Another underground superstar collaboration. This time Aussie guitarist Oren Ambarchi, the Stephen O'Malley half of SUNNO))), as well as one of the Master Musicians Of Bukkake, Randall Dunn, got together to conjure up a gorgeously spooky alternative score to a film by Alexis Destoop called Kairos, as is often the case, we've yet to see the film, but the music on its own is pretty great. As you might imagine from the lineup, it's all shades of dark and ominous, sinister and menacing, haunting and atmospheric, from swirling flurries of glitchy electronics, to drowsy, twang flecked, Earth-like crawls, caked in gristle and grit, thrumming swells of industrial rumble, and dense billows of chordal shimmer, some moments dark and jazzy, others cosmic and dreamy, still others driving and droney. There are some heavy moments for sure, the second side/movement takes the skitter of the first and adds some rhythmic muscle, as well as some thick sheets of crumbling buzz, creating what almost sounds like a drone metal Necks, but laced with more psychedelia and some buried almost-Eastern sounding melodies, like a blurry, melting raga wrapped around some gristled/grizzled slow core.
After that, the sound gets a bit more mystical and abstract, much like Dunn's Master Musicians, spaced out drifts, hushed and haunting, but only briefly, before blossoming into wild, percussion heavy psychedelic freakout. Japanese psych chanteuse Ai Aso contributes some dreamy vocals on the second half of side 3, transforming the sound into a hushed, psychedelic torch song, before returning to the drone and buzz for the sprawling final movement, gorgeous arcs of warm guitarbuzz and moaning, droning tones, layered and lush, drifting drowsily, almost like all the instruments are gradually detuning, the shimmery dreamlike drift, fading, darkening, and blackening into an almost SUNNO)))-like slo-mo finale.
Somehow this is the first record we've reviewed from these Belgian heavies, even though this is their fourth full length, but they've definitely found the perfect home for their epic, sprawling riffscapes, as their aesthetic is quite similar to Neurosis', huge heaving riffage, churning slow burn heaviness, pounding tribal percussion, anguished vocals, imagine Neurosis via Godspeed with a serious experimental bent, and you'd be close to approximating Amenra. Four tracks here, the shortest a little over nine minutes, the longest thirteen, the band weaving blackened expanses of doom-prog heaviness, streaks of feedback swirling around Teutonic riffage, lots of space, long stretches of minimal drift, of hypno rock lope, and doomic lumber, spaced out droned out mesmer, and psych-trance drift, all of which is touched on in opener "Dearborn And Buried".
That track pretty much sets the template for Amenra's smoldering slow build bombast, the Godspeed comparison no more apt than on the second track "Boden", the opening few minutes a brooding murky churn, laced with soft focus melodies and strange scraped percussion, slowly ratcheting up the tension, before exploding into a seriously epic avalanche of majestic metallic crush, worshippers of Isis, Neurosis, Pelican and all the rest, who have yet to discover these guys are in for a revelation, their skull crushing riff heavy heave tempered with soaring spidery melodies, before breaking down into a stretch of softly psychedelic drift before another final salvo, all swirling, soaring heaviness.
And so it goes, the band engaged in a constant sonic battle between light and dark, a push and pull between black hole heaviness and heavenly light melody, never more fully laid out than on the 13 minute "A Mon Ame", which displays a surprisingly light touch, the band smearing soft chords into dreamlike swells, adding layer upon layer of washed out riffage, of droning melodies, of lush layered texture, clouds of cymbal shimmer, even when the drums kick in, the sound remains restrained, a tense post rock churn, replete with crooned, almost chant-like clean vocals, building to a brief bit of explosive crush, before quickly settling back into a hushed psychedelic drift, eventually building to a final heaving climax, all shrieked vox, roiling distorted guitars and concussive drum bombast.
Fans of Neur-Isis-y heaviness and epic post rock flecked doom, bow down!
This cassette just showed up in the mail one day, with a short note asking us if we wanted to sell it in the store. Hard to tell what it would sound like: band called Amort, two songs, cover image an oil painting of wild horses, very striking, but still no clear sonic picture. The tape came wrapped in a flyer, with the words "Slow end sonic destruction" printed in thick black letters across the top. Our first clue...
So we threw it on, and were first greeted with the sound of lilting piano, notes hanging suspended in wide open expanses of near silence, but soon that piano was joined by a slow lava like flow of glacial riffing, a downtuned low end thob, a la SUNNO))), Earth, Corrupted, but draped over a delicate slowcore background, then in came some incredibly low, gurgling vocals, and suddenly all was revealed to us, gloriously hauntingly beautiful slowcore sludge. The massive riffing and monstrous vocals, drift in and out, often leaving just a lilting minor key guitar, to gently pick out the melody, hushed and minimal, like some sort of super abstract post rock, before the guitars pour back in and the vocals croak forth, but even at its heaviest and sludgiest, it's strangely pretty, the melody a minor key lament, the sound more murky and muddy than pummeling and heavy, like Corrupted covering Low maybe... The tempo gets upped a notch or two, sounding like the band might lurch into full on rocking, but instead, the riff just loops over and over, becoming more of a rhythmic drone than an any sort of actual rock riff, eventually fading to black.
Side two creeps along similar ground, beginning with abstract minor key guitar figures, allowed to unfurl and drift through an empty space, joined by simple piano, before launching into a slow motion ambient doom, all burnt out guitar and reverb drenched vocals. Very reminiscent of the Tomb Of... cassette, a strange melding of abstract ambient piano and dirgey doom drenched sludge. The interesting thing about Amort is there are no drums, this is all just huge walls of guitar, harsh demonic vocals, and tinkling piano, on the second track, the guitar becomes weirdly harmonized, creating super tense harmonic melodies, like some displaced Iron Maiden lick, slowed down to 2 or 3 rpm. This track two sort of wanders back and forth between forlorn slow motion cabaret, just piano and undistorted guitar, and pummeling drone doom crush. But in the hands of Amort, they sound so perfect together. The ultimate post rock downer doom...
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!!
Latest from long time aQ fave one man ultra doom outfit, Amort, here expanded to a quartet, with extra members handling gong, keys, saxophone and extra guitar. Here teamed up with crusty black metal punks Ives.
Amort offer up a single 14 minute track, the begins with haunting female vocals, over deep reverberating piano, and rumbling low end drones, very ritualistic and choral, it's not until nearly 3 minutes in, that the song splinters into what sounds like some sort of abstract free jazz doom, the gong rippling out thick metallic waves of sound, the sax skronking and squeaking, all wrapped in thick whorls of rumble and thrum, a monstrous ominous slo-mo creep, until finally, the song proper kicks in after about 5 minutes, an impossibly glacial chunk of slow motion doom sludge, drumless, and surprisingly melodic, the melodies nearly pop, but the guitars oozing and blackened, the vocals a demonic gurgle, a strange combination for sure, this filthy downtuned evil sound, but the song itself almost happy, like some pop song slowed waaaaaaaay down and then filtered through Corrupted and Nortt and Bunkur, the prettiest, most melodic slab of ultradoom you'll ever hear. It does build, and get louder and louder, there are spidery guitar leads, and more piano, but the sound never gets any less melodic.
Ives are pretty much on the other end of the sonic spectrum entirely, spitting out blasting, thrashing crusty blackness, minor key riffing, furious pounding drumming, harsh vokills, sonically quite akin to the punkier Darkthrone sound, or classic Discharge, but for every bit of D-beat pound, the band unleash a blast of face melting black metal buzz, the sound lo-fi, but still heavy and frantic and frenzied, brutal and blasting, galloping and churning, crusty but plenty grim and black. Killer stuff from both bands, the Ives stuff is from an old cassette, so a little curious to hear more recent stuff, and Amort, well, we can never get enough of their/his gloriously abject slow motion piano pounding dismal doom...
