Saint Vitus Live at Cambridge, MA’s Middle East Downstairs
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Doom metal pillars Saint Vitus reactivated as a version of their classic lineup – vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich, guitarist Dave Chandler and bassist Mark Adams, with drummer Henry Vasquez replacing the dearly departed Armando Acosta – in 2008. While touring on setlists leaning heavily toward Wino’s original studio era, they released their first record in nearly two decades in 2012. On their current tour, however, the band offers up an alternate history lesson.
While Wino busies himself with the resurrection of his other early doom outfit The Obsessed, original Vitus vocalist Scott Reagers rejoins the band on the road. As the new-old lineup proved on a recent October sixth in Cambridge, the resulting Vitus looks quite different from the one you might’ve caught in the past few years, but equally vital. The group’s instrumental core remains sturdily unchanged between Adams’ and Vasquez’s rumbling rhythm section and Chandler’s wah-fried riffing, but Reagers brings a different vibe to the table. Wino exudes a stoned gravitas in his stage presence, but Reagers embraces the crowd’s energy and dives headlong into the wild-eyed narrative role in his songs.
Kicking off the night as local openers, retro heavy metal purveyors Magic Circle performed a strong set that felt much more at home on this stage than at another recent gig opening for Skeletonwitch
Portents of doom future and past in Witch Mountain and The Skull accompanied Saint Vitus as tourmates.
Porland, OR doom quartet Witch Mountain have been an intermittently active concern since 1997, but last year’s addition of vocalist Kayla Dixon in place of the departed Uta Plotkin signaled a new era for the band. Dixon’s arresting stage presence and show-stopping voice – a range from soulful croon to throat-shredding roar – suggested during this set that bright horizons await the new lineup.
Fronted by founding Trouble vocalist Eric Wagner (joined by longtime bassist Ron Holzner), The Skull have the DNA of early Saint Vitus contemporaries. Live, a mix of their new tunes and some Trouble classics exhibited a tight and polished classic doom sound. Wagner had an easy confidence about him, and treated the set like a headlining affair. An enthusiastic audience response made it feel that way too.
Naturally, the setlist for the evening’s headliners focused heavily on Vitus’ first two pre-Wino LPs, along with 1995’s Reagers-fronted Die Healing. The band unleashed nearly the entirety of their 1984 self-titled debut, dispensing plenty of seasonally appropriate ghoulishness in “Zombie Hunger” and the lurching “Burial at Sea.” Reagers delivered each vocal with frantic conviction, and you could feel the scuzzy SST atmosphere of the original recordings in the air. An encore of “Born Too Late” provided the single Wino-era song of the night, and while its introspective tone set it apart from the rest of the set, it’s just too much of a Saint Vitus essential to leave out. Chandler dedicated the song to the crowd before jumping into their midst to finish one of the all-time great anti-conformity anthems amidst its people.
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Magic Circle
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Witch Mountain
Feral Light Exhale the “Life Vapor” of Black Metal (Album Premiere)
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Feral Light, formed by guitarist Andy Schoengrund (ex-Wolvhammer), has been doling out wonderful black metal under the radar for half a decade. The band's debut and second full-lengths championed a stylishly abstract style in the genre without bowing too far toward the gazing or hyper-atmospheric end of the spectrum. The results were damn fine: as listenable as these two releases still are, they still provoked feelings of familiarity, and most importantly, the notion of progression. Well, progression is here in the form of the band's third full-length Life Vapor -- we're streaming the whole album now prior to Friday's release....
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Immediately, album opener "Blood in Sand" will convey what Feral Light is all about -- the sense-feeling of dischordance without, well, too much discordance. There's a melodic tinge to Life Vapor that buries itself beneath the scenes, poking out when it needs to but not oversaturating the mix with sing-song or anything circusy. And, as the album progresses, you'll notice a gently undulating wavelength in the sound, as intensity rises and falls under Feral Light's mighty pen. The abstraction the band achieves on this release is impressive given how familiar and poignant these tunes sound -- for black metal that hits all the spots and doesn't give you anything you didn't need, Life Vapor is where it's at....
Life Vapor releases Friday via Hypnotic Dirge Records....
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Be “Swallowed by the Sea” of Red Mesa’s Crimson Desert Doom
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It's right there in the name: New Mexico's Red Mesa is desert rock stained blood-red, drawing vibrant color into their hypnotic stream of fuzz and furor. On their third full-length The Path to the Deathless, their consistently bizarre approach to stoner rock finds itself walking haunted trails and delving deeper into mysticism while still retaining a heavy, head-nodding crunch. We're streaming "Swallowed by the Sea" exclusively now, a nine-minute expedition into the depths of their sound -- sink into it now....
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Poignant all the while, "Swallowed by the Sea" is crafted from peaks and valleys of both longing and menace, plotted along a trajectory: while the first half of the song is more peaceful, lulling listeners into complacity like a siren, the second is battered by violent storms of throaty screams and impaling riffs before a final, gurgling calm. Violin and pedal steel both feature on this track, creating an appealing imbalance: the unexpected dulcet strings and weeping guitar add a sense of passion and emotion to the more ironclad foundations. It all feels tied together, though, and the track, which closes out this album, never feels disconnected or segmented. Just like the sea itself ebbs and flows, "Swallowed by the Sea" has a cyclical motion to it, and succumbing to it is a vital part of the experience. This is certainly an unusual song, and an unusual album, but that's kind of the norm for Red Mesa now: their last album The Devil and the Desert was half doomed-Americana acoustic jams and half relentless stoner rock, split right down the middle. Despite being located in Albuquerque, a bevy of classic doom influences flows into The Path to the Deathless and colors the sun-baked rock further, evidenced by the guest appearances on the album: Dave Sherman (Earthride) lends his iconic rasp to "Desert Moon" and the legendary Wino (Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan) guests on "Disharmonious Unlife." In the jam-packed stoner doom space, Red Mesa has carved out their own tinted niche, uniting disparate strands of heavy and heartfelt into a blazing scarlet offering....
