Some updates are about tours, some updates are about videos, but it takes some real overachievers to give an update that’s about both a video and a tour. Leave it to Atlanta sludge upstarts Sons of Tonatiuh to go the extra mile. Sometimes one just isn’t enough.

Here’s the video for “Consumed,” followed by some into that’s maybe cooled off, but still fresh from the PR wire:

Atlanta-based sludge collective, Sons of Tonatiuh, recently unleashed a video for “Consumed,” the third track off their self-titled debut full-length. The video was produced by Apocalypse Productions on their home turf.

Commented drummer Tim Genius: “Do yourself a favor: When making a video, don’t choose the longest possible song you might have…. unless you plan to test your audience’s attention span. That said, we are pleased to announce that our new video for ‘Consumed’ turned out rather awesome. It’s minimalistic and we like it that way. At the very least, it’s now more clear that a Sons of Tonatiuh show does not involve little children and traditional Mexican folk-dance — not always, anyway. Mission accomplished!”

In related news, the band is set to embark on a stretch of spring and summer shows. Confirmed dates thus far include:

05/13 Drunken Unicorn Atlanta, GA w/ Primate, Javelina
05/27 Memphis Hates You Fest @ Hi Tone Memphis, TN
05/28 TBA Jackson, MS
06/02 529 Atlanta, GA w/ Black Skies, Royal Thunder
06/24 Little Hamilton Nashville, TN w/ Across Tundras
06/25 Gutfest Jackson, TN

The band is also working on new tunes for their as-yet-untitled, sure to be pulverizing next full-length which is tentatively slated to be recorded in Athens, Georgia courtesy of Harvey Milk’s resident drum bludgeoner/knob tweaker, Kyle Spence.

Said Genius: “It’s sure to be our best yet! Rest assured that while Kyle is conjuring the ghost of John Bonham, we will be bringing our best Keith Moon to the fine folks of Athens.”

Subtle only when it comes to revealing their lineup info (their Facebook page refers to them as “some dudes”), Atlanta, Georgia, five-piece Wizard Smoke emit caustic riff-driven sludge underscored with elements of guitar psych and more extreme metal. They made their debut with 2009’s giveaway EP, Live Rock in Hell (review here), and they now follow that with their first full-length cassette/vinyl/download, The Speed of Smoke. In case you’re wondering, smoke moves pretty slow for the most part, and so do Wizard Smoke, who explore familiarly riffy and familiarly Southern ground on these six mostly-extended tracks (the shortest is “Butcher” at 5:29). Fans of Weedeater will recognize a lot of the band’s tonality – Orange and Hiwatt amps put to good use – but the vocals, rather than a sludgy scream, are far back and echoed in a kind of black metal cackle that sets Wizard Smoke apart from the scores of other newcomers to the genre. The parts of The Speed of Smoke that are more directly culled from the band’s influences are still interesting and well done enough to make them worth paying attention to, and with formidable rumble underscoring the dirty guitars and throat-wrenching vocals, there’s plenty about Wizard Smoke that’s their own as well.

It’s a vinyl and cassette release, so naturally The Speed of Smoke is broken into halves with three tracks on each side. “Dead Wood” opens the record and sets the tone of heavy groove and extreme vocals that much of the rest follows. The guitars have a grit to them that’s less fuzzy than some of what’s to come, most particularly on “Butcher,” the next cut, but a few Geezer Butler-style fills add charm and thickness that would otherwise be very much absent from the recording. It’s a rudimentary production, but for a self-release, I’m not going to hold that against Wizard Smoke. Mostly it’s an issue with the snare drum, which cuts through the mix too high while the cymbals don’t sound so much open and vibrant as they do buried behind the guitars. A mixing thing. It comes out more with headphones, but even through speakers, the same applies. It wouldn’t be a problem at all but that it distracts from the riff, which especially in “Butcher” is clearly what we listening are supposed to be following. After “Dead Wood” and “Butcher,” one might thing Wizard Smoke don’t have much in store change-wise, or that The Speed of Smoke is bound for redundancy, but the eight-minute Side A closer “Weakling” puts clean vocals through a vocoder for several verses and it not only shifts the sound, but changes the momentum of the whole album. Screams are included, of course, but even just by moving away as they do from that approach for a while, Wizard Smoke show they’re not going for a Bongzilla-type single-mindedness, and it goes a long way.