Tape number two from ambient slowcore doom outfit Amort, whose first tape we dug heavily. A dense drifty blend of SUNNO))) style ultra doom, and lilting Low like atmospherics. This time they're teamed up with the strangely named Comfort Wives, who based on the name were ready to be disappointed by, but just like Mom always told us about books and covers, The Comfort Wives actually kick up a pretty mean din. The strange thing is how different Amort sound here. Actually to be honest, the labeling is sort of confusing and we just assumed Side A was the Comfort Wives but in fact appears to be Amort unless the tape was mislabeled. Either way, both sides are awesome, we'll go by the label for now. So Amort sound much more like a band, than a man crafting bleak dronescapes on his own. A plodding midtempo, noisy blackness, huge guitars so low and blown out they threaten to overwhelm the whole recording, which is in no way a band thing, in fact, it's the sort of guitar sound most bands would kill for. An in the red throbbing downtuned buzz, wrapped around a sort of melodic noise rock. The sound here is not so much black metal as it is taking bits and pieces of black metal and incorporating them into their own sound. And the sound here is more of a mournful minor key midtempo dirge rock, with super catchy melodies, simple drumming, some cool harmonies, all wrapped in a blacker than normal production, with some harsh howled vocals. Like a poppier, noise rockier version of Bone Awl or Beherit maybe? Cool stuff regardless, but a strange direction for Amort, while The Comfort Wives end up sounding more like Amort did on the last tape, but somehow darker and doomier and sludgier and much more black metal. An epic and corrosive sonic sludge, that unfurls like some thick black fog. Slow minor key guitar figures drift amidst wide open space, vocals gurgle and growl, all swallowed up by a MASSIVE glacial downtuned dirge, before the low end abates and leaves a simple strummed, almost out of tune guitar to sort of meander, before the blackness falls again. This is not so much BM as ultra doom, or black ambience, the guitars rumble and reverberate, single chords stretched out over vast expanses, the vocals another layer of low end, the riffs so slow they seem to be single plodding thuds that ring out and bleed into the next crusty note, a bit like Abruptum, a ritualistic black minimal doom, epic and murky and hellish and muddy and massive and seriously scary...
Not to be confused with the -other- Ancestors, the noise drenched, blackened lo-fi, blown out raw as fuck punk metal outfit, no, this is something all together more stoned and groovy, spaced out and ROCK.
Don't know too much about these guys other than they're a 5 piece from LA, and man can they riff with the best of 'em. Two looooong songs, one nearly 17 minutes, the other almost 22, each a sprawling stoner rock psychedelic groovescape. Think Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, Earthless, Dead Meadow, Acrimony, Los Natas. The songs are less proper songs, and more epic jams, the actual verses and chorus and vocals relegated to popping up here and there, while the majority of the song is spent rocking the fuck out, unfurling majestic sun baked soundscapes of riff and groove and killer leads EVERYWHERE. Occasionally, the songs bliss out, and get all tripped out and druggy, with soft Santana-y guitar squalls, and tons of effects, but those parts inevitably build and build until suddenly the song is back in full swing, the band lurching and lumbering and grooving relentlessly. This is the sort of jam band we can get behind, epic heaviness and endless riffery.
The second track is almost Melvins-y at the beginning, howled vocals over slow churning guitar grind, before slipping back into something way more sixties and psychedelic sounding. Like the super kick ass outro of every killer space rock song all stitched into one epic mega-jam. Near the end, the track blisses out and transforms into a loping moody dirge, with reverbed guitars and haunting female vocals way off in the distance, finally kicking back into gear for the last few minutes, a whirring minor key organ making the groove seem melancholy and strangely funereal.
Killer stuff for sure. Any one into heavy heavy post rock, stoner rock, riff heavy jams, sweet leads, or ANY or any of the above mentioned bands will most definitely dig this.
Housed in a sweet digipak with awesome artwork by Arik Moonhawk Roper!
We're gonna start this review like the last one from these guys: Not to be confused with the -other- Ancestors, the noise drenched, blackened lo-fi, blown out raw as fuck punk metal outfit, no, this is something all together more stoned and groovy, spaced out and ROCK.
Ok, with that out of the way, let's talk. This Ancestors, hailing from Los Angeles (um, wait, might that be where the -other- Ancestors are also from? Maybe?), takes the whole prog-metal approach that so many bands attempt and does it, frankly, WAY better than most. Like, you can tell Ancestors actually listen to prog rock, not just Neurosis-informed metal bands showing off proggy chops merely because it is the latest thing. In fact, there are certain moments of majestic grandeur on Of Sound Mind that many metalheads would have been embarrassed by just a few years ago. We sure are glad things have changed, because this stuff is really hitting the spot, and one of the band's greatest strengths is their prowess with amazing sounding keyboards. There are tons of swirling, distorted Hammond-style organs and fuckloads of buzzy synthesized goodness. Of course, the rest of the band really have it together as well, what, with all the epic guitar solos and the awesome rhythm section. Along with bands like UFOmammut and Titan, Ancestors are one of the more impressive bands to offer up music that perfectly merges progged out, atmospheric heaviosity with CRUSHING, grooving metal in the vein of the Melvins (the dude sounds quite like King Buzzo, in fact), Neurosis, and the like. Thankfully, things never get too proggy for their own good, and more than anything, you will be digging this collection of lumbering, epic songs that effortlessly chug into double digit time limits, sometimes separated by cool keyboard-centric interludes. The songs are long enough to take you all kinds of places, and the structures are sufficiently out there and complex, perfectly utilizing the cd/double lp format over the course of 71 minutes, making Of Sound Mind one of those perfect albums for late night, lonely listening.
It's kinda tough to pin down these Canadian black/death metal crushers, their sound straddles a bunch of different metal subgenres, whether it's grim blasting blackness, or furious downtuned death, or even weird crusty gloomy mathiness, they weave all of those into a sick, primitive, raw heaviness that definitely pushes all of our buttons, regardless of classification. To these ears they're definitely closer to black metal than anything, most of the tracks are progged out super complex blasts of furious frenzied riffing and blasting drum pummel, the vocals though are distinctly death metal, an impossibly deep demonic gurgle croak, but, this is not all tranced out blackness, the band are super dynamic, the songs super intricate, dizzying so at times, with stuttering start/stop arrangements giving way to churning slo-mo ultra doom creeps, which give way to furious blurred blasts, all of which speaks to the band's death metal roots. Ultimately who really cares what we call it, the important thing is that this is some of thee most gnarled and twisted blackened heaviness that we've heard in ages, and amidst these squalls of detuned death and blown out blackness, lurk some crazy catchy riffs, and some surprising melodies, all blurred into a roiling, churning, dizzying, mathed out blackdeath blowout. Another Profound Lore winner.
Another outfit from the Pacific Northwest, trafficking in a sort of psychedelic doomy drift, who are friends of aQ faves Megaton Leviathan, which makes sense, the two groups occupying a similar space, but each most definitely carving out their own distinct sonic niche.
The first track here is a slowly swirling sprawl of pulled apart riffs and layered chordal crunch, crumbling distortion, and softly shimmering textures, starting out almost formless, but gradually coalescing into a churning slo-mo dirge, that manages to infuse its metallic creep with plenty of melodic jangle, the sounds chiming and keening, almost like a more riffy Sunroof!, it's not until nearly the end of the track before the drums kick in, and when they do, it's not so much propulsive or rhythmic as it is abstract and textural, the billowing clouds of psychedelic buzz wrapped around this skeletal doom drum dirge, the sound never really darkening, instead, remaining sort of blissed out, the guitars becoming more jagged and riffy, but the whole thing remaining pretty drifty.
