Posted in Whathaveyou on February 23rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Yeah, I’ll admit that at about 10:30AM on a Friday morning I had one foot out the door to the weekend. Then this new Sons of Arrakis single showed up and a four-post day became a fiver. Fair enough. The hotly-tipped Canadian heavy rockers offer “Scattering” as a first glimpse of the second album they recorded late last summer, Volume II, for which they’ve announced a June 7 release through Black Throne Productions. In addition to a general uptick in the production sounds on what I’m guessing is the version that will appear on the actual album, the band also have a live video up for the track that’s probably the best argument I could make for seeing them live if their upcoming Canadian run with Salem’s Bend (they’ll play all but three of the shows below, which it feels weird to list since they don’t involve the group this post is otherwise about, but they’re still part of the tour? I don’t know, life is complicated sometimes in unexpected ways), but I also sincerely doubt that for those who heard 2022’s Volume I (review here) much argument is needed in the first place.
I’m intrigued to hear where other songs on the record might go, but “Scattering” contradicts its title in being nothing if not tightly cohesive. Around a twisting riff and melody that build momentum as they go, the band deliver an uptempo shove that should please, among others, those who caught on to the charge Howling Giant‘s latest LP gave this past Fall.
Info, dates, video, audio, all from the PR wire:
SONS OF ARRAKIS Unveil “Scattering”
SONS OF ARRAKIS have released their new single “Scattering”. The track lands ahead of their forthcoming album Volume II due to be released on June 7th, 2024, via Black Throne Productions. Check out an exciting live video shot for the track HERE.
“SONS OF ARRAKIS introduces ‘Scattering,’ the inaugural single from our upcoming album, Volume II, slated for release on June 7th. Coinciding with ‘The Great Scattering Tour’ alongside LA’s SALEM’S BEND, this track signifies a culmination of years of dedicated effort and a significant evolution in our musical approach.
‘Scattering’ is a departure from the intricate compositions of Volume I, presenting a more straightforward yet captivating musical expression. Rooted in our sci-fi desert rock tradition, reminiscent of The Black Mirror, this single serves as a bridge to Volume II, where we venture into progressive territories with syncopated signature riffs, more complex bridges, well thought transitions and harmonized guitar elements.”
Presented by Black Throne Productions, SALEM’S BEND and SONS OF ARRAKIS are set to embark around the Eastern Provinces in Canada for “The Great Scattering Tour” beginning on February 28th, 2024.
Tour Dates: Feb 28 – Minotaure, Gatineau WITH SUBSUN, RITUAL and IN BETWEEN THE MASSES ** Feb 29 – Esco, Montreal with DESTRUCTION DERBY Mar 1 – L’Anti, QC City with TRUSH & DESTRUCTION DERBY Mar 2 – La Petite Boite Noire , Sherbrooke with OCCULT WITCHES Mar 3 – Cafe Zenob, Trois Rivieres with DESTRUCTION DERBY Mar 6 – The Atria, Oshawa with VEINDUZE and VS THE BORG ** Mar 7 – The Lion Pub & Grill, Newmarket with ON THE VERGE, AAWKS, DAD SABBATH ** Mar 8 – Vertagogo, Hamilton with THE ELECTRIC CACTUS Mar 9 – Bovine Sex Club, Toronto with TUMBLE and AAWKS ** – SONS OF ARRAKIS not playing
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 13th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
According to the below, Dune-themed Canadian heavy rockers Sons of Arrakis should already have begun recording their second album, tentatively and likely titled Volume II, and a quick glance at their social media confirms at least that the process has begun, if not finished. The Montreal-based four-piece have kept busy since they released last year’s debut, Volume I (review here), up to and including figuring out how to navigate through the plaudits heaped upon them from multiple directions at once, playing shows in Canada, apparently writing. They’ve got a new video for “The Black Mirror” from the first record due out this Friday. As I say, busy. ‘Big things,’ and all that.
They’ve assured that 2024 will be more of the same in terms of the activity level, and with the new record impending, that’s legit. Before any of it, next month, they’ll do a quick run of dates in Ontario and then head south to Mexico for their first international dates, playing three nights in Mexico City and doing a radio interview (sounds like the work of a Tamayo), and joining Blue Cheese and others in Tabacalera. The PR wire bought show posters, all the details and ticket links.
