably formative suckerpunch of an EP, which balances intensity and nod in the finishing move “Neck Breaker,” a last growl perhaps the most brutal of all. Fucking a. More of this.
You could probably sit and parse out where Ultracombo are coming from — geographically, it’s Vincenza, Italy — in terms of sound on the sequentially titled follow-up to 2019’s Season I (review here), but to do so denies the double-guitar five-piece credit for the obvious efforts they’ve put into making this material their own. Those efforts pay off in the listening experience of the five-tracker, which runs 25 minutes and so offers plenty enough to make an impression. Witness the slowdown in centerpiece “Umanotest” or the keyboard-or-keyboard-esque lead in the back half of the prior “Follia,” the added jammy feel in “Specchio,” the this-is-the-difference-the-right-drummer-makes “12345” or the return of the synth and an added bit of playfulness before the big ending in — what else? — “La Fine.” That this EP manages to careen and pull such hairpin turns of rhythm is a triumph unto itself. That it manages to do so without sounding like Queens of the Stone Age feels like a fucking miracle. “Dear Ultracombo, Hope you’re well. Time to make an album. Put in an interlude or two depending on space. Sincerely, some dude on the internet.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 25th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
To be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure anymore how some bands get hyped and some don’t, as I’m pretty out of the circle when it comes to which groups and influencers are in the know, but Turku, Finland’s Slowenya reached out to me and I’m genuinely enjoying what I’m hearing in their take on cosmic doom, crushing and airy in mind. Otherworldly heavy. The record, their first full-length, is called Meadow and it’s out next month on Karhuvaltio Records.
The first single from the album is called “Synchronized,” and it’s shorter than you might expect at first, but there’s no mistaking that densely weighted chug. I’m nowhere near cool enough to have been in on the two-songer the trio released last year, but this’ll do nicely, and better late than never to get on board, if first single from first album counts as late, which it probably does. Good thing I’m too old to care.
From the PR wire:
SLOWENYA // new single & album to be released
SLOWENYA, a heavily downtuned ambient influenced modern doom metal trio releases a new single “Synchronized” from the upcoming album “Meadow” (out 22th of april 2022 via Karhuvaltio Records).
Singer and guitarist Jan Trygg says: “Synchronized is a crushing song with uplifting vocals. I thinks there´s something in the song that relates with Depeche Mode and Deftones… maybe a little bit of Meshuggah too. This is also the shortest song of the upcoming album “Meadow”. All in all the new album is much more industrial-like and cold compared to our debut mini-album “Somer”.”
Before Slowenya was born, guitarist / singer Jan Trygg and drummer Timo Niskala played in the doom / death metal band Morbid Evils (2014-2018) and toured Europe together with such bands as Voivod (CAN) and Entombed A.D. (SE). In Finland, they’ve shared the stage with Eyehategod (US), Conan (UK) and Primitive Man (US) to name a few.
Slowenya is strongly self-sufficient in graphics, photographs, music videos and live visuals.
Finland’s Craneium release their third album, Unknown Heights, on Oct. 15 as their label debut on The Sign Records. The Turku-based four-piece were last heard from with late-2018’s The Narrow Line (review here) on Ripple Music, and they’ve quite clearly learned a few lessons from one to the next. With a consistent lineup of guitarist/vocalists Andreas Kaján and Martin Ahlö, bassist Jonas Ridberg and drummer Joel Kronqvist — somebody’s also playing keys, or something that sounds like them on “Somber Aeons,” and the Mellotron contributed by Axel Brink to “Weight to Carry,” also elsewhere — the band present a sharpened take on their particular sonic meld that is able to be both heavy and fluid as it will. Among their three LPs to-date, the confidence with which they execute their melodies and the tightness of their songcraft across the six tracks of Unknown Heights is striking, and to call it anything other than their finest hour is underselling it.
Each side of the album opens with a big hook, with “A Secret Garden” putting to immediate use the Kaján and Ahlö arrangement dynamic — this will come up again on the closing title-track — and side B’s “Shine Again” (premiering below) offering a six-minute summation of many of the album’s strengths in its volume shifts, overarching patience of delivery, exceptional pacing, depth of mix, flowing progression and, when it’s ready, outright heft. “A Secret Garden” is very much the traditional rocking opener transposed to suit Craneium‘s purposes, running a focused four and a half minutes that establishes the tones, melodic reach and underlying psychedelic drift of the proceedings to follow.