The second track is where things get properly doomy, or as properly doomy as these guys get, the sound immediately exploding into a woozy, lumbering creep, replete with thick buzzing distortion, deep dramatic sung/spoken vox, and plenty of melody, tranced out and mesmeric, sounding a bit like OM with LOTS of guitars, a slow burn psych-doom epic, that slithers swaggers and gradually builds to soaring squalls of tangled psych guitar freakout, slipping from metallic dirge, to parts almost poppy and back again, hooks galore, but buried beneath the crumbling buzz, the song laced with occasional bursts of mathed out chaos, and often locking into tarpit hypno-rock grooves, the whole thing totally epic and majestic, but more psych than doom, more noise/post rock than metal, but with enough of doom AND metal to keep metalheads satisfied. That said, while these guys are self professed psychedelic doom gazers, we could easily imagine folks discovering this from a whole different angle, instead of psychedelic doom, something more like heavy, doomy psych. Maybe there's not much difference, but to our ears, this definitely falls further in the realm of heavy psych, the doominess just adding some serious heft.
Case in point, the 14 minute closer "An Unnatural Light", which takes a sort of Sabbathy almost stoner doom riff, and stretches it way out, repeating it over and over, the track totally tranced out, that riff, all clean guitar, swathed in clouds of cymbal shimmer, and squiggly swirls of psych guitar filigree. It's almost 5 minutes before the song really kicks in, and even then, the guitars remain clean, and almost jangly, a little bit angular, wreathed in FX, the bass sinewy and super melodic, the vocals slipping from deep monk-like chant, to full on wail. Then a few minutes later, the distortion swoops in, and finally, it begins to sound truly metallic, churning, heaving heaviness, but somehow, still sort of warped and tripped out. There's a long stretch where the guitar drops out, leaving mostly bass and drums, which reminds us a lot of Three Mile Pilot, dark and post rocky, from there on out, it's a slow build to an FX drenched, blown out psych guitar finale, all swirls of heavily flanged riffage and pounding dense drumming.
Way recommended for fans of Megaton Leviathan obviously, but really, anyone into heavy psych and psychedelic doom will flip for sure!
The return of our favorite classic hard rocking, shit kicking, wild eyed Southern rock band. Okay so, there's not a whole lot of them left, but that's exactly why we gotta love the ones we got. There's Raging Slab of course. Our love for them is eternal. There's new kids on the block, Black Stone Cherry, who are cool, but get a little close to mainstream MTV Nickelback territory. Then there's Antler. Who we originally thought were indie rock kids taking the piss. But their debut was just too fucking good. And too fucking genuine to be anything but. Allan and Andee saw them live at CMJ, in front of a slightly confused crowd, who were obviously unprepared to the cowboy boots, the cowboy hats, the Southern boogie, the twang and the killer classic Southern rock that was exactly what we were there to see.
Record number two finds the band in fine form. Still channeling Lynrd Skynrd, the Allman Brothers, the Outlaws, Blackfoot, but adding some extra stomp, some more crunchy guitar, but staying true to their Southern rock roots. It's perplexing why these guys were on Indie meta label Tortuga and are now part of Small Stone's stoner rock stable. These guys should be HUGE. On some major label. Playing stadiums, touring the Midwest and the South, showing rednecks worldwide that real Southern rock and roll is not dead. These guys should be wrapped in Confederate flags and showered with whiskey and weed, a harem of pretty little trailer trash girls, a private jet with a big set of antlers painted on the tail. That's what this sounds like. Kids who were 15 and 16 when Skynrd's Pronounced... came out, were getting high, getting drunk, and blasting shit like this in their Dad's pick up, parking by the lake and trying to get to second base with their second cousin.
Maybe one of these days, some label bigwig will figure out what the hell is going on, wine and dine these motherfuckers, hustle them into some penthouse office, ply them with booze and drugs, have them sign in blood on the dotted line, shove them in a tour bus and set them free to rule the rock and roll world like the boogie born Southern Rock scions they truly are!
If you've already guessed from the band name and album title that this is old school DOOM METAL, you'd be correct. What could be more doom than the idea of "Sincere Misery"?? Doom, depression, misery, of course. Sincerity, that's also a hallmark of the truest doom, from Ozzy's earliest croakings with Black Sabbath... he always sounded so sincere, that was a big part of his charisma. Later on, the prayerful likes of Trouble held the same sort of feeling...
So, with this debut, these guys are part of the grand tradition, that's for sure. Cleanly-sung vocal lamentations, soaring o'er CRUNCHY, crawling riffs, sheer epick heaviness in copious quantities, basically. With a variety of interestin' twists here and there to give Apostle Of Solitude their own identity, such as the sampled spoken narrative of some Depression-era old timer over the wide-open-spaces jamming of "This Dustbowl Earth", like a psychedelic Americana. And when comes solo time, they really shine. As achingly gorgeous as doom'd metallic guitarwork can be, yet sharp and fierce too. Perfectly complimenting the glacial gloominess of the band's pained plodding, which reaches its peak on the massive "Warbird", stretched out to over 14 minutes. File alongside the slow and low likes of Solitude Aeturnus, Reverend Bizarre, and home-staters Gates Of Slumber (for whom their guitarist/vocalist played drums, once upon a time).
Oh and we've gotta mention the hidden bonus track, a cover of Sabbath's "Electric Funeral". We think doom bands should resist the urge to cover Sabbath songs, but we're sure for obvious reasons it's an overpowering urge, so we don't blame 'em. At least AoS had the sense to make it an unlisted track at the end of the album. Why do we think doom bands shouldn't cover Sabbath? Well, we ALREADY know you like Sabbath, right? And you're not gonna improve upon the original, nor sound different enough to be interesting from the novelty angle. And now you've gone and ensured that the best song on your album is a cover. Whoops. However, hardly a serious complaint, and true doom fans will enjoy not only AoS's reverent cover of "Electric Funeral" but the whole album for sure. So, TDFs, get this, and also don't miss the new one from Finland's The Wandering Midget, from the same label, reviewed this list too!
We're big fans of weirdo French psych rock outfit ANO, but it's taken us a while to list their latest, maybe 'cause at first it kinda threw us for a bit of a loop, upping the 'whatthefuck' vibe we mentioned in our review of their previous outing for Tee Pee, while still providing major doses of the spacey, fuzzy, Hawkwind/Heads/White Hills style rockin' we love about 'em. Not really sure what the problem for us was, except that every time we'd put this on and settle down to write a review, we'd seriously start spacing out and getting all dazed and confused and not know exactly what to say, which is probably as good a recommendation as any for this album!!!
Apparently they used to record their music in a medieval Parisian cave (?) but for this album they decamped to an ancient chateau in the countryside or somesuch. Perhaps it's the change in venue that has made for a more varied and atmospheric, dare we say mature, record. They've mellowed out a bit here, with more in the way of dreamily quiet/creepy acoustic parts, hushed and melodic - but it's still totally freaky and strange, and never fear they DO kick out the distortodelic garage rock jams too. Ferinstance track three, "Turn On Your Mind" - a drug-gobbling throbber in the vein of Pink Floyd meets The Stooges (which kinda equals Hawkwind). That one also confused us 'cause of how familiar it sounded - aha, it's actually a song reprised from their previous album, Third, where it was simply titled "Turn On". Huh, maybe they were so high they forgot they already recorded it once? Great track in any case so no complaint. But weird.
Another weird one we also gotta mention is their plodding, guttural cover of "Roller Coaster", a classic track from Roky Erickson & The 13th Floor Elevators. This ANO version is a bizarre take on the original, making it their own, which is quite a statement, since the Elevators were THEE first and most 'sincere' psychedelic rock band. We guess that Elevators lyricist and psychedelic guru Tommy Hall would most likely approve of ANO and their implied taking up of the torch, as dedicated modern-day acid rockers (and now on this album, also sorta acid folksters).
So, Spiritus Mundi is another strange & compelling trip into the collective inner-mind obsessions of these French psychonauts, and should appeal to fans of both the Elevators and La Ira De Dios, the Groundhogs and GR & The Full-Blown Expansion, the Pink Fairies and Psychic Ills, amongst others old and new exploring those druggy, dark dimensions.
