And on the off-chance Bible of the Devil didn’t put For the Love of Thugs and Fools to tape purely because I asked them too — impossible as it sounds, we should at least entertain the notion that they didn’t — we can still be glad the record has two songs with “night” in the title, as did its predecessor. Anything less would be unacceptable. For the Love of Thugs and Fools will be out May 8. The sooner the better.

Here’s the news off the PR wire:

Veteran Chicago rock ‘n’ roll band Bible of the Devil have announced the completion of their sixth full-length album and third for Rome, Italy-based label Cruz Del Sur Music. Entitled For the Love of Thugs and Fools, Bible of the Devil‘s eagerly anticipated follow-up to their 2008 release, Freedom Metal, is an assembly of raging rock ‘n’ roll songs that encapsulate the band’s saga musically and personally over the years since the last full-length. Returning to Phantom Manor studios in Chicago to work with engineer Mike Lust, who has engineered numerous BOTD recordings in the past, the band sought to emphasize their trademark bludgeoning two-guitar attack and mammoth hooks with an increased attention to soaring, anthemic vocals.

For the Love of Thugs and Fools is viewed by the band as a document of the many characters they have encountered through the life of the band, whether it be in love, loss, friendship, or hatred. Having toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe since the band’s inception in late 1999 and living in the volatile urban environment of Chicago, where encounters with crime, violence, and “street justice” are unavoidable, there has been much subject matter for the band to draw from. Embracing the philosophy that a bottle of whiskey and some loud guitar is often the best cure available for these challenges and ordeals, Bible of the Devil have chosen to document their grievances in the form of one devastating rock ‘n’ roll platter. Said singer/guitarist Mark Hoffmann, “The few years since the last full-length have been like a dare. A dare to create a soaring, punishing rock ‘n’ roll record of this magnitude. It is a dare that we have been forced to answer ourselves.” Fans of Bible of the Devil can expect yet another collection of fist-pumping heavy guitar classics-in-the-making, For the Love of Thugs and Fools.

Track Listing:
1. Sexual Overture/While You Were Away 6:02
2. Out for Blood 5:28
3. Anytime 4:20
4. The Parcher 5:28
5. (I Know What is Right) In the Night 5:16
6. Raw & Order 4:31
7. Can’t Turn off the Sun 5:14
8. Yer Boy 4:52
9. Night Street 5:07
Running Time 46:08

Here’s show and split-acquisition info. Go get you some:

Bible of the Devil will round out the 2011 year in style with one last show to take place at Quenchers. Details are as follows:

Quenchers 2401 N. Western
BOTD 12am
Tight Phantomz 11pm
$10 cover 9pm Doors 21+

The BOTD/Winterhawk split 7″ is now out and is going quickly.  There are a limited number of white and black copies available. Email Onslaught of Steel Records at zuulbooking@yahoo.com or botdmusic@gmail.com to get your copy while they last.

For that set, they were joined by former Trouble drummer Jeff “Oly” Olson and bassist Ron Holzner (currently of Retro Grave and Earthen Grave, respectively), who did guest spots performing Trouble material, so as much as Wagner has moved forward creatively after ending his tenure in one of American doom’s landmark and most influential acts, he hasn’t stubbornly refused to acknowledge his past. Rather, as Blackfinger shows in their first single, “All the Leaves are Brown,” he seems to have embraced it, while also progressing creatively on his own terms with new guitarists Rico Bianchi and Doug Hakes, bassist Ben Smith and drummer Larry Piatz.

We spoke just a few days after Thanksgiving and a few more after Blackfinger played a hometown show in Chicago (at which they were joined by Trouble guitarist Bruce Franklin), and in his trademark low-register deadpan speaking voice — a marked contrast to how he sings — Wagner discussed the evolution of Blackfinger from its nascence as a solo acoustic project into the band it is today, the recording of the album, which at the time was being mixed by Vincent Wojno, the prospects for a vinyl release, and his plans going forward.

Wagner‘s voice is one of the most storied in metal, let alone doom, but I wanted to keep the conversation as current as possible — that is, I didn’t want to veer into, “Hey dude, remember when you sang ‘The Wolf?’” — and I found that his perspective on his past and present is as unique as his melodies have been across these many years. What his future is in Blackfinger or otherwise is uncertain, but even about that uncertainty, the singer remains completely honest and open. It’s fitting that “All the Leaves are Brown” would be the first Blackfinger music from the album to make it to public ears, since the allusion Wagner makes at the end of the track to The Mamas and the Papas song “California Dreaming” is the perfect example of how up front he is when examining where he comes from and where he’s going.

Please find the complete Q&A with Wagner after the jump, and please enjoy.

How was the Blackfinger show?

It was good. Had a blast. Got a little fuzzy by the end (laughs). They don’t let me out much, so the first time out, it’s like, “Yahoo!” But I had a good time. Bruce came up and jammed a couple tunes.

Was Days of the Doomed the first Blackfinger gig?

No. We did a couple local shows – when would it have been, June? I’m looking at the poster actually, hanging on my wall. June 13, 2009. It was just a local one. The town I grew up in, we did a couple there. Every now and then we did something. Days of the Doomed was probably the first bigger show out of here.

When do you mark the band as actually starting?

Oh god. I don’t know. I’ve been working on this new album for four years, so I think about a year in, I started putting the guys together, and then I wanted them to contribute too, so I kind of went through some of their riffs and stuff and put songs together. Because I wanted them involved. So about three years. I think we rehearsed for two, just working out the songs. Rehearsing. Different arrangements. Originally we were going to go in the studio earlier, but I guess everything works out, because there would’ve been a couple tunes that wouldn’t have been on the record that I really like and they’re ending up being on. And it took us a year to record. In between there, we’d take breaks and maybe do a show just for the fun. So about three years with these guys now, I think.