“Somber Aeons” and “Weight to Carry” are both longer at six and seven minutes, respectively, but effectively hold onto the clarity of structure that “A Secret Garden” lays forth, the former surging with fuzz in rolling fashion after a more subdued opening, making the most of Ridberg‘s bassline for the ensuing thickness that will seem to swallow the song even as a spoken-word sample about darkness cuts through at the finish, shifting easily into “Weight to Carry,” with a more forward guitar solo later, the aforementioned Mellotron flourish and its own structural presence highlighted by the chorus.
In launching the second half of Unknown Heights, “Shine Again” pulls together many of the strengths of the first, taking the directness of “A Secret Garden,” the volume trades of “Somber Aeons” and the instrumental gracefulness and ending build-up of “Weight to Carry” and putting them to a single purpose. This is offset by the righteously bassy and brazenly hooky “The Devil Drives,” which follows and is the shortest inclusion on the album at 4:22. It wouldn’t be appropriate to call anything Craneium present here stripped-down — the sound remains lush and the melodies, rhythms and structures thoughtful — but “The Devil Drives” is as straightforward as they get in the offering, with verses and choruses going back and forth setting up dual-leads in the back end of the song that should, must and inevitably do make their way back to a final run through the chorus to finish out.
Needs to happen, has to happen, happens, and like the best of heavy rock songcraft, it’s no less satisfying because you know what’s coming. Momentum carries into “Unknown Heights” itself, making the opening hits feel somewhat impatient, but the chill that comes with the first verse sets its own atmosphere and allows the track to unfold in its own manner.
Is that slide guitar just past the midpoint drifting over the quieter stretch? I don’t know, but it works as a proggy nuance, hypnotic and wistful in kind, and helps the transition to an even more subdued stop before the shove that will consume the last minute and a half of the song takes hold, eventually fading out in such a way that underscores the vague ’80s metal underpinnings of “The Devil Drives” — someone in this band likes NWOBHM — and that feels quick given the flow they’re leaving behind, but ultimately makes sense considering the overall efficiency they’ve wrought throughout. They’re simply not willing to waste the time, and at a crisp 36 minutes, Unknown Heights is that much more able to offer spaciousness without indulgence for the decisions the band have made.
This album is a realization for which Craneium have worked hard over the last half-decade-plus — and a mention for Joona Hassinen (MaidaVale, Domkraft, Skraeckoedlan, many others) at Studio Underjord in Norrköping, Sweden, is only appropriate as well — and the payoff is in the songs waiting to be heard.
“Shine Again” premiere follows, with PR wire info after.
Please enjoy:
Craneium, “Shine Again” lyric video premiere
Craneium on “Shine Again”:
This is the third time we collaborate on a video with our friend Oliver Webb from the awesome band Sunniva. This time we talked a lot about that we wanted to bring the artwork to life. About what it would look like if you were to step through the keyhole and into the world of the artwork to the single. We think Oliver did an amazing job and he really has an eye for weird symbolism and trippy storytelling. We think it suits this song, an ode to freedom and solitude, perfectly.
Lyric video for “Shine Again”, the second single from Craneium’s 2021 album “Unknown Heights”. Video by Oliver Webb.
Finnish fuzz-rock outfit Craneium have released their new single ”Shine Again”. Shifting from massive, distorted passages to blissful, psychedelic soundscapes, ”Shine Again” highlights the dynamic and experimental nature of Craneium, while presenting a new musical dimension of the band. The group explains:
”No friends but the mountains…With ‘Shine Again’, it really feels like we’ve taken our songwriting to the next step. This is the direction we want to take Craneium in from now on. We are quite happy with the vocal harmonies and lyrics, as it turned out to be both a love song and an ode to freedom. In the studio our producer and engineer Joona Hassinen from Studio Underjord got us to perform at a level we feel we haven’t reached before. The mellotron strings added by Axel Brink (our former bass player and forming member) really gave it that little extra kick.”
Craneium is: Andreas Kaján – Guitar & Vocals Martin Ahlö – Guitar & Vocals Jonas Ridberg – Bass Joel Kronqvist – Drums, Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 21st, 2021 by JJ Koczan
This year marks a decade since Craneium first came together in the underground hotbed that is Turku, Finland. In 2016, they made their full-length debut through Ripple Music with Explore the Void, and they’d follow it with The Narrow Line (review here) through the same imprint in 2018. Their 2019 single, “Sweet Relief,” was tracked at the same time as the second outing and posted first to Ripple subscribers on Bandcamp before being made available to the wider public, which it still is, in name-your-price fashion, no less.
The four-piece have newly signed to Swedish imprint The Sign Records, and will release their third album later this year. They recorded with Joona Hassinen of Studio Underjord fame, who’s also mixed, and I’m left wondering if what they’ve listed as ‘V.R. Studio’ just means they did the whole thing remotely. There isn’t much info about the LP as of yet — including the title — so put that down as maybe, with more info to come presumably as we get closer to the release, slated for before the end of 2021.
