The new track from The Black Chord, “Quake Meat,” can be heard now over at metalblade.com/astra. The Black Chord will be available in North America on March 27. Astra will be hosting an album release show in San Diego on March 16. The show will be at The Casbah with Dead Meadow, The Loons and Joy. The show will also feature visuals by Operation: Mindblown. For more info, check out astratheband.com.

The following PR wire info doesn’t exactly give the answer to that question, but it does add further intrigue in a quote from guitarist Justin Maranga. Check it out:

Los Angeles psychedelic prog-rock band Ancestors will release its new album In Dreams and Time on April 10 via Tee Pee Records. Recorded in east L.A.’s Infrasonic Sound (Queens of the Stone Age, Best Coast, Xasthur), the record showcases the band’s most accomplished music to date and a creative sound that morphs from thunderous cacophony to soul-searching peaks and valleys as towering riffs collide with bleak beauty and deep wells of light and dark.

“In Dreams and Time feels like the culmination of everything we’ve done so far,” says Ancestors guitarist Justin Maranga. “The record incorporates elements of everything that we’ve come to feel that Ancestors is, as well as new things that we’ve never tried. We’re hoping that it will tie together fans of our previous albums Neptune with Fire, Of Sound Mind and Invisible White who may or may not have connected one release or the other, while hopefully helping us reach a new audience. We’re excited about it.”

The track listing for Ancestors’ In Dreams and Time is as follows:
1. Whispers
2. The Last Return
3. Corryvreckan
4. On the Wind
5. Running in Circles
6. First Light

Ancestors have also announced the addition of new drummer Daniel Pouliot (Horse the Band, ex-Bleeding Kansas) to its ranks and have been confirmed for both the 2012 Desertfest and the 2012 Roadburn Festival, where the band will share the stage with Killing Joke, Michael Gira, Chelsea Wolfe and more.

By that I mean that even unto its title, Strippers, Mullets and Beer seems to be reaching for a specific idea of what boozy stoner-style rock and roll is, rather than focusing itself on crafting the songs and worrying about where they fit genre-wise after the fact. The beer I’ll give you, but the strippers and the mullets? Well, maybe, maybe not. In that regard, “Mindset” is actually the strongest of the songs here. Although it doesn’t come close to the infectious octane of “Forsaken Place,” Wilson positions the EP’s final statement lyrically as a kind of insider nod to the heavy rock scene – “You’ve got the time and the money/Ain’t got the mindset” – and placed with self-awareness in a genre looking out, it works better than “’72 Nova,” which seems to turn a blind eye to its unoriginality rather than acknowledge it. We all know it’s not the first song ever written about a car and a girl, and where “Mindset” offers some personality on the part of Caveman Voicebox by saying in effect, “we know exactly what we’re doing and it’s all on purpose,” the earlier cut wants to pretend that’s not the case. It’s a kind of anti-pretense pretense, and it’s only not more of an issue than it is because of the strength of Wilson’s songwriting. Joining Alfred Cruz and Mike McKnight’s guitars is a bluesy slide guest spot from Eric Dover (Slash’s Snakepit) that adds character to the already barn-burning energy, and though the Doug Carrion (Descendants) production doesn’t quite beef up the guitars as one might think, the added feeling of rawness winds up an asset working in the band’s favor.

Still, it’s on songs like “Forsaken Place” and “Mindset” that the band most shines and leaves a positive, memorable impression of itself. The penultimate “Banana” is perhaps the most straightforward of the cuts on Strippers, Mullets and Beer, with drummer Matt Merrow sounding almost mechanical, but it also offers some of the best guitar leads on the EP. Along with Caveman Voicebox’s well-reasoned balance of influence seems to be that kind of tradeoff; for every one thing that might strike as lacking individual presence, there’s a corresponding something either structurally or performance-wise to cover for it. Because of that and because, again, Wilson seems to have hooks to spare, I feel comfortable saying Caveman Voicebox’s first outing displays some marked potential for future growth. Naturally, I’d be more interested to hear more of their personality come out on whatever they do next, but Strippers, Mullets and Beer offers a few inarguable choruses and shows the four-piece as having a rudimentary grip on what they want to sound like, and for a band self-releasing their first EP, I wouldn’t ask anything more of it than that. Heavy rockers in L.A. might do well to check them out live if possible to get a fuller impression of what they’re about, but the songs here showcase a band aware of and working within genre as they begin to get a feel for what they want to do sonically, and that process continues to fascinate. Coupled with the fact that I’ve been unable to get “Forsaken Place” out of my head for the last three days, and it’s a recommendation well earned. They’ve definitely got the mindset.

Caveman Voicebox on Thee Facebooks

Caveman Voicebox on ReverbNation

Here’s the poster. Click to enlargify if you don’t like looking at tiny dates:

If you’re reading this and you celebrate either the Jesus-in-Christmas or the secularized Xmas, then chances are congratulations are in order: You’ve made it through another one. The Patient Mrs. and I got back a little bit ago from the last of the familial hoedowns, and with that, an episode of Iron Chef America and our collected loot strewn about the place in Roman-style excess, the evening seems to have come to a conclusion. I hope you had a good one.

Since Friday was my office party and — class act that I am — I got loaded early, I never officially closed out the week, and I thought some Blue Cheer would be the way to go. In the car up to Connecticut and back yesterday and today it was Deep Purple, Sungrazer, Warning and Kyuss, but holiday Cheer is about as close as I get to holiday cheer, so I hope you enjoy it. I haven’t drooled over Outsideinside in a couple weeks anyway, so I’m due.