Was it strange for you both bringing a new band together and figuring out how to work with a new group of people after Trouble?

It was kind of fun, actually, to tell you the truth. At first, going out there live the first time or two, it was a little weird, because I was so used to them guys being there behind me, and I’d look around like, “Wow, this is different” (laughs). But it’s been fun, putting together, starting from scratch and everything and putting the guys. We all get along, and everybody, we work together. It was a lot of fun, but yeah, it was a little strange at first. The first couple live shows. And we would do Trouble. And at Doomed fest, Oly and Ron came out, and we did four Trouble tunes also, and that was a little weird.

How do you mean?

Well, it was Oly and Ron, you know. I look over and there’s Oly and Ron, and it’s been a while. And my guys were playing guitar on it, and they did a great job. People loved it. I think we’re going to do the next [Days of the Doomed] too. I think this year it’s gonna be – it was fun last year – but this year, Blood of the Sun is playing and a couple others. It sounds like it’ll be even better this year.

Tell me about moving Blackfinger from a beginning solo project to wanting to make a band out of it and bringing people on board.

Well, after Trouble, I just kind of removed myself from everything and started writing. There was some people who wanted me to get a bunch of guests, those guys in bands equal to Trouble in our same thing there, which would’ve been cool I guess, but I wanted to sit and work and not send tapes across the country and stuff. And just be a band. I didn’t want it to be the “Eric Wagner Project” or any crap like that. I wanted it to be a band. So all the guys I got were from where I grew up, and they were in bands and stuff just around the area. We all knew each other, except maybe the bass player – I didn’t know him; the guitar player brought him along – and he came one day and never left. I tell him he’s the bass player that never left (laughs). So like I say, we just worked together and everybody had a great time, I think. I don’t know. It was a lot of fun, and them guys had some good ideas, and it wasn’t just about me. I got everybody involved, so we felt like a band. There was no arguing, no nothing.

How does that situation compare to the last Trouble record?

That was our, what, seventh one? Not counting Unplugged and stuff. It was just different. Everybody was set in their things, and I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just different. We were together for how long and stuff like that. I pretty much did what I wanted on my new record here, and them guys always went along with the stuff. It was my decision, where in the other guys, everybody was there so long that everybody had their input and opinion on the way things should go, and sometimes opinions differ. So the difference really was, even though I valued their opinion, I had the final say and stuff. It wasn’t like it was bad or anything, it was just I wanted to do my own thing.

How does doing Blackfinger now compare to when you did Lid?

Lid was more a project, kind of. Even though I wanted the same thing back then – just to be a band and stuff. The original Lid pooped out on me, so I got other guys. We never played. Ever. We just did that record, and then I ran away from the music business for about five years or whatever it was. Didn’t even pick up a piece of paper and pencil until Dave Grohl called me from Probot. So I blame everything on him again. At first, I didn’t even know if I could do it anymore, write anymore, but then I did it and it was fun, so I called Trouble back up, we all kissed and made up, and got back together for a new record. And that’s been – how long was Lid ago? 14 years? I guess it was time for me to do another one on my own.

It seems like your relationship with the Trouble guys is pretty good. You’re bringing Bruce up on stage and everything.

Yeah. I have no hard feelings with them or anything. I didn’t talk with Oly for a couple years after I left, but that’s when we got back – at Doomed fest and stuff – and we realized we’ve been together for so long, like brothers, why should there be any animosity? We had some great times. Whatever problems we had – like anyone does – ours wasn’t any more special than anyone’s. But the past is past, and why not be friends? We went through a lot together. Those four guys are the only ones who know what it was like to do what we did. Whatever that may be. I can talk to them and they know exactly what I mean and what it felt like and what we went through. Why not be friends? It’s fun with them guys. We would play with Ron’s band sometimes. I’ve been up with them, he comes up with me. Bruce – I think that’s the second time he’s done that. He came at our first show too and stuff, so it’s fun doing that, reminiscing, and the people seem to like it. We usually do the Blackfinger songs first, and then we’ll end with the Trouble stuff. So people are already anticipating it.

And the Blackfinger album is recorded. It’s being mixed?

It’s almost done. It’s finished recording. My friend Vinny [Wojno] in California. It’s almost finished. The first song came up on the 22nd. I wanted something. People were starting to get like, “Yeah, sure, Wagner. He’s just sitting there” (laughs), so I figured I’ll put something out first, real quick. So when it was finished, that song.

That was “All the Leaves are Brown.”

Right. The rest of it should be coming too, hopefully by the end of the year. Ben, our bass player on the record, he’s finishing the artwork for me for the CD, so everything’s just about there. Which’ll be weird. Like I said, I’ve been working on this thing for four years of my life. Now all of a sudden it’s like, “Okay, what do I do now?” Every album I’m like, “This is my last record,” and them guys were even like, “Yeah right.” Right now I’m just kind of sitting here. I’m finished with that and it doesn’t seem like it. For the first time in four years, I’m not thinking about the songs and stuff. It’s cool to hear, finally, the mixes coming in on what we did. Because it took so long a process, and you hear a song when you’re working on guitars, or I sang it four months ago and I haven’t heard it since, and now the mixes are coming in, so everything’s fresh again. We’re hearing what we did, finally. I’m excited about it. Delete the files. Defragment. Next! What’s next?

How representative of the record is “All the Leaves are Brown?”

