Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 25th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Whatever else Isolation Dawn‘s debut single has — and it has plenty — it has a killer “Ough!” Listen and watch for it about 4:54 into the seven total minutes of the Brazilian collective’s eponymous first track. “Isolation Dawn,” which, yes, is a pandemic project, brings together members of Pesta, Dirty Grave, Riffcoven, Erasy, Weedevil, and others, and the idea is of course collaborative expression made possible through technology at a time when getting together in a rehearsal room and hammering out riffs wasn’t possible.
If you’re unfamiliar with Brazilian heavy, I don’t think you’d be wrong to consider Isolation Dawn a primer for some — definitely not all — of what’s going on in the country and the kind of groove being wrought. The vocals of Thiago Satyr bring a classic doom mindset (as well as the aforementioned “ough!”) as the guitars of André Bode and Leandro Carvalho hold down the central riff. There’s organ from Luan that gives a sense of grandiosity to the nod brought to bear by drummer Flavio Cavichioli and bassist Anderson Vaca as Melissa Rainbow shows up later on backing vocals. New stuff from any of these players would be noteworthy. The fact that they’ve all come together is all the more so.
What happens now with Isolation Dawn? I don’t know where all these people live — they’re not exactly going for minimalism with six people and maybe more involved — but is an album possible? If it’s been two years since they started working on this, is it something they can feasibly pursue, or maybe they already have? There could be a whole full-length in the can and it’s like a big secret that no one knows and then blamo, one day there it is. It’s a known unknown. And one for another time, perhaps, though I’ll note that in calling this the “debut” single, the PR wire below does seem to hint toward the possibility of more. Maybe they’ll be able to get in a room after all.
Been a minute since we had a socially-distant video. They will be a hallmark of this era in music.
Enjoy:
Isolation Dawn, “Isolation Dawn” video premiere
The Isolation Dawn project appears in mid-2020 amid the social isolation resulting from the pandemic, with both positive and negative developments in several aspects. Hyper coexistence, apprehension about the future and greater access to instruments, all converged in an attempt to put into practice a somewhat bold idea: a “collab Doom” formed by members of different bands of the genre.
Thus, guitarist Leandro Carvalho (ERASY) initially calls bassist Anderson Vaca (PESTA) and drummer Flávio Cavichioli (WEEDEVIL), consulting them about the idea. Without hesitation, approval happens. So, Leandro calls guitarist André Bode (RIFFCOVEN) and vocalist Thiago Satyr (WITCHING ALTAR), who also approve the idea and join the project. There is a suggestion by Flávio for the addition of one more voice in the band, and so Melissa Rainbow is added and closes the lineup. Additionally, Satyr calls Luan to contribute with Keyboards, and Pedro Vitus is invited to co-produce and mix and master the debut material, which resulted in a solid audiovisual for the track “Isolation Dawn,” edited by Berns, made by masterfully with clippings and videos of different formats.
Musically, the group’s debut track is a powerful and pulsating sound panel dedicated to Doom Metal, with explicit references, and more implicit ones, from several traditional names of the genre, in addition to presenting some of the musical DNA of each member and of their respective other projects. “Isolation Dawn” is scheduled for release in February, on streaming and YouTube.
Isolation Dawn : Thiago Satyr – Vocals Melissa Rainbow – Vocals Anderson Vaca – Bass André Bode – Guitars Leandro Carvalho – Guitars Flavio Cavichioli – Drums
Bruxa Verde Produções
Available on all digital platforms March 10th via Abraxas.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 23rd, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Two-piece Brazilian trad doomers Witching Altar initially offered up their debut album, Ride with the Devil, last August. It was a digital release following their split with countrymen rockers Necro (review here) that came out via Hydro-Phonic Records. On June 10, they’ll reissue the full-length on Divebomb Records. The label is probably more known in thrash circles (or if you prefer, circle pits), but Witching Altar have plenty of classic metal in their sound, so I’d hardly call them out of place. Besides, somebody has to be the band to play slow. It’s the rules.
Reissue comes with three bonus track covers, and if you had any doubt that Witching Altar were doom for doomers, their choices of tunes to take on should dispel them quickly.
Have at you:
Brazilian doomsters WITCHING ALTAR join Divebomb Records
Divebomb Records is excited to welcome its first doom act, WITCHING ALTAR, to the label. Their debut album, Ride With The Devil, will be available 6/10/2016. Pre-ordering has begun and orders can be placed here.
WITCHING ALTAR came into being in the year 2011 with but a single desire; to fulfill their oath of reverence to the traditional doom metal cult. T. Witchlover and Peter Vitus bow in supplication to forefathers Black Sabbath, Pentagram and Saint Vitus, and stand alongside newer priests of doom like Reverend Bizarre, Lord Vicar and Electric Wizard.
Divebomb Records is pleased to bring you the North American release of WITCHING ALTAR’s new album Ride With The Devil, and join the band on its crusade of despair. Deep, heavy guitars, dirty, punishing bass and hefty, bludgeoning drums bring forth tales of witchcraft, left hand path, narcotic indulgence and human debauchery.