Plus, it’s way stoner, which – if the name Wizard Smoke or the album title The Speed of Smoke didn’t already tell you – the band are too. So it works on that level as well. Which is nice.

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Atlanta‘s extra-capital-letter-fied MonstrO (who were On the Radar’ed just over a year ago, if you’ll recall) have signed with Vagrant Records, the label responsible for such stoner rock gems as Senses Fail and Thrice. Yeah, I know Vagrant‘s grown up a bit in the last couple years (putting out the likes of Murder by Death and… Rammstein?), but it’s still kind of a surprise to see MonstrO — featuring Juan Montoya, ex-Floor/Torche, and former members of bloodsimple — get picked up by them.

Whatever. More importantly, MonstrO‘s new album is due out late in the summer and will be produced by William DuVall from Alice in Chains. Should be interesting. I guess you never know what the PR wire will bring on a given Wednesday afternoon:

MonstrO, the highly pedigreed atmospheric hard rock four-piece from Atlanta, Georgia, have signed with Vagrant Records to release their debut album. Formed in early 2009, MonstrO is bassist Kyle Sanders (bloodsimple), drummer Bevan Davies (bloodsimple, Danzig), guitarist Juan Montoya (Torche) and vocalist/guitarist Charlie Suarez.

MonstrO entered a studio in Atlanta earlier this week with producer (and Alice in Chains vocalist) William DuVall.

“We’ve been collectively writing and recording for two years now and thanks to Vagrant we’re finally recording our first proper full-length,” said Sanders. “We’ll be locked up for the next month recording and mixing with our good friend William DuVall at the helm. These songs have taken on a life of their own and we’re all extremely thrilled to lay them all down and begin the journey.”

There isn’t much about Sons of Tonatiuh you can’t see coming from miles away, but then again, I doubt “subtle” was what they were going for in the first place. The Atlanta, Georgia, group’s self-titled debut — originally pressed to vinyl by the band and now available on worthy upstart Hydro-Phonic Records – finds the double-guitar/double-vocal four-piece offering a solid 35 minutes of screamy sludge. It’s uncompromising in its visceral feel, and the eight tracks seem geared more toward abrasive musical ideologies than traditionally structured songwriting, helped by production between rough and natural-sounding.

It’s not a formula that’s never been encountered before, but Sons of Tonatiuh do much of the work of distinguishing themselves in the vocals. Guitarists Dan Caycedo (ex-Leechmilk) and Darby Wilson both contribute blood-curdling screams throughout Sons of Tonatiuh, playing especially well off each other on Side B cut “Oracle.” That’s not to take away from the effectiveness of their riffs, the bass playing of Mike Tunno or Tim Genius’ drumming, but frankly, that’s all stuff we’ve heard, whereas Wilson and Caycedo show the difference between quality screaming as a vocal technique and the “some dude yelling” technique employed by many bands. From the quick-moving start of the record on “To the Throne” to the later doomed plod of “From Ashes,” the two six-stringers take a large role in defining the sound of the band, and the album is all the heavier for it.

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It’s a bold band that tours in January, even if it’s just a run through the South. Nonetheless, Atlanta‘s Sons of Tonatiuh plan to boldly step forth and brave the elements for shows with some killer bands, and if you’re like me and by the middle of January you’re tired of being stuck in the house all the time, the PR wire has a plan it would like you to follow.