To mark the occasion of the signing, the new album and all that good stuff, Craneium have a new single out today called “A Secret Garden” that you can hear at the bottom of this post, along with the stream of The Narrow Line for a refresher.
Dig:
Craneium signs to The Sign Records – launch first single “A Secret Garden” from upcoming third album
Finnish fuzz-rock outfit Craneium has signed to The Sign Records for the release of their third studio album, set for release in autumn 2021. The first single leading up to the new album is called “A Secret Garden” and is out now on all streaming platforms.
Blending dreamy, psychedelic soundscapes with crushingly heavy riffs and thick layers of fuzz, Craneium offers a varied and dynamic take on desert rock. Hailing from Turku, Finland, the band entered the scene in 2011 and have since shared stages with bands such as Mars Red Sky and Skraeckoedlan, toured Europe on a frequent basis, and released 2 studio albums on US-based Ripple Music.
Now, Craneium announces their third studio full-length. Set for release in autumn 2021, the new album showcases Craneium’s experimental and colorful characteristics, more than ever before. The band comments:
“We’ve been working towards this for the last 2-3 years or so, we finally feel that we have captured the music in a way that we haven’t before. Our songwriting is better, the recording is better and we’ve had more time than before to really make this one our best so far! We should also say that we are so excited to work with The Sign Records, which in our books is a mark of approval for any band our there.”
The first single leading up to Craneium’s third studio album is called “A Secret Garden”. Perfectly capturing the essence of the band’s sound, the single blends massive, fuzzed-out riffs with calmer, psychedelic sections. “A Secret Garden” is out on all streaming platforms May 21.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 16th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Hexvessel releasing albums through Svart Records seems to me one of those correct-in-the-sense-of-things-being-right-with-the-universe scenarios. Aside from the fact that band and label are both based in Finland — neat, but not really relevant — it’s the progressive aspects of both that make their realignment seem so spot on. Hexvessel issued last year’s All Tree (review here) through Century Media and thereby marked a return to their core folk-minded approach after departing for the more stylistically experimental When We are Death (review here) in 2016. I would expect Kindred to keep them on their set path somewhat, but of course they’ve never failed to move forward from one record to the next, and the PR wire’s teasing of proggy flashes certainly sounds right on.
Svart will also reissue the first two Hexvessel LPs, which, as it happens, it originally put out. I bet that makes getting the rights easier.
Here’s news:
Finland’s Hexvessel return to Svart Records with new album Kindred, set for release on the 17th of April 2020!
Cover artwork by renowned artists Thomas Hooper and Richey Beckett unveiled.
Back-catalogue to be reissued!
Psychedelic forest folk-rockers Hexvessel will release their new nature-mystic opus, Kindred, via Svart Records on the 17th of April 2020. Taking a darker and more esoteric path, Kindred sees Hexvessel re-forge their eclectic melting cauldron or “vessel” of sound into a potent “hex” of spell-binding songcraft.
Blues-laden psych-rock and progressive structures harken back to King Crimson, giving way to dark earthen balladry reminiscent of early Nick Cave and the doom-laden atmospheres of Dead Can Dance. The band returned to their original studio in Tampere, Finland, where they recorded their cult classic No Holier Temple, which fused Hexvessel’s folk roots with an occult undercurrent, with the new album mastered by John Davis (Gorillaz / Led Zeppelin / Lana Del Rey) in the UK.
Through Kindred’s 10 song rites of passage, Hexvessel cover Coil’s “Fire Of The Mind” live from a mental institution and delve into the Druidic sacrificial swamps with songs like “Bog Bodies”, which conjures the deep Lynchian night with muted trumpet and foggy rhodes piano. Adorned by cover artwork by artists Thomas Hooper (who has worked for Neurosis, Converge and Doomriders) and Richey Beckett (who has created work for Metallica, Foo Fighters, Robert Plant), Kindred is an album which calls you on a journey, both intimate and richly enlightening.
Hexvessel was formed by English/Irish singer/songwriter Mat McNerney in 2009 after he moved to Finland. Also know for his work with Beastmilk (now known as Grave Pleasures), The Deathtrip, Carpenter Brut, Me & That Man and his earlier work with Norwegian Black Metal bands Code & Dødheimsgard, McNerney is a both highly eclectic and critically acclaimed musical artist.
The first single from Kindred will be released on the 24th of January 2020.
In celebration of Hexvessel’s re-signing with the label, Svart Records will also reissue Hexvessel’s first two albums. Their much sought after debut Dawnbearer and the cult follow-up No Holier Temple will be repressed during autumn 2020.