Well, I think there’s a lot of nice variety on this record. There’s a couple slower, heavy things. There’s a couple of jams like “All the Leaves are Brown.” There’s a couple acoustic ones. There’s one that’s no guitars at all; it’s just piano and cello and a bass and drums and me singing. That’s all. It’s pretty cool. I wanted it to be a little variety, but make it so it sounds like a record. It’s heavier than Lid was, because I wanted to be a little heavier this time. I have two guitars, have that heavy rhythm behind some of the things. And plus, I wanted to play live this time, so I wanted also to do some Trouble stuff. We did a couple Lid tunes in the beginning, but not a lot of people know that stuff, so I just wanted to keep it Blackfinger, and of course I had to do some Trouble stuff. But it’s heavier. I think it’s a heavy record.

Who’s playing bass on it? Is it Ben, with the stand-up still?

Yeah, it’s Ben. You know what’s funny? A couple years, he came with his regular bass, and then all of a sudden in the middle of recording the album, he brings the stand-up with the bow on it. I’m like, “What the hell is that, dude?” And he started playing it and I thought it was incredible, so I had him do it on a couple songs. Then he opened his big mouth and he said, “I have an electric one.” And he fought me on it. I said, “That is cool, dude. You’re going out live next time and you’re playing that stand-up. And if it ain’t cool and nobody likes it, you don’t have to do it again, but just do it once for me.” And I think it’s cool. He sounds good doing it. It fits him. So he keeps his mouth shut now. He just does it (laughs). Some dude at Doomed fest came up to him and goes, “Dude, you’re the future of rock,” so we make fun of him now a little bit. This one show we played, there’s a few bass players, and they’re all mad, like jealous. Because it’s not easy to do that. He plays in a jazz trio with it, so that’s who he is. There’s a couple bass players who were, “Meh,” because it’s not easy to do that. You can’t just pick it up and play it. And it’s fretless on top of it. He’s played that like that from the beginning that he started learning. I think it’s pretty cool.

What are the plans for the actual release? When is it going to be out?

Well that’s a good question. Hmm. No date set or nothing. Like I said, it’s not quite finished being mixed, but I’m hoping to have it up for downloads by the end of the year, and the same with some hard copy. I kind of just signed a distribution deal. I was sick of the normal record company thing, and I thought I’d give it a try, just being my own, in a way. And I wasn’t even gonna make CDs at first, just put them up for download, but I know a lot of people – especially in this kind of music – they still like it. I still like it. I was mad when they changed from vinyl. The big, nice record covers, and it opens up and stuff. That was part of the fun of getting a new record, was checking out everything. So I’m gonna make some, and it’ll be available through certain outlets.

Will you do a vinyl?

Down the road, I want to, yeah. One thing at a time (laughs). Let’s get this done and up for downloads, and then the hard copy, and maybe next year sometime in the spring or something, we’ll do some vinyl hopefully. I want one (laughs).

That cover’s pretty good. I can see it on a record sleeve.

Oh, it would be awesome on a record record. Awesome. Maybe open it up. My Deep Purple still has weed in there from growing up and I’d clean my weed in that Made in Japan album.

Will you do more shows? Do you want to play out regularly?

Yeah, we want to. Like I said, we’ll do the next Days fest. We’ll see what happens with the record. If people are digging it and they want to see us, we’ll go do stuff. It would be kind of fun anyway, getting out of here for a little bit. So we’ll just see what happens. It all depends on how the record’s received.

I know you’re still embroiled in this one, but have you given any thought to what’s next?

(Laughs) Um, I don’t know. It’s like, I always say I’ve had enough, but it’s not really what I do, it’s who I am, writing down my thoughts sometimes is the only way I can express how I feel, so it’s kind of I need to. I don’t really know what it is yet, I’m kind of living it right now. If there is a “next,” we’ll see what happens. It’ll all appear one day, what to do. If this one does good, then we’ll do another one, probably. I don’t know yet what the future holds. It’s a little early yet to tell. There’s always gonna be people who are gonna be not even willing to listen in a way, they just want me to go back into Trouble and do that, and not give it a chance, for something a little different.

A band like Trouble too, that was around for so long, people have their expectations.

Yeah, what it should be. But see, this sounds like me. With Trouble, Bruce wrote most of the music and stuff, so it’s gonna be different, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s people that… I’m sure they’re going through the same thing right now with their singer that it’s not the same, and well, it isn’t, but that doesn’t mean that it’s good or not. People should take it for what it is. I’m sure Sabbath went through that when Ozzy left. I was one of them. “Dio?” Heaven and Hell and everything was a good record, but I grew up listening to Ozzy with Sabbath, so it took me a minute. At first, I absolutely hated it, but when I started really listening to it, it was a great record. It was just different.

Are you nervous at all about how Blackfinger will be received on that level?

I don’t know if “nervous” is the right way to put it, but you know what? I don’t know, dude. I care what people think and all that, but really, I just had to do this for myself. And I enjoyed doing it, and I had fun doing it, and I think it’s a good record, and I’m just happy that I got the chance to do it. Hopefully people like it. But I can’t really worry about that, or try to write for them or be like, “Well, this ain’t as much like Trouble, we gotta get as close as we can.” That wouldn’t be me at this moment. I’d be trying to recreate something, and it would never live up to it. It’s impossible.

I’m glad I got to hear “All the Leaves are Brown” before we spoke. That’s why I asked how representative of the album it was, because I’m just trying to get a feel for what it will sound like.

I just wanted the first one to be more of a jam, you know? A little taste, instead of something a little more artistic or whatever the word you want to use is. Self-indulgent crap (laughs). This is like, “Here it is, a nice little three-minute song, here you go.” A little taste. But it does not necessarily represent the whole record. There’s a lot of different places it goes.