The Path to the Deathless releases June 12th via Desert Records. Regarding "Swallowed by the Sea," two members of Red Mesa offer insight on its origin:I wrote the lyrics to Swallowed By The Sea a few years back while on tour in Jagged Mouth. Roman Barham, who played drums in that band also and I were camping on the beach in Lincoln City, Oregon. We had quite a night after all the other guys we were on tour with (Ol’ Dagger from Santa Fe, NM) left for a hotel room across the street. We definitely saw a UFO out over the water! At around 2am Roman woke me up, very concerned that the tide was getting close to our tent. Turns out we were camped at a safe distance, but the thought of being swallowed by the sea was born. I wrote the lyrics after returning home to New Mexico, and ran them by Roman for input. The song was never used for Jagged Mouth, as it disbanded not long after. Fast forward two years, and Roman told Brad Frye about the experience and the song that I was sitting on. Turns out it fit into a concept for the next Red Mesa album that they were working on. I was asked to lend it out, and contribute vocally or musically somehow. I got to work and wrote the structure and all of the riffs except the closing riff, which is Brad’s. Not long after, their bass player stepped down and I was asked to join the band on bass, which I was absolutely stoked to do. The end result, complete with haunting violin and watery, mournful pedal steel is beyond what I could’ve perceived, and it ends the album on the theme about having a sort of spiritual experience near the ocean, and then being given over to it, being willingly prepared for what comes next after passing from this world’s realm.-- Alex Cantwell
Originally, "Swallowed By The Sea" was a song meant to be for a band that Alex and I were in called Jagged Mouth. Alex and I had an experience on tour while camping on the beach at Lincoln city, Oregon. We saw a UFO! I couldn’t sleep because it felt like we were going to get carried off by the morning tide. It was a crazy experience.-- Roman Barham
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The Skull
Cryptic Shift Deliver “Visitations From Enceladus” to Turn Death-Thrash Into High Art
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We are often confronted with a specific critical rubric, one that privileges pure novelty over execution. It's the kind of thought pattern that punishes groups for too clearly sounding connected to the ideas of other groups, the kind that accuses groups of nostalgia-aping, and that tends to view comparative comments as a sign of disrespect or at least a sign that a group doesn't quite have an identity of their own yet. This mode, of course, does also have some positives: there is a real non-zero value to the groups that break new ground, either founding entirely new genres, or, more frequently, bringing fresh approaches and new concepts to older genre grounds. This is, after all, a big part of the adoration of groups like Venom, Possessed, and Helloween, citing not just the quality of their work (each of those groups having absolute landmark releases) but also the discrete historical value of feeling like the eruptive moment of something. This mode goes on further, offering some of the reasons why certain bands are so well-beloved, not always for creating an entirely new genre but for adding a specific key element or arrangement of elements in a style that becomes a touchstone for works to follow. But the problem, of course, is that most bands and even most excellent bands, let alone records, tend to be works that focus less on purely breaking new ground and more on executing the ideas already made available. Cryptic Shift's debut Visitations From Enceladus, released earlier this month, is a wonderful contemporary example of this thought....
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That approach would miss something tremendous about Visitations From Enceladus, which is the strikingly high bar of execution of these ideas. It's true, perhaps, that Cryptic Shift aren't purely interested at least on their debut of generating something fully separate from what has come before, but given the quality of these results combined with the fact that holy shit, this is only a debut, it still remains astounding. Debuts, after all, should be judged on a slightly different rubric anyway: they are more often than not the generative seeds of a group, a sketch of a starting point and not necessarily an ending point. Groups like Death are prime examples of the potential wild evolution of a group from their debut and the potential to be found there, while Cannibal Corpse on the other end show the potential value of perpetual refinement and fine-detail attentions rather than macroscopic evolutionary shifts. Visitations From Enceladus is a record that any decent band going right now would be proud to have as their fifth, their tenth, their 15th release. The album opens with a 26-minute progressive death metal epic in six movements titled "Moonbelt Immolator." Given the sci-fi conceit, it's hard not to feel valences of Rush given the landmark influence records such as 2112 and Hemispheres have on progressive metal in specific, nor can we deny the link to recent tendency to sci-fi tinged progressive death metal epics in groups such as Blood Incantation. Cryptic Shift are clearly uninterested in merely settling for similarity, however. Their approach to death metal in general is far more in touch with the technical thrash metal characteristics of the earliest wave of progressive death metal -- frantic sci-fi riffing, but clearly passed through the filter of all the lessons of contemporary death metal. The six movements on this opening song have quite a bit of separation, more than you might initially expect, really leaning into the sense that this is six discrete movements rather than a single macroscale song with merely broken subsections of lyrics. This is an arrangement approach to large-scale prog epics that we've unfortunately seen slip away in recent years, at least in bigger records, where the focus has seemed to tilt more toward through-composed evenly segued large-scale passages. There's something about Cryptic Shift's approach that screams prog, as in the classics of prog-rock, that a single long-form thought doesn't always connote. The more clear separations of movements works to their favor here; the shorter units of the song feel more like complete thoughts with fully-realized and developed arcs that link one into the next. In another world, this epic could have been released as an EP with each movement separated as a full track and the praises sung would still be the same: the emotional logic and sense of breath and pacing to the discrete units is wonderfully balanced, producing a strong overall effect while still allowing you to more fully focus and take in the details of the movements despite its girthy length which may seem intimidating or opaque from the outside. This makes those spans and the holographic intent of the longer structure much more immediately graspable on just one or two listens as opposed to the at times double-digits play counts to decode others. And, it should be noted, Cryptic Shift do this all without sacrificing the tasty sense of density and intense dance of notes we expect and crave from great technical and progressive thrash and progressive death metal. Also worth noting are Cryptic Shift's chord choices throughout the three shorter tracks that follow the massive opener. You don't need to know anything about music theory to note them, either; there's a suspicious sense of beauty and openness to the chords, a brightness and deftness. Cryptic Shift are clearly unafraid of dissonance, but their sense of how to play with dissonance and consonance is more sophisticated and deeply pleasing than just stringing an endless parade of diminished and ugly-sounding chords one after another. These are dissonances that hover in just the right place for just the right amount of time, then resolve into intriguing resolutions. Cryptic Shift have clearly paid close attention to the greats, especially the ones that get more adventurous with elements like the lengths of their chord progressions and the choices they make along the way. This is a perfect place to take notes from the masters as you get ideas and sounds under your fingers; given how bursting with life these songs are, it almost gives you heart-palpitations thinking of the places this group could go with their songwriting. Because that's what the three shorter songs really showcase. This is not meant as a sleight to the big epic, which is also a commanding piece of music that frankly makes me (as a big prog and death metal guy) grin from ear to ear in childlike glee. But it would be a completely different sensation if the group was only commanding in those big stretches and couldn't hack it in the smaller ones. There are a few groups who will go unnamed where this could be said, where the sheer monumentalism of their songs and number of ideas they cram into them is what makes them work rather than necessarily any discrete sense of pacing or development that becomes much more starkly apparent in a short timeframe. Cryptic Shift, though, absolutely shines on the three shorter pieces that conclude the record. The first, "(Petrified In The) Hypogean Gaol," features a solo about halfway through that is one of the most beautiful I've heard of the year -- it then transitions through a set of sonic ideas for the final few minutes that feel at times almost more like progressive post-hardcore, mathy and bright and beautiful, but delivered with the same thrashing and unifying intensity. The song that follows, "The Arctic Chasm," has a number of riffs with a mid-tempo pulse that makes me tilt my head down, sneer with premium stank face, and headbang at my desk, even more than a dozen listens in. The songs on Visitations from Eneladus are filled to the brim with these types of moments. The songs themselves are no doubt stacked with riffs and ideas, bringing to mind the famous proclamatory stickers of old tech-thrash albums at the peak of that style declaring how many riffs the record contained, but they are so well-balanced and well-incorporated with each other that you rarely get the sense that the band is going for sensory overload in lieu of strong songwriting. This is in strong contrast to Cryptic Shift's earlier EP Beyond the Celestial Realms, as well as the subsequent stand-alone single "Cosmic Dreams." That earlier material, while still strong, was written a number of years ago, a gap readily apparent by the punctuated equilibrium of their songwriting chops. Each element of Visitations From Enceladus is an improvement on that material, from their raw technical chops to their melodic choices to their chord choices to their songwriting. Unmentioned thus far are their vocals, which burst with character, refusing to drop into a monotonous low growl or formless hardcore bark, instead having the mellifluous and multi-faceted character that makes great death metal vocals so goddamn charismatic. Likewise, the drums are played with a great balance of sophistication and power, having a great movement between d-beats and blasts and figure work and more cinematically attuned rock and prog beat patterns. The guitars are, of course, absolutely shredding, with face-melting solos delivered with grit and tough-and-tight downpicked thrash chugs and death metal atonal riffs delivered with sensitivity and grace. The bass is sadly buried just a bit too much in the mix to get a lot of details, but when it cuts through, it reveals intelligently composed and energetically performed parts nonetheless....