Hexvessel’s upcoming live dates are as follows: With Twin Temple (USA)
01.02.2020 – Hamburg (DE) – Bahnhof St Pauli 02.02.2020 – Gothenburg (SE) – Tradgarn 04.02.2020 – Tampere (FI) – Olympia 05.02.2020 – Helsinki (FI) – Tavastia 07.02.2020 – Stockholm (SE) – Nalen Klubb 08.02.2020 – Frederica (DK) – Det Bruunske Pakus * 09.02.2020 – Copenhagen (DK) – Beta * 10.02.2020 – Berlin (DE) – Bi Nuu 11.02.2020 – München (DE) – Backstage 12.02.2020 – Vienna (AT) – Arena * 13.02.2020 – Winterthur (CH) – Gaswerk 14.02.2020 – Cologne (DE) – MTC 15.02.2020 – Paris (FR) – Point Ephemere 16.02.2020 – Wacken (DE) – Wacken Winter Nights * 17.02.2020 – Nijmegen (NL) – Merleyn * 18.02.2020 – Rotterdam (NL) – V11 * 21.05.2020 – Ascension Festival Iceland* 11.07.2020 – Fire In The Mountains, Wyoming, USA* (*without Twin Temple)
Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 6th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
It has only ever been appropriate that the cover art of Lord Vicar albums should be classical-style paintings. Their work on the whole is very much about being in conversation with masters even as they’ve emerged as masters themselves, and it adds to the poise within their traditionalist doom, while placing in context the sense of reverence for form with which their material is executed. Their second album, Signs of Osiris, was released in 2011 through The Church Within Records as the follow-up to 2008’s debut, Fear No Pain, as well as roughly concurrent splits with Griftegård and Funeral Circle (review here), on Ván Records and Eyes Like Snow, respectively. It was a busy time for the four-piece of vocalist Christian “Lord Chritus” Linderson, guitarist/Mellotronist Kimi “Peter Vicar” Kärki, bassist Jussi “Iron Hammer” Myllykoski and drummer Gareth Millsted, but the clarity of their purpose continues to resound through the timeless/anachronistic doom they crafted. Kärki‘s songwriting is at the root of much of Signs of Osiris but with early contributions from Myllykoski on “The Answer” and Millsted on the multi-movement “Child Witness (Including ‘The Father’ and ‘The Pain of a Maiden’ and ‘Release’),” a sense of variety emerges throughout the 58-minute seven-tracker even beyond that which the flourish of acoustic guitar in opener “Signs of Osiris Slain” that later manifests in the acoustic-led penultimate cut “Endless November” already brings. Whether it’s longer-form pieces like the 15-minute finale “Signs of Osiris Risen (Including ‘Isis and the Needle’ and ‘The Ritual’ and ‘For the Love of War’),” or “Child Witness” and the subsequent “Between the Blue Temple and the North Tower” — both of which hover around nine and a half minutes — or the more active and rolling tempos of “Signs of Osiris Slain” and the later “Sinking City,” Lord Vicar manifest doom not as an elitist standard or fodder for a backpatch or a slogan in some meme, but as an emotive and existential mode of being. It’s doom as a way of life, turned into songs.
Unavoidably, the focus on Lord Vicar will forever be Linderson and Kärki. There’s just no getting away from it, and frankly I’m not sure there should be. One’s Lord, and one’s Vicar, and the band is called Lord Vicar. More than a decade after their founding, it still doesn’t seem like an accident, and when one considers their pedigree, with Chritus having served the crusade in Count Raven, Saint Vitus, Terra Firma and more recently on the first two Goatess LPs, and Kärki‘s multi-faceted creative force manifest in E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr, Orne, Reverend Bizarre, and so on, top billing is well earned. That said, right up there with the doomly tradition of follow-the-riff is secret-weapon-rhythm-section, and Lord Vicar live up to that on Signs of Osiris as well. Myllykoski would be out of the band by the time their third record showed up, but he and Millsted are locked in here, driving home the turns in “Sinking City” reminiscent of The Obsessed or carrying the midsection part-shifts of “Child Witness” as if to remind any and all listening that Black Sabbath at their heart were a blues band — in itself a perfect backing for Linderson, who is a better Ozzy than Ozzy has been since 1975 — while staying coherent, clear, and improbably straightforward. Even just the crashes behind the mellotron in “Between the Blue Temple and the North Tower” add to the grandiosity and the drama in that song’s first half, and when Millsted‘s bass takes the forward position to set up the riff that unfolds thereafter for a short time, it is the stuff of doomed glory. It’s easy to put the focus on Linderson and Kärki, and again, I’m not sure it’s inappropriate to do so either, but Signs of Osiris demonstrates plainly from Osiris’ slaying to Osiris’ rising that Lord Vicar have always been a full band in terms of impact. Even the cymbal washes later in “Endless November” add to that track’s acoustic melody and the classical-styled folkish guitar work that Kärki would later manifest through his solo work.
