Pissed Jeans - Shallow

(Parts Unknown Records, 2005/Sub Pop, 2014)

Pissed Jeans, Pennsylvania’s finest purveyors of sludgey man-child hardcore punk, have enjoyed a slow and steady ride into the hearts of many punks and trendy’s alike, culminating in last year’s critically-lauded Honeys. But the story began in 2003 with a demo cassette which the band would distribute at their earliest shows. Songs from that demo would attract the attention of Parts Unknown Records who subsequently went on to release Pissed Jeans‘ debut single Throbbing Organ/Night Minutes and Shallow, their debut album. On the strength of this album the band went on to sign with indie stalwarts Sub Pop where they have remained for the following three albums, and who are now re-releasing the record almost ten years after it first came out.

While Pissed Jeans have inevitably gotten better over the years, both in terms of the music they make and in frontman Matt Korvette’s overall loveable buffoonery, Shallow is an incredibly fully-formed album and it’s a testament to the band’s intentionally limited scope that pretty much any of the songs on Shallow could have fit in on any of their subsequent albums. While later albums show slightly more self-control and are slightly less rough around the edges – demonstrating, perhaps, that the band have become more studio and road-hardened over the years – musically Pissed Jeans have always worshipped at the altar of Black Flag and the Stooges, and this is clear from the feedback dripping moments of bratty opener I’m Sick to the apocalyptic punk epic Wychovia which closes the album.

Where Pissed Jeans differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack, however, is in singer Matt Korvette’s lyrics and vocal delivery. Korvette has repeatedly rejected the notion that Pissed Jeans are some kind of bro-punk band and I’d be inclined to agree with him. Although he writes about his very male neuroses, he’s inviting everyone to  join him in them, to laugh at them and to ultimately endear ourselves to his issues which are generally explored in intentionally dramatic and knowingly self-obsessed ways. Whereas the lyricism on Shallow doesn’t always display the kind of economy and crystallisation of ideas that would come on the following albums, it is still very much at the heart of Pissed Jeans‘ appeal. Throughout all of the band’s work, he explores social anxiety, sexual inadequacy, the mundane aspects of daily life and his health concerns which, at one point in Shallow, involves being simply too-filled with spunk.

The bratty opener I’m Sick is a chaotic, riotous punk racket over which Korvette details a laundry-list of physical ailments, while Boring Girls is a monotonous, rampaging one-note ode to the eponymous bland ladies that Korvette can’t seem to stop obsessing over – one of many examples where the music and lyrical content of a song mirror each other. Elsewhere, Ashamed Of My Cum features the album’s best chorus: “Yeah, I’m ashamed of my cum/ Never satisfied even after I’m done”. The band’s sense of humour is always bristling on the surface thanks to Korvette’s maniacal and desperate delivery, but it also reveals itself musically too – the end of Ugly Twin (I’ve Got) ends with an excellent piano rendition of the song’s main riff to comedic effect.

Pissed Jeans also dabble in satire and irony; Closet Marine inverts the kind of issues that young gay people have to deal with by making the protagonist a closet “marine”, having to pledge allegiance to Uncle Sam in secret late at night to escape the wrath of judgemental parents. And then there are the ridiculous moments where Korvette complains of breaking his own heart or sings about Little Sorrell who, if we’re reading it right, is a horse that “couldn’t close his eye”.

Simply put, Shallow is as great an album as Pissed Jeans has ever made and the raw energy the band display throughout its eight songs is completely infectious. As the album has been out of print for a number of years, this is a very timely and welcome reissue that you would do very well to get your hands on before it disappears again. If you’ve never heard the first album, you won’t find any surprises here but then, if you’re a fan of the band, you wouldn’t want them any other way. Far from shallow, this is Pissed Jeans at their anxiety-ridden, socially awkward best.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 26/08/2014]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/p/pissed-jeans-shallow-cd-lp-dd-reissue-2014/

Music Blues - Things Haven't Gone Well

(Thrill Jockey, 2014)

If anyone in the band Harvey Milk was likely to branch out and release a “solo” album, you would probably expect it to be singer and guitarist Creston Spiers ahead of bassist, chef and short-shorts-enthusiast Stephen Tanner, right? But here we have it; Tanner, under the wholly appropriate guise Music Blues, is here to bring us Things Haven’t Gone Well which, eight months into 2014, must surely be the forerunner for “Downer of the year.”

As you’re reading this, it’s fair to assume that you’re aware of Harvey Milk, one of the most brilliantly confounding rock/metal/bar-room blues bands that the nineties ever produced – a band defined by their penchant for crushing everything in their wake, either by way of ultra-slow grinding sludge or breakneck barnstorming rock n’ roll. They’ve also been known to not give a solitary shit which has resulted in tracks full of abrasive noise, self-deprecating humour and mournful navel-gazing, as documented on their last album, the almost comically depressing A Small Turn of Human Kindness.

With this in mind, you’d imagine that it’d be difficult to stray further down the rabbit hole of despair that …Human Kindness hinted at, but you’d be wrong. Things Haven’t Gone Well is the result of Stephen Tanner trying (in the midst of a depressive fog) to write the new Harvey Milk album whilst staying on Creston Spiers sofa, doing little else but watching old repeats of Beverly Hills, 90210. That’ll do it, alright. As a result, and in almost every possible way, this is a more distraught, alienating and disturbing album than Harvey Milk has ever made. Naturally, Harvey Milk fans are in for a treat.