Well then I hope the rest of the mixes turn out alright.

So far they sound great. I’m so glad that [Wojno]’s doing this for me. I didn’t have the heart to mix it anymore. I needed fresh ears. I needed a different perspective on it. I was married to it for so long, it was hard for me to be objective on it anymore. Because I’d heard each song a billion times, you know. So it was nice to give it to somebody else to mix for a change. And Vinny, me and him have done – god, he did Plastic with us. He did Plastic, he did Lid, he did Simple Mind, he mixed the Unplugged, so I’ve been working with him for a long time, so he’s just part of the team that over the years… He’s one of my best friends too. He knows me, and I don’t have no worries that he’s gonna do something that I’m not gonna like.

Blackfinger on Thee Facebooks

Dark Star Records

Likewise, when Russian Circles do launch into one of the crunching parts through which they’ve helped innovate post-metal instrumentalism, they sound heavier than they ever have. Four albums in, they also know how to make that work to their advantage. Both “309” and “Mlàdek,” which follows, build to stunning apexes, the later propelled by a galloping riff worthy of YOB but played faster and still cut too short. The second track has a kind of pop drama in its earlier stretch, with Turncrantz setting an upbeat pace and playing well off Sullivan’s cues. The name reportedly comes from their bus driver on their European tour for Geneva, and it’s one of the most discernible structures on Empros, twice repeating a section cycle before launching into the build that comprises the aforementioned second half. A lot of what Russian Circles do on Empros will sound familiar to heads who’ve watched post-metal come of age, and while it probably won’t change too many minds who are either sick of the sound or bemoaning the inevitable sacrifice of crushing sonics that comes with ambience, Russian Circles have grown into a band who not only can manage both, but who helped bring the subgenre to what it is. I’d include the likes of Red Sparowes and fellow Chicagoans Pelican in this as well, the latter perhaps most of all, but Russian Circles have consistently managed to concoct solid matter from distant waves of sound. The added transitional elements they bring to Empros only show an increase in overall focus and maturity in how they think about their work on a larger scale.

Titled for Amsterdam’s international airport, “Schiphol” uses noted feedback (it might be e-bow) for a near-classical effect in Sullivan’s guitar. While they’ve pushed into ultra-heavy parts on each of the two tracks preceding, “Schiphol” marks a change in method, bringing the atmosphere to the fore even Turncrantz comes in on the cymbals and toms to add to the righteousness of the build. If “Mlàdek” had pop drama, then “Schiphol” ups the stakes. Each pulse of Turncrantz’s kick bass stuns, and Cook holds true to the momentum of the song perfectly, allowing Sullivan to move off into spacier realms. A clarity of vision is reaffirmed in that it only happens once. Russian Circles don’t repeat the effect, and were “Schiphol” not six minutes long and followed by a transitional drone, you might almost be able to call it an interlude before “Atackla” gradually returns Empros to its stated course of ambience met with weighted groove. Cook gives what might be his highlight performance on the side-B opener, providing start-stop intricacies to offset Sullivan on guitar that mesh with Turncrantz’s skillful fills. “Atackla” feels darker for its focus on the low end, and culminates in a grooved series of hits that seems to echo “Mlàdek” even as it pushes further; again, ending too soon. “Batu” continues that vibe. There isn’t so much a tension created in the track as you wait for “the payoff,” but the build and more mathy-seeming guitar line from Sullivan – at least prior to the triplets that come in just before the four-minute mark – make the peaceful sunshine of the beginning of “Schiphol” seem even more distant.

And though it’s invariably met with some level of novelty simply for the fact that it includes vocals – far back, melodic singing that’s primarily responsible for the already-mentioned lullaby feel – “Praise be Man” has more to it than just that. To compare it to Pelican’s “Final Breath” from 2009’s What We all Come to Need (which also was an unforeseen foray into vocals), “Praise be Man” is far more subdued, despite the swaying bass from Cook that swells to prominence. Soft acoustic guitar tops droning to underscore the otherworldly element of the singing, but Empros still ends with noise that in some way manages to echo the intensity of the first couple tracks without actually adopting their methods. Russian Circles fans who’ve let themselves be taken previously along the band’s sweeping progressions will doubtless herald their latest outing as their best, and the unconvinced will remain unconvinced. What works most of all about Empros, though, is how it’s not the atmosphere that’s dominant, or the heaviness, but the band itself. If this is Russian Circles coming of age as a trio, then the textures they create are that much more vibrant, and all the work they’ve done to this point has been justified. It’s an easy release to be excited about, and never loses its focus no matter how dreamy and psychedelic it gets. It is an accomplishment that, on a creative level, pushes Sullivan, Cook and Turncrantz to the front of their subgenre.

Russian Circles on Thee Facebooks

Sargent House

It shows up in this release about Russian Circles‘ new album, Empros, which is out Oct. 25 on Sargent House, but it seems to be everywhere this week. “Digital download.” Well, here’s the press release, keyboard cut and paste from my electronic email. Grump grump grump:

Russian Circles return with not only their fourth and heaviest album to date — but also with Empros they’re poised to take the crown as innovators reinvigorating the staid trappings of genre. Empros picks up where the anthemic riffs and melodies of 2009′s Geneva left off and injects evermore slithering rhythms amid skull-crushing heft with all the visceral intensity of Godflesh, Swans and Neurosis. Put simply, Empros is Russian Circles‘ Master of Reality: a radical revision of both heavy and melody that is monolithic in its clarity and perfection. Or, like a lone surviving wooly beast emerging from a brutal winter’s frost, Empros is the sound of a band shaking the ages from its shoulders with all the brutal force of a behemoth awakened.