To wit:

Atlanta sludge merchants, Sons of Tonatiuh are about to embark upon a fourth US tour this January in support of their self-titled debut full-length. The mighty Hollow Leg from Jacksonville, Florida, will be joining the band for the first three shows. After that, the band will be tearing its way across through New Orleans and back around through Shreveport before winding down in Chattanooga, Tennessee with the likes of Hot Graves, Death Before Dying, Car on Fire, Cognitive Dissonance, Currents and Black Pussy among others.

“We’ll try and keep the church burning down to a minimum as we continually raise the dead of our ancestors through our witchcraft,” said the band in a collective statement. “So come out see what we’re all about and we’ll promise to deliver a good time.”

Sons of Tonatiuh January 2011 Tour
01/06 Stay True Tattoo – St. Augustine, FL w/ Hollow Leg
01/07 The Poorhouse – Ft. Lauderdale, FL w/ Shroud Eater, Hollow Leg
01/08 Will’s Pub – Orlando, FL w/ Hollow Leg
01/09 Common Grounds – Gainesville, FL w/ Hot Graves
01/10 C-Level presented by Kuhlcher Korner – Panama City Beach, FL w/ Death Before Dying, Car on Fire
01/10 Siberia – New Orleans, LA w/ Cognitive Dissonance, Mojo Spleens
01/12 Headhunters – Austin, TX w/ Rusty Vein
01/13 Dalzell House – Shreveport, LA w/ Currents
01/14 The Doom Room – Vicksburg, MS w/ Black Pussy, Currents
01/15 Sluggo’s North – Chattanooga, TN
01/28 529 – Atlanta, GA w/ Black Pussy, Demonaut, Wolves & Jackels

There were arguments to be made for and against Zoroaster‘s 2010 E1 Music debut, Matador, but at the end of the day, I dug the record and it’s off-kilter methodology. The Atlanta trio’s third album overall, it was time for Zoroaster to shake up their approach. Last year’s Voice of Saturn saw them begin to experiment with clean vocals and more melodically-conscious songwriting, and aided by the production of Sanford Parker, Matador took that experimentation in new and innovative directions.

It’s a fascinating record, and hypnotic. If you played it for me back to back with Zoroaster‘s full-length debut, Dog Magic (2007), I wouldn’t think they were the same band, or at very least not the same personnel therein. But ultimately it may have come too quickly on the heels of Voice of Saturn, which was an honorable mention addition to last year’s top 10, as it seems like some of the material could have been developed further — the toying with traditional rock and roll guitar conventionalism on “Titan,” for example — before being put to tape.

Zoroaster are proving themselves able to produce at a consistently high quality, and Matador is a big part of that, but I’d be interested to see what came out of it if they took two years between albums instead of one again. The jump from Dog Magic to Voice of Saturn was much greater than that from Voice of Saturn to Matador, and as they’re at a pivotal point in their career — right on the verge of the bigger metal notoriety of bands like High on Fire — it’s time for them to really hunker down and start writing great songs. I hope in the future we can look back at Matador as the beginning of that process.

I guess the headline pretty much says it all, but Atlanta doom mavens Zoroaster have made the song “Witch’s Hammer” available for streaming and downloading as part of Adult Swim‘s Metal Swim online compilation, which also features the likes of Jesu, Isis, Torche and Boris.

One can only imagine Adult Swim would rather you checked out the track at their site, and if you’re so inclined, that’s certainly cool by me. If not, however, here’s the song for streaming goodness, followed by the latest off the PR wire:

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Celebrated psych metal band Zoroaster has unveiled the brand new track “Witch’s Hammer” via the just-released [adult swim]/Scion A/V compilation Metal Swim. Described as “a collection of 16 metal tracks from some of the heaviest bands in existence,” Metal Swim features “rare and never-before-released songs from some of the genre’s most notable bands” and is available for free download at adultswim.com/metal now.