That song is a highlight of the album, and not just for its departure from the tonal heft that surrounds or the manner in which it builds at its conclusion to transition into “Sign of Osiris Risen,” but the hook of “Child Witness” — strong enough to pull the band back to it even after their running through the subsections in one-after-the-next-fashion — also serves as a standout, and the rocking “The Answer” does likewise, again bringing to light what the rhythm section adds to the core of guitar and vocals. Of course, that’s not to take away from Kärki‘s craftsmanship on the opener and its companion closer, “Between the Blue Temple and the North Tower,” “Sinking City” or “Endless November,” which is no less effectively consuming in its doom than one could ask it to be, or from the performance of Linderson, which is stellar in such a way as to highlight how generally undervalued he is as a frontman in the genre. After a split with Revelation in 2012 that was Myllykoski‘s final release with the band, it would be four years before they resurfaced with 2016’s Gates of Flesh (review here), bringing in bassist Rich Jones, who like Millsted, is based in the UK as opposed to Finland or Sweden. This incarnation of the band would prove no less potent than the preceding, and even as Linderson split time with Goatess and Kärki explored solo work, Lord Vicar remained active in writing and performing. Gates of Flesh received a follow-up earlier this year with The Black Powder (review here), which will shortly feature again around here on the list of 2019’s best releases, as it was certainly among the most gloriously doomed offerings of the last 12 months, continuing to show the inescapable power of what Lord Vicar do to move, affect, and sway the listener to its own spiritual alignment, as did Signs of Osiris, and as might a classical painting.
They recently played Hammer of Doom in Germany and have done other appearances to support the release, and if you’re ever in a position to see them play, I can only recommend doing so.
In the meantime, and as always, I hope you enjoy.
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Guess the week’s over, since I’m writing a Friday Full-Length post. That’s cool. I’m sure the weekend will be super-restful.
Ha.
This week it was Wednesday. Wednesday was the hard day. Wednesday was the day I was looking at the clock unable to believe it wasn’t even 10AM yet. The Pecan and I didn’t leave the house because it was cold and looked shitty out and I couldn’t even bring myself to go outside and warm up the car, and I had nowhere to go that didn’t cost money and The Patient Mrs. and I have been living beyond our means since, well, pretty much forever. Some days that shit catches up with you, I guess. That was Wednesday.
So the kid was a nightmare pretty much the whole day. Full-on fuck-you-wreck-shit-scream-hit-kick-bite-two-year-old madness. By the early afternoon, when I put him upstairs for a nap and he didn’t even go to sleep, I was ready to collapse on an existential level. Like, “How is this my life?’ It was bad. Even relative to the bad days, it was bad.
Yesterday, by contrast, Thursday, was easier. We went out in the morning to the grocery store, and my mother came and sat with him for an hour and there was other stuff going on during the day. He napped — hour-twenty; not terrible, not great — and afterward we ran a few errands then came back to the house and he ate dinner. The Patient Mrs. had left in the morning to drive up to Massachusetts for a funeral, so for a day that was 100 percent him and me, it actually wasn’t, and it was much easier for that. Kid’s better for everyone else. My mother’ll tell you he’s a gem.
Monday’s a blur, both this past Monday and this one coming. I’m going to go see Kings Destroy play an early show at Vitus Bar in Brooklyn tomorrow night with Borracho and a couple other bands, and that’ll be good. They’re doing a live record and I expect I’ll know a good number of people in the room. Om and Kadavar are also playing New York next week, but as of now I’m not planning to get to either show. That’s probably a mistake on my part. It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen either of them. I don’t know. I don’t get to spend much time with The Patient Mrs. these days, and our evenings together, even if we’re just sitting on ass watching Star Trek — actually, especially if that’s what we’re doing — have become pretty precious to me. I’ll do some math and see where I land.
So next week, that KD live review — “duh, they’re good” — plus a Church of the Cosmic Skull album review and a Doomraiser video premiere and Domo album stream later in the week. Only day I don’t yet have anything planned for is Wednesday. I’m sure something will come along, and if not, I’ve got a goddamn backlog of stuff on my desktop waiting for writeups. So yeah, it’ll be fine.
Don’t forget, The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio is on at 1PM Eastern: http://gimmeradio.com