From the triumphant arrival of opening track 91171 to the comedic ending of closing song The Price Is Wrong, Things Haven’t Gone Well is a masterclass in negativity. At nearly every turn Tanner takes chords and whining guitar leads on downward spirals, twisting and turning, dragging you down into a vortex of abject misery (see Hopelessness and Worthlessness). Long, languid chords are allowed to spread their anguish tortuously across entire tracks (Premature Caesarian Removal Delivery and Trying And Giving Up), the repetition slowly numbing your senses over the course of the album, beating you into a some hazy form of submission.

Perhaps the most unnerving section of the album is the combination of the tracks Failure and Death March, the former featuring a cacophonous combination of queasy guitars and cavernous, snails-pace drums to create a creeping sense of malevolence. Just as these elements reach a kind of fever pitch at the song’s end, everything bottoms out, leaving just a sparse drum beat and a deep, walking bassline to slowly fade out in an incredibly creepy manner on the latter track.

Fortunately on the final three songs we are given a glimpse of something approaching the light of day, with the triumphant major keys in The Price Is Wrong and the Earth-like Tremendous Misery Sets In(ironically) seeming like the greatest feelings in the world. However, by this point in proceedings, this joyous outpouring feels like some mean psychedelic trick of the mind and that in fact a plateau has been reached wherein you can no longer be sure if you’re feeling highs or lows.

If you’ve seen the unnerving promo video for Things Haven’t Gone Well, in which music is set to a strange collage of casual violence, hollow game shows, and extreme terrorism, you’ll get a good sense of the mixed emotions being conveyed throughout the album, as well as the panic-inducing state of daytime television that served as the visual inspiration for the album. Through the use of queasy chord progressions, tortured lead guitars, rumbling low end and soul destroying repetition, Tanner is able to portray an incredible depth of depression that, while not always pretty, is incredibly powerful. Like much of Harvey Milk’s output, this is not for the faint hearted or those easily led to distraction, but if you stay with it the rewards are there. Hello darkness, my old friend.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 11/08/2014]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/m/music-blues-things-havent-gone-well-cd-lp-dd-2014/

The Great Sabatini - Dog Years

(Solar Flare Records, 2014)

Montreal’s The Great Sabatini are one of the latest additions to the excellent French label Solar Flare Records’ roster, and with label mates ranging from Sofy Major to Pigs, you could probably hazard a guess before hearing them that they’re going to enjoy damaging eardrums. Correct. Hailing from the Great White North, The Great Sabitini deal in hardcore-influenced sludge with a slightly off-kilter sense of humour as evidenced by the demonic muppet yearbook picture that graces the cover of Dog Years, their third album. This isn’t just another sludge band in the vein of EyeHateGod however – The Great Sabatini are one of those rare bands who throw a bit of personality into their music and that’s what makes Dog Years such an enjoyable and, at times, perplexing listen.

While some sludge and hardcore bands can be a bit too earnest, macabre or even political, you get the sense that The Great Sabatini aren’t taking themselves too seriously, mainly choosing to concern themselves with the tone and sheer heft of their dual baritone guitar, dual vocal assault. Combine this with the rumbling bass and manic drums, opening track The Royal We starts off like Floor if they had written a song entirely on the bomb string, before breaking off into a glorious half-time sludge riff. Guest Of Honour and Nursing Home demonstrates the band’s penchant for breakneck math-punk whilePeriwinkle War Hammer best illustrates Steve Sabatini’s considerable drumming ability, seemingly making the song fall apart whilst simultaneously keeping the band in time with incredible fluidity.

Elsewhere the band branch out and take a few interesting turns; Aleka is kind of a warped, sleepy delta blues track and Pitchfork Pete is a sleazy character study of a dude who enjoys “jerking off at the mausoleum.” Most striking of all is closing track Life During Wartime which is a strangely poignant and epic piano-led number, entirely different in feel from the rest of the album. All this to say that The Great Sabatini are not just playing by-the-numbers sludge, but rather mixing things up, and transposing their punk attitude into new forms of musical expression beyond what you might be expecting.

At times they sound similar to label mates Pigs, both in the gnarly low-end guitar department and in their vocal delivery, but then who hasn’t been influenced by Unsane, directly or indirectly? Also, the mix throughout most of Dog Years makes it sound like the singers are trapped down a well which suits the unnerving lyrical content perfectly and adds another level of unease to the album’s creeping sense of menace. With The Great Sabatini, Solar Flare Records have further strengthened their roster and withDog Years, The Great Sabatini have created their best album yet. Cohesive yet willing to deviate from the usual sludge fare, this set of songs will slowly win you over and the album a must-listen for fans of sludge, post-hardcore and noise.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 28/07/2014]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/t/the-great-sabatini-dog-years-cd-lp-dd-2014/

Comply or Die - Northless

(Self-released, 2014)

Belfast’s Comply Or Die unfortunately announced their decision to split shortly before they released Northless, their sixth release in as many years since they formed in 2006. Well-respected in their native Ireland, they will perhaps be most familiar to the rest of us for having released a split with fellow Irish wavemakers Slomatics back in 2011. It’s a shame that Northless will be the last thing we hear from them because it’s a pretty fantastic album.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Comply Or Die though, and the recording of their final release was marred with difficulties – eighteen months of “treading water” according to the band. However this tension can be felt all over Northless‘ eight tracks and it works very much in their favour. Combining wiry post-hardcore dynamics, straight-up punk rage, and sludge and doom’s filthy underbelly, Comply Or Die serve up a lovely racket in the vein of Neurosis, Fugazi, Unsane, and Eyehategod.