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We have been tremendously lucky these past few years in the world of death metal, from the old-school death metal revolution to inventive and exciting work in the world of the avant-garde. Some may be burned out by the seemingly perpetual praise of groups like Blood Incantation and Tomb Mold and, while I certainly would disagree with any sentiment abridging the quality of their work, I can be sympathetic to that feeling of overexposure. Cryptic Shift stands a good chance of connecting with those types; it still contains just as many brilliantly played and composed riffs embedded in tightly crafted song-structures but comes without some of the cultural baggage that constant exposure can create. But for everyone else interested in contemporary death metal (as well as those interested in young and promising bands), Visitations From Enceladus is an absolute must-listen. Cryptic Shift have taken careful notes from the masters that preceded them and produced an assemblage that focuses its efforts and energies on hooks, song structures, and balance of elements, foregrounding execution to a degree that's frankly awe-inspiring. What's more, this record indicates a potentially very bright future for this group, who in only one record already feel so comfortable to place next to the current high-guard of contemporary death metal....
Visitations From Enceladus released May 4th via Blood Harvest Records....
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Axis of Light Declares “On Whom the Red Moon Bleeds”
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For those who remember the earlier days of Fallen Empire Records, there was a split between the inimitable Death Fortress and a little-known black metal project from Northern England: Axis of Light. While Death Fortress brought about their famed pummeling deathy black metal, Axis of Light was the complete opposite side of the coin: a crispy, trebly force of traditional, melodic black metal riffing. A few releases over the next few years would offer a deeper look into this duo's approach, only for them to disappear without so much of a trace until now, returning with a self-titled EP, which is slated for an early June release. Listen to an exclusive premiere of "On Whom The Red Moon Bleeds" below....
https://soundcloud.com/axisoflight/axis-of-light-on-whom-the-red-moon-bleeds/s-hThCYZnOAh3...
Axis of Light in 2020 offers a similar sort of black metal fruition to their earlier music from seven years ago -- French-styled melodies, harrowing rawness, and a howling, screeching vocal performance. This is black metal for purists -- there is no embellishment here: no post-rock, no folk, nothing except a blasting fury of hatred and pride. For those who knew of Axis of Light before, this is what you've been waiting for, and to those who haven't heard them, this is what you've been missing. Be sure to check out the rest of Axis of Light's discography while you're at it....
Axis of Light releases in June via Pristine Blight....
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St. Vitus
Motorhead’s Lemmy on Little Richard: “He’s the Best”
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Yesterday was Motorhead Day and today brings the tragic news that rock and roll pioneer Little Richard has passed away at age 87. He was one of Lemmy's favorites; when an interviewer once asked Lemmy who his golden god is, he simply replied, "Little Richard, 'cause he's the best." Watch that clip and a video of Lemmy covering "Good Golly Miss Molly" below. Hopefully Lemmy and Little Richard will cross paths in rock heaven....
https://youtu.be/9rnZriMDlx4 https://youtu.be/1iQDMoelbk4...
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“Light the Bonfire” of Ice Howl’s Furious Power Metal Blaze
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Hurtling out of ancient, frosty caverns with a piercing scream, Ice Howl rides the winds of fantasy, seeking to put the "power" back into "power metal" with an emphasis on boisterous energy and drive over all else. Wielding a power-meets-heavy-meets-stoner-metal blend that's an easy sell for fans of The Sword and Manilla Road alike, the Indiana band will soon release a second full-length Cadence of the Cursed after four long years and a re-incarnation as a solo project. We're streaming the track "Light the Bonfire" now....
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Drawing inspiration from digital realms, every song on the album tackles a video game series -- for anyone remotely familiar, it shouldn't be too surprising that "Light the Bonfire" takes place in the weird, lore-packed world of Dark Souls. Taking the dire circumstances that plague the series' humankind, Ice Howl flips the script into a glorious, magnetic ride replete with gauntleted riffs and hair-raising choruses that's over all too soon. It may not be blazing fast, but the infectious pulse of the track generates as much adrenaline as beating a boss in the actual game does... only without all the stress and rage you normally accumulate in the process. I've eagerly lapped up each Ice Howl release over the last few years -- while every EP has pushed forward mastermind Jason Roach's vision of power metal laced with the stopping power of the rest of heavy metal's variants, the main draw for me has been the top-tier retro riffs they're packed with.Cadence of the Cursed has these in spades, all mainline worthy, but as a whole there's another appeal: the blazing passion behind this album is obvious, both for heavy metal and the subject matter, and every listen fuels your own kindling spark just a little bit more....
Cadence of the Cursed releases June 12th. Preorders available via Bandcamp. Regarding "Light the Bonfire", Jason says:Cadence of the Cursed is my second album under the name Ice Howl. Ice Howl has always been fantasy-based, but I decided to take it a bit further and made every song on the album themed around a video game series. "Light the Bonfire" is one of the songs I didn't expect to like as much as I do. The Dark Souls series is almost a shoo-in when it comes to metal. The idea that humanity has basically ended, but clutches to existence by a "somewhat" eternal flame is about as metal as you can get. The lore behind Dark Souls is extremely bleak and hopeless, and I wanted to portray something extremely dark into something melodic and catchy. As far as the music goes, I wanted the tone to reflect what you'd find on my debut album (Crack the Earth), but have a little bit more edge to it. I've been developing my own style for years. I've always liked the idea of blending power metal with various other styles such as stoner rock, heavy metal, and even some hardcore/metalcore. I hope you dig it!
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Upcoming Metal Releases: 5/10/20 — 5/16/20
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Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of May 10th to May 16th, 2020. Releases reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays. See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging. Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media....