And gadzooks, here they are:
SONS OF ARRAKIS Announce October Tour Dates For Ontario, Canada, & Mexico
Montreal-based SONS OF ARRAKIS are to embark on the first international tour with Pale Horse / Black Throne Productions & Morro-Carnal Prodzsz. Describing themselves as Melange Rock and Cinematographic Sci-Fi Rock, the quartet captivate audiences with their electrifying live performances. In Mexico, their tour coincides with the renowned La Dia de Los Muertos festivities.
The band comments:
‘’SOA strikes again with a first international tour! A lot is in the oven for the next few months and we can’t wait to show you Volume II’’
Tour Dates: Ontario: Oct 5 – Ottawa | with Hempress & Subsun | at Live on Elgin Oct 6 – Toronto | with Low Orbit, AAWKS & Tumble | at Hard Luck Oct 7 – Hamilton | with Astral Witch, The Electric Cactus and Cannabusv| at Doors Pub Oct 8 – London | with Yeti on Horseback and Snakes | at Richmond Tavern Mexico: Oct 25 – Mexico City | Local Radio Station Interview at Radio Reaktor Oct 26 – Tabacalera | with Blue Cheese, Powertrip & Criaturas de la Noches | at Denso Rock Ponciano Arriaga Oct 27 – Mexico City | with Compadra, Ugly Miss Piggy, and Pis | at LXS Cavaleras: Espacio Cultural Oct 28 – Mexico City | Chido Carnal Fest Oct 29 – Mexico City | Georgetown Records
Amidst their busy schedule, SONS OF ARRAKIS will also begin recording their highly anticipated new album in August 2023, with the first single from Volume II scheduled for an early 2024 release.
Posted in Reviews on January 20th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Welcome to Day Four of the Jan. 2022 Quarterly Review. Or maybe it’s the other half of the Dec. 2021 Quarterly Review. Or maybe I overthink these things. The latter feels most likely. Inanycase, welcome. If you’ve been keeping up with the records as they’ve been coming in 10-per-day batches over the course of this week, thanks. If not, well, if you’re interested, it’s not like the posts disappeared. Just keep scrolling, then I think click through. One of these days I’ll get an infinite scroll plug-in. Those are for the cool kids.
Also, ‘Infinite Scroll’ is, as of right now, the name of my ’90s-style pixel-art role playing game. Ask me about the plot when these reviews are done.
For now…
Quarterly Review #31-40:
SOM, The Shape of Everything
Working from a foundation in heavy post-rock, Connecticut’s SOM soar and float like so many shoreline seagulls over the Long Island Sound on the eight-song/34-minute The Shape of Everything, which would call to mind the melancholy of Katatoniia were its sadness not even more shimmering. Early pieces “Moment” and “Animals” build a depth of modern progressive metal riffing beneath only the airiest of guitar leads, a wash of distortion meeting a wash of melody, and with guitarist/vocalist/producer Will Benoit helming, his voice rings through clear in melody and still somewhat ethereal, calling to mind a more organically-constructed Jesu in poppier as well as some heavier stretches. The penultimate “Heart Attack” tips into heavier fare with a steady bassline and bursts of crunching guitar, and the finale “Son of Winter” answers back with a (snow)blinding spaciousness and an entrancing last buildup. There’s enough room here to really get lost, and SOM are too mindful of their craft to let it happen.
Alright, I admit it. I went to “Icy Flatulence” first. Even before “Cyborgian Burger Hut” or “Euphoric Nostril.” Scott Heller, otherwise known as Dr. Space of Øresund Space Collective and any number of other outfits on a given day, is as-ever exploring on Muzik 2 Loze Yr Mynd Inn, and the results are hypnotic enough that they might leave you using the kind of spelling on the album’s title, but even in the relatively serene “Garden of Rainbow Unicorns” there’s a forward keyline — and actually, in that song, an undercurrent of horror soundtracking that makes me think the unicorn is about to eat me; could happen — and the extended pair of “T-E-T” and “Ribbons in Time” are marked by ’80s sci-fi beeps and boops and a kind of electronic shuffle, respectively, though the latter is probably as close as the 54-minute six-songer comes to soundscaping. Which is like landscaping only, in this case, happening in another galaxy somewhere. And there they call it jazz as they should and all is well. In all seriousness, I keep a running list in my brain of bands who should ask Dr. Space to guest on their records. Your band is probably on it. It’s pretty much everybody.