The album is well paced, pitching moody, longer tracks like the blustery opener Meridian and album centrepiece Iron Mountain against the likes of Cultus and the brilliant, manic closer Dagon which combines hardcore with squalling Matt Pike-ean riffage. Bishop swaggers and rages, the vocalist channelling his inner Mike IX before the song veers off into a psychedelic solo, while Argonaut is a full-on post-hardcore anthem, replete with a – dare-I-say – repeatable, major-key chorus. If I was clutching at straws, I could point to Architechture Of War and Agon as feeling slightly overlong in the overall context of the album, both tracks starting to lag towards the end. But this is a minor quibble in an otherwise cohesive and highly enjoyable album.

I suspect that it may a case of Big Yellow Taxi syndrome – “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” – but Comply Or Die have gone out on a high. Too often it seems to be the case that we leave it until a band announces that they’re splitting up before taking the time to investigate their back catalogue. As far as posthumous albums go, Northless is a blinder, and fortunately for the rest of us, Comply Or Die have five more releases for us to go back and re-investigate. Time to get digging.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 19/07/2014]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/c/comply-or-die-northless-dd-2014/

Boris - Noise

(Sargent House, 2014)

Boris fans certainly get their money’s worth from the prolific, shapeshifting Japanese band. Their constant refusal to be pigeon-holed means that theirs is a discography from which you can pick and choose your own identity for the band, and the surprising thing is that pretty much every aspect of their output is great and fascinating in its own way.Boris have experimented with Sleep-worshipping stoner epics, abstract ambient, electronic noise, punk, doom and new wave to name a few, so when they announced that their new album, ‘Noise’, was to be a career-spanning effort, one couldn’t help but worry about the results. Was there really a way of marrying their collaborations with Merzbow, with their long-form songs ‘Absolutego’, ‘Feedbacker’ and ‘Flood’, and, say, the relatively light and airy shoegaze, new wave pop of ‘Attention Please’?

In reality, ‘Noise’ eschews Boris‘ noise rock leanings and instead re-explores what they’re best known for (and arguably best at) – melodic doom, stoner and punk. However, you can certainly hear hints of their evolution scattered across ‘Noise’s eight tracks. Opening song, the appropriately named ‘Melody’, sets the album off in suitably energetic and urgent fashion, combining the frenetic punk of their breakthrough album ‘Pink’ with the melodic electronica of ‘Attention Please’. Both ‘Quicksilver’ and ‘Vanilla’ demonstrate Boris’ fondness for breakneck rock n’ roll, whilst deftly incorporating penetrating melodies into both tracks, and the former even ending in a series of doom-style guitar blows.

‘Ghost Of Romance’ takes the band into more subdued territory, recalling some of the songs on Baroness’ recent ‘Yellow & Green’, with its melancholic, clean guitars and strong emphasis on melody. This extends into the following track ‘Heavy Rain’, Wata’s plaintive voice belying the crushing guitars which suddenly arrive to add heft to the song’s main melody to breath-taking effect on one of the album’s standout songs.

The awkwardly twee ‘Taiyo No Baka’ may be the album’s one misstep, if only because it’s so jarring in the tracklisting, sandwiched between one of the album’s best songs and the longest. While it has some redeeming features in some of the textures of melody, guitars and electronics in the bridge and middle-eight, the main thrust of the song is a somewhat bewildering amalgam of American pop-punk. ‘Angel’, on the other hand, is a slow-burning epic, a nineteen minute nod to fans of Boris’ long-form songs. In particular, ‘Angel’ recalls the ebb and flow of ‘Flood’, beginning with a lone, pensive guitar and Takeshi’s emotive vocals before exploding into a barrage of distortion whilst maintaining the album’s ever present sense of melody, before abruptly returning to the opening coda.

Let’s be honest – if Boris ever did make an album that was truly career-spanning, it would probably be a very long, incoherent mess, which is ultimately praise for the diversity of their back catalogue. What the band has done with ‘Noise’ is what so many Boris fans do – they’ve cherry-picked their own amalgam of Boris styles and combined them in the tracklisting, occasionally blending these styles together within the tracks themselves to brilliant effect.

Ultimately this means that some of the better loved and presumably best-selling moments in their career are strongly represented while others are not. Fans of ‘Pink’, ‘Flood’, ‘Attention Please’, ‘Altar’ and even ‘Heavy Rocks’ (the first one) will be in heaven with ‘Noise’ but, ironically enough, fans of their noisier, experimental work will likely want to give this one a miss and revisit the records where Boris truly make a racket. And that, my friends, is the beauty of Boris because they’ve done it all and they’ve done it all well. If you’re new to Boris, ‘Noise’ may be the ultimate starting point, and if you’re a long-time fan, ‘Noise’ is like a convenient mixtape of their more accessible output.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman,17/06/2014]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/b/boris-noise-cd-lp-dd-2014/

Naam / White Hills / Black Rainbows / The Flying Eyes – Split

(Heavy Psych Sounds, 2014)

Split releases are great in theory. For the bands, it’s an opportunity to collaborate, whether loosely or closely, with bands they admire and respect. For the fans, it can be a learning experience, helping them to discover new bands, as well as saving their wallets by being able to support several bands with one release. Of course there are always issues with splits as well – they can be lopsided, either stylistically or in degrees of quality, they can be self-indulgent and, ultimately, they can be downright shit, home to a band’s cast-offs and not-good-enough-for-the-album rejects. But the last few years has seen a huge number of split releases, so much so that zines and magazines increasingly have to create separate end-of-year lists to chronicle them.

