As every new year starts, there’s always a glut of rumors that kick around. So-and-so is going to have a new record, this or that band is going to reunite, someone just got signed, etc. However, when I look to my left at the post-it note on my wall of threatened 2012 releases, the prospect is actually daunting. Could we as a species actually live to see a year that boasts releases from Clutch, Kyuss, Neurosis and Saint Vitus?

It’s the kind of thing that, centuries from now, some puffy-haired weirdo (not the good kind) will get on tv and say must have been the work of ancient aliens. These things have a habit of not working out as planned, but even the thought is staggering.

These releases have all been announced one way or another, so like I said last year, I’m not breaking any news, and unlike yesterday, I haven’t actually heard any of them yet. Basically I just wanted to nerd out for a bit on cool stuff that’s supposed to be coming out in 2012.

So here goes:

Ufomammut, Oro: Their 2010 effort, Eve, was a defining moment, both for them as a trio and pivotal act within their genre, and for the genre itself. With Eve (review here), Italian three-piece Ufomammut took cosmic doom to new reaches of psychedelic complexity, and though I know I’ve said it a few times, it’s worth repeating that it was a true work of mastery. It’s only grown richer with time, and Ufomammut‘s two-part follow-up, Oro — which will be divided into Opus Primum and Opus Alter, both of which are set for issue on Neurot in 2012 — is set to expand on the form, if such a thing is possible. We’ll find out.

 

Saint Vitus, Lillie: F-65: I wouldn’t be surprised if it showed up under a different name, and likewise if it didn’t show up in time for its currently-slated March 27 Season of Mist issue, but whenever and however it arrives, the first Saint Vitus album since 1995 and the first with Scott “Wino” Weinrich on vocals since 1990 is easily the most anticipated doom release of the year. Put to tape by Tony Reed — with whom I was fortunate enough to recently speak about making the album — most of the record was recorded live, and since that’s where Vitus has shined since coming back in 2009, I’m definitely looking forward to hearing how they translate their momentum into a new studio outing.

 

Colour Haze, She Said: I can’t imagine how frustrated the German heavy psych progenitors must be by now. Seriously — She Said was on my list last year. The trio, led by guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek, who also helms the Elektrohasch label, spent all of 2011 hindered by technical problems, and though we did a track premiere back in October for the song “Transformation,” the album has yet to materialize around it. It’s a heartbreaker every time Koglek sends an update, and we can only hope at this point that they continue to stick with it, because if there’s ever been a worthy cause, it’s a new Colour Haze record.

 

Greenleaf: According to reports, the Swedish trad-rock supergroup with members of Dozer, Truckfighters and Demon Cleaner started recording the follow-up to 2007′s fucking incredible Agents of Ahriman in November, and the latest is that Oskar Cedarmalm was set to start vocals on Dec. 26. I’ll tell you flat out that when this record arrives, I’m gonna be such a dork for it that you’re going to be tired of hearing about it. You’re going to load up this page and be like, “Ah Jeebus, not another post about how much ass Greenleaf kicks.” They’re the reason I’m going to London Desertfest in April and the prospect of a new album kept me from jumping in front of a train on several occasions throughout the recent holiday season. No shit.

 

High on Fire: The prospect of a new High on Fire album in 2012, on the other hand, wasn’t all that exciting to me initially, but when it was announced that Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou was manning the production at his GodCity studio, that was more than enough to change my mind. My whole complaint with High on Fire‘s last album, 2010′s Snakes for the Divine, was that it sounded too watered-down and there wasn’t enough grit in the production. If anyone’s going to fix that, it could be Ballou, who recently brought Black Cobra‘s massive thrash intensity to bear on the excellent Invernal. Either way, will be interesting.

 

Neurosis: I don’t even remember where I saw it at this point, whether it was Thee Facebooks or the forum or what, but the news that Neurosis had started preliminary recordings with Steve Albini for their next album filled me with enough dorkish glee that I chose to include them as the sixth in a five-band feature, despite having zero confirmation either that such has actually happened or that the album will be out by the close of this year. And really, it doesn’t matter. If Neurosis are possibly making a new record, then I’m definitely looking forward to it, and that’s just the way the universe works. Hard to believe it will have been half a decade since Given to the Rising was released, since I feel like I still haven’t digested that record, but if it takes the rest of my life to catch up (and it probably will), then I know my time won’t have been misspent.

Ditto the Pt. 1 post: there’s more. Full-lengths to (possibly) come from Kyuss, Ancestors, Conan, Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Night, Samothrace, Crippled Black Phoenix, Earth, Wight, Curse the Son, Cathedral, Wino/Conny Ochs, Shrinebuilder, Om and I don’t even know how many others set up 2012 as an incredible year yet to unfold, and tired as I am even just thinking about all the adjectival phrases it’s going to take me to get through it, I can’t fucking wait.

Because, really, it’s the music. If we don’t have anything else, we’ve got that, and it’s comforting to know that on the hardest days this year will bring — and I don’t doubt that for many of us it will bring no shortage of hard days — we’ll still have music. I look forward more than I can say to hearing these creative works, and hopefully sharing them with you as much as this weird internet portal makes me able to do so.

If I’ve missed anything, I hope you’ll leave a comment to remind. The only thing better than a bunch of records to look forward to is even more records to look forward to, so have at it.

In the latest newsletter for his label Elektrohasch Schallplatten, guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek of German heavy psych forerunners Colour Haze — in addition to announcing the new releases from Saturnia and Ararat — gives an update on the progress for his band’s long-awaited new album, She Said. The short version: We’re not there yet. It’s pretty much been a year since the mixing was to begin (10 months at least), and one can’t help but admire the band’s persistence in the face of what must be a frustrating-as-hell series of setbacks.

Here’s the update from Koglek, and here’s looking forward to She Said in 2012:

…Shortly after my October newsletter, after once again working through my old mixing console for another week, sorting ribbon cables, changing ICs, cleaning contacts and stuff, just when everything was finished and I was about to start mixing again, when the mixer sounded as good as never before and the very same day my technician told me “if something is broken, I can come until 10 am, then I’m in holiday for 3 weeks” — my old board had another minor breakdown, nothing big or unusual for an old desk, but all the work of the week before again was for nothing — I was fed up, I didn’t want to invest any more work in a mixer I didn’t want to keep anyway — I quit — and suddenly things came in move fastly so I had the opportunity to buy my dream mixing board brand new for a very good price, of course I had to get a bank loan and of course this is a huge investment which will need further additions next year to really finish everything — but finally setting up the studio basics properly, getting out of the improvised, under-construction state seemed to be the only possibility and starting fresh in a cleared up work surrounding was the only option — so we took a complete break in the production and made the effort to get our studio finally to the basic state where it always was meant to be — buying that new mixer and other needed items, planning, furniture, a new floor, complete rewiring — all a lot of complicated details and thinking, lots of people involved — next week, just before Christmas, we’ll set everything together and we’ll have a new start to finally get out of all the endless troubles and finish the album, hopefully… So please, again: patience : )

Given the fact that German heavy psych progenitors Colour Haze had to go back into the studio and completely remake their album following technical difficulties, the noise you hear at the beginning of the track “Transformation” from their long-awaited new album She Said could be construed as static — a joke playing off the perils that beset them as they were recording. In fact, it’s beach ambience recorded at the semi-official festival Duna Jam in Sardinia. Much more pleasant.

Several live clips of “Transformation” have made the rounds, but cool as they were in racheting up excitement for She Said, which follows the brilliantly jamming 2008 album All, they quality wasn’t good enough to really capture the spirit of the song. The tom runs of drummer Manfred Merwald toward the end, the oft-imitated warm fuzz of bassist Philipp Rasthoffer and the subtle nods guitarist Stefan Koglek (who also handles vocals for Colour Haze, though there are none here) makes at Natas‘ “Alberto Migre” backed by Christian Hawellek‘s Fender Rhodes keys in an a brief still moment past the 10-minute mark all speak to the trio’s ongoing development, ever-present chemistry and enduring influence over both the European and the worldwide underground.

Enough of my yak. Special thanks to Koglek for letting me host “Transformation,” which you’ll find on the player below. Please enjoy:

Did you hear those horns? I debated even mentioning them for ruining the surprise, but if you’re not there yet keep your ears open for when they kick in. I won’t even say when. It’s an absolute triumph, and just one of the several ways in which Colour Haze are stepping out of themselves on She Said. They keep the brass limited to “Transformation” — arrangement by Martin Homey and Georg Weisbrodt — but according to Koglek, other tracks will feature Latin percussion, a string quartet, etc. If those experiments work as well as the horns do here, we could see the ushering in of a whole new era of Colour Haze.

This mix isn’t final, but Colour Haze‘s ninth full-length, She Said, is due Nov. 2011 on Koglek‘s own Elektrohasch Shallplatten. More to come.

Well, the follow-up to Colour Haze‘s brilliant All is called She Said, but as guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek explains in the latest newsletter for his label, Elektrohasch Schallplatten, no one quite knows when the hell it will be out. The difficulties, as it goes, are technical, and it’s a definite bummer, but better that they hold it back than release something they’re not 100 percent behind.