Taking to Chicago‘s Phantom Manor studio once again with producer Brandon Curtis of The Secret Machines and Interpol — who also helmed the band’s previous album Geneva — Russian Circles set out to experiment with their sound in new ways that would still reflect their live sound. In so doing, the band reached a new creative apex in which each of the musicians, guitarist Mike Sullivan, drummer Dave Turncrantz and bassist Brian Cook impart a streamlined and intensified attack to their songs that pummels even as it shifts throughout a range of moods and tempos.

Empros is Russian Circles‘ first full-length to be released worldwide exclusively via Sargent House, the band’s longtime management company and record label that had previously released only the vinyl editions of its three prior albums. It will be available everywhere on LP, CD and Digital Download on Oct. 25, 2011.

Russian Circles, Empros track list:
01. 309
02. Mladek
03. Schipol
04. Atackla
05. Batu
06. Praise Be Man

And if you think the serial killer analogy might be a little strong, I humbly ask that you take another listen to Guiltless’ frantic and disturbing nature. Tonally and atmospherically consistent, the album nonetheless seethes with an underlying energy and tension that comes out on nearly every song – the only notable exception being the late acoustic interlude “Supplicants,” which is creepy, but not necessarily the same kind of unhinged feel. For the rest of its vinyl-ready 41-minute duration finds Indian – guitarist/vocalists Dylan O’Toole and Will Lindsay (the latter ex-Middian and Wolves in the Throne Room, bassist Ron DeFries, drummer Bill Bumgardner (also of Lord Mantis) and noisemaker Sean Patton – reveling in their dense tonality, cutting through it only with hard-hit snares and vicious, throat-wrenching screams. As Guiltless opener “No Grace” breaks into just the guitar to introduce the movement that will encompass its last two minutes or so, one feels in listening that the album has already been on for much longer than it has. The songs are pillow-over-the-face oppressive, and the performances blisteringly tight.

“The Fate Before Fate” finds Indian underscoring black metal riffs with doomed groove, Bumgardner landing heavy on his cymbals in a noisy wash complemented by Patton’s underlying layers. The vocals are far back beneath O’Toole’s and Lindsay’s guitars, and some of Guiltless’ most scathing, working in the song’s faster pace to set up the lumbering feel of the ensuing title-track, which closes side A in madman fashion. It’s on “Guiltless” that Indian perhaps most uses the single-note thudding crashes that seem to pop up on several cuts, and to the greatest effect. The song is unflinchingly heavy and downright terrifying, DeFries’ bass working well with the drums to keep some movement happening under the raucous noise of the surface. O’Toole and Lindsay are in synch ringing out notes over the hits, and it’s almost as though the song grows more insistent over the course of its eight minutes, until finally it leads directly into “Guilty” on the CD (the LP requires a flip, so I imagine some of the effect is lost), which renews the pacing of “The Fate Before Fate” but keeps some of the same laborious feel as “Guiltless.” You won’t be surprised to find out it’s really fucking heavy, really fucking abrasive, and really fucking dark.

In its final moments, “Guilty” provides one of the most memorable passages of Guiltless, with the screamed repetition of the title, and as the noisy fullness of sound of “The End of Truth” plays out, I find I’m more still thinking about “Guilty” than what’s happening now. Perhaps in that way, the aforementioned acoustic “Supplicants” should have been placed before “The End of Truth” rather than after it, but I don’t know if moving it would be worth sacrificing the lead-in to closer “Banality,” which at nine-minutes is the longest song on Guiltless and Indian’s crowning moment of plod. The chugging guitars from O’Toole and Lindsay echo the crashes of the title cut, and Bumgardner is definitely in his element with the crisp, sharp hits, but it’s Patton’s noise that really fills out the ambience of the song and gives it as complete a feel as it has. The album rides those hits and waves of screams and noise to its conclusion, building gradually the volume of the latter to a devouring swirl that – predictably but still satisfyingly – cuts out abruptly, making the silence that follows that much more powerful. Again, no less effective for being telegraphed.

Some of that could be applied to the rest of Guiltless as well, I suppose. Certainly a track like “The End of Truth” comes on with prior warning, and Indian have long warned that this kind of aural malevolence is what they’ve wanted to bring out of their sound, but the album retains its potency nonetheless and is both excruciating and cathartic. Indian have become one of few bands whose ability to set a mood and maintain it over the course of a record is strong enough to really count as sonically textural. The harsh, domineering feel of Guiltless is perhaps more prevalent in the outcome of listening than the songs themselves, which is something to consider over the course of multiple listens, but these songs nonetheless stand as an achievement in terms of stability where there simply sounds like there isn’t any. Guiltless’ abrasion won’t be for everyone, but if you’re up for it, there’s plenty of satisfaction to be had in repeat visits to the murky basements of the mind in which it dwells.

Indian on Facebook

Relapse Records

Info comes courtesy of the PR wire:

Psychedelic post-rockers Del Rey perform a live score to the animated sci-fi classic Fantastic Planet at Lincoln Hall on Thursday, May 5. They’ll be joined on the bill by drone merchants White/Light, who will provide accompaniment to a film by Chicago experimental filmmaker Alexander Stewart.

Since their inception in 1997 in the attic of a three-flat in Ukrainian Village, Del Rey has been keeping Chicago’s instrumental rock torch aflame, purveying their brand of sonic lyricism and rhythmic textuality from countless stages and speakers. In 2010, they released their fourth full-length, Immemorial, in North America via At A Loss Recordings (in Europe via Golden Antenna), which fused the punishing grace of the band’s riff- and percussion-driven sound to a more evocative, melodic sensibility.