Surprise Releases + Things We Missed
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Yarrow -- We Made What God Could Not | Death Metal + Doom | United States (California) God could not have made We Made What God Could Not, because it'd have killed him dead. Yarrow has written a primal behemoth of a doom album. I won't say much more other than that your patience will be rewarded.-- Andrew Rothmund
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Рожь -- Остов | Black Metal + Ambient | Russia Gorgeous swaths of black metal strewn on tapestries of ambient noise -- Остов is everything I want in a random Bandcamp discovery. Even the album art is mindblowing. Both the harsh and soft noises on this release are rich with color and feeling -- it feels homemade, but of such quality that you'd take it over any mass-produced replacement any day, every day.-- Andrew Rothmund
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Upcoming Releases
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Paradise Lost -- Obsidian | Nuclear Blast | Gothic + Death + Doom Metal | United Kingdom Few bands can claim to have never fully stopped over 30 years, but Paradise Lost are exactly that band, now celebrating the diamond anniversary of their debut album with their 16th release in the shape of Obsidian. While the band’s previous two releases re-established their death metal bonafides, this latest slab has the band feeling free to play with the full breadth of their musical legacy. No need to worry about vocalist Nick Holmes giving up his growl as it shows up much across the album, but the band as a whole is in a far more melodic and experimental mood. Whether in the betwixting upbeat gloom of “Forsaken” or the future goth club hit of “Ghosts," Paradise Lost continues to show darkness and catchiness aren’t opposites. Tune in soon for an interview with Paradise Lost frontman Nick Holmes.-- Joe Aprill
https://youtu.be/QWqNcw-oIbU...
In the Company of Serpents -- LUX | Doom + Post-Metal | United States (Colorado) Now here's something I'm excited to share with you all: LUX, a behemoth groove-machine of an album that's dark and beautiful in all the right ways. In the Company of Serpents have saturated this release doom for sure, but the wonderful sludge-laden ascents toward great climaxes are what drives the nail home.-- Andrew Rothmund
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Devangelic -- Ersetu | Willowtip Records | Death Metal | Italy Devangelic achieve sensational levels of aggression on Ersetu without over-slamming things to the next century. It's the band's third full-length, so by this time, they've definitely got the basics down: technicality, brutality, and great groove. Ersetu is the next step, making everything faster, harder, and bigger. That's the idea, right?-- Andrew Rothmund
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Wailin' Storms -- Rattle | Gilead Media | Doom + Rock | United States (North Carolina) Fuzzy, soulful rock will never go out of style, and Wailin' Storms has their own style anyway, incorporating elements of grunge, doom, and punk, and always, always keeping it heavy. A weird and inimitable approach keeps this fresh and heartfelt, always sounding new even though it feels immediately familiar. What's more comforting than reverb-drenched electric guitar, anyway?-- Ted Nubel
https://youtu.be/Id0djS-2JcE...
Ara -- Jurisprudence | Death Metal | United States (Wisconsin) From Jon Rosenthal's premiere of "Abhortion":Save for a select few, technical death metal is a blank canvas, and few, if any, seem to want to delve into emotion’s depths. Wisconsin’s Ara, on the other hand, make a stark reminder that technical death metal comes from, well, death metal. Though this four-piece, boasting members of Northless and Syrictus, has a penchant for musical flourishing and extremely technical riffing, emotion doesn’t take a back seat, and it makes for an interesting listen, if just because their peers seem to lack any emotion at all. In as such, Ara is pissed — angry in a way which is near cartoonish. This is angry in the way Tipper Gore says any metal is.
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Delivering the Word: Death Courier’s “Pillars of Murk” Echoes Total Demise
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Straight to the point: Death Courier's upcoming Necrotic Verses comprises prime-as-fuck death metal, and few bands in this ilk can match this level of mastery. The band, importantly, has a storied history reaching back more than 30 years with a slew of late-1980s demos that culminated in a 1992 debut full-length. Shortly thereafter, bassist and vocalist Billy Soulas put the project on hold until a resurrection almost two decades later -- we received a second full-length in 2013, but even that album's hefty punch cannot set back the looming shadow of Necrotic Verses. The album delivers precise, gnarly, and beastly death metal without pretense and without overblowing it. You might be thinking: "oh, old-school death metal by veteran players, it'll be good but more of the same," and you wouldn't be entirely wrong. You'd just be missing a bigger point: Necrotic Verses is absolutely to-date, and not just because death metal is in vogue, but because the sharp cut of Death Courier's style slices through any OSDM overgrowth which may have existed. Get a taste for yourself; we're pleased to stream the album's sixth song "Pillars of Murk" exclusively below:...
https://youtu.be/nf_5Hg5clZA...
Necrotic Verses releases June 5th via Transcending Obscurity Records....
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Buckle Up For Wayward’s Sleazy and Hard “Hellride” (Song Premiere)
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Wayward comes, and Gehenna will know their mark. They're geared up, full on gas, and ready to leave a trail of burning rubber all the way through the nine circles. The Leipzig-based group (featuring members of Deathrite) specializes in leather-clad heavy metal not concerned with subtlety, dynamics, or dawdling introductions. Their self-titled debut full length hits the world in a few weeks, but we're exclusively streaming the music video for the track "Hellride" now. Stock up on your favorite vice and dive on in....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFcRYtLgvtA...
As scenes of motorized mayhem roll past the screen, the hoarse vocals and classic guitar riffing spark long-buried thoughts of the first time I heard Mötörhead and Venom blasting from the speakers in darkened bars between sets -- that same sheer reckless energy is prioritized over the nuances that other varieties of early heavy metal pursued. When there's a guitar solo here, it's because it sounds cool, not because it completes a musical motif or facilitates a key change. Wild abandon, often tragically eroded in studio efforts, is the unmissable, clattering engine that propels Wayward forward and keeps the action-packed songs burning bright. The rough-'n'-tumble feeling on "Hellride" is pervasive: you can just about hear the whiskey seeping from the glowing tube amps and sweat-drenched drums that produced it. Really, the music video accompanying it is best watched in a smoke-hazed basement on a classic CRT television. And, if the situation allows, you should definitely chug a beer in your garage before checking Wayward out, for authenticity of course....
Wayward releases May 28th via This Charming Man Records. Regarding "Hellride," the band says:Hellride is the first song we've ever written and it wraps up the whole story of playing in a rock and roll band. It's simply 'one hell of a ride!'