Today, Atlanta‘s Zoroaster release their third album in the head-soaked form of Matador. It is the band’s first release through E1 Music, and it comes as the latest brick in a tower of momentum that can be traced back across last year’s Voice of Saturn full-length and its 2007 predecessor, Dog Magic, both of which the band put out through their own Terminal Doom Recordings.

But, as guitarist/vocalist Will Fiore informs from sunny Hollywood, California, there are just some things you need a label for. As an example, the band are currently embroiled in an extensive US tour with fellow Georgian upstarts Black Tusk and Florida‘s Dark Castle that’s been dubbed the Summer Southern Burn Tour. I’m sure it’s way more comfortable than it sounds.

Of course, Zoroaster are no strangers to the road. Fiore, bassist Brent Anderson and drummer Dan Scanlan have been hitting it hard since the inception of the band in 2003, and as they release the Sanford Parker-produced (longtime engineer Ed Rawls also worked on it) Matador, it seems their work touring is beginning to pay off. They are among the best doom bands of their generation, and more and more, they’re being recognized as such. Not a bad platform on which to issue a new album.

After the jump, you’ll find my recent Q&A with Will Fiore as the Summer Southern Burn Tour was getting started. Since he was in Hollywood, I began the interview with the most important question of all…

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The whole “promoting by not promoting on The Obelisk” bit is tired and sad, so I’m going to let it rest this time. Zoroaster‘s new video for the track “Odyssey” made a premiere well-timed for the release of the Matador album next week on some website that takes ads. Here’s the clip, directed by Chad Rullman:

I know you’ll all be surprised and devastated to learn that when Atlanta doom mavens Zoroaster were looking for a place to stream “Black Hole” from their forthcoming E1 Music debut, Matador, they did not come to The Obelisk. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when you’re a band looking to promote a new release, there’s nothing quite like not The Obelisk to get it done.

At least I can take solace from my irrelevance in the fact that it was the good people of Brooklyn Vegan who got the premiere. Matador is out July 13, and Zoroaster hit the road middle of this month to promote the album with the oh-so-hot-right-now Black Tusk and underrated Floridian purveyors Dark Castle. Stream “Black Hole” below.

And in case you were wondering whether or not it’s metal, just look at that dynamic range. No other genre has such oppressive waveforms.

It has been an evident conscious decision by the band Zoroaster that each of their albums should sound different from the one before it. They are, in terms often heard, “trying something different” each time. Certainly 2009’s Voice of Saturn showed marked growth from 2007’s Dog Magic, and their third and latest full-length, Matador, follows the same ethic, pushing the Atlanta trio’s psychedelic doom in yet another surprisingly complex direction.

Matador is Zoroaster’s first album for E1 Music (High on Fire, In Flames, Hatebreed), the first album they aren’t releasing through their own Terminal Doom Records, but I don’t think that accounts for any of the sonic changes the band has undergone. One might expect that, having moved from an entirely independent method of operation to a label of reach as considerable as E1’s, Zoroaster would come across, either consciously or unconsciously, as more commercial, but that’s not – repeat, not – what’s happening on Matador. Rather, it seems guitarist/vocalist Will Fiore, bassist/vocalist Brent Anderson and drummer Dan Scanlan have gone even further out than ever before, incorporating a mutated brand of desert rock riffing into their arsenal while at the same time meshing it with increased use of highly-reverbed and delayed clean vocals that makes a song like opener “D.N.R.” sound spacious even more than what is commonly thought of in doom as heavy. The feel is that Zoroaster have moved beyond the confines of genre, and with the help of producer Sanford Parker, are working on their own progressive definition thereof.