The four-way split is a particularly exciting format (or fourmat if you prefer), giving you twice as much bang for your buck. One of my most cherished four-way splits is a 2005 compilation of Oxford bands Gunnbunny, Holiday Stabbings, Deguello and Sextodecimo, all recorded by the boys from Winnebago Deal. That was a pleasant example of a split that introduced me to new bands, or bands that I’d heard of but never heard. It was all great music, diverse within the confines of heavy music, ranging from pop-tinged punk and hardcore to extreme noise bellyaching. So this is the benchmark to which I was going to hold this split release from Heavy Psych Sounds, an Italian label which specialises in beautiful vinyl releases from psychedelic, bluesy rock bands such as Farflung, Naam, and Karma to Burn.

Naam provide an ambient remix of ‘Skyscraper’ from their second album Vow, pushing and extending all of the more hypnotic elements of the original to create a bass-led drone with occasional, distant input from singer Ryan Lugar, in many ways sounding like an old reggae dub remix. ‘Thickening Web’, their other contribution, is very much a continuation of ‘Skyscraper’ in terms of sound and style; a mellow bass provides a driving backbone from the drums to follow while atmospheric keys create an extra layer of melody and space. Pleasantly soothing stuff to start the record off with.

White Hills contribute another remix of an older track, this time a slightly retitled, reworked and expanded version of a song from a CD-r which got a limited release back in 2005. ‘They’ve Got Blood… Like You’ve Got Blood’ is quite an impressionistic space rock song, melodies and rhythms ultimately little snapshots in a larger picture that take a few listens to fully form. A valid contribution given that the original recording is long out-of-print and because this mix contains additional elements that the band were apparently unable to add on the first go-around.

It’s not until Black Rainbows start up that we get anything remotely containing a blood-pumping pulse, and after a sweetly spacy first half, ‘Viper Tongue’ is a welcome kick in the gonads. The influence of Fu Manchu hangs heavy over proceedings so naturally the song is comprised of a simple fuzzy riff and an infectious vocal melody, smashed into your skull with huge, groovy drums and bass. But it’s not all simplicity, and the band surprise with some psychedelic interludes, which spill into their next track ‘Minor Monster Galaxy Message’, a long instrumental piece.

The Flying Eyes bring two b-sides to the table, both solid slabs of sturdy rock n’ roll. ‘Golden Grey’ is a driving, bluesy number, replete with soaring guitars and vocals, while ‘Evil Little Leslie’ sounds like recent efforts from Dead Meadow, a low-key walking bassline allowing the guitars to moodily flaunt their stuff as Will Kelly’s vocals sound like they’re being filtered through 100 gallons of bong water. The Flying Eyes are great at what they do, and they end the split in style, although I doubt I’d be able to identify them from the host of Dead Meadow acolytes currently doing the rounds across the globe.

For a four-way split, you can actually divide this one pretty neatly in two – the chilled-out, drone half and the good ol’ fashioned rock side. All the bands bring their own take on psychedelia to proceedings and with varying degrees of experimentalism and quality. Listened to as a whole package the record progresses nicely, from being eased into a meditative state by Naam before being shaken awake byBlack Rainbows, although with close scrutiny you could dock marks for lack of originality from almost all the bands present. But it would be unfair to linger on this point because ultimately fans of these bands will find much to love about this record, and hopefully they will find themselves appreciating a band they’d only heard of before, and isn’t that the whole point?

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 28/05/2014)

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/n/naam-white-hills-black-rainbows-the-flying-eyes-split-cd-12inch-dd-2014/

11 Paranoias - Spectralbeastiaries

(Ritual Productions, 2014)

If the lore is to be believed, 11Paranoias formed on the 11th of November 2011 – 11/11/11 – incidentally the same day that de-facto doom overlords Black Sabbath announced their reunion. This numerical oddity may have given the band their name but perhaps by some bizarre cosmic alignment it may also have informed the band’s eerie sound. Consisting of former members of Electric Wizard and Ramesses Mark Greening and Adam Richardson, and ‘the man of a thousand bands’ (most notably and righteously Bong) Mike Vest, it seemed inevitable – even predestined – that 11Paranoias would produce some tripped-out psychedelic doom from the get-go. Last year’s hotly anticipated Superunnatural EP gave us exactly what we had been hoping for – an amalgam of Electric-Ramesses style riffs layered with Vest’s psychotropic drones. Since then Greening has rejoined Electric Wizard, and 11Paranoias have recruited former Capricorns drummer Nathan Perrier to take reign of rhythm duties. Exactly when this personnel change happened and when Spectralbeastiaries was recorded in light of these changes is unclear given the little information currently available, but what is clear is that this album is a different beast (pun acknowledged but not intended) altogether.

In many ways Spectralbeastiaries is the ghostly apparition of last year’s Superunnatural – whereSuperunnatural was grounded in a deep, doom sound, Spectralbeastiaries feels loftier, less tangible and more interested in exploring unusual spaces in the atmosphere, with often compelling results. Regardless of the line-up at the time of recording, this is very much the same band with the same solid drumming, leading bass-lines, textured guitars and Richardson’s voice still heavily treated with reverb and echo, but the band now seem less interested in simply being crushing. Sure, opening song ‘Cygnus Rift’ ends with a series of devastating blows, ‘Turn To Stone’ is a fuzzy cyclical suite, and ‘Unseen Apparition’ plods along in a doomed fashion but as a whole 11Paranoias avoid simply re-hashing the heavier moments of Superunnatural (such as ‘Deceiver of the Deep’). Spectralbeastiaries is more like the afterglow, refractions of light caught in the dust that Superunnatural unearthed.