Here’s some context you probably don’t need: “Cold Wind” and “When I’m King” were written around the time of Wellington, New Zealand’s Beastwars‘ 2011 self-titled debut (review here). They may even have been recorded — I could’ve sworn “When I’m King” popped up somewhere at some point — but they’ve now been redone from the ground up and they’re pressed to a limited 7″ as part of the 10th anniversary celebration that also saw the self-titled get a new vinyl issue. Now, is it helpful knowing that? Yeah, sure. If I came at you instead and said, “Hey, new Beastwars!” though, it’d probably be more of a draw, and whatever gets Beastwars in as many ears as possible is what should invariably be done. “When I’m King” is a banger (bonus points for gang shouts), “Cold Wind” a little more seething, but both tracks harness that peculiarly sludged tonality that the band has owned for more than a decade now, and the guttural delivery of Matthew Hyde is only more resonant for the years between the writing and the execution of these songs. That execution is beheading by riffs, by the way.
A Nocturnal Crossing, the second album from Toulouse, France’s Deathbell and their first for Svart Records, can come at you from any number of angles seemingly at any point. Which thread are you following? Is it the soaring, classic-feeling occult rock melodies of Lauren Gaynor, or her organ work that, at the same time, adds gothic drama to so much of the material on the six-songer? Is it the lumbering groove of “Shifting Sands” and the doomed fuzz of “Devoured on the Peak” earlier, speaking to entirely different traditions? Or maybe the atmosphere in “Silent She Comes,” which is almost post-metallic in its shining lead guitar? Or perhaps, and hopefully I think, it’s all of these things as skillfully woven together as they are in these tracks. Opener “The Stronghold and the Archer” and the closing title-track mirror each other in their underlying metallic influence, but that too becomes one more texture at Deathbell‘s disposal, brought forward in such a way as to emphasize the unity of the whole work as much as the individual progressions.
After debuting on Svart with 2018’s Toinen Toista (review here), sax-laced Helskini classic prog pastoralists Malady offer Ainavihantaa (‘all the time’) across a lush and welcoming six tracks and 37 minutes. The flow is immediate and paramount on opener “Alava Vaara” and through the flute/sax tradeoff in “Vapaa Ja Autio,” which follows, and though it’s heady fare, somehow the “Foxy-Lady”-if-King–Crimson-wrote-it strut-into-meander of “Sisävesien Rannat” skirts a line of indulgence without fully toppling over. Side B is jazzy and winding across “Dyadi” and “Haavan Väri” ahead of the title-track, but the human presence of vocals, even in a language I don’t speak, does wonders in keeping the proceedings grounded, right up to the Beatlesian finish of “Ainavihantaa” itself. This was on a lot of best-of-2021 lists and it’s not a challenge to see why.
The Earth, ecologically devastated by industrialization and the wastefulness of humans — capitalism, in other words — becomes a wasteland. A few billionaires, who’ve been playing around with laughably-phallic rockets anyway, decide they’re going to escape out into space and leave the rest of the species, which they’ve destroyed, to suffer. It would be — and used to be — the stuff of decent science fiction were it not basically what homo sapiens are living through right now. A mass extinction owing to climate change the roots of which are in anthropocene action and inaction alike. French outfit Wormsand tell this utterly-plausible story in cascading doom riffs that reminds at once of Pallbearer and Forming the Void, keeping an edge of modern heavy prog to their plodding and accompanying with clean vocals and some more gutty shouts. As one might expect, things get pretty grim by the time they’re down to “Carrions,” “Collapsing” and “Shapeless Mass” near the album’s end, but the trio get big, big points for not trying to offer some placating “you can avoid this future” message of hope at the end, instead highlighting the final message, “The oracles warned us long ago/That a huge mass would swallow us all.” Ambitious in narrative concept, expertly conveyed.