There are also a lot more songs on Matador than in the past. With their third outing, Zoroaster gives us nine full-tracks, where Dog Magic had six and Voice of Saturn had five if you discount the intro and outro (which, in the case of the latter, also takes 14 minutes of runtime off the album and may not be an entirely fair move). Of course, the track lengths here are shorter, with cuts like the heavily rhythmic “Ancient Ones,” “Trident,” “Black Hole” and “Odyssey II” all under four minutes and only “Old World” and closer “Matador” over seven, but if bursts of rocking energy like “Trident,” with Fiore’s righteous and classically-styled soloing, are going to be the tradeoff, I’ll take it, as Zoroaster prove more than capable of handling the style. “Trident” is a surprisingly catchy highlight, tighter with more aggressive vocals, than “Odyssey” before it, but it really is the soloing that sets the song apart. It’s yet another move Zoroaster have made to distinguish Matador from its predecessors.

So naturally, on the next track, which is “Firewater,” they go in the complete opposite direction. The song is 4:14 of noise, feedback, soloing, effects and a Clutch-style bass and drum groove underneath, basically Scanlan and Anderson giving Fiore a little freak-out time. Gone is the structure, the memorable hook, the fleetness of finger (well, I guess that’s still there, but coming from another dimension). Take that, expectation.

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Last week, Atlanta doom titans Zoroaster rolled out the info on their new album, Matador, and they’re following it up today with a 34-second preview clip of the heaviness to come courtesy of the PR wire. Matador is out July 13 on E1 Music. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got half a minute to kill, so let’s do this thing:

I think, if events play out according to their normal course, Zoroaster will be the first band to have been interviewed twice on The Obelisk. When/if it happens (the subject hasn’t even yet been broached, so who knows, they might decide not to do press at all), the topic of discussion will inevitably be their new album, Matador.

With production from Sanford Parker, mastering by Collin Jordan, artwork by Brian Mercer and a release via E1 Music — this is the first Zoroaster album the band isn’t releasing on their own — Matador is high-profile right out of the gate, and from what I hear there are some sonic shifts the band has undergone to complement. As a fan of the band, I can’t wait to hear how it all plays out. Here’s some info from the PR wire:

Celebrated Atlanta, GA psych metal band Zoroaster has completed work on its sophomore album. Entitled Matador, the record is set for a July 13, 2010 North American release date via E1 Music.

With Matador, Zoroaster dares to defy genre-classification and proves that the band’s formidable reputation precedes it for a reason. Matador is a magnetic tour-de-force, blending vivid rhythms and radiance with the band’s classic use of dynamics and power. Creative, distinct, graceful and strong, Matador features the traits of a benchmark release. From the cosmic march of album opener “D.N.R.” [one assumes it’s not a Testament cover – ed.] through to the leviathan-like closing title track, it is immediately evident that Zoroaster has joined friends — and fellow Atlanta natives — Mastodon and new label mates High on Fire as a unit determined to push modern heavy music into new and uncharted realms.

Matador track listing:
1.) D.N.R.
2.) Ancient Ones
3.) Odyssey
4.) Trident
5.) Firewater
6.) Old World
7.) Black Hole
8.) Odyssey II
9.) Matador

Zoroaster tour dates:
Brooklyn Vegan and Roxwel present:
The Summer Southern Burn tour
Featuring Zoroaster, Black Tusk and Dark Castle
June 15 Birmingham, AL The Nick
June 16 Memphis, TN Hi Tone Café
June 17 Oklahoma City, OK The Conservatory
June 18 Dallas, TX The Lounge on Elm St.
June 19 Austin, TX Emo’s
June 21 Albuquerque, NM Burt’s Tiki Lounge
June 23 Ramona, CA Ramona Mainstage
June 24 W. Hollywood, CA Viper Room
June 25 Oakland, CA Oakland Metro
June 26 San Francisco, CA Thee Parkside
June 28 Portland, OR Satyricon
June 29 Seattle, WA Funhouse
July 1 Salt Lake City, UT Club Vegas
July 2 Denver, CO Larimer Lounge
July 3 Kansas City, MO Riot Room
July 4 St. Paul, MN Turf Club
July 6 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle
July 7 Newport, KY Southgate House
July 8 Pittsburgh, PA 31^st St. Pub
July 9 New York, NY The Studio at Webster Hall
July 10 Philadelphia, PA The Khyber
July 17 Atlanta, GA The Earl (*Matador CD release show!)