For example, ‘Guardian Of The Abyss‘, with it’s cyclical, repeating progression is surprisingly light, resting neither as doom, sludge or anything else you might be expecting from the band, owing more to the space-rock leanings of early Hawkwind than the likes of Sabbath. Similarly ‘The Ghost Projector‘ threatens to turn into the spectral figure of Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Bodies‘ before taking an altogether noisier and more atonal path, but it is nevertheless an otherworldly and unexpected direction for the band. Such diversions help to keep things interesting, especially for a band whose collective heritage could certainly justify them churning out old-hat riffs-for-the-sake-of-riffs. However the album as a whole is not without some minor faults and some of the songs are heavy in atmosphere while slightly lacking in ambition.

The new line-up has done little to lessen the power and good-will that 11Paranoias’ previous release has garnered them, and this new album suggests a band interested in growing and trying new things rather than resting on their collective laurels. OK, not everything on Spectralbeastiaries pops and occasionally the band get trapped seemingly in a time-warp of repetition, but it’s far preferable that they make a challenging album that expands their vision rather than to simply go through the motions. Already the band’s trajectory has been an interesting one and it’s hard to tell what they will do next, but as they travel through the Cosmos, soundtracking rips in the fabric of Space and Time and taking the form of smoky spectres, 11Paranoias are guaranteed to trip you out and give you the fear.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 06/04/2014]

http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/184/11paranoias-spectralbeastiaries-lp-dd-2014/ 

Towers - II

(Eolian Empire, 2014)

Providing further evidence that Oregon is literally built upon an ancient Indian burial ground, yet another otherworldly and insanely heavy band comes forth proclaiming Oregon as their home state. Of course, there’s already Yob, Norska, Lumbar, Lord Dying, Red Fang, Unsea, Atriarch, and a plethora of others – a very healthy showing indeed. But here come Towers, a bass and drum duo from Portland whose second album – the appropriately named ‘II’ – is a very small slither of hell caught on record.

 

Coming in as they mean to go on (i.e. on a wave of unsettling noise), opening track ‘Hell’ sets the mood for the whole record. Rick Duncan’s bass set-up is rigged to facilitate both penetrating treble and punishing low end so when combined with various effects pedals and the energetic drumming of Darryl Swan, the hugeness of the sound betrays the fact that Towers are a two-piece. ‘Hell‘ is an unsettling melting pot of post-punk, noise rock, art rock, and heavy metal, framed like one of Tom Waits’ nightmare visions. In fact the tone is so full-on that it gives off a strange circus atmosphere, almost comedic in its overblown execution but too close to the nerve to be anything but terrifying.

 

Elsewhere ‘The Door At The End Of The Hall‘, with its Theremin-like atmospherics and Duncan’s dramatic proclamations and forlorn backing vocals, has a horror soundtrack feel to it, suitable for any number of 1970’s exploitation movies. But it’s the bleak penultimate track ‘The Chosen‘ which is the most haunting song here; the monk-like, counter-melodic chants are nauseating and discomforting, a final demonic taunt before the violently chaotic final track ‘The Room Of Misfortune‘ which hammers home the vision of suffering which ‘Hell’ started. And then as quickly as it arrived, the deranged circus leaves town.

 

As an album ‘II’ is mournful, but not in a gothic, woe-is-me kind of way. Rather, it’s demented and theatrical, revelling in bringing you bad tidings and burying a feeling of doom in your guts until you’re left weeping in a corner. In fact, for a band who don’t throw the term ‘doom’ down your throat like so-many so-called doom bands do, they’ve released one of the most doom-instilling albums I’ve heard in the last year. Towers aren’t strictly a doom band – they bring together a wide range of heavy influences from the full spectrum of punk and metal and combine them with a cinematic quality to create compelling, creepy and hypnotic songs to wallow in. And the results are magnificent. So if ‘II’ is a glimpse of hell, then pray for my soul, dear readers, because it sounds fucking grim.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 14/03/2014]
http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/t/towers-ii-lp-dd-2014/

Iron Witch - 'Her Cheating Heart' / The Atrocity Exhibit - 'Throne of Bile'

(Witch Hunter Records / Dead Chemist Records, 2014)

Witch Hunter Records and Dead Chemist Records have conspired to release this beastly 7” split between Liverpool’s Iron Witch and Northampton’s The Atrocity Exhibit, two respected names on the UK’s sludge and grindcore scenes. While on paper this difference of genre could make for a slightly lopsided split release, the sense of spite inherent in both bands’ music creates a cohesion across the two sides, helped by the fact that The Atrocity Exhibit have chosen to contribute one long sludge song rather than several shorter ones.

 

Iron Witch‘s contribution – ‘Her Cheating Heart’ – is a pleasing, lumbering slab of sludge misery inspired, unfortunately, by a series of “lying, cheating whores.” Charming. But Iron Witch clearly aren’t here to charm anyone, as evidenced by ‘Her Cheating Heart’’s waves of deafening feedback and an arching rhythm so drunken that it seems ever on the verge of collapsing in a corner and pissing all over itself. Chris Fane’s voice is quite probably flammable as he screams Jameson-tainted bile over a cacophony of Dopesick-inspired riffs (indeed, Iron Witch might like to consider changing their names to IronHateGod if ‘Her Cheating Heart’ is anything to go by). But it doesn’t matter that Iron Witch wear their influences on their sleeves, particularly when they execute their swaggering homage this well. For those of us eagerly awaiting the next EHG album, ‘Her Cheating Heart’ is a tantalising and essential stop-gap.