TRACK LIST: 1. Tower Of The Black Wizard 2. The Price We Pay 3. Son Of The Devil 4. Her Embrace 5. Unbreakable Witchcraft 6. Everything Dies 7. Dopesmoke
Posted in Reviews on January 5th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Pushing through the first batch of reviews and into the second. Always seems easier on the downhill somehow, but if the worst thing that ever happens is I have to put on 10 records a day, you aren’t likely to hear me complain. Today we get deeper into the round, and that while I’ll note that the context for today’s first review has changed decidedly for the unfortunate since it was slated for inclusion in this roundup, I’m trying still to take it on its own level, which is what any record deserves, regardless of its circumstances. No sense in delaying. Let’s go.
Quarterly review #11-20:
Motörhead, Bad Magic
The four ‘X’es on the cover of Motörhead’s 23rd album, Bad Magic (on UDR Music) are placed there each to represent a decade of the band’s existence, and while the context of the 13-track/42-minute offering will be forever changed due to the recent passing of iconic frontman/bassist Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister and because the remaining members – guitarist Phil Campbell and drummer Mikkey Dee – have said it will be their final new studio release, it goes to show that one of metal and punk’s most landmark acts came in raging and went out raging. To wit, barnburners like “Thunder and Lightning” and “Teach Them How to Bleed” are quintessential Motörhead, and the propulsive “Shoot out All of Your Lights” is a blueprint for both their righteousness and relentlessness. A closing Rolling Stones cover of “Sympathy for the Devil” borders on poignant in hindsight, but on cuts like “Evil Eye,” “Electricity” and “Tell Me Who to Kill,” Bad Magic is basically Motörhead being Motörhead, which was of course what they did best.
Topped off with some of the least-pleasant cover art one might (n)ever ask to see, the Aeon Cult EP is the third from German progressive sludge outfit Owl in two years’ time after two initial full-lengths. It comprises three songs that span genres from the slow-motion lurch of “The Abyss” to deathly intricacy – preceded by a groove that doesn’t so much roll as slam – on “Ravage” to an atmospheric extremity of purpose on “Mollusk Prince,” and is over in a whopping eight and a half minutes. Seriously, that’s it. At the center of the tempest are multi-instrumentalis/vocalist Christian Kolf, also of Valborg, and drummer Patrick Schroeder, formerly of Valborg, who elicit inhuman heft and bleakness across a relatively brief but nonetheless challenging span, and who seem to revel in the melted-plastic consistency of the sounds they create. Creative rhythms and ambience-enhancing keyboard work give Aeon Cult a futuristic edge, and if this is the world into which we’re headed, we should all be terrified.
The self-titled debut from Vancouver trio Waingro (review here) was a half-hour affair brimming with intensity and forward motion, and while the band’s second outing, Mt. Hood, follows suit tonally and in its neo-progressive thrust, the 11-track outing also provides a richer all-around experience and shows marked growth on the part of the band. “Desert Son” opens the album with an expansive solo section and intricate vocal layering to go with its metallic crunch, and while Waingro keep a short, efficient songwriting process at their core, that track and the slower, seven-minute “Mt. Hood” show their process has become more malleable as well. Likewise, while the methods don’t ultimately change much, shorter instrumental pieces like “Raleigh” on the first half of the album and the rolling “Frontera” on the second add variety of structure and make Mt. Hood as a whole feel more widespread, which, of course, it is. Waingro still have plenty of intensity on offer throughout, but their sophomore LP proves there’s more to them than unipolar drive.
A self-titled debut full-length that breaks down into two subsections – the first is tracks one through five and is titled Emerald Mass and the second is tracks six through 12 and is titled The Quétu – clearly the intentions behind Frank Sabbath’s opening statement are complex. All well and good, but more importantly, the work of the Parisian trio of guitarist/vocalist Jude Mas, bassist Guillaume Jankowski and bassist Baptiste Reig is cohesive across the record’s 12-track span, and those two parts not only meld the songs that make them up together fluidly, but work set one into the next to bring a full-album flow to the proceedings, spanning classic progressive (the kind that’s not afraid to let the guitars get jazzy) rock and psychedelic mind-meld into a sometimes-strange, sometimes-in-Spanish brew of potent lysergics. The three-piece set a vast range from “Waves in Your Brain” onward and wind up delivering the “Fucking Moral,” which seems to be “Never be afraid of who you are/Never be ashamed of what you are.” Clearly, while their moniker might be playing off acts who came before, Frank Sabbath are not afraid to stand on their own sonically.
Sweet soul and classic psychedelic methods pervade The Sonic Dawn’s Perception (on respected purveyor Nasoni Records) debut album, and the Copenhagen trio of guitarist/vocalist Emil Bureau, bassist Neil Bird and drummer Jonas Waaben find an easy, spacious flow through songs that, despite being relatively straightforward, retain an expansive feel. Shades of Jimi Hendrix and The Doors make themselves felt early on, but Bureau’s voice shifts smoothly into and out of falsetto and the tonally The Sonic Dawn seem immediately in search of their own identity. The effects-soaked finish of “All the Ghosts I Know” and the apex of “Wild at Heart” would seem to indicate success in that process, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they push the psychedelic impulses of “Watching Dust Fall” even further their next time out, and if they can do so while holding onto the accessible foundation of Perception, all the better. An impressive debut from a three-piece who do right in making a show of their potential.