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Paradise Lost Vocalist Nick Holmes on Doom, Dirge, “Obsidian,” and Horror (Interview)
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In this time of global pandemic, brought about by the COVID-19 virus, few genres of music seem more suited than doom metal. This may seem like a contradiction because in a growing situation of global depression and hopelessness, why would people want to seemingly double down on music filled with negative emotions? Shouldn’t people be seeking the most joyful and happy music on hand as the cure for what emotionally ails them? I, for one, certainly don’t think so. What I can say is every individual comes to that question differently, and what works for one person is never going to work for everyone. It does seem metalheads are more likely to find solace and emotional catharsis through dark and often negatively charged art -- maybe trying to cover up or ignore our negative emotions will, in the end, result in bottling them up under the kind of pressure that might later explode in self-destructive ways. Negative art can remind us we’re not alone in our feelings, nor that those feelings are anything to be ashamed of for simply experiencing. Doom metal revels in these internal expressions of despair and gloom more than any other type of metal, and for many, that’s a reason why it’ll be the light guiding us through this even further darkened world. What great fortune then that one of the godfathers of doom metal, Paradise Lost, is releasing a new album right in the middle of such worrying times. With Obsidian, the band's 16th album from their 30+ year history, the Yorkshire legends of gloom continue a return of sorts to their origins -- their last two albums featured vocalist Nick Holmes performing death metal vocals, which hadn’t been heard in the band’s work since their third album, 1992’s Shades of God. Already having proved they could still deliver monster slabs of death-doom, Obsidian now seems comfortable to pull from the full breadth of their legacy. The death metal vocals haven’t evaporated, but they’re now accompanied with the sort of gothic overtures and vibrant melodies that are just as likely to appeal to fans of the band’s less breakout classic releases like Icon and One Second. More than several weeks into stay-at-home orders, and with the reality of the COVID-19 world really starting to settle in, I had a chat with Holmes in the twilight hours of 3 a.m. in Los Angeles, which for him was the far more sensible hour of 11 a.m. in the U.K. Rather than the conversation that followed being dark and dreary, I instead noted how joyful Holmes and myself were, oftentimes finding ourselves bursting with laughter over some of the absurdities of lock-down life, the intricacies of family, or fond memories from the past. As I mentioned before about art being catharsis, for doom metal fans, we wallow in our misery through the music which lets us appreciate the rest of life with a smile and a hardy laugh....
https://youtu.be/QWqNcw-oIbU...
So how are you holding up during these turbulent times right now? Okay, I think we're on week four now of the lockdown. It's not massively different for me personally because I spent a lot of time at home anyway but I guess it's kind of weird when you go out to the shops or kind of walking around town. Some people are dealing with it better than others I guess, but I don't work nine to five so I don't mind being at home all the time. So not a huge change for you. How are your family dealing with it? Well my daughters are adults and luckily they can work from home. My wife works from home anyway as well. We're all sort of in the same house but I've got a man cave, so I can get away from everybody. It's an important part of getting a house for me. It seals the deal with having the man cave [laughs]. I guess could really understand why it would be a nightmare for some people but... I mean, we would just need to get some things open up. Get some shops open and have a bit of commerce going again. I think the longer it goes the worse it's going to be but obviously people are still dying of course, so we can't do that and we’ll have to wait. How is it there? You’re in Los Angeles? Yeah, Los Angeles. It's about the same as with you having lockdown for about four to five weeks. So it's been trying. It's definitely a weird new normal. Yeah, it's strange. Obviously it’s going to be interesting to see what it's like on the other side of this. They're kind of strange in the U.K. because they're locking down some things that I don't think they need to while then other things are open. Like the recycling center, they could probably open that up but they're not. So I think when it does open there's going to be like a mile long queue of people just with shit from the garden because there's nothing else to do. It kind of sounds petty but there's little coming together now and everyone is going to get a bit touchy about it. So yeah, the kind of rules so far baffle me a little bit. But anyway, I guess it's just new to everyone. For you has it been a struggle to deal with boredom or do you find yourself busier than usual? I've been doing promotion for the new album for the last two and a half weeks. I've never done this much promotion, such as speaking interviews like this. I've never, ever done this many. So I've been pretty full on with that but I don't get bored anyway. I never get bored. I'm only ever bored if I'm with people who are bored or if they say they're bored. Being around that makes me start to feel bored. So if I'm left to my own devices I'm never, no I never get bored. There's always something to do, you know. Even with a family around? They aren’t going, "God dad, I'm bored." Yeah, that's why I go to the man cave [laughs]. Yeah, there’s a bit of that when they're not working. I guess because they're obviously in their late teens to early 20's so at that age you want to go out. That's a stage where you want to hit the town and go out with your friends, which they can't do right now. So I would imagine it must be a bit of bit of a nightmare for that age group. But you know, obviously I'm past all that. I’m fine just staying at home [laughs]. Even though you're busy have you been able to find more free time than you normally would? Like have you been attempting to read a book or do something that you've been putting off for a while? I mean we're keeping the album date the same, the 15th of May, so any time around that's just gonna be focussed on promotion. We haven't really got that many shows. We lost shows for sure. We've lost probably ten shows for PL [Paradise Lost], but we're still kind of looking ahead to this month and then it goes the next month ahead of that. Obviously no one knows how long it's gonna be. I mean I've been trying to get a new computer for the last sort of five years. So I'm sort of slowly doing that. Actually I used to build them myself, so I'm getting all the bits for that and slowly putting that together. However I never have trouble with what I’d call boredom. I run and like to exercise as well. So between that, tinkering around with electronics and all the promotion work I never really get bored. Speaking of touring, besides Paradise Lost you're also the singer in Bloodbath and I think the upcoming American dates had to get postponed. That news felt like a double hit because those dates were already rescheduled from the 2018 tour that didn't quite happen. Yeah, we're really pissed off by it. I mean the last time was no fault of our own as that was a problem with the passport business. Unfortunately it's just really bad luck. It's a real shame as we were really looking forward to it as well but I guess when I looked at the dates I thought, "Oh god, we're definitely not going to be doing that." Obviously America locked down most travel or whatever a few weeks ago, so yeah, it was kind of doomed by now. So, I don't know, you just got to deal with it, you know? Seems most classes are being postponed so of course everything else is postponed in the world. In 2016 with Paradise Lost you played Maryland Deathfest, which I think was the first time I ever saw you guys live. Then Paradise Lost had a 2018 headline tour and I caught that in California. I think that was the first headline tour of the states for you guys or at least the first one in a long time. What do you remember most from that tour? Was that the Los Angeles show for you or was that the one kind of out of town? You guys had one show that was in rough part of Los Angeles, which I skipped but then you played out of town in a place called Pomona. Yeah, Pomona was the last one. That was a brilliant tour and we really loved it. It also wasn't too long. I mean we've done tours, not that often, but in the very early days we toured with Morbid Angel and it was like seven weeks or something. It was all a bit intense. We weren't really prepared for that because we were very young when we first started. When we first came over to America it was like 1993 and we were very young and inexperienced. It was kind of a long time to be away from home at that age [laughs]. We didn't have any money either. No one had credit cards either as we were just kids really. So We didn't really have a great time but since then over the years we've usually supported pretty big bands in the States and we've had a good time. That said the last one was great