If you’re in the US and don’t have to work tomorrow, I hope your weekend continues to be excellent and that you get to relax a bit before having to cram five days’ worth of work into four the rest of this week. If Xmas isn’t in line with either your belief system, you’re celebrating Hanukkah, Lemmy‘s birthday, something else or nothing at all, I hope you had a good weekend whatever it may have entailed.

Along with a shit-ton of laundry, tomorrow I’m going to try to make my way through reviewing the new BeenObscene album, and this week I’ll have Six Dumb Questions with guitarist/graphic artist Scott Stearns of the recently-reviewed Bibilic Blood and the semi-recently-reviewed Morbid Wizard, as well as, I think some new music from Dwellers, who were reviewed just a couple days ago. Very timely around here all of a sudden.

In any case, much fun to come this week, so please, stay tuned. In the meantime, see you on the forum and back here tomorrow for more good times.

This was just a couple weeks before Wino hit the road alongside Shrinebuilder bandmate Scott Kelly on an acoustic tour in support of Adrift and a split 7″ single between them, but I’d hardly call the performance rough. He nails the restless angst of “I Don’t Care” and manages to elicit whoops and yells from the crowd during “Nothin’” in the solo at the end. The energy is there, is what I’m trying to say.

And given the odd setting near a shirt rack and the clarity of sound and video for this clip, it was an easy choice. Enjoy “I Don’t Care” and “Nothin’” and the rest of your Wino Wednesday:

Fresh off the PR wire:

Oakland, CA, hard rock band High on Fire has entered Salem, Massachusetts‘ GodCity Studios to begin tracking their as-yet-untitled new album. The world renowned group featuring drummer Des Kensel, bassist Jeff Matz and guitarist / vocalist Matt Pike (also of legendary stoner metal trio Sleep) is collaborating with producer and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou on the new effort; the band’s sixth studio recording and follow up to 2010′s Snakes for the Divine. A mid-2012 release date is expected via eOne Music.

“We are really stoked about recording this album,” said Jeff Matz when asked for comment. “The new songs are turning out absolutely punishing; there are some seriously sledgehammer riffs on this one! Working with Kurt has been awesome as well. He’s super easy to work with and is full of good ideas. The sounds that the guy gets are ridiculous and raw as f*ck but also clear and HUGE. I think this album will capture the essence of the band really well. It’s still early in the process, but so far it’s sounding amazing.”

Tentative song titles from the new High on Fire LP include “Serums of Liao,” “Madness of an Architect,” “De Vermis Mysteriis,” “Spiritual Rites” and “Warhorn.” Early reports mark the new record as “direct, eye-opening and powerfully supernatural.” More details on the album will be made available in the coming weeks.

Before the big slowdown in the first half of closer “Great Dishonor,” Hazzard’s Cure recklessly make their way through seven tracks of blistering metal, and though I’m (predictably) more into the mid-paced groove of “Meet Me at the Mountain” than the broken-bottle blackness of “Psilocybin,” the band maintains a consistent appeal throughout, nodding at dirt metal and High on Fire and keeping a sense of fuckall behind even the mostly-clean vocal of “Clashing of Hordes.” Battle metal? A little bit, but more in that post-Matt Pike “heavy equals battle axes” lyrical mindset than any sort of grandeur in the production, despite that song’s acoustic part.

Several of the songs in Hazzard’s Cure‘s midsection bleed into each other, including “Meet Me at the Mountain” into “Tossed and Dethroned” and that song into “Clashing of Hordes,” which likewise flows easily into “Wolves’ Banquet,” and while I don’t know for sure if one is there, it’s easy enough to read a narrative into the structure of at least part of the album. I wouldn’t speculate as to how it translates onto cassette, but Hazzard’s Cure (whose lineup features members of Walken and Owl) mix genres fluidly and come out of it with something more their own than it might seem on first listen, so I thought it was worth putting the tracks from the record up in case anyone wanted to check them out.

These come courtesy of the Hazzard’s Cure page on Bandcamp. You can also check out the band’s website, if you’re so inclined. Thrash on:

Aaron Edge

But time marches on, and as Ozzy once taught us, the wicked find no rest. Relocated from Seattle to Los Angeles, Aaron Edge now resurfaces with Peril on the Sea, the latest in the long line. They’ve got a page on Thee Facebooks with a few songs of ass-kicking, undulating nautical doom. Well worth a look.

In the meantime, here’s the announcement Aaron sent over:

Aaron Edge (of 2 Men Dead, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, Eshas, Genuine, Grievous, Harkonen, Hauler, Hellephant, Himsa, Iamthethorn, Les Gants, Requin, Roareth, Rote Hexe, Swallowing Swords, Swearengen, The Horde, Tsuga, West of Zero, etc.) has been writing and recording three EPs’-worth of heavy songs over the last two years, and the first has finally reached the light of day. All five tracks from the first EP, entitled Voyage, the First, have been uploaded to the Facebook page.

Check it all out, download all five songs for free…

If you like what you hear, please share the page/songs with others.

But Snail have an innate and well-honed ability to write memorable songs, and that comes through on “Galaxies’ Lament.” Make it through the song a couple times and you’ll find yourself returning to it more and more. In that way, it’s a perfect lead-in for Terminus, since that’s pretty much the case the band across the board. Of course I’ll have more on the record as the release plans firm up. As of now, the latest is: 2012.

Until next year rolls around, then, enjoy “Galaxies’ Lament,” and thanks to Snail for continuing to kick ass: