This one speaks for itself. Or at least the PR wire speaks for it:

Canadian stoner metallers Bison B.C., who were scheduled to play a special one-off show at Seattle‘s El Corazon this past weekend with NOLA sludge heathens Eyehategod, were unable to cross the border and thus, did not play the gig.

Comments guitarist/vocalist James Farwell of the ordeal: “Due to our vicious plot to undermine the American economy and to destroy the citizens of the United States of America‘s belief in freedom and baseball or whatever, we weren’t allowed to cross that fascinating imaginary line. More likely due to a fucking clerical error somewhere in Corporate America, the fine people at Homeland Security had no choice but to keep Americans secure from us dirty fucking Canadians. But fear not my fellow poser Canadians, we will get our fucking paper work in order soon enough and be down destroying things before you can say, ‘Does Celine Dion shit in the fucking woods?!,’ — and yes indeed she does. Peace on Earth.”

From the same fertile and aggressive Vancouver soil from which sprouted stoner metallers Bison B.C. and the crushingly Melvins-esque Mendozza come oppressive sludgekateers Haggatha. The band, who issued their self-titled debut EP in 2009, now follow with the appropriately-dubbed Haggatha II full-length on vinyl through Choking Hazard Records. It’s probably not going to catchy anyone off guard in terms of overall style or affect, but the thickened sound of its seven tracks offers a fuller presentation than most of the sludge-core end of the genre while also shunning much of the “we play really fast and just pretend it’s slow” ethic that seems to typify this generation’s take. Even on the short “These Grey Days,” just 2:37, Haggatha shows a restraint that many of the beardo-abrasion types either can’t or simply refuse to grasp, and Haggatha II is a stronger album for it. Their tactics are certainly familiar, but sometimes you just want sludge to sound like sludge, not black or death metal.

Haggatha II (also referred to as “Second Self-Titled”) opens with the seven-minute “Circle of Salt,” getting its push from quiet guitar lines later echoed in the beginning stages of “Eremozoic” and elsewhere. Braden DeCorby (guitar) and Phil (bass) share vocal duties – though it could just as easily be Terry Weight on bass and vocals; the lineup info is nebulous — lending metallic screams and growls to the sizable riffage of the former and fellow guitarist Trevor Logan. “Gulag” is especially tortured in the throat-area, but the guitars contain suitable drama to add to the affect, and the drums of first-name-only percussionist Matt, who starts off and features on late-album cut “Acquiesce,” have a consistency and professional feel that helps Haggatha II come off as a record to be taken seriously. Cymbals matter. Matt’s interplay with the bass and chugging guitars is huge in filling out the sound of these songs. On second track, “Hogtide,” they practically make the piece on their own – not as blown-out as, say, early Church of Misery, but definitely up front and cutting through the other instrumentation.

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Hey, it’s Friday. You want to let off a little steam at the office. All of a sudden, here comes your favorite stoner blog The Obelisk with two tracks from Bison B.C.‘s awesome Dark Ages, and next thing you know, you’ve got your little computer speakers turned up all the way, your shirt ripped open and you’re swinging your work chair around like a lion tamer to fend off security as they try to escort your wild-eyed ass out of the building. So it goes, my friends.

Dark Ages was released earlier this year on Metal Blade, and to support it, the Canuck four-piece has already toured with High on Fire, Black Cobra and Helmet, and on Sunday, they start a month-long European run with Coliseum that’s bound to be a blast. In honor of the tour and just because the record rules and needs sweet love, I’ve been authorized to stream the songs below. Dig ‘em and try not to get too violent.

Bison B.C., “Stressed Elephant” from Dark Ages

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Bison B.C., “Melody, This is for You” from Dark Ages

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Want more info? Well, there’s a review here and an interview here. Have at it.