at about three weeks or something like that. A very easygoing and relaxed tour. Everyone loved it so hopefully, fingers crossed, we can get out and do something like that again. I hope so. I mean I had a great time being able to see you guys actually do a headline set, which for some bands just is never something they can do over here. I mean obviously there's some shows where you know you can pack out certain places and other places there's not a particularly great attendance. That's kind of standard anyway I think unless you've passed a certain level in the States. Still it was really nice like I said to do those headline shows and also Sólstafir were great guys. It was nice to tour with those lads as well. With tours unlikely till the fall or potentially even till next year what kind has been the conversation within Paradise Lost about keeping the buzz going? Like in trying to sell merch even though you can't tour, play shows, or any festivals? For example one part that was interesting was that in a recent press release you mentioned declining Nuclear Blast's offer to delay the album’s release. I mean... I just didn't see the point in delaying it because people can still listen to music. Now's actually a great time for people to listen to music. If they find themselves at a bit of a loose end or they want something new to get into then now is probably the time to put out a new album. I think if everyone releases their albums at the same time later it's going to be overkill. I mean it's also going to be overkill for everyone to start playing live again. So as far as music goes, you know I'm still listening to albums I listened to when I was 15 years old. So I don't think we need to worry about the right time to release it [laughs]. Although the younger generation tend not to have the attention span perhaps that guys in their 50's have [laughs] . If my own children are anything to go by anyway. So yeah, I didn't see the point in waiting. If you like an album you’re going to like it all your life. Playing live again though is a different issue I guess, which we'll just have to see what happens there. Has there been any thought about... like I've been seeing it with Megadeth and some other bands doing an official band mask, like a face mask while out in public with band images and logos on it. We didn't get approached about doing that yet. I don't know. I guess if it becomes a norm and everyone's wearing them then fine. I just thought at first it was perhaps a little bit bad in taste. But if it does become the norm then it's the norm. I initially had mixed views about it but I started to see them more and more here now. I mean even Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing it now. I guess especially in America they're more the norm than here yet. You don't really see them that much here outside of the hospitals really. I's still something people are negotiating whether or not they work here. That's a big thing at the moment. I just thought it was interesting how I was already seeing bands doing their own merch versions of that. Anyway, moving on from that... press materials for Obsidian mentioned that the album is quote, "A richer and more dynamic deluge of black shades,” which is a fancy way of saying it’s a much more varied album, especially compared to your two previous albums which were very dark and heavy from front to back. So I think that's true but I don't think the new album is a radical change. Whether the last album or the new one they both still sound like Paradise Lost to me. That said were there changes or a different approach to the band had in mind ahead before recording? No, I mean the last album was very much a specific attempt to make a death-doom metal album. That was absolutely the intention with the last album where we didn't want to wander too far off. I guess any time we start to write a new album the last one is the model we look at for where to go next and bearing that in mind we just thought we'd vary this one up a little bit. Actually the first song we wrote “Fall from Grace” is very reminiscent of the last album. From there you kind of get a vibe for where you're going after about three songs. I suppose these sorts of influences from different eras are in this album, but I think it's very, very much a Paradise Lost album. I have no doubt about that. I also think it's a very, very dark album as well. In many ways darker than the last one even if it’s not as heavy. I think we don't wander too far away from what we're known for but we still added a few new kind of gothy extra bits which we haven't done for a while. Perhaps a more gothic slant in a couple of songs....
https://youtu.be/urugx_wSBy8...
”Ghosts” definitely stands out in that way. It definitely has a goth rock kind of vibe to it. I really like the track but it definitely has that character to it. Oh yeah, definitely. I mean that's the kind of gothic music that was around when we were kids growing up. You don't really hear that kind of music anymore as no one really does it. Bearing that in mind it still has a massive amount of nostalgia for us. Even though we were probably little thrash metal boys around that time we were still very aware of it because the places where we would go drinking or go to nightclubs were always goth clubs. So we would always hear stuff like the Cult, Southern Death Cult, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and all these goth songs from that era. So I guess they probably had a bit of an imprint on us. Sort of hard coded to make our ears pick up as soon as we hear that kind of thing, the jangly guitar and all that sort of stuff. So yeah, it's nice to put a little bit of an injection of that into what we're doing now, which is obviously quite a bit of a different thing. Are there any lyrics or memories you have from the writing and recording of Obsidian that given the situation we're all in now have a different meaning or significance to you? I mean there's so much ambiguity in the lyrics that I do anyway. We've probably got about five songs which you could relate to what's going on now. I mean we've even got an old song called "Isolate" and that’s about 15 or 20 years old. So the ambiguity in songs can be great. I mean that's what I like about lyrics, really. I like specific songs about specific subjects if they're incredibly well written but a lot of the time they're not. So when there's ambiguity in lyrics they're kind of just nice words, phrases, or sentences put together. I don't necessarily need everything to make sense for me to enjoy it. From a writing perspective it's about writing words and lines that create a certain feeling or how I think it will work with the music. So I would never take the lyrics separate from the music. It's part and parcel of a whole package. So that's sort of my approach to it. In getting ready for the interview I watched an older interview you did in support of the Medusa and someone asked you about your lyrics. You mentioned how, for that album, some of it has been inspired by a general sort of antagonism towards organized religion along with humanity's natural fear of death. Hearing that struck me in terms of how we're all really feeling the fragility of mortal life now in a way that we can't ignore. I saw an interview with a New York journalist, or could have been a novelist, though I can't remember his name. It was a great interview but he was saying that he's such a nervous person and he's scared by everything in life. Like just going for a cup of coffee freaks him out. Now that the Coronavirus thing is out he's really calm about it because he says he's been building up to this [laughs]. I really like that because I sort of identify with that. I can freak out and I always imagine the worst case scenarios in pretty much everything I do. If I'm driving to the seaside with the kids I think, “Oh my god, we might hit a tree!” I probably just watch too many horror films really and that's all it is [laughs]. But yeah, I always imagine the worst case scenario. It's the same on holidays as well. It's almost like when something actually really bad happens you've got the armor already on. Which is kind of what that guy, whose name I can’t remember, said but I thought that was really profound. You know, I definitely relate to that. I for sure have a pessimists' streak in terms of always thinking the worst and my thought is usually if that doesn't happen then it's like, “Oh, good. I was wrong.” Yeah [laughs], it's like a treat for yourself. It's like you've got some cash back [laughs]. Yeah, I mean my wife and I when we go on holiday and we say go to some nice place but I'm like, "oh my god, the tsunami hit this place." I'm looking around thinking that [laughs]. It's kind of not the best way to be but I suppose it prepares you for when it actually does happen. I guess in a way for doom metal fans it's like we've been preparing ourselves for this, emotionally at least, for a while. Absolutely. I mean I'm a massive fan of horror movies as well and I do actually watch too many horror films. Over my whole life I've watched so many. I watched one last night actually called The Cave, it was a 2005 film, but it wasn't until the last ten minutes that I realized I'd already seen it before. I just couldn't remember it and then I went, "ah fuck! I've seen this!" Like, I really do watch too many of these films, you know. I watch plenty myself. Speaking of