The beautiful and surreal imagery of Fantastic Planet (1973) may be the perfect cinematic complement for Del Rey‘s cosmic soundscapes and epic odysseys. In the film, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, humans are kept as pets by blue humanoid alien giants called Traags. Said to be based on the Soviet occupation of the Czech Republic, the story centers on a human named Terr, who escapes the Traags and incites other humans to revolt. Del Rey will also be performing the score in Spain later in May as part of a tour based around their upcoming show at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona.

Lincoln Hall will provide an ideal setting for the screenings – the club is a converted movie theater.

Check it out:

We are busy planning two Small Stone showcase events for you in September/October 2011.

On September 23 and 24, we will be taking over the Kung Fu Necktie in Philadelphia, PA, as a part of the Philadelphia Film and Music Festival… And, on September 30 and October 1, will be heading on over to the Double Door in Chicago, IL.

We do not have a final lineup confirmed yet, but each city will get a combination of 12 of the following acts from the list below:
Backwoods Payback
The Brought Low
Five Horse Johnson
Freedom Hawk
Gozu
Halfway to Gone
House of Broken Promises
Lo-Pan
Luder
Ironweed
The Might Could
Red Giant
Solace
Sun Gods in Exile
Suplecs
Throttlerod
Tia Carrera

And for you folks in Europe, we did not forget about you either, as Dixie Witch, Roadsaw and Sasquatch will be starting their tour across the pond on September 23.

Not only that, but the then-three members of the band — Duffy and guitarists Scott Shellhammer and Adam Norden — also had to deal with the issue of a bassist. As in, they didn’t have one. Most bands would either hit up Craigslist or go without, but perhaps in an effort to contradict the album’s title, American Heritage decided to call upon a host of players, from Bill Kelliher of Mastodon to Sanford Parker, who also recorded the bulk of the record.

So on top of their drummer’s hellacious commute, they wound up with the task of chasing down a bass player for each track on Sedentary, while also recruiting Erik Bocek to fill the role full-time. Oh, and Norden — who also handles vocals — completely reinvented the way he sings, moving from gruff hardcore growls to a semi-melodic cleaner approach, still rooted in shouting, but infinitely more decipherable than on the last album.

Come to think of it, maybe six years between releases isn’t that bad. I’d go on about the record, but you can read the review here if you’re so inclined. Better to get right to the Q&A with Norden, since there was a lot to talk about, including the lyrical thematics at play on the songs and the roots of the band’s choice of Sedentary as the album’s title, the sonic changes American Heritage has undergone in the last six years, the process of rounding up all those bassists and much more.

Complete Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

How did you decide to do the album with a different bass player on every track? How did that idea come about?

Well, that was kind of Scott’s idea. We didn’t have a bass player. The guy on our last record, we booted him out a little while after that record, and then we were just playing without a bass player. We were like, “Fuck it,” because we just didn’t have time to find somebody and train somebody and everything. We just went ahead with our business, as if everything was normal, but then when it came time to actually start writing songs, playing out again, we were like, “Wow, we really need a bass player.” Making the record, we just thought of people that could play bass on the record, and we thought of quite a few different people. And then we were like, “Fuck it, let’s just ask them all.” We made a big list and gave people songs, and everybody was real stoked to do it, and eventually we got it done. It worked out.

Was it a pain in the ass?

(Laughs) With some people there was a lot of… It got down to the wire. Some people, we had to prod them, “Come on, dude, get it done,” this and that, and we didn’t know if they were gonna get it done or not, because these are people all over the country, or overseas or whatever (laughs). We had no way of knowing what they’d actually done versus what they’d told us, but everybody got their shit in on time. The last stuff we did was actually all in town. We did about four tracks at the local studio here with some people from Chicago.

That’s the song with Sanford, I guess, and a couple others?

Sanford did his at his studio, and we tracked some bass at our buddy’s place. More like a basement studio, actually.

And what the timeline on bringing Erik in on bass? When did he come on board?

Ah fuck… Exactly I couldn’t tell you, but it was definitely during the recording of the record. I think it was probably about… (laughs) I’m the wrong person to ask. I would say it was smack-dab in the middle of the recording process, so probably about a year and a half ago.

Was there any thought to scrapping the idea and letting him play on the tracks?

We’d already gone down the record. We’d already gotten tracks from people and everything, and he was still learning the songs and stuff, so no. It was this cool idea and we wanted to do it. It was going to give every song a different flavor, at least in the bass department. After we started getting tracks, it seemed like a really good idea, actually.

It just seems like it would be really, really hard to get everyone on the same page and to get the stuff in when you needed it.

(Laughs) It was. The people we asked were people that make music all the time. A lot of the people we asked are in touring bands, and they’re just used to spitting shit out all the time and getting things done. Most of the people. The busiest people were the people that got their shit in right away, ironically. Because they had access to a studio, and they were doing some other projects, and they just whipped it out. But yeah, generally speaking, we got real nervous towards the end. I think we did a reassignment or two, but it was a lot better rate of return than we thought we’d get, to be honest. I mean, once again, Scott was kind of in charge of it, so he had to stress out the most about it (laughs). I was like, “Hey man, all those bass tracks in?” “Ugh!” and I was like, “Okay, I hope it goes alright.” He was on the internet harassing people here and there, but like I said, it really wasn’t that bad, because we had some really good people on there. None of them are flakes.

What amazes me most about it in listening is, like you said, you do have a different sound on every track, but it still sounds like an album, too. It’s coherent.