I hate to call out a falsehood, but Virginia duo Thunderchief‘s claim that, “No fucks were used, or given, on this recording,” just isn’t the case. I’m sorry. You don’t rip the fuck out of your throat like Rik Surly does on “Aiboh/Phobia” without a clear intent. That intent might be — and would seem to be — fuckall, but fuckall’s way different from ‘no fucks.’ If they didn’t give a fuck, Synanthrope could hardly come across as furious as it does in these seven tracks, totaling a consuming, gruff, sludged 39 minutes, marked out by centerpiece “King of the Pleistocene” fucking with your conception of desert rock, the second part of “Aiboh/Phobia” — the part named after a grind band, oddly enough — and “Toss Me a Crumb” fucking around with some grind, and closer “Paw” trodding out its feedback-laden course with Erik Larson‘s drums marching in crash with Surly‘s riffs. Hell, you got Mike Dean to record the thing. That’s giving a fuck all by itself. This kind of heavy and righteous, purposeful aural cruelty doesn’t happen by mistake. It’s too good to be fuckless. Sorry.
No lyric sheet necessary to get that the longest song on Turkey Vulture‘s Twist the Knife EP, the three-minute “Livestock on Our Way to Slaughter,” is based lyrically on the ever-relevant film They Live. The married Connecticut duo of guitarist/bassist/vocalist Jessie May and drummer Jim Clegg (also in charge of visuals), find thrashy release on the four-song release, which totals about eight minutes and in opener “Fiji,” “Where the Truth Dwells,” as well as “Livestock on Our Way to Slaughter,” they rip with surprising metallic thrust. The closing “She’s Married (But Not to Me)” is something of a further shift, and had me searching for an original version out there somewhere thinking it was a cover either of Buddy Holly or some wistful punk band, but no, seems to be an original. So be it. Clearly, at this point, May and Clegg are finding new modes of sonic catharsis that even a couple years ago they likely wouldn’t have dared. They’re a stronger band for their readiness to follow such whims.
In Stargo‘s Dammbruch, I hear a signal back to European heavy rock’s prior instrumentalist generation, the Dortmunder three-piece not completely divorced from the riffy progressions that drove the warmth creating heavy psychedelia in the first place, even as the four-part, 14-minute title-track of the EP shifts between those impulses and more progressive, weighted, extreme or airy movements before its eerily peaceful conclusion. “Copter,” which could be titled after its wub-wub-wub effect early and the guitar chug that takes hold of it, and the closer “Bathysphere,” with its outward reach of guitar telegraphed in the first half but still resonant at the end, bring likeminded breadth in shorter bursts, but the abiding story of the EP is what the band — who made their full-length debut with 2020’s Parasight — might continue to offer as their style continues to develop. 35007, My Sleeping Karma, The Ocean, Pelican and Russian Circles — Stargo‘s sound is a melting pot of ideas. They only need to keep exploring.
Fabrizio Monni, also of Black Capricorn, issues a second EP from the solo-project Ascia following up on Sept. 2021’s Volume I (review here) with the marauding lumber of Dec. 2021’s Volume II, bringing his axe down across five tracks in a sub-20-minute run that’s been compiled onto a limited CD with the first release. Makes sense. The two outings share an affinity for the running megafuzz of earliest High on Fire and showcase the emerging personality of the new outfit in the melodies of “The Will of Gods” and the untempered doom of the later slowdown in “Thousands of Ghosts.” The instrumental “A Night with Shahrazad” closes, and feels a bit like a piece of a song — it crashes out just when you think the vocals might kick in — but if Monni‘s leaving his audience wanting more, well, he also seems quick enough to provide. “Eternal Glory” and “Ruins of War” will remind you what you liked about the first EP, and the rest will remind you why you’re looking forward to the next one. Mark it a win.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 8th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
One can only imagine the emotional experience Buffalo Fuzz guitarist Jared Zachary underwent going back into the studio to mix the tracks for the band’s second album, Volume II, months after the suicide of drummer Jake Allan. There’s heavy and then there’s heavy. While I’m not sure what Zachary‘s plans are going forward for Buffalo Fuzz, the band is at least continuing in its present form long enough to get the record out two years after it was put to tape, so that’s something. They have preorders up for it now and there’s a video for “Too Young to Die” streaming at the bottom of this post.