which, I'd never seen 28 Days Later until about a week ago. Holmes: Ah. What did you think? I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I mean, the lower quality camera was an interesting method to use in filmmaking. Yeah, I watched it recently because my kids were on about it, so I let them watch it but it's kind of over time held up a little bit, though maybe not as well as I thought it would have done. I recently re-watched The Road with Viggo Mortensen and that really held up well, that film. I think it’s timeless. You know, it's fucking pretty dark but still a really good film. Yeah, I’ve seen the movie and I read the Cormac McCarthy book. That one is really bleak. During the beginning of the lockdown I said to my kids, "look, you know, it's not that bad. Just watch this fucking film.” It's like you got a fridge full of food there, you know what I mean? Try being these guys [laughs]. Some of them get eaten. Sounds like a good dad response, "oh, it could be worse." Yeah, just telling them, “watch this film and look at that fridge,” [laughs]. It seems mostly journalists have kind of cobbled together calling you along with My Dying Bride and Anathema as the “Peaceville Three” even though I think some of you guys have said you never considered yourselves part of a scene together but rather that you guys were just different bands. That said, you all had a hand in creating the early 90’s death-doom metal sound. So it's interesting looking at all the different kind of trajectories all three have taken, for example how with vocals Aaron Stainthrope in My Dying Bride has still been doing death metal vocals for a long time and then you kind of returned to that after what was maybe a 17 or 18 year absence. While Anathema I don't think could ever do that considering the kind of music they've been making for a long while. No, I couldn't see it either. I was actually discussing this the other day with someone, they were saying could you imagine them turning and going back to anything like their older sound? I really couldn't see it. Then again, you never know. Very unlikely but yeah, they’re the least likely of a lot of bands I could think of. I could sooner see it happen with Katatonia than Anathema. Do you have any reflections from those years, being so many years later on, looking back at being a kid in the late 1980s and early 1990s? I mean, we were always fans of tape trading. We were kind of into the original underground tape trading set. That's where we sort of came from and then we started the band by the late 80's. By the time we'd done our Gothic album, which saw us starting to change a lot as a band anyway by that point, I don't even recall even knowing what My Dying Bride or Anathema were doing then. I had no real recollection of anything they did for at least 15 years [laughs], so I was completely out of touch. Once we left Peaceville I didn't even know what else was going on with Peaceville as I didn't know who they were signing. I mean once we signed with Music for Nations and got proper management around that time it just completely changed for us as a band. We kind of just started doing so many tours and it was like three years non-stop. I don't recall what anyone else was doing you know and certainly not anything particular at Peaceville. So yeah, if you speak of the “Peaceville Three” I just don't know what that means because we pretty much left by the time they came along. I think it was certainly around that time. I don't recall ever being on the same label as them at the same time but I'm sure someone can set me straight on that. From what I recall we did know some of those guys from Bradford nightclubs. Aaron he was around part of the woodwork in our local club that we had. I think Anathema may have done their first ever show with us. It was certainly one of their first shows but it was in Liverpool at Planet X, a little kind of goth rock club. We played there and they supported us there. It could have been their first show, actually. Danny [Cavanagh] always mentions it but it was definitely one of the first, that's for sure. So we got to know them then and they always liked our demos as well. So Anathema we sort of spoke with them more because we played with them more but My Dying Bride, even though they're from kind of our home area, we never really crossed paths that much as a band. Well in looking back at history again with my last question here, as a publication lately we've been this year doing a lot of anniversaries for seminal metal albums. There was the 50th anniversary of Black Sabbath’s debut and then we did a piece on Iron Maiden’s debut turning 40. Your own debut album, Lost Paradise turned 30 this year and Draconian Times turned 25. In the span of five years you guys progressed quite rapidly from where you started but how do you look back on that time about your own development and growing up? When Hammy [Paul Halmshaw] at Peaceville signed us very quickly we got a record deal. There wasn't a great deal of time in between. I don't even think we had all that many songs when he even signed us. I think he just saw us live and he wanted around then to get more into the extreme metal side of things because he was beforehand only doing indie punk kind of stuff at the time. Back then we also played with a lot more of the UK hardcore bands anyway. Those were the bands we played with because the metal of the time was mostly thrash metal stuff. A lot of bands that tried to copy Metallica around that time but we were obviously going in a different direction. So we ended up playing with Hellbastard, Extreme Noise Terror, Napalm Death, and a lot of those types of bands. So Hammy sort of came from that world and I think he signed us off the back of just seeing us live, really. He was probably drunk anyway. Probably didn't even watch it [laughs]. So he just heard someone say "hey, they were really good." And he was like, "Okay, I'll sign them." Yeah, it was all very humble. So the first album, when I hear it now, it just sounds like a bunch of teenagers doing a death metal album to me. There's no finesse to it. Even though my voice was a growly voice then you can still tell it's a kid doing it, I think. I don't even know if it's really our debut album. I feel like our Gothic album represents us as more of a blueprint for where we've gone on from there. The first one I find a bit haphazard. I mean I don't think we play any songs from that album live anyway. I certainly don't have any regrets or anything for what we've done because it all represented something for when it was done. It's like a bookmark of your life. At the same time I still feel Gothic was more like a debut album [laughs]. I even think the demos sound better than the first album if I'm honest, but anyway....
https://youtu.be/TnqXkN1xpO8...
I guess you would say that maybe on Lost Paradise you felt like you were emulating some of your heroes and then Gothic you kind of found who you were. Yeah, I mean even in the studio we were just messing around. I remember Hammy brought a bottle of Jack Daniels and we'd never had liquor by that time [laughs]. It was like, “What?!” and when you tasted it you were obviously drunk after about three sips because you just weren't used to it. I wouldn't even dream about doing that now [laughs]. It was just so funny at the time because I can completely remember the first recording . It was just really ridiculous like just seeing who could get the most drunk which is just the worst thing to do in the studio. But you know, everyone was doing it. Hammy was doing it so all of us were doing it [laughs]. So yeah, it was not an all together experience while with the second album we thought, "Oh, we’re going to make things a bit more serious on this one," I suppose. So it was definitely a better session than the first one. It's funny you mentioned that with Hammy, because when I interviewed Stainthrope from My Dying Bride earlier in the year for their new album, he brought up Hammy. He mentioned I think when they were recording The Angel and The Dark River. Hammy showed up high as a kite smoking weed in the studio. The whole day got ruined and they just had to kick him out for the next day of recording. No, with him it was always weed. That's another thing as well. You find out what's your poison when you're younger and weed is not my poison. It took me a few years to establish that. I remember I would have a puff of that and then I'd be like, "Oh my god," and I just felt like shit. Yeah, but I mean Hammy is just completely into that. I don't think he still is but my god, he was seriously into his weed [laughs]....
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Obsidian releases tomorrow via Nuclear Blast....
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Gaze into Mother Island’s Bewitching “Eyes of Shadow”
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Mother Island is playing with some serious magic. The world they weave together on their upcoming album Motel Rooms is an occult one, a sorcerous realm of psychedelic rock that's governed by its own intractable rules and moves in dazzling, swirling fashion. Step inside and enjoy a cloak of warm, velvet tones, but don't expect to fully understand the path you're set upon. Try out a few steps of the journey for yourself -- listen to our exclusive stream of "Eyes of Shadow" now....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x0lVNz5RqQ...