 

As if Iron Witch weren’t bilious enough, flip the record over and you have The Atrocity Exhibit’s ‘Throne Of Bile’ to contend with. Again, these guys mean serious business and for this particular pairing they’ve written a song at least twice as long as most of their other, faster songs. This slowing of pace does nothing to lessen their impact, and in fact the torturous to and fro of the guitars gives the impression of flesh being torn apart. You won’t find anything remotely resembling a melody to hang your hat on here – ‘Throne Of Bile’ is discordant in every way, from the tense, careening guitars to the Johnny Morrow-esque vocals. The Atrocity Exhibit have gained a formidable reputation for their brand of crust and grindcore, but ‘Throne Of Bile’ puts forward a strong argument that they ought to make a full-on sludge album next.

 

All in all thirteen minutes of utter misery then, but, as the old adage goes, misery loves company, and here at the Sleeping Shaman we welcome misery and grief with open arms. Iron Witch and The Atrocity Exhibit have given us two mighty and differing takes on sludge, making this an essential purchase for all fans of the genre.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 06/03/2014]
http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/i/iron-witch-the-atrocity-exhibit-split-7inch-dd-2014/

Warpaint @ O2 Academy, Oxford - 25/01/2014

 

Considering it’s the day before Warpaint entered the top ten of the UK album charts with their eponymous second album, it’s little surprise that the sizeable downstairs part of the O2 is packed to capacity by the time the LA band grace the stage for tonight’s festivities. Inevitably the majority of tonight’s set is indebted to the newer material which has seen the band shift further towards a moody atmospheric trip hop sound, allowing keyboards and synthesisers to take some of the focus away from the guitars. Some of the criticism that has been lumped at the newer songs suggest that the songwriting has suffered at the hands of uber desk-jockey Flood’s sleek production style, but in this live setting the band are really quite bombastic, giving us a setlist that leans heavily on the livelier of the new songs, as well as encompassing some gems from their previous two releases, The Fool and Exquisite Corpse.

As ever, it’s the vocal interaction between the four band members that really sets Warpaint apart from their contemporaries and this is what shines tonight; whether it’s the haunting “Billie Holliday”, the fiendish gang-vocals of “Composure” or “Love is to Die,” Emily Kokal and co have mastered a style of sing-speak, alternatingly conversational, airy and strident, that leads their songs through emotional peaks and troughs. Musically, the band is in fine form too, having spent the last few years touring heavily on the back of The Fool. While it’s not always evident on record, Warpaint are a jam-band at heart, or at least they enjoy locking into bass-led grooves while reverb-heavy guitars intertwine, as is evidenced by some extended instrumental sections tonight. Drummer Stella Mozgawa does much of the heavy lifting in this capacity with some excellent hi-hat work punctuating some of the band’s jerky flights of fancy, while Theresa Wayman and the others continuously switch between guitars and keyboards throughout the set to add heft and lightness where necessary.

For most of the set the audience seem strangely subdued – respectful and clearly enjoying themselves but perhaps allowing themselves to become too awash in Warpaint’s emotional waters at the sake of an atmosphere. It’s only when the band crank out (ironically enough) “Undertow” – fan favourite and feel good hit of the summer 2011 – that the audience fully snap out of this haze and raise the roof. It’s the song that probably best encapsulates the band’s sound – a bass-led, vocally immaculate, emotionally ambiguous pop song with an almighty wig-out at the end of it to boot. Elsewhere new track “Biggy” is a particular highlight, with a dynamic keyboard lead part allowing the vocals to float delicately atop a gently shuffling rhythm, but inevitably it is the older songs that elicit the warmest responses tonight. Encoring with “Elephants” from the debut EP (and a sly interpolation of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” for good measure) the band ultimately leaves the stage victorious, warpaint smeared but intact.

[Originally published in Nightshift Magazine, Issue 224, March 2014]
http://nightshift.oxfordmusic.net/2014/mar.pdf

Ags Connolly - How About Now

(Drumfire Records, 2014)

Country isn't a dirty word, particularly when it's coming out of Ags Connolly's mouth. Anyone who has caught Ags in the last few years will likely be able to attest that he has a voice of extraordinary power, capable of transporting you from a dank open mic pub in Witney to the Grand Ole Opry. His songs are deeply rooted in country, full of hardened wisdom and homespun turns of phrase; Ags’ previous release, The Dim and Distant Past EP, was a solid demonstration of his songwriting skills – indeed all four songs are present again here, largely unchanged. But with a group of sympathetic country session musicians behind him, Ags has taken a bit of a star-turn.

While one could worry that session musicians could suck the soul out of Ags’ songs, or embellish them to the nth degree, the musicianship throughout How About Now is truly fantastic, lending Ags’ simple songs a classic, authentic country sound. Lap steels coo, a stand-up bass gently plods, and an electric guitar accents the chords in a manner that would make Luther Perkins proud. Perhaps the best compliment that can be paid to Mr. Connolly is to say that many of the songs on How About Now sound like country standards – ‘Good Memory for Pain’, ‘Get Out My Mind’, ‘The Dim and Distant Past’ and ‘Trusty Companion’ are all great songs by anyone’s standards, regardless of genre, strongly composed and sharply executed. There are also some deeply personal songs here, dotted with references to particular lovers and old haunts (I never thought I'd hear a shout-out to The Angel in a song); all of this helps to flesh out Ags' deeply likeable and genuine persona, a man who loves and hurts, with country – and perhaps some Old Hooky – pumping through his veins.