Sure, they’re both metal bands blending pop and doom, and they’ve both got short one-word names ending in vowels, but that’s where the similarities between Atlanta‘s MonstrO and Torche are done, alright?

Well, that and guitarist Juan Montoya, who played guitar in Torche and was also in Floor with Torche mainman Steve Brooks. There’s that commonality too. All kidding aside, though, they really are different bands, if the two tracks on MonstrO‘s MySpace are anything to go by.

Both “Anchors Up!” and “April” run longer than the two or three minute lengths that made up most of Torche‘s last album, and though “Anchors Up!” has some of the same upbeat crush to it, with “April,” MonstrO shows a completely different, ambient, almost ballad-driven side. The song is nearly eight minutes long and relies heavily on a bass groove courtesy of Kyle Sanders (ex-Bloodsimple) to set a more brooding atmosphere that’s still somehow romantic. Drummer Bevan Davies (also ex-Bloodsimple, also Jerry Cantrell‘s band and Englebert Humperdinck) does a decent job hanging back in the mix, and vocalist/guitarist Charlie Suarez only adds to the accessibility of the band with his ranging melodic approach.

They have no shows listed and thus far no indications as to plans for release, but fuck it, it’s the internet age and they exist. That’s pretty much all it takes these days. Those who want to know can know. I can’t imagine given the Torche connection and pro experience of the other members that MonstrO couldn’t get picked up by this or that metal indie if they so desired, but I guess the test is whether or not they decide to go that route. For now, they’ve got two songs free to check out and are definitely worth keeping on the radar.

It’s the first Zoroaster album they won’t be releasing on their own, and expectations are high as the band have definitely proven in both the studio and live arenas they’re ready for that elusive next step on the path to world dromination. Voice of Saturn was eminently killer, and I see no reason why Matador shouldn’t be the same. Here’s hoping, and here’s a boatload of PR wire info:

Critically acclaimed “psych metal” band Zoroaster has entered Atlanta’s Living Room Studios (Mastodon, The Black Lips) to begin the recording of its hotly anticipated new album, Matador. A July release via E1 Music is expected.

Zoroaster is working with producer Sanford Parker (Pelican, The Gates of Slumber) on the new album, which will be mastered by Collin Jordan (Black Moth Super Rainbow, Nachtmystium) at The Boiler Room in Chicago, IL.  Matador’s drums and bass are being laid to tape at Atlanta’s Glow in the Dark Studios. Housed in the former location of the renowned Cheshire Sound Studios — the first dual 24 track facility in the Southeast – the recording complex has been home to projects featuring Prince, The Georgia Satellites, Steve Walsh and more.  Zoroaster’s new material is said to be “more direct, more intense and absolutely enveloping.”

Zoroaster will debut a number of new songs at its upcoming SXSW live performances which kick off on Wednesday, March 17 as part of the Action! PR SXSW Showcase (@ Mohawk: 912 Red River St., Austin, TX).  The all ages event will be open to the public as well as SXSW badge and wristband holders.

When asked for comment on Matador, Zoroaster guitarist / vocalist Will Fiore dished, “As a whole, these are the strongest songs we’ve ever put together and they really encompass everything we’ve done until now as a band.  There are some really heavy, slow creepers and some of the faster, more driving songs.  The new material ranges from really aggressive to more melodic and trippy.”  “It’s going to be a pretty straight-forward rock album and I think it’s what we wanted to create with both Dog Magic and Voice of Saturn rolled into one,” offers drummer Dan Scanlan. “There will be a lot of shorter tracks that are very straight forward and hard-hitting — it’s a lot less of a droning record than what people are expecting. The album title Matador sums up the feel of the album perfectly.  It’s an ‘epic’ sort of title; strong and powerful, but graceful.”