"Eyes of Shadow" is a coalescing of dynamics: on one hand, the driving bassline and in-the-pocket groove push the song forward to try and match the passionate vocals, and on the other, guitars spell out enigmatic melodies that seem to exist in separate realities. At the capable hands of Mother Island, both streams enfold into a shimmering, spellbinding mix sure to wash away worldly concerns. Recorded right after a West Coast tour, you can hear a dash of American twang in the album, and even a little bit of surf rock influence -- but most of Motel Rooms' sound is a complex blend crafted by the Italian band without obvious origin. Really, it just seems ... supernatural. For those who treasure immersive psychedelic music, there's many rewarding voyages here: chief among them, the dark and captivating mystery of "Eyes of Shadow."...
Motel Rooms releases May 22nd via Go Down Records. Regarding "Eyes of Shadow," the band says:We’re very happy how "Eyes of Shadow" turned out, but overall the writing process took us longer as expected. We had to approach the song, which means we had to mess around with sketches, distancing ourselves from it again, taking things back later in order to make the song work. With a tight rhythm and a melody both driving, an obsessive and distended crescendo, which is taking the listener into a rapturous suspension, we wanted to suggest some sort of a metaphoric trip. Lyrically Anita describes an initiatory relationship of a femme fatale with a vague, dark and otherworldly essence. And while staring into her eyes, all she sees are shadows.
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Inexorum’s “Ouroboric State” and Why It’s Okay to Be Melodic
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"Melodic black metal" has somehow become a bit of a problem tag in the black metal underground. People sure do enjoy it when their black metal is melodic, but as soon as the word "melodic" is appended, watch out. This can date back to the weird antics of '90s metal mags and over-the-top bands like Maniac Butcher who constantly made statements about keyboards, "female vocals," and so on. In reality most (if not all) black metal rests on the concept of melodic form to make their point come across, and the few who take it just a little further need not be pariahs in the underground. Take a look at Minnesota's Inexorum, for instance. Carl Skildum's (Obsequiae, Antiverse, ex-Threadbare) musicianship is undeniable. With influences which date back to the No Fashion catalog and early Swedish scene, Skildum's creativity draws from a more ancient pool, and it is melodic. This duo's (Skildum is joined by bassist and co-vocalist Matthew Kirkwold) use of melody as a compositional force is refreshing in the face of bands either resting on overblown atmosphere or blown-out recording fidelity to make their point. It shimmers, it shines, and, more importantly, it is picturesque. Skildum and Kirkwold's compositions here perfectly encapsulate the woodsy, lake-dotted landscape of the place they call home. It is beautiful, and, more importantly, it doesn't matter if it has the "melodic" tag or not. Maybe people will learn a little more about genre ontology in the future, but, for now, we know where the good stuff really is. Listen to an exclusive premiere of "Ouroboric State" below....
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From the artist:I've always been interested in psychology and trying to understand why we act the way we do. One element that I find equally fascinating and frustrating is how much difficulty we have with changing behavior and belief structures despite repeated negative outcomes. I was thinking about how confirmation bias leads us to seek out information that comforts us and reinforces existing behaviors, even when the end result may be less happiness and stability than if we allow ourselves to be challenged and improve on how things used to be. So we can end up in this cycle or loop of behavior of constantly eating away at ourselves, which is where the visual of the ouroboros comes in. I wrote these lyrics in spring of 2019, and in many ways it was a reminder to myself to try to stay aware of when I fall into ruts, and to think about how I consume the flood of information that is part of 21st century life. It's very strange to reconsider these lyrics given the situation we are all experiencing now, but I feel like I need this reminder now more than ever.
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Moonlit Navigation releases June 26th on Gilead Media....
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In The Company of Serpents Release ‘LUX’; Grant Tells Us What He’s Reading & Listening To In Quarantine
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As mentioned in this week's Upcoming Metal Releases, Denver doom/sludgesters In The Company of Serpents' great new album LUX is out today. It's the band's first album as a trio -- guitarist/vocalist Grant Netzorg, Ben Pitts (Nightwraith, False Cathedrals) on bass and lap steel guitar, and JP Damron (Vermin Womb, Bleakheart, Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire) on drums -- and it features guest vocals from JP's Vermin Womb bandmate Ethan Lee McCarthy (Primitive Man, Many Blessings) and Khemmis' Ben Hutcherson on the song "Scales of Maat," as well as viola by Colorado Chamber Players' Paul Primus on "Daybreak" and "Nightfall." As we said in UMR, it's "a behemoth groove-machine of an album that’s dark and beautiful in all the right ways," and you can now hear the whole thing below. We also spoke to Grant about the music and books that's getting him through quarantine, and he included Kurt Vonnegut, Swans, Nick Cave, Ramones, and more, with commentary on each pick. Read on for his list....
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WHAT GRANT NETZORG IS READING AND LISTENING TO IN QUARANTINE Books: Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions This is probably the tenth time I've come back to this book in my life, and it never fails to delight me. Vonnegut's unflinching humanism clothed in prickly cynicism has long been a source of inspiration for me. Plus, it's damned funny. Grant Morrison, The Invisibles A wonderful, zany guide to being the best agent of liberation you can be in an otherwise oppressive, Archonic dystopia. Ingo Swann, Psychic Literacy: & the Coming Psychic Renaissance One of the chief architects of remote viewing spells out the history of legitimate soothsaying, from the oracle at Delphi to Nostradamus and beyond. A highly recommended read for both the hardened skeptic and true believer alike. Music: Townes Van Zandt, Townes Van Zandt Given the broader plague winds that currently prevail, I've not been listening to much on-the-nose heavy music. That being said, I have been finding great solace in musicians who can bring that same heft in quieter ways. This is my favorite of Townes' stuff, and the stripped-bare versions of tunes like "Waiting Around to Die" and "I'll be Here in the Morning" are breathtakingly grim. Swans, Leaving Meaning Some of the most haunting material from a band whose back-catalog is rife with ghosts. The trumpeting chaos of the closing track, "My Phantom Limb," may as well be John the Revelator whispering sweet nothings of the Apocalypse in your ear. Skip James, Today! Speaking of heavy music which doesn't rely upon the gratuitous amplifier worship that I, myself, regularly employ, we have Skip James. Tunes like Hard Time Killing Floor Blues seem particularly resonant in our broader circumstances. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, B-Sides and Rarities While I love all of the Bad Seeds' discography, I'm mainly including this for the acoustic rendition of "City of Refuge." The cheeky, major-key welcoming of the End-of-Days is too perfect to omit in our current cultural moment. Ramones, Ramones Because sometimes you just need to bounce up and down and jam tongue-in-cheek classics. I've been playing this one a lot for my two-year-old daughter, and she has now taken to shouting out "1-2-3-4!" whenever one song ends (even when we're not listening to the Ramones), announcing to the world that she's ready for the next one. Dead Meadow, Warble Womb While I think their latest, The Nothing They Need, is fantastic as well, Warble Womb is probably my favorite thing Dead Meadow have done. Pure, magnificent chill. The opening and closing tracks, "Six to let the Light Shine Thru" and "September," respectively, are perfect bookends to a piece of flawless psychedelia....
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