On the whole country music seems to have a bad rep for perceived flag-waving, finger-pointing, and general backwardness, but Ags’ music is full of heart – more 'Man in Black' than 'I Kiss My Baby With My Fist'. These are songs of love and loss from a good ol' boy, a perfect soundtrack for crying into your beer at the end of the night as you mull over missed chances and being dealt a bad hand. These are also odes to Ags' main muse - country music itself. Both 'When Country Was Proud' and 'I Saw James Hand' document his baptism and confirmation as a country fan and musician. How About Now is the most assured debut to come out of Oxford in some time, a very strong collection of songs from an artist with a clear handle on his identity. To paraphrase a good ol' boy, if you didn't know were country, then this might make up your mind.

[Originally published in Nightshift Magazine, Issue 224, March 2014]
http://nightshift.oxfordmusic.net/2014/mar.pdf

Bong - Stoner Rock

(Ritual Productions, 2014)

Newcastle-based stoner rock collective Bong have unleashed their latest alb… oh, wait – let me try that again.

With their audaciously titled fourth album Stoner Rock, drone druids Bong have opened a dialogue on the usefulness and accuracy of broad genre definitions, and taken an opportunity to own and redefine the term “stoner rock” in their own image. As any writer in this field (or punter for that matter) will know, the term “stoner rock” has come to be used as shorthand for any band that appears to espouse the virtues of weed, often regardless of the kind of music they make. Considering that this covers a pretty wide spectrum of heavy metal, whether derivative of Kyuss and Sleep, classic rock, or Southern boogie, one has to ask, how can a band really be labelled “stoner rock” if they don't at least make you feel stoned?

Just as the true sense of “doom” (i.e. impending dread) is largely absent from most “doom metal” these days, “stoner rock” as it is popularly known now has as many negative connotations as good, thanks to countless terrible bands whose names are terrible puns. While I would hesitate to label Bong a stoner rock band, their name certainly has some strong genre connotations which is probably why they’ve often been mistakenly lumped in the genre. However, ironically, Bong are also one of the few current bands that can actually make you feel stoned with their music, and with Stoner Rock they’ve come to take ownership of the term with an almighty, two-pronged, THC-induced drone assault on the senses. 

Stoner Rock is repetitive to the extreme across its sprawling 74 minutes, coaxing you to zone out in the ever growing waves of distortion. Bong take literally one root note and play it out to eternity, without ever veering off their singular, slovenly path. The two tracks here, “Out Of The Aeons” and “Polaris” sound like alternative cuts from Earth’s pioneering drone metal masterpiece Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version, albeit cuts with even fewer mood shifts or diversions, and, taken as a whole piece, it’s certainly as epic in its scope as the holy grail, Sleep’s Dopesmoker. But don’t come to Stoner Rock expecting Pike-ian riffs or solos – the album is a relentless onslaught of molten guitars, each distorted strum overlapping and consuming the last, while bass rumbles gently and an eastern melody chimes out in the distance to really nail down the hypnotic vibe. If the pace of “Out of the Aeons” is designed to slowly lull you into a fugue state, then “Polaris” finishes you off, putting you into a coma, with drums crawling to the point that you kind of forget that the next snare hit is coming. Eventually time just seems to stand still, leaving you utterly mesmerised.

So, will Stoner Rock come to be seen as the pinnacle of the genre? Probably not, unfortunately. But I would argue that Stoner Rock has done more than any so-called stoner album released in the past few years to approximate the sensation of being under the influence, and thus has come the closest to redefining the term. Ultimately people will either have the patience to kick back and enjoy the long slow ride that Stoner Rock takes them on, or they won’t. But one thing’s for certain – Bong are here to weed out all the fake stoners with drones that will test your mettle.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 31/01/2014]
http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/b/bong-stoner-rock-cd-lp-dd-2014/

Bast - Spectres

(Black Bow Records/Burning World Records, 2014)

It’s been a long time coming for Kingston-based black metal/doom band Bast, but this year finally marks the arrival of their long overdue debut album ‘Spectres‘. Originally formed as a two-piece back in 2008, Bast have been a sporadic but always welcome presence in the London music scene for years, racking up some impressive support slots with the likes of Ufomammut, A Storm of Light and Ramesses, before finally arriving at their current formation in 2011 with the arrival of a bass player. During this time they recorded a demo titled ‘Branches In Earth, Roots In The Sky‘, but how widely that circulated is not really very clear so for many people Bast may be a relatively new name, particularly outside of the UK. Back in 2011 after witnessing the band for the first time at the Seven Churches all-dayer in their native Kingston, I wrote “Bast are seriously fucking heavy,” and guess what? That hasn’t changed. Rather, with Chris Fielding of Foel/Skyhammer Studios legend at the desk and all manner of vintage valve amps at their disposal, Bast have gained a considerable amount of clout and on the strength of these recordings, the first produced at Skyhammer Studios, Bast became the first signees to Jon Davis’ fledgling Black Bow Records, with Burning World Records quickly offering to handle things on the continent.

 

From the first frenetic moments of barnstorming opener ‘In The Beginning‘ to the almost comically stadium-rock ending of breathtaking closer ‘Outside The Circles Of Time‘ Bast are a true revelation on record, just as they are in a live setting. ‘Spectres‘ could be described as a kind of concept album in as much as lyrical themes recur throughout the four songs (the fifth is an instrumental) while feedback physically links the songs to make the album an immersive experience to be best enjoyed as a whole. Musically Bast lean more towards Doom than Black Metal, favouring to break up lengthy, slovenly riffs with emotionally charged hammering which is a dynamic that works beautifully well throughout. Likewise, the band use a loud/quiet dynamic on tracks like ‘Denizen‘ and ‘Outside The Circles Of Time‘ which helps emphasise their exploratory and progressive song writing style.

 

Needless to say the guitar tones throughout ‘Spectres‘ are a warm, hefty presence and Jon Lee’s drums are thunderous. Guitarist Craig Bryant manipulates feedback to connect his snake-like riffs and provide occasional accents and tension (see the tail end of ‘Denizen‘) while bassist Gavin Thomas provides excellent low-end support, occasionally driving sections along. Bryant’s screams would be best described as gut wrenchingly evil, although not at the sake of being unintelligible, and he generally adopts a slightly less hoarse vocal delivery for most of the songs to allow the album’s narrative to be understood – an allegorical journey along paths “that feet seldom tread” by “flickering candle light” to eventually end up in a land “where the shore is caressed by the sea.” The marriage of the music and lyrical imagery is well balanced, one never allowing the other to become too overblown or pompous to reach the point of pastiche, but instead telling an almost classical hero’s tale. The pacing of the many sections in each of the songs, and the sequencing of the songs themselves, all help to drive the narrative along in a natural manner, penultimate instrumental track ‘Psychonauts’ providing a brief moment of respite in the storm before the band deliver the final blow.

 

I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that ‘Spectres‘ is one of the best doom albums by a UK band – and certainly one of the best debuts – of the past few years. While Bast don’t yet have such an unarguably unique sound as bands like Conan, as a piece of work ‘Spectres‘ is impressive in its scope and crafted with as much care and attention-to-detail as Bryant’s wonderful cover art. It’s hard for me to gauge Bast‘s current standing in the UK, let alone internationally, considering this is their first official release, but with UK and European dates planned for 2014 I firmly believe this is Bast‘s year to command and conquer and ‘Spectres‘ is the perfect platform to work from.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 27/01/2014]
http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/b/bast-spectres-cd-lp-cs-dd-2014/

[Later published on Roadburn Festival's website as their 'Album of the Day', 07/02/2014]
http://www.roadburn.com/2014/02/album-day-bast-spectres/

Lux Interna - There is Light in the Body, There is Blood in the Sun

(Pesanta Records, 2013)

I’m a cynical bastard sometimes; if I’m being completely honest with myself, I probably spent more time in 2013 listening to old favourites and discovering new favourites by older artists than I did listening to new albums actually released in 2013.

 

It’s easy to fall into this dangerous cycle, but the thing that always stirs me out of this perpetual safe daydream is happening upon something that sounds familiar but which is actually, to my surprise, a new album. When a friend introduced me to Lux Interna I knew I’d found gold, and upon hearing ‘There Is Light In The Body, There Is Blood In The Sun’, I knew I had myself a veritable treasure chest.

 

When you first listen to ‘There Is Light In The Body…’ you might be tempted to simply compare Lux Interna to the likes of 16 Horsepower and Wovenhand, both of whom are/were fronted by the enigmatic David Eugene Edwards, and there’s no doubt that this comparison is warranted. Lux Interna frontman Joshua Gentzke definitely has an intense vocal delivery which he shares with Edwards, and both bands blend traditional folk with more subversive, or contemporary elements. But where Edwards peppers his pastoral lyrics with religious allusions, Gentzke comes across more like a shaman, writing pagan hymns designed for worshipping at the altar of Mother Nature; where Edwards gives his music an earth shattering gravity thanks to some use of biblical language, Gentzke tends to summon a power from dark pastoral imagery. In ‘Wounded Stag’ Gentzke manages to weave the two worlds together, singing about olive branches “encrusted with souls,” singing with Lazarus, and asking some unnamed force to “take my torn flesh as your dress,” and the overall effect is compelling.

 

Musically Lux Interna employ a particularly rich palette of sounds, and the production is densely layered with guitars, banjos, drums and percussion to the point that repeated listens reveal new melodic and rhythmic elements. The aforementioned ‘Wounded Stag’ starts at a brisk pace and swells as vocal harmonies and electric guitars weave in to the mix before the song collapses under its own weight into a lengthy half-time outro – one of the album’s many highlights. Elsewhere the smoky gothic drone of ‘Nida’ invokes pastoral-era Earth, as does the distorted, tantric closing track ‘Tabor’. In the slow-burning penultimate track ‘Blackbird’, Kathryn Gentzke takes over on lead vocal duties, sounding like a forlorn Bilinda Butcher fronting a chamber quartet, suggesting a slowcore/shoegaze influence previously hinted at in the lead guitar parts on some of the earlier tracks. But some of the strongest moments on ‘There Is Light In The Body…’ occur when the band attempt something more uptempo and rollicking, such as ‘Tongues’ and ‘Seed’.

 

I won’t say that Lux Interna are entirely original – they certainly wear their influences on their sleeves – but they are far more than the sum of their parts. There have been other pioneers and trailblazers in this field of pagan, apocalyptic folk, but nonetheless Gentzke is an omniscient, commanding presence on ‘There Is Light In The Body…’ and Lux Interna’s blend of new and old ideas is uniquely theirs. This is an album that deserves repeated listens to fully work its way into the nervous system, for the layers of melody to weave their way into your subconscious and for the imagery to really strike you. Ironically, in a year in which I’ve resolved to listen to more current music, my favourite album of 2014 so far was released last year.

[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 15/01/2014]
http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/l/lux-interna-there-is-light-in-the-body-there-is-blood-in-the-sun-cd-lp-dd-2013/