It’s a sad story, obviously, but rock is rock. Have at it:
Two years after the loss of drummer Jake Allan, heavy blues duo Buffalo Fuzz is set to release Buffalo Fuzz Volume II on June 5th 2020. Following the success of their 2016 debut, their sophomore album marks Allan’s final musical work before his death.
“I said I needed love, I said I needed life — I need a token from some measure of the divine.” Buffalo Fuzz wrote their second album to dig deeper into the themes presented in their debut, and they turned the energy up to eleven. The band tracked the album at Pearl Recording Studio to the very same Studer tape machine used to track Nirvana’s In Utero. In June of 2018, just a month after recording the 11 tracks for this album, drummer Jake Allan died by suicide at the age of 24. The album sat on the shelf for months before singer/guitarist Jared Zachary could return and finalize the mixes for the songs. Jared and Jake’s final work will be available to ears worldwide on June 5th 2020, more than two years after it was recorded.
A music video for “Too Young To Die” was released Tuesday, April 21st as a taste of what’s to come. Filmed by Altvra Company, the video thematically and sonically encapsulates feel of the album. At your convenience, please preview the video and album via the above links. Listeners are being directed to Buffalofuzz.com to pre-order the album.
Tracklisting: 1. The Reaper 2. Black Sheep Blues 3. I’m On Fire 4. Bad Circulation 5. Buffalo Stomp 6. Can’t Find My Home 7. Too Young To Die 8. Sunshine Of Your Love 9. Hole In My Heart 10. My Cosmic Love 11. Reaper Reprise
Buffalo Fuzz are: Jared Zachary – vocals, guitar Jake Allan – drums
Posted in Features on April 23rd, 2020 by JJ Koczan
The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.
Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.
Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan
Days of Rona: Martin Bush of Hyborian (Kansas City, Missouri)
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How are you dealing with this crisis as a band? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?
We had to postpone our album release show, and festival and tour plans for the spring are obviously cancelled. We are all healthy and hale, but bored out of our minds being isolated at home.
What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?
We are under a shelter at home order here in Kansas City, with no real end in sight. Basically only essential businesses can operate, and everyone is supposed to stay in their houses unless leaving is absolutely necessary.
How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?
Everything here is pretty much at a standstill. Venues are all closed, restaurants and bars are all closed, everything but grocery stores and hospitals are pretty much closed. It has definitely had a huge effect on the music community here.
What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?
As soon as this is all over, expect to see us on tour A LOT. I never thought the freedom to play shows was something that could be taken away from us, but once we can again we will definitely not take it for granted. See you on the road soon!
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 15th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Some pretty significant gallop in the new streaming track from Hyborian, which is serving as the lead single of their sci-fi-apocalypse-end-of-the-universe-cycle-of-rebirth themed new record. Given its narrative and the tie-in novel guitarist/vocalist Martin Bush penned to go along with it, the title Volume II for the record seems kind of understated, but fair enough either way. The song, for example, is called “Planet Destructor,” and that would appear to convey some more of the severity of the subject at hand. One way or the other, though, they get the point across, and if that’s what the end of all things sounds like, it’s surprisingly precise for an unraveling. I’ll take it.
Hyborian make their way east to play Grim Reefer Fest in Baltimore on April 18, and before they do that, they’ll play the release show timed to the album coming out on March 20 at The Riot Room in their hometown of Kansas City.
Details for those and the single can be found below via the PR wire. It’s easily the most metal thing I’ve heard today:
HYBORIAN Reveal New Album Details, Release First Single
Progressive sludge metal outfit HYBORIAN will release their sophomore effort, aptly titled ‘Volume II,’ on March 20, 2020! In conjunction with the album announcement, HYBORIAN have released the first single from this monstrous effort, “Planet Destructor.”
The conceptual record picks up where their debut record left off and is accompanied by a 224-page sci-fi novel, ‘The Traveller,’ which was penned entirely by HYBORIAN guitarist/vocalist Martin Bush.