Trails Out of Gloom, the fourth album by Vancouver, British Columbia-based proggers Fen is my first experience with the band. Their first record for Ripple Music, it’s a collection of melancholic, graceful, sincere melodies, in the vein of some of what Opeth reaches toward from time to time, but more in line with Judgement-era Anathema in its scope and casual straddling of the borders between different aspects of its sound, able to switch from heaviness to a more subtle presentation as smoothly as going one measure to the next. I get the sense this isn’t a sudden development for Fen, who’ve been together since 1998, and that their making it sound easy on Trails Out of Gloom is actually the result of years of work and growth. That’s usually how it goes, anyway.

The band is centered around its two founding guitarists, David Samuel Levin and Douglas Alan Harrison, who also provides the multiple layers of vocals that pop up on tracks like the Katatonia-esque “Find That One” and “The World is Young,” which reminds of Porcupine Tree’s darker moments without being entirely derivative. Trails Out of Gloom starts off with its title track, showing off the acoustic roots of Levin and Harrison’s songwriting and giving Harrison a chance to show off his formidable vocal range. It’s also one of the album’s first missteps, as Harrison reaches at times to a kind of falsetto wail that stands out awkwardly from the soothing music behind, not helped at all by being pushed so far forward in the mix. It doesn’t come up all the time, that is, he doesn’t do it on every song, but it holds back the otherwise driving later cut “End of the Dream” as well, and for a band four albums into their career, it’s a kind of surprising issue to take on, and I don’t doubt it’s one that could turn a lot of people off to Fen altogether.

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Vancouver bud metallers Bison B.C. show some shocking maturity on their sophomore outing for Metal Blade, Dark Ages. There’s still plenty of the hellraising atmosphere that so deeply permeated 2008’s Quiet Earth, but the band is beginning to sit back a little and feel out song dynamics, allowing tracks to develop more fully. They haven’t lost any of their heaviness (which I feel is unfortunately implied when discussing a band’s maturity), but they’re just starting to approach that heaviness in a new way, and Dark Ages captures the four-piece at this fascinating moment in their development.

Opener “Stressed Elephant” tops eight minutes, boasts complex melodies and arrangements and still somehow manages to leave a black eye when it’s done. It’s this duality that Dark Ages does such a good job of framing. Even when Bison B.C. are at their most Mastodon-ish, arguably the early moments of “Two-Day Booze,” they’ve begun to retain their own personality, and that comes through in the riffs and rhythms. The vocal tradeoffs between guitarists James Farwell and Dan And sound more plotted out in “Melody, This is for You” (after the three-minute heavy jam that precedes the vocals, anyway), but that only seems to enhance the overall affect of the song, which is a Dark Ages highlight.

Structured though it may be, Dark Ages is far from rigid. Humor and not taking itself too seriously was central to the success of Quiet Earth, and that remains true for the follow-up. In particular, “Take the Next Exit” gives the impression there’s definitely a story behind it, if only that the GPS in the tour van got a little too repetitive for the band’s tastes. And the doomiest song on the album is called “Fear Cave,” so you know Bison B.C. aren’t trying to include any kind of pomposity in their approach. Yes, that is as refreshing as it sounds.

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If you’ve got a couple minutes to kill at work this afternoon and feel like listening to someone’s rehearsal tapes (hey, it happens), pop over to Grim Reefer‘s MySpace. The British Columbia band — who, yes, have taken their name from a Bongzilla song — consists only of two members: guitarist/vocalist Dragos Baciu and drummer Tanner Hartmann. They’ve upload two tracks so far, “Kief” and “Third Lung.” Both were recorded live.

And they sound like it. I don’t know if I’ve ever put forth my theory on crappy practice recordings in this space, but I’m a huge fan of the idea of them. Think back to the heavy metal days of demo trading and how it changed the world. What’s different, other than the lack of postage needing to be paid? Grim Reefer, whose sound quality is better than plenty I’ve heard, are participating in a grand tradition (actually several). So, you know, good for them.

I won’t go so far as to say it’s mandatory listening, but again, if you have a minute to check it out, you might find Grim Reefer worth keeping on your radar. You don’t get so much of a sense of it from these recordings, because Baciu‘s guitar comes across so thickly, but they could use a bassist. Hopefully they’ll get to work on that and drop an update with whatever they do next. Meantime: free music, goofy name, derivatively weedian ideology. Life could be worse.