It makes sense that French psychedelic space rock heavies Aqua Nebula Oscillator would find their way to Tee Pee, it's a pretty perfect fit, and it's about time too, cuz we've been trying to track down records by these folks for ages with very little success! As you may have surmised, Third is indeed ANO's third full length, but for most folks, quite possibly their first exposure to this group's sound, a sound which will be super familiar to fans of the current crop of psych-space wranglers their sound falling closest to the Heads or White Hills we think, a heady concoction equal parts epic shredding extended Hawkwind freakouts and churning riffy Stooges-y swagger. The sound is raw and a little lo-fi, but at the same time, thick and layered and noisy and HEAVY, just check out the opener "Riot", with its creepy minor key intro, that had us imagining Italian occult metallers Death SS or something, but then the band kick in, and it's all woozy and druggy, with wavery guitars, wild octopoidal drumming, killer shredding leads, trippy deep, effected vocals, more spoken than sung, the track slipping into a feverish freaked out blast of pounding heaviness, that could go on forever but winds up after only 4 minutes.
"Turn On" cranks up the 'Stooges' side of their sound, reminding us a bit of Soggy, the rad obscure eighties French band we're pretty obsessed with, although here sort of cranked and super charged, the track exploding into another frenzy of shredding psychedelic freakout, which again, could have stretched out forever, but instead clocks in at two and a half minutes.
Needless to say, fans of shredding, droned out psychedelic space rock heaviness, we might have just found your new favorite band, just tweaked and warped enough to give the sound a seriously whatthefuck vibe, but never veering too far from totally tranced out hypno-rock heavy psych mesmer, the tracks laced with sitar like buzz, weird samples, even weirder vocals, buried melodies and even some hooks here and there, but for the most part, if you're into Acid Mothers Temple, White Hills, The Heads, Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, Mugstar, Great Society Mind Destroyers, Plastic Crimewave Sound, Lumerians, Telescopes and the like, then you need this NOW.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!! ----* ----* Highlights : ----*
Weird and wonderful one here, folks. And it's for folky folks, though it's got a HEAVY pedigree. A lot of you are fans, like us, of South American stoner rock cosmonauts Los Natas, so you'll sort of (but not really) know what to expect here, Ararat being Los Natas guitarist Sergio Chotsourian's solo side project, and it is psychedelic like the most darkly psychedelic of Los Natas' output, coming closest perhaps to the proggy spaciness of Los Natas' two Toba-Trance discs for Circle's Ektro label, but is even more abstract and stripped down, not actually rock at all, often all-acoustic, "New Weird Argentina" maybe we'd call it! Ararat could be some kind of haunted, campfire krautrock, more like a field recording than the finished product of a studio session (even if the studio is called Death, which is where this was in fact recorded).
It starts off with "Gitanoss", an quietly epic almost 14 minutes of moody late-night strum, ambient hum, echoes, drifting melody, hazy organ drone, ritual percussion, backwards effects... quite a trip, as is this whole disc, Chotsourian climbing his personal Holy Mountain here (Mount Ararat!), it seems, this album a musical sketchbook of his ascent, of sorts.
Track two turns out to be a reprise of "Dos Horses", the album-ender of most recent Los Natas disc, Nuevo Orden De La Libertad, this alternate version not that far removed from the acoustic guitar/piano interplay of the original (Chotsourian just must be very proud of this particular composition, and it is quite nice). Next, there's the spooky "El Carrusel", all billowing fuzz and tinkling bell, like Stephen Wray Lobdell's Davis Redford Triad doing the soundtrack for a John Carpenter film!
While that one got heavy, the next is not, the pretty "Little Grissy" being under a minute of guitar and guitar only, Chotsourian giving a delicate demonstration of his chops for the Takoma crowd, leading into the hushed and melodic "Ganar-Perder", which to us sounds like Ghost's Masaki Batoh reinterpreting "Planet Caravan" or something (it too is a version of a song from Nuevo Orden De La Libertad, but in this case much altered, extended and acoustic). That's followed by the delicate Spanish guitar and atmospheric creaky crackle of the nearly 12 minute long "Magia Negra", one that Sir Richard Bishop fans should enjoy.
Only finale "Castro" is a "real" rock song, sounding like a band (Los Natas, or even Circle), with proper drums, and amps fully cranked, with vocals that Circle's Mika Ratto might think were his own, and even this one stays freaky and uncommitted, 'til it ends with the clatter of abandoned drumsticks, electricity flickering, Chotsourian and his mysterious band wandering away into the desert night.
We always say Boris fans should check out Los Natas. And Boris fans should check this out too, but we think Ararat is also for folks into Six Organs Of Admittance, James Blackshaw, Jozef Van Wissem, Feathers, Steven R. Smith and other Jewelled Antler stuff, all that whole post-Fahey psychfolk scene, with the astral Argentinean/Amerindian/Armenian/Appalachian vibes here flowing as ominous, minimalist mesmer, intimate and entrancing...
2nd album from these Pennsylvania epic trad doom metallers, featuring bellowing "Butch" Balich, ex-Penance. We dug the twin axe attack and majestic melodies of their first album, released by Shadow Kingdom, now they've moved on up to new label Cruz Del Sur, but their sound is still plenty cult and underground in the old school Shadow Kingdom style. If you want both heaviness and harmonies in yr metal, Argus has got the goods for you. They have some prog/technical tendencies, and are well versed in classic heavy metal mastery, with echoes of Iron Maiden amidst their modern day doom. Fans of Candlemass and Grand Magus (hey where's the domestic release of their latest??) and Slough Feg, too, also ought to enjoy, as we're reminded of all of 'em, as well.
Shadow Kingdom Records are apparently on a quest to rule the cult heavy metal underground, snapping up a lot of cool bands lately in the true metal/trad doom genres. This list we have the debut full-lengths of two of 'em, Argus and Sinister Realm. Both happen to hail from Pennsylvania, which isn't that odd since the Pittsburgh-based Shadow Kingdom would of course wish to conquer nearby territories.
Franklin, PA's Argus are named after that classic Wishbone Ash album, and although they don't sound anything like Wishbone Ash, they do run with the dual guitar thing that band pioneered back in the early '70s, and the guitar harmonies and solos are definitely the main draw here for us. Their tasty twin guitar work is lashed to ponderous riffage and weighty grooves, over which the commanding vocals of "Butch" Balich (ex-Penance) cry out in anguish and anger. With those vocals, and the chugging metalness of it all, we're reminded of the more recent output of Sweden's Grand Magus. Furthermore, fans of the twin axes wielded by Hammers Of Misfortune, for instance, who'd like to hear that sort of thing in an epic doom context, should check this out.
PS this band also features members of stoner rockers Abdullah and the awesomely named thrashers Oh Shit They're Going To Kill Us.
A few things you might want to know about Armageddon (this band/album, not the Biblical battlefield of the Apocalypse described in the Book Of Revelations, and presumably depicted on the album cover, with the longhaired band lounging about smoking cigarettes in the foreground):
1) Despite the name, it's not a really heavy metal. Recorded in 1974, you could certainly call it "proto-metal", though, as well as "heavy progressive".
2) Don't confuse 'em with the other proto-metal band with more-or-less the same name. That band spells their name with two g's and one d. This band spells their name with one g and two d's. That Armaggedon were from Germany's krautrock scene, this Armageddon were a UK-USA sorta supergroup.
3) Their singer was Keith Relf, originally of The Yardbirds and later Renaissance, and this was his last recorded project before his tragic death from electrocution whilst practicing guitar in '76.
4) On drums, was Bobby Caldwell of Captain Beyond. There's some extra proto-metal cred!