Yeah. That’s lucky, I guess. We didn’t know how it would turn out. I’m a bass player, so I know all about the troubles recording bass and trying to find a decent bass tone that doesn’t step all over everything and this and that. We just didn’t know what it would turn out like, because if you have something that’s all tinny, trebly crapola, there’s just no way to suck the low end out of it. Or something that’s complete mud – we’ve got some tracks that are pretty muddy, but they ended up working. We ended up getting everything we needed from everybody, and I was surprised. Then Sanford, obviously he knows what he’s fuckin’ doing. He was able to position every different bass tone within the mix so you could hear it and everything was sitting right. He’s a good mixer.

What about the actual songwriting? How did that go? Who lives in Georgia?

Our drummer, Mike, lives in Georgia. He’s been down there for four or five years, and for the most part, he comes up here maybe once a month, or not even once a month, maybe eight times a year. We’ll practice for three days straight and try to get as much shit written as possible, and throw files back and forth and everyone can think about them, this and that. For the most part, it was like that, then there was a couple times where we went down there for a week and just jammed in his basement. That’s how we did it. Me and Scott, he probably wrote a lot more riffs than I did, to be honest, for this record. But you try to show up prepared with ideas. You have to, actually. When you’ve got a drummer coming in front out of town, you can’t just show up and be like, “Hey, let’s jam this out for an hour,” and they’re like, “Wow, this really sucks. What’re you doing?” You have to have some riffs, you have to have some ideas coming into it. You really can’t just wing it. So that’s how we had to do it. Me and Scott had to write shit and have it at least somewhat ready to be worked on before Mike showed up.

Do you guys get together and work on parts? Is that harder to do without a drummer there?

Well, we get together a little bit, me and Scott, but for the most part, we’d do it the three of us, and Scott’d come up with a bunch of riffs, and we’d learn them all, then we’d make preliminary arrangements, then I’d throw my two cents in, and we’ve just always written songs in a collaborative way, but this, with Mike living down south and us not having as much time in the practice space, we’ve had to do a couple of things. We’ve had to, first of all, be more prepared coming to practice, and have not a whole song, but a section of things, a bunch of ideas, have it all ready to go before you even come to practice. And also, we’ve learned to not overthink things. You have to know when something’s good enough and move on and keep creating shit, instead of second-guessing stuff. In the past, when we practiced two or three times a week, we’d put a whole song together, put a whole big thing together, spend a whole month on it, and just throw it all away because we thought it sucked. We don’t do that anymore. Because we don’t have the time to (laughs). We’d never get anything done. And also, we’ve also written a few songs that are a lot simpler and more straightforward too. For those very same reasons, really. Time and “let’s make something.” “Let’s write a song.” So we have a couple songs that were written in like 15 minutes on there, which is totally uncharacteristic, but you know what? Why not? Let’s do anything. As a band, I don’t think we really are trying to make ourselves into something (laughs). We’re just letting ourselves be whatever the fuck we are. We’ve been going that way for quite a while now.

How do you think the sound has changed since Millenarian, or from the start?

Oh god. I don’t even know if I want to go from the start, because that’s… You know, we started out being this really opaque, really challenging instrumental band. And there’s people that like that, and we liked it at the time, and it was cool and it felt like you were really doing something when you put together a song that went so many different directions and that did so much weird shit. I think when we were younger, we liked that kind of stuff. Generally, as I get older, I don’t listen to things like that. That’s not what I’m into anymore. Hasn’t been for some time. I’m more into things that I like to listen to and that’ll paint a picture for you in any sort of way. And I’m not just into metal and punk or anything, I’ll listen to any kind of music and so will the rest of us. Like I said, I don’t think we are trying to stay the same band, as we were on Millenarian or on – well, Bipolar, we couldn’t, because on most of that stuff I played bass and we had a different guitar player. So we couldn’t even be that band if we wanted to be. By circumstance, we’ve had to change. I guess the big voluntary change between Millenarian and this one is pretty much… Well, that’s still involuntary, because with Millenarian, we still had a lot of time to write songs back then, so a lot of those songs have a lot of crazy shit in them. We still do that sort of thing, of course, but we’ve got a lot more straightforward stuff now, and it’s not just because that’s all we can do. We dig that kind of shit too. Everyone likes that shit. Well, not everyone, but you know what I mean. We like that stuff. I think we’ve always been a pretty good live band. We like to go up there and just try to take down the place. And it’s not take it down by making a bunch of cool kicks and stuff, just really shredding, and we usually play our songs live faster than we ever played them before (laughs), and we just always want to be that kind of band that you see and it’s just like, “Holy fuck! Those guys were ripping!” You can do that by playing straightforward shit as well as really crazy shit. That’s the kind of band that I would like to see – a band that can do a bunch of things really well. I’m not saying we can do a bunch of things, but you know what I mean. It’s got some range to it. I think right now, our live set has got a pretty decent range to it, and ultimately, making records is cool and everything, but I think for all of us, we just want to play in front of people. That’s our deal. Playing in front of people is a more visceral and real experience. You get up there and you sweat your fucking balls off. I scream until I’m about to puke, and then you get done and you’re just like, “Holy fuck, I need 17 beers. I don’t want to talk to anybody and everybody wants to talk to me, ugh…” I like it. I like playing live. All of us do.

Does the distance make that harder?

Well yeah, we can’t play that often. We can’t play live that often. Writing this record took so long. We didn’t play a show for over a year, and that sucked. We had to use that time to write music, or the record would have never gotten done. If we had a gig or a set of gigs, we would have had to practice and play everything before we even went out and played, because it’s six weeks in between practices. So yeah, it’s tough, but we’re always surprised at how much we remember. We’ll have a song and record it, and I swear, if I don’t listen to it – not a complete song, but a work-in-progress song – I’ll listen to it and be like, “I don’t remember even doing that. I don’t remember that happening.” It’s so in the weeds. And you go and you’re like, “Oh, yeah, this! Oh yeah!” Somebody figures out a little riff and it comes right back. I guess we’re just used to remembering stuff (laughs). We’re pretty good at remembering our own riffs, I guess. We’ve always had to do that. We’ve always had to remember a lot of shit and a lot of goofy arrangement stuff, too.