A summary of the book is as follows: “The universe is filled with beginnings. Life springs anew in a constant cycle of birth and rebirth, billions upon billions of beginnings, intrinsically linked, each influencing the beginnings that will come after. Every ending is in and of itself a new beginning; what once was, by the very act of ending, becomes the beginning of what is to follow. This particular beginning begins at the end; the end of everything. The universe is dying. It is in the final stages of passing out of existence, which is a beginning as well, the beginning of what comes after. The cycle continues, cascading in an unending series of births and deaths, all linked, each one shaped by the beginnings that preceded it.
“The universe is dying, but it will begin again.”
To celebrate the release, HYBORIAN will be performing an album release show on March 20 at The Riot Room in their hometown of Kansas City, MO, in which they will be supported by label-mates THE LION’S DAUGHTER. The event will be sponsored by 98.9 FM.
HYBORIAN live: 03/20: Kansas City, MO @ The Riot Room (w/ THE LION’S DAUGHTER) 04/18: Baltimore, MD @ Grim Reefer Fest
Track-list: 1. Driven by Hunger (05:11) 2. Stormbound (04:18) 3. Sanctuary (05:28) 4. Planet Destructor (04:40) 5. The Entity (03:55) 6. Expanse (03:40) 7. Portal (04:43) 8. In the Hall of the Travellers (08:10) Total: 40:10s
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 16th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Kansas City-based progressive heavy rockers/metallers Hyborian are set to release their new album, Volume II — their 19th record, obviously — through Season of Mist early next year, and to herald its arrival, they have a novel written by guitarist/vocalist Martin Bush telling the story more or less of the universe dying and being reborn, because if you’re going to have a narrative, go big. No doubt the riffs on the upcoming LP will do likewise when they land. In the meantime, the band will tour next month including a stop at Saint Vitus Bar that will be presented by Ode to Doom and this very site as a matinee show ahead of Monolord taking the stage that night. Godmaker are playing too. My position is you go to the venue and make a full day of it in Brooklyn. Your own fest! I don’t know what more you could ask for.
The PR wire has the info you need, and I’ll have more about that show probably next week:
HYBORIAN Announce November U.S. Tour Dates
Heavy metal riff machine HYBORIAN have announced a run of headlining U.S. tour dates for this November, in which they will be supported by Migrator. Preceded by a set at Harvest of Doom Fest on October 19 in Lawrence, KS, the tour will officially kick off on November 14 in St. Louis, MO and will conclude on November 22 in Lincoln, NE. More dates TBA! The full itinerary is as follows:
HYBORIAN (w/ Migrator): 10/19: Lawrence, KS @ Harvest of Doom Fest 11/14: St Louis, MO @ Fubar* 11/15: Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle Brewing 11/16: Pittsburgh, PA @ Smiling Moose 11/17: Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus Bar (Matinee Show) 11/18: Philadelphia, PA @ MilkBoy 11/19: Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery 11/20: Columbus, OH @ Cafe Bourbon Street 11/21: Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s 11/22: Lincoln, NE @ 1867 Bar 11/24: TBA *No Migrator
HYBORIAN have previously released the first edition of their original new book, ‘The Traveller – A Hyborian Tale,’ which was written and illustrated by vocalist/guitarist Martin Bush. The 224 page sci-fi tale has been written as a companion piece for the band’s upcoming conceptual full-length, ‘Volume II,’ which is due in early 2020. The book is available now and can be purchasedHERE.
Author Martin Bush further explains, “For our next record, we decided that we wanted to expound upon the concepts we introduced with ‘Volume I.’ The Traveller (the cloaked figure on the cover of ‘Volume I’) was a central figure in the mythos we were building, so for this album we wanted to focus more on who/what The Traveller is. The more we talked about it as a band, the more involved the ideas became, until there was just way too much to be able to cram it into an album’s worth of song lyrics. Over most of 2018, we were touring pretty nonstop, but I was finding time here and there to start putting all those ideas down on paper. Eventually, we had a book, which tells the same story as our upcoming full-length ‘Volume II,’ just in much, much more detail. It’s basically an origin story for The Traveller, set in the very last days of existence. The story focuses on a father and son, who, as far as we know, are the last humans alive, and their struggles to survive as the universe crumbles around them.”
HYBORIAN Line-up: Martin Bush – Guitar, Vocals Ryan Bates – Guitar, Vocals Justin Rippeto – Drums Anthony Diale – Bass