5) And perhaps most importantly, this band included 2 ex-members of British bluesrock act Steamhammer, guitarist Martin Pugh and bassist Louis Cennamo. Steamhammer's best and proggiest album, Speech, is a long-time AQ fave in the heavy prog / proto-metal genre, recently reissued and relisted here not long ago. If you dig Speech, you'll also want to hear Armageddon, in fact, they open up here with a completely rippin' song, "Buzzard", that's adapted from a track on Speech.
6) According to the sleeve, Cennamo claimed to be the "originator of the electric bowed bass guitar".
7) Armageddon's sole, self-titled album has been newly reissued on cd by the Esoteric label, superseding the previous (and hard to find) Repertoire edition, with nicer packaging.
8) Oh yeah, it totally kicks ass and rocks hard, while maintaining an aura of psychedelic hippie higher-minded mysticism. We mentioned speedster "Buzzard", then there's "Silver Tightrope" and "Paths And Planes And Future Gains", both of which sound kinda like a combination of Yes and Captain Beyond, in different and complex ways. "Last Stand Before" is a rollickin', almost funky one too, and then the album wraps up with the four-part epic "Basking In The White Of The Midnight Sun", full of fierce fuzz, percussive bombardment, and some of the heaviest harmonica soloing this side of Sabbath's "The Wizard". What with their pedigree, Armageddon had a knack for breakneck (and quite catchy!) bluesrock riffage, like we said rippin' from the get-go of "Buzzard" through to the finale of "Basking", energetic and exuberant throughout but for the occasional calmer bit of reverie (like on "Silver Tightrope") wherein Relf takes the listener for some lovely astral trippin'.
9) We recommend it, especially to all proto-metal, heavy prog fiends! You know who you are, if you like Captain Beyond, Steamhammer, early Wishbone Ash, Wild Turkey, Tarkus, Toad, early Deep Purple, etc...
That's it. If you want to know more, there's always the liner notes, so buy the disc!! Then you'll get to hear the whole thing too.
Four albums in, and REDACTED's ARTIST 12 have established themselves as more than just a band of bearded REDACTED boys with bad attitudes getting sludgy, Eyehategod style. They certainly started out that way, and we liked 'em then too, but quickly a penchant for spacier, more psychedelic exploration sent them off in a variety of interesting directions, mostly all of 'em still quite HEAVY though. Synth-drone, slowcore, stoner riffery, that's all part of their trip... dunno if we'd even really call them doom (or dooooOOOOoom) any more. They're just way "poppier", and spacier, and also more experimental than you might expect. There's mantric dirges here totally worthy of Om at their finest, other parts where they freak out like Acid Mothers Temple... or rock out like the good ol' Southern boys we mentioned that they indeed are. But it's just as 'Eastern'. Tracks like "REDACTED" sound like Buddhist monks zoned out on Hawkwind, with someone from a Tokyo Flashback act on lead guitar, or maybe Stephen Wray Lobdell... Sometimes these songs are storming, sometimes they're slow and languid (well, a lot of the time), no matter what though, REDACTED is an heavy-lidded yet uplifting listen, with an oxymoronically "urgently relaxed", stoned vibe generally absorbed via throbbing waves of synthesizer, low end guitar, leaden battery, and sometimes even a bit of (heavily effected) vocal melody.
ARTIST 12 are the "sludge" band we'd recommend to White Hills and Wooden Shjips fans. Likewise if you like UFOmammut, US Christmas, Litmus, Los Natas, Boris and even a bit of Baroness too...
This new one was produced by REDACTED, heaviness studio guru de jour for good reason. Probably, uh, "420 friendly" but you don't need any help to get a high from this, just turn it on up!
Along with the Pentemple cd/lp reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, this Ascend record had also been floating in limbo, as we wanted to bring in an alternate import version, but like with Pentemple, the wait got way longer than we expected, and we realized what a huge drag it was that we had yet to list either of these, both of which we dig a LOT, so yeah, it's been out forever, you probably have it already, but on the off chance, someone out there never picked this up, or even worse, was waiting for us to review it (sorry!), here it is, the long awaited (at the time) collaboration between Greg Anderson of SUNNO))), Engine Kid and others, and Gentry Densley of the late great Iceburn. Since this record was released, Densley went on to form Eagle Twin, also on Southern Lord (and recentlyl reviewed by us in timely fashion) the seeds of which can be heard here, but Ascend is its own strange dark beast.
The guitars are massive and thick and slow, the sound is dense and doomy, but the arrangements are something else, jazzy really, with horns moaning and bleating within the buzz and rumble, a lurching lumbering bit of blackened funereal doom jazz maybe? The sound is most definitely SUNNO)))-y, all about the slabs of crumbling distortion, but then things get super weird, all twangy and Morricone-esque, with some growled evil Tom Waitsian vox, only to have the sound shift to a a weird pounding slow motion almost garage sounding dirge, with wild lysergic leads, and moaned mantra like chanted vocals, that definitely remind us of Om, or for an even more obscure reference, Skin Yard at 16 rpm. The closer "Dark Matter" is a perfect mix of all the songs, spacious skeletal twang gives way to lugubrious tarpit riffing, some blissed out ambient shimmer, rife with sitar like buzz, sprawling out into a gloomy crawl and eventually erupting into a Melvinsy dirge, the vocals becoming more and more distant, practically melting into the guitars, becoming another layer of buzz, finishing off with a 3 minute crush of weirdly psychedelic Harvey Milk like pummel.
Definitely a weird record, groovy, jazzy, heavy, psychedelic and doomy, but somehow it works, Ascend are way out on the fringe of the doomdronesludge sound, still close enough to appeal to metalheads in need of nothing more than buzz and pound, but far enough out to make this one of the cooler weirder records to come out of a scene that is often a little too similar sounding.
First we've heard from this doom drone trio from Iowa, and it's definitely right up our alley. How could it not be when two members are credited with "drones", and one with "contact mics", in addition to the usual metallic instrumentation? Not your run of the mill doom/drone we're thinking� A smoldering blackened ambience starts things off, all haunting creaks and whirling winds, distant guitar buzz and abstract strum, the build ultimately culminates in some seriously pummeling and lumbering doomic plod, the crashes and churning riffage spaced way out, leaving plenty of room for long stretches of heavily layered guitar buzz and blurred expanses of low end shimmer. The vocals are deep and bellowed, and everything is subtly infused with a bit of melody, but those melodies seem to bleed into the blackness surrounding them, each track a haunting downtuned black doom creep.
The B side pushes the drone element even further, so dirgey and slow that the doom almost seems to transform into drone right before our ears. Occasionally interrupted by little blasts of extra riffage, and driven by some abstract drum pound, the song lumbers monstrously, eventually the drums taking up less space, the crashes happening less often, causing the second half of the B side to lean heavy on the drone and drift, lulling you into a druggy haze before exploding with another blast of blackened doomic churn.
The sort of stuff that will definitely appeal to fans of Monarch and Whitehorse and all that sort of slo-mo crush.
Super sweet packaging, thick heavy jackets, nice thick vinyl, each record with an old parchment, with the original writing, but also augmented with a more modern stone rubbing.
WARNING, the jackets got a little beat up in transit, so if you need absolute collector nerd perfection, you're out of luck...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Killer match up between two AQ faves, Hypothermia (who we've raved about in the past) and Aska, who have yet to grace our list (until now!). Massive, brutal, abysmal, blackened doomic buzz from both, Aska even tackle a GG Allin cover and dedicate it to Poison Idea's Pig Champion. Awesome.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Local psych merchants vinyl-only debut. For Comets fans!
Sure, these heavy jam-kicker-outters from Sweden are yet another '70s lovin' stoner rock band hoping to become the Scandinavian Kyuss, joining the ranks of Mammoth Volume, Roachpowder, Spiritual Beggars, Terra Firma, etc. I mean, the Swedish government must
Astroqueen (who in homage to the second half of their name use a detail from Queen's "News Of The World" album cover for the back of their cd) are not to be confused with the also awesome and similarly "astro" Dutch stoner rockers Astrosoniq, although we did, which was a good thing 'cause otherwise we might have overlooked this excellent release!