There’s a lot of changes in the songs, so I guess you have to really pay attention to what you’re doing.

Yeah, and then sometimes it gets contentious. Somebody insists it goes a certain way, and then there’s a big argument (laughs). “No, it doesn’t!” and sometimes it doesn’t even matter who’s right, you just decide to say “This is it” instead of what it actually was. You listen to the tape and go, “Oh yeah, that’s how it actually went, but that sucks, let’s do this.” There’s a lot of pointless arguing.

What about the vocals? It seems like there was a change in approach for this record.

I think the simplest answer to that is I just spent more time on them. Also, I guess I got a little better. I changed the style, obviously, of how I did vocals, but I used to not spend a lot of time on lyrics, because it was pretty much like I’d play guitar and yell into the microphone, and it was just sort of another instrument. More like an addition to the riff. I just spent more time and I actually wrote lyrics that were somewhat coherent and figured out vocal melodies and things like that. That’s really the big difference. Before, it was more of a [growls] and now it’s more like “Da da da, we’re all gonna die, doo-dee-doo.”

Talk about the lyrics, then. You went from, like you said, using the lyrics as a vehicle to add to the instruments, to having a theme driving the album.

Yeah, there’s kind of a theme. The theme is more in my head than anything else, but some of the ideas that came up, you know, were… Ah god, I’m at a loss to talk intelligently about this. We have different songs about different things. They’re mostly about bad things, because it’s heavy metal, that’s what you do. You sing about things that you don’t want to have happen to you. The title of the record. The idea is there’s two definitions that I’m working with for “sedentary.” One is that of a sedentary civilization, meaning where you don’t have to go out and forage for food and you’re not nomadic anymore, because you produce a surplus of something, you’ve figured out agriculture or you’ve been provided with an abundance of some resource, where you’re able to stay in one spot. Then from that forms a political system to deal with the surplus. The other definition is one of a sedentary lifestyle, which is something that is almost like a goal here. It’s something to aspire to, to be able to sit on your ass and consume things. I guess that’s a really ‘80s way of looking at it, but it’s still the same thing. And as you get older, I think it becomes more and more attractive, too. But really, the songs deal with more of the former definition. There’s “City of God” about the Crusades. Religion is always associated with an empire. The reason they convert people is because people have to believe a certain set of things in order to justify whatever system it is they’re living under. When you make a conquest or something like that, if it’s for wealth or resources or whatever, there would always be a conversion, religious conversion, with that. So just looking at that, basically saying that fundamentalist religion isn’t just a thing of itself, it’s there for a reason. I don’t know. I talk too much. And then “Vessels,” is another song where I kind of go off about the price we all have to pay for living in a sedentary society. I don’t know if it explains it very well, but there’s always the loss of freedom, and there’s always the loss of humanity, and I think we all deal with that in different ways. There’s different forms of rebellion, and there’s different forms of acceptance. It’s sort of about that. But the big difference is the songs are about something. They were before, but I think I just spent more time on them.

It’s obvious you’ve given it thought, and I think your vocals are a big part of what ties the record together, sound-wise.

The shit I like to listen to has the same quality. I’m not really too interested in listening to a big long instrumental record. It depends. There’s a lot of stuff that I would be interested in hearing, but in our genre, you have to be pretty interesting to be instrumental, and give you something not only to grab onto musically, but that’s the whole reason we write lyrics – to make it sound like the song’s about something. It puts images in your mind, and that’s how you form your opinion of what this band is about. You’re just pretty much creating a narrative, or at least allowing people to create one in their heads. Most rock lyrics aren’t about anything. They just sound like they are. But that’s what’s cool about it. You think of all these songs you knew when you were a kid, and you knew some lyrics and then some of the lyrics you got wrong, and it gave you a whole idea about that song. So you have these associations, even these visual associations about this music, and it can be totally wrong or not what the artist intended, and that doesn’t matter at all. You have a strong association with it, and that’s the important thing.

What are the tour plans? Are you guys going to hit the road at all?

We are going to do some touring in the United States of America, probably some weekend stuff first. I don’t know if I want to say that we don’t have any solid plans right now. What I will say is that we are planning on going out for a few weekends at first, and a few longer ones after that. We’d like to tour all the time, but we’ll see. (Laughs) I don’t want to sound too tentative on paper, here. We’re gonna do something, I just don’t know exactly what it is. But like I said, I want to play a lot.

American Heritage, “Sickening Rebellion”
Sickening Rebellion

American Heritage on Facebook

Translation Loss Recordings

I told you. Shit is nuts.

Guiltless was recorded by Sanford Parker (who else?) at Semaphore Recording in Chicago, boasts artwork by Scott Fricke, and is available for pre-order from Relapse at this location. The label has more info on the record and Indian‘s upcoming release show. Dig it:

Guiltless will see its North American release on April 12 (April 25 internationally) on CD, 12” vinyl, and digitally. The CD is available for pre-order now at Relapse.com and a deluxe digital edition with a bonus track and digital booklet is available now at iTunes.

Indian has announced a Chicago record release show in support of Guiltless for April 9 at Subterranean (2011 West North Avenue). This is a co-record release show with labelmates Bloodiest. The show starts at 10:00pm and tickets are available at this location.