Ancient of Days follows two impressive EPs from Swedish tonal constructionists Spelljammer (on RidingEasy), and is the trio’s full-length debut, a pretense-less 39-minute offering that basks in post-Sleep riff idolatry while leaving room in a cut like the 12-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Meadow” for nodding atmospherics as well. “Meadow” and the 11-minute closer “Borlung” sandwich the rest of Ancient of Days, which moves between the acoustic minimalism of the quick “Laelia” to the already-gone centerpiece “From Slumber,” which rises gradually, swells in its midsection, and recedes again – beautifully – and the eight-minute groove-roller “The Pathfiner,” which would be the apex of the record if not for the crashing finale of “Borlung,” which churns and plods and caps the record – how else? – with a swirl into empty space. Following a cult response to 2012’s Vol. II EP, that Spelljammer would deliver big on their debut album isn’t necessarily a surprise, but it remains striking just how easy it is to get lost in the morass of riffs and outward vibes they present in these five cuts. Should’ve been on my Best Debuts of 2015 list.
This doomy twofer from Hydro-Phonic Records plants a veritable garden of unearthly delights in bringing together Brazilian doom outfits Witching Altar and Necro and highlighting the similarities and the differences between them. Pressed to CD late in 2015 with vinyl impending, it offers four cuts from Witching Altar, whose take on doom is ultra-traditional to the point of working in a Sabbathian “All right now!” for “She Rides the Seventh Beast,” and three from Necro (shortened from Necronomicon), a yet-unheralded trio of ‘70s progressive traditionalists who offer up the new single “Contact” and two tracks revisited from their two to-date full-lengths. Both prove immersive in their own right, Witching Altar setting a course for weird quickly on “The Monolith” which some theremin that reappears later, and Necro vibing out on the warm bassline of “Holy Planet Yamoth,” but each has their own ideas about what makes classic doom so classic, and the arguments on both sides are persuasive.
One never knows quite what to expect from Texas two-piece Stone Machine Electric, and that seems to be precisely how the duo of guitarist William “Dub” Irvin and drummer/thereminist Mark Kitchens like it. The Amazing Terroris something of a stopgap EP, released on CDR by the band as a follow-up to late-2014’s Garage Tape (review here) and a lead-in for their next full-length, reportedly recorded last month with Wo Fat’s Kent Stump at the helm. Taken from the Garage Tape sessions, The Amazing Terror makes a standout of its languid, jammy title-track and surrounds it by three more instances of the band’s exploratory ideology, delving into the quietly cosmic on “Before the Dream” and feeding a cyclical delay expanse on closer “Passage of Fire,” a likely companion-piece to the opening “Becoming Fire,” which may or may not play thematically into where Stone Machine Electric are headed with their next record. As always with these guys, I wouldn’t dare place a bet either way and look like a fool on the other side.
Chicago post-sludgers Pale Horseman featured a remix by Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh/Jesu), originally on their 2013 self-titled debut, on their second outing, 2014’s Mourn the Black Lotus (review here), and their third full-length, Bless the Destroyer, boasts a mixing job by Noah Landis of Neurosis. All three records were also recorded by Bongripper guitarist Dennis Pleckham, so it seems fair to say that Pale Horseman know who they want to work with and why. The results on Bless the Destroyer speak for themselves. With the 15-minute penultimate cut “Bastard Child” as an obvious focal point, the four-piece give a clear sense of progression in terms of their patience and overall range. The earlier “Caverns of the Templar” still boasts plenty of post-Godflesh chugging intensity – elements of death metal, see also centerpiece “Pineal Awakening” – but closer “Olduvai Gorge” sleeks along with a poise that even in 2013 Pale Horseman would’ve driven into the ground on their way to doing the same to everything else in their path. Their growth has made their approach more individual, and it suits them well.
A self-titled four-track debut EP from Argentina heavy rockers Yo, Moreno finds the band coming out swinging. The San Miguel de Tucumán-based four-piece of vocalist Marcos Martín, guitarist Lucas Bejar, bassist Noel Bejar and drummer Omar Bejar elicit a surprisingly aggro mood on “A Lot of Pot,” the opener, but groove remains paramount, and fuzz abounds. “Noelazarte” is more adventurous all around, an early build setting a tone with prevalent bass before Martín comes in after the halfway mark. Since “Para Noico” returns to the angrier spirit of “A Lot of Pot” and closer “3,000” heads outward on an instrumental exploration that blends grounded, weighted tones with spacier impulses, it seems easy to think that someone, somewhere would pick Yo, Moreno up for a 10” release. Especially as their first offering, it skillfully blends doomier atmospheres with fuzz-heavy nods, and stakes its claim in a niche that’s never completely one side or the other. Even formative as it is, it’s an intriguing blend.