If you're reading this on our New Arrivals list (as opposed to searching out this entry on our website), you should have already seen our review of the Abdullah/Dragnauta split cd just released by the South American stoner rock label Dias De Garage. Well I guess the label likes the split release idea pretty well, 'cause here's another one. This time, between Argentina's Buffalo and Sweden's Astroqueen. Both bands are kinda in that Kyuss/Queens Of The Stone Age vein we love so much.
First up, Astroqueen, with six tracks and a video clip. Sweden has a reputation for producing excellent Kyuss clones and Astroqueen does nothing to tarnish said rep. Utterly catchy, with thick distorted guitars, what's not to like?? They throw in some nice 'metal' details now and then (a Maideny riff, an unexpected blast beat), but this should be on the radio and HUGE. Maybe they are in Sweden, who knows? Anyone who wants a big, heavy rock fix won't be disappointed. Wish we could still get their Into Submission full-length but it seems to be out of print...
Next up, five tracks and one video from Buffalo (not to be confused with the '70s Australian band of the same name), who are, well, a lot like Astroqueen!! Though they have a bit more of a psychedelic, swampy swagger to them, and their vocalist (who sings in Spanish, whereas Astroqueen's vocalist sings in English, not Swedish) has a rougher, tougher delivery. For fans of Roachpowder (remember them?), Los Natas, early Black Label Society, Heavy Rocks style Boris, and Kyuss/QOTSA, too, of course! And also Metallica, 'cause Buffalo do a kick-ass cover "Four Horsemen" (in Spanish) to wind up their half of this split. All right!
Between Astroqueen and Buffalo, there's no clear-cut winner here -- except for you, the stoner rock fan, who buys this!
Fuzzed out seventies style stoner space rock from this Dutch band. Equal parts Sabbath and Zeppelin.
Heavy and groovy, huge fuzzy guitars, throbbing bass, and gruff (but still high) vocals. Reminds us a lot of AQ faves The Want. One of the better stoner rock bands around. And one of the most beautiful cd packages we have ever seen!
Deep, depressive, uber-heavy doom-death from this Bay Area outfit featuring in their ranks none other than John Gossard, fomerly of cult black metallers and AQ faves Weakling! He's no stranger to ten-minute-plus track lengths and that's what you get here, three atmospheric doom epicks (plus one ambient, almost inaudible bonus track), the shortest about twelve minutes, the longest around fifteen. And when you think that Asunder's slowed-down sickness couldn't get any more mournful, they kick in with the cellos! That's right, funereal doom with a string section. Gotta love it...to death.
Oakland's doooooooooooooooooooomiest, Asunder, return with their second full-length album. Just back from a tour of Japan with none other than cultish doom-crust behemoth Corrupted, Asunder further cement their doom bonafides with Works Will Come Undone, which features just two tracks, one of 'em ("Rite Of Finality") almost a full-length itself at 50 minutes duration! The other track ("A Famine") isn't quite so long -- a mere 20 minutes. That's more than enough time for these guys and gal to squeeze in a few lugubrious riffs, even at the glacial pace with with they play their morose metallic funeral marches.
Asunder are all about atmosphere, allowing some really pretty and mellow parts into their crushingly heavy and depressed, slow-moving sound-world. The use of cello (played by Jackie Perez-Gratz, also of Amber Asylum) is one of Asunder's trademarks, and for giving an extra-mournful, classically elegant dimension to their doom it's hard to beat. The guitarists successfully venture to enter that sublime realm as well. Meanwhile the vocalist recalls the phlegmy throat of Forest Of Equilibrium era Cathedral frontman Lee Dorrian, mixing the rough with the smooth as it were...
For those unaware, we should also note the presence of former Weakling guitarist/vocalist John Gossard. What Weakling was to trance-inducingly epic Norwegian style black metal, Asunder is to trance-inducingly epic Finnish style doom metal!! Or maybe we should just say Oakland style, since this genre of doom has its roots all over, from Finland's Thergothon to Australia's Disembowelment and Long Island's Winter...
It's funny how suddenly every one has a doom drone dirge project happening. The popularity of Sunn 0))) and Earth and Corrupted and Boris not only has record collectors scrambling for their wallets, but seems to have other musicians scrambling as well, buying bigger amps, more distortion boxes, trying to tune lower and play slower, all of this evidenced by the sudden glut of bands whose influences don't extend much beyond Earth and Sunn 0))). We're not complaining mind you 'cuz you know we can't get enough of that sludgy downtuned dirge! And, you can't give Asva too much grief as bass player Stuart Dahlquist (brother of Silkworm's Michael Dahlquist) was there in the early days, having played in doom dirge metal outfit Burning Witch, and Asva actually feels like a logical extension of his old band. Dahlquist is joined in Asva by guitarist John Schuller and ex-Mr. Bungle guitarist / current Web Of Mimicry head honcho Trey Spruance, as well as an organist (!) and a female vocalist (!). It's these last two elements, as well as a flair for incorporating melody into a sound usuallylight on the melodic end of things, that makes Asva a much more interesting prospect. Of the four extended tracks here, it's the first and the last that hue closest to the Sunn 0))) / Earth template. Huge slabs of ultra distorted guitars, working their way through slow motion riffs, a ponderous plodding metallic crush. On the final track, vocalist Jessika Kenney belts out a one woman chorale, adding a strangely angelic vibe to the proceedings, minor key, but soaring over the slow motion Sabbath beneath, beautiful and haunting in a way few bands like this have managed. The two tracks in between are much more abstract and spare, not in the least but heavy, but still creepy and droney. Track two is all minimal whir and shimmer, slowly shifting and subtly moving through a minimal almost melody. Track three again features Kenney's voalisations, this time though, it's ALL about the vocals, the musical bed is a hushed doomy organ driven drone, endlessly sustaining with occasional super reverbed bass and sizzling barely-there percussion, while Kenney wails and trills, swooping through strange alien melodies, her multi tracked vocals harmonizing with themselves, creating a very bizarre, but thrillingly creepy soundworld. Fans of the genre (sludgedoomdirgedeathdrone) probably already know about this record and know they need it, but folks who have yet to get into this stuff, might find Asva just melodic enough and weird enough to merit further investigation.
As a follow-up to getting the NEW Asva we recently listed (on both formats), they've just now made their debut available on vinyl too... Here's what we said when this first came out on cd back in 2005:
It's funny how suddenly every one has a doom drone dirge project happening. The popularity of SUNNO)) and Earth and Corrupted and Boris not only has record collectors scrambling for their wallets, but seems to have other musicians scrambling as well, buying bigger amps, more distortion boxes, trying to tune lower and play slower, all of this evidenced by the sudden glut of bands whose influences don't extend much beyond Earth and SUNNO))). We're not complaining mind you 'cuz you know we can't get enough of that sludgy downtuned dirge! And, you can't give Asva too much grief as bass player Stuart Dahlquist (brother of Silkworm's Michael Dahlquist) was there in the early days, having played in doom dirge metal outfit Burning Witch, and Asva actually feels like a logical extension of his old band. Dahlquist is joined in Asva by guitarist John Schuller and ex-Mr. Bungle guitarist / current Web Of Mimicry head honcho Trey Spruance, as well as an organist (!) and a female vocalist (!). It's these last two elements, as well as a flair for incorporating melody into a sound usually light on the melodic end of things, that makes Asva a much more interesting prospect. Of the four extended tracks here, it's the first and the last that hue closest to the SUNNO))) / Earth template. Huge slabs of ultra distorted guitars, working their way through slow motion riffs, a ponderous plodding metallic crush. On the final track, vocalist Jessika Kenney belts out a one woman chorale, adding a strangely angelic vibe to the proceedings, minor key, but soaring over the slow motion Sabbath beneath, beautiful and haunting in a way few bands like this have managed. The two tracks in between are much more abstract and spare, not in the least but heavy, but still creepy and droney. Track two is all minimal whir and shimmer, slowly shifting and subtly moving through a minimal almost melody. Track three again features Kenney's vocalizations, this time though, it's ALL about the vocals, the musical bed is a hushed doomy organ driven drone, endlessly sustaining with occasional super reverbed bass and sizzling barely-there percussion, while Kenney wails and trills, swooping through strange alien melodies, her multi tracked vocals harmonizing with themselves, creating a very bizarre, but thrillingly creepy soundworld. Fans of the genre (sludgedoomdirgedeathdrone) probably already know about this record and know they need it, but folks who have yet to get into this stuff, might find Asva just melodic enough and weird enough to merit further investigation.
This whole slow motion doom dirge explosion continues to bring us band after band who think they can make a record by just leaning their guitars up against their amps and recording the mighty flow of glorious Earth-like sludge that will undoubtedly flow forth, like some sort of divine doom from the gods. Thankfully there are a few outfits who realize that maybe we need a little bit more than just another doom-drone planet to join the already slow motion orbits of Earth and SUNNO))). And as we have mentioned before (in our review of their excellent Futurist's Against the Ocean debut earlier this year), Asva is making a successful attempt to extend beyond the Earth/SUNN template, having added huge swaths of warm and warbly organs to the mix as well as soaring operatic female vocals, giving their sound a strangely melodic and gorgeously alien feel. This two song 12" proves that even that's not enough for these guys, as they push and twist their sound once again into new and strange shapes. The first track is a super slow building drone, a hushed assemblage of subterranean rumble and machine like whirr, that doesn't build so much as just sort of shift and take up more and more of the sound field. Eventually the drone begins to fragment and the constituent parts become more and more distinct, the most noticable being what sounds like a strangely haunting psych guitar riff, looped and smeared into a subtle Sunroof! like skree. Soon more and more bits float to the surface, some reverbed chanting, abstract streaks of distant guitar, and a far away riff, played super slowly and drenched in effects, creepy and clean and barely discernible through the murk and haze, sounding a bit like a snippet of Chris Issak guitar, as if played at 8 rpm and broadcast through a the tiny speaker of an old transistor radio. Special guest Eyvind Kang supplies the viola, while band member John Schuller contributes the locusts! Side two is much more straight ahead dooooom, a crushing slow motion metallic dirge a la Khanate or Skepticism, but even here Asva manage to make that sound their own. A slow sludgy plod, with plenty of space in between for swirls of dark drone and reverby rumble, and that same haunting abstract clean guitar melody from side one resurfaces here and there, but the focus is most definitely on the vocals, an unholy screech, that swoops and soars from demonic howl to bile spewing gutteral growl, courtesy of Asva's vocalist Jessika Kennney, falling somewhere between Lydia Lunch, Diamanda Galas and Edgy from Burning Witch. Super limited (only 500 copies) each copy is hand stamped and numbered!
What You Don't Know Is Frontier is the second release from this heavy droning super group and it's insanely awesome. Densely layered glacial pools of buzzing heaviness, it's no surprise that Asva consists of members of Burning Witch, Goatsnake and SUNNO))) among others. An expansive pallet of guitars, percussion, organs, electronic wind instruments, and vocals, all plunge the listener into a battle between crumbling civilization and the redeeming light at the heart of the storm. Unlike many heavy drone bands who are easily weighed down by a lack of dimension within their music, Asva manages to swiftly guide the listener in and out of finely choreographed movements that unfold with precision musicianship. This is definitely not simply "another drone record" that should be overlooked or dismissed. The range of textures and attention to detail is key here. What You Don't Know is Frontier unfolds more like a soundtrack then a drone record, a refreshing attempt at broadening the genre into a more honest, accessible art form. Highly recommended for fans of anything HEAVY.
What You Don't Know Is Frontier is the second release from this heavy droning super group and it's insanely awesome. Densely layered glacial pools of buzzing heaviness, it's no surprise that Asva consists of members of Burning Witch, Goatsnake and SUNNO))) among others. An expansive pallet of guitars, percussion, organs, electronic wind instruments, and vocals, all plunge the listener into a battle between crumbling civilization and the redeeming light at the heart of the storm. Unlike many heavy drone bands who are easily weighed down by a lack of dimension within their music, Asva manages to swiftly guide the listener in and out of finely choreographed movements that unfold with precision musicianship. This is definitely not simply "another drone record" that should be overlooked or dismissed. The range of textures and attention to detail is key here. What You Don't Know is Frontier unfolds more like a soundtrack then a drone record, a refreshing attempt at broadening the genre into a more honest, accessible art form. Highly recommended for fans of anything HEAVY.
Oh, the misery! Vying with the likes of Moss and Marzuraan for the title of Sludge Lords of England, Atavist offer up their second full-length (hence the title), following a split with Nadja not long ago. But Atavist are a complex beast with a tortured soul that in some ways is really less about sludge than it is about sheer sadness, opting for beauty over brutality much of the time.
Drums echo. Acoustic guitars weep. And then the walls of doom-drone (droom?) riffage come closing in, crashing down. But although there's heaviness galore, with gruff vokills raging, the gentle side to Atavist is nakedly displayed here too. Tranquil, haunting, Atavist possess almost a campfire drone post rockishness that curdles Khanate-like when the heaviness is let loose. All seven tracks, together something of a continuous emotional breakdown, demonstrate definite extreme mood swings, all of 'em melancholy and majestic, some of 'em massively metal. Actually it's a six-part dirge, plus a bonus track at the end, appropriately enough a cover of "I Hate The Human Race" originally by Boston sludge merchants Grief.
For fans of both Mogwai and Asunder for sure. So good.
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Sludge is like a drug. Those of us who are hooked, can never get enough. And the heavier or weirder it gets, the more we need every fix to be just a little bit slower, a little bit heavier, a little bit more fucked up and freaked out. This stuff is already pushing the limits of how slow and heavy it can go, you can only get so slow and heavy before notes and melody and any sort of tonal color disappear completely resulting in what is essentially a super dense drone (and lord knows we love those too!!) so most of the bands that have been supplying us with our sludge fix of late have pushed the limits of slow and heavy obviously, but have mostly managed to twist their particular take on the sludge and the doom and the drone into seriously creepy and contorted shapes.
Thus we have Atavist. On first listen, they seem to be trudging down the same black and glacial path as Khanate, plodding Neanderthal drums, crumbling downtuned grit caked guitar rumble, and of course super processed demonically gurgled growls and shrieks. A horrifying and harrowing slow motion journey through the blackest pits of hell for sure. That along would be enough to have us jonesing. But then Atavist mix in some super unlikely elements. First, they actually rock. Not the whole time, but sometimes, they slip into an actual stonery doomic riff, and the tempo picks up, not too much, more like moving from steamroller tempo to runaway dumptruck tempo, but it definitely rocks, heavily and furiously, but never strays from the sludge too long, always slowing back down like said dumptruck plunging into a stretch of road where the tar has melted into black quicksand. The other unlikely element is a certain strange melodic flair, which seems unlikely, but somehow fits perfectly nestled amongst the surrounding doom. From the dreamy, propulsive post rock buried within the first track, gorgeous minor key guitar arpeggios, and shuffling loping almost krautlike rhythms (sounding at moments like a more dirge-y Katatonia) to the delicate intro to the second track, a glistening framework of soft melancholy melody and subtle simple bass lines, all drifting in a swirl of ambient haze (complete with a super creepy sample from the movie Session 9). There are even some blasts of full on freenoise freakout.
But Atavist at their core, are sludge pure and not so simple. Mighty hellbeasts wielding impossibly heavy slabs of ultrasludge, hurling dense chunks of black sound, moving in slow motion, but laying waste to all who cower before them. Neverending Eyehategod-ish high end feedback, dirge-y superdistorted bass grooves slowed waaaaaay down, until they're almost just big muddy smears of low end, guitars so low they sound like they're being dragged behind a truck through a tarpit. Those of you who have been fiending for more Khanate, Eyehategod, Moss, Bunkur, Monarch or who just need your head dunked in hot tar and beaten with feeding back guitars once in a while, may have just found the perfect prescription for your deathdoomdronedirgesludge fix.
Not one, not two, but THREE Nadja releases this week! Two of them are collaborations, but still, how's a Nadja fan supposed to keep up? But as we've learned, it's well worth the effort, as each disc has been a bonafide killer, and this one is no different.
Teamed up with UK sludge doom quartet Atavist, this seems like the ultimate doom drone matchup, and thus you might expect that these two bands would bring out the heaviest and sludgiest in each other, when in fact, the exact opposite is the case.
Two nearly half hour tracks, each one meandering and blissful, darkly tranquil and really really pretty. The first is a slowcore / postrock drift, delicate guitar figures, looped over a slow shimmery dronescape, the backdrop constantly shifting, the guitar line spidery and minor key, repeating hypnotically above a constantly intensifying backdrop of drones and rumblings. Eventually the background noise overtakes the lonely guitar, but not in a sludgy bombastic way, more like a muted churning swirl, lots of billowy low end guitar, and drifting smoky ambience. Near the end, the guitars do thicken, and suddenly the dreaminess is mired in some serious sludge, shot though with distant keening psychguitar, but it doesn't last, and the sludge softens quickly into more whispery whir.
The second track is a wide open expanse of billowy dark ambience, lots of strange muted FX and pulsing krautrocky swirl. More in line with Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh than SUNNO)) or Earth. Eventually building into a moaning majestic wall of sound, like Sunroof! or Vibracathedral, but less skree and more rumble, huge slabs of crumbling guitar, beneath glistening melodic fragments and soft whirls of sound.
Droney and dreamy, divine and doomy and obviously essential.
Latest batch of psychedelic sludge from this Chicago crew, their second album, but the first we've actually heard from these guys, and we have to say, we're digging this quite a bit. There seems to be something going on in Chicago, or something in the water as they say, with bands getting way weirder and more tripped out and psychedelic, the most obvious recent example has to be Nachtmystium's shift from grim blackness, to hazy black psych, similarly, we always thought these guys were much more doomy and sludgey and crusty, and perhaps at one point they were, but now they're conjuring something up much more in the spirit of groups like Kylesa or Rwake or other bands who have augmented their buzz and pound and howl with something much more experimental, melodic and psychedelic.
The Atlas Moth lay the foundation with big, downtuned riffs, a little stonery, way sludgey, plenty of classic metal going on too, the vibe very much like a smoldering post rockier Neurosis, but the riffs are spread out into strangely proggy arrangements, the band taking full advantage of their THREE guitar lineup with twisted serpentine harmonies that wrap themselves around everything. And the vocals are more like black metal shrieks, heavily effected vokills, that could sound out of place, but instead add a different element to the proceedings, but there's also lots of keyboards, some dramatic crooned clean vocals, even some trumpets, all woven into a sound that's epic and majestic, psychedelic and heavy, songs that unfurl gradually and slowly suck you in, not blasting or pounding or buzzing so much, but more sort of spaced out, and darkly dreamy, moody midtempo dirges that are totally mesmerizing.
Super striking Jesus Lizard Goat style artwork, with all manner of strange images projected onto a naked woman, like the music, very psychedelic.
So we really liked the last few Atomic Bitchwax records. Member of Monster Magnet busts out and does a record of guitar wanker stoner rock. Sounds good. So what's wrong with the new one? Not sure exactly. It's just sort of flat. Sort of pointless. And
Does come with a bonus cd, pretty cool Meteor City label sampler, chock full of, you guessed it, stoner rock.
Vinyl reissue of this proto-metal classic. Limited to 500 copies on orange vinyl with poster. Here's what we said back when we wrote up a cd reissue:
This album, from 1971 (natch), is probably Atomic Rooster's best and most significant (though their next lp, In Hearing Of is also up there too). Death Walks Behind You was the British band's second album, but their first with new drummer Paul Hammond and new guitarist John DuCann (aka John Cann), who had previously played in psych outfits Andromeda, The Attack, and others. He's best known though for his stint in Atomic Rooster - though we really wish there were decent reissues available of his and Hammond's post-AR band Hard Stuff for us to list, they're one of proto-metal's best kept secrets! But while DuCann brings a lot to this album with his guitar playing and singing, the real star of the show remains organist and main songwriter Vincent Crane, who had founded the band originally in 1969 with his former Crazy World Of Arthur Brown bandmate Carl Palmer (who split from Atomic Rooster after their debut to join up with Emerson and Lake, y'know). Vincent Crane's Hammer horror Hammond organ and piano playing has a lot to do with this record's doomy quality. Though they never took it to the extreme that Black Sabbath did, Atomic Rooster - and this album in particular, from its title and creepy William Blake cover painting to the gloomy, yet groovy music itself - certainly made good use of the spooky/dark/evil/occult vibe that later became a staple of the heavy metal genre. Eight bleak and bombastic tracks here, laced with lots of that good ol' "hairy funk" as DJ Andy Votel would put it. As far as heavy duty organ-based prog/psych goes, you've got to give it up to Atomic Rooster!!
Third album from these rain-soaked, Pacific Northwest doom freaks. On their last album, they started carving out their own unique little genre space, mixing all sorts of dark stuff together - doom, black metal, goth rock, and post-punk, to name a few - and we think it's fair to say they've fully carved it out now. The overall template is still huge, crushing doom similar to fellow Oregonians Hell or Merkstave (must be something in water up there), but this one gets even deeper into the hole, with an atmosphere of bleakness that could stand toe-to-toe with early Swans releases. The first two tracks, "Entropy" and "Collapse" immediately hit you with a psyched out, shrieking wall of doom with vocals that could have came straight off an Incantation record. "Bereavement" might be the highlight here, kicking off with some blackened blasts that dissolve into doom-soaked madness before building up again (in case you got used to it). Throughout the whole record, you get moments of psychedelic dirge, deathrock gloominess, and even old school death metal heaviness. It should go without saying that we are fully on board with this record and whatever unending pathways these guys decide to trudge down. Highly recommended.
Hey, blackened doom dudes and dudettes, we know you're busy spinning your new Yob album 24-7, but if you don't want to wear Atma out, here's something else you might like, from the folks (Seventh Rule) who last brought us Batillus.
Atriarch are an outfit from up in Portland, Oregon, and deal with the depression of living there (all the rain!) by making this bummer music, downer stuff for sure. And HEAVY. Though this is their debut, Atriarch aren't exactly newcomers to the underground sludge scene, their singer is from Trees, and also the bassist was in Graves At Sea. So they know what they're doing, and what they're doing is making some atmospherically arty, anguished ultra-doom!!!
There's four songs, adding up to 36 minutes (this is obviously intended for two sides of vinyl, which Seventh Rule has released in quite handsome form, though we also have cds in different, handmade packaging, self-released by the band). It's kinda like one looooong song though, and we mean that in a good way... a depressive, occasionally violent journey into the realms of grim gothic darkness, Atriarch employing harsh vokills (and some use of mournful "clean" vocals too), droning synth, somber slow-mo drum pummel, soft-loud dynamics, sad melodies, and of course crushing distorted guitars, to convey their dire emotional message of the foreverness of the end. Should appeal to anyone who might dig a bleaker, blacker metal version of Cough, Atavist, the aforementioned Yob, etc.