Here’s the latest from Koglek via the PR wire:

Since June 2010 we are working on our new album. Due to several private and artistic reasons, we needed to build up our own analogue studio for this, which we did since March 2010 with great effort. Temporally and financially we went far over the actual maximum of our possibilities, totally nuts – but the world already suffers enough from reasonable economic decisions ; ) – We think that with this creatively and artistically we made a great step onwards and recorded our best, most sophisticated and most psychedelic album so far.

Unfortunately on the one hand we also had a cascade of bad luck with the gear, so all the time (expensive…) technical problems had to be solved. Furthermore because of a nearly unbelievable chain of acoustical problems on the recording side – a seemingly okay sounding room which caused some problems in the background and a basically correct but in combination difficult mic-ing – and nobody heard it all the time, several studied audio-technicians had the stuff on their ears over the course of months – all our well played and in the single signals beautifully recorded music resisted every attempt to mix it down properly yet – I invested five weeks of 11-14 hours behind the console so far – well with high-end gear you can also cause high-end problems ; ) … In the last days we analyzed the material digitally and found a few things which might work and haven’t been tried yet.

We gave everything – and everybody who knows us knows that we always try to give our very best – and with our attitude of unconditional giving we achieved so much over the years, not only for ourselves… but at the moment we came to a dead end with the new album.

Therefore we delay the release to an uncertain point later on this timeline ; ) – we won’t give up for sure – but we have to work it out now calmly, without time pressure and with deliberation…

In the meantime, you lucky European types can catch Colour Haze on the Up in Smoke tour. More info on that here.

Please don’t think I’m breaking any news here one way or the other about any of these releases. This post is basically just me talking about albums I’d like to see this year. Some have been formally announced, some just alluded to, but if these and the records listed yesterday were all that 2011 had in store, we’d probably still come out of it on the winning side.

Once again, the headline says “Rampant Speculation” and that’s what this is. Maybe in reading it, you’ll agree with something, maybe you’ll disagree. Either way, any comments are appreciated as always.

Let’s have some fun:

YOB: Sad as it is that Oregon doom forerunners YOB had to cancel their appearance at Roadburn and European tour, one can only hope their follow-up to 2009′s blistering The Great Cessation comes out that much sooner as a result. It will be interested to hear where the band goes stylistically. Guitarist/vocalist Mike Scheidt had plenty to be pissed about going into the YOB reunion, following all that Middian/Midian legal nonsense, but now that that’s through with, will he bring the same kind of vitriol to bare in the songwriting? Hopefully it’s not too long before we find out.

Colour Haze: They’re one of the classiest bands on the planet, and their last album, All, was hands-down my favorite record of 2008. They’ve released the Burg Herzberg two-disc live recording since then, but it’s time for new album, and according to the last Elektrohasch Schallplatten, it’s not far off. All had a more live, more organic feel than anything Colour Haze ever did before — the snare drum’s reacting to the bass and guitar rumble like a nod to everyone listening that it was done with everyone in the same room — and I’m looking forward to hearing how they try to top it.

Clutch: 2010 saw numerous reissues and the usual insane amount of touring, but in 2011, it’s time to see where the next stage in Clutch‘s ongoing development is leading. Maybe they’ll continue the blues-laden path they’ve taken on their last couple records, or maybe they’ll decide it’s time to confuse the hell out of everyone and do something completely different. Aside from being an astounding live act, Clutch are a fantastic group of songwriters, and it’ll be exciting to get to know a new batch of tunes both live and on disc.

Elder: Their self-titled was some seriously riffy business, and I haven’t heard the follow-up yet, but all accounts from those who have say it’s a more ethereal, more open and stonery sound these young Massachusetts rockers have taken on, and that’s just fine by me. MeteorCity is supposed to have the release out later this year, and I have the feeling that when ti finally hits, it’s going to catch a lot of people off guard, in a good way. Hard not to expect big things for a band like Elder, who have so much potential.

Dixie Witch: When it’ll be out, I have no idea, but Dixie Witch‘s fourth full-length will be the band’s first without guitarist Clayton Mills. His tone and natural bluesy shred was a huge part of what made Dixie Witch‘s prior offerings so killer, and by the time the album gets out, it’s likely to have been five full years since they released the excellent Smoke and Mirrors. This one’s long overdue.

Argus: True, I said I’d only list five bands, and these Pennsylvanian metallers make it six, but I’m genuinely curious to hear what they come up with for their Cruz Del Sur label debut. I dug heavily on the trad doom of their Shadow Kingdom Records self-titled debut, and vocalist Butch Ballch (formerly of Penance) never fails to deliver, so it’s definitely worth keeping an eye out.

There’s other stuff too: Olde Growth, Hour of 13, Wo Fat, Graveyard and a slew of albums that may or may not happen in time for December to roll around. Again, this is just the stuff I want to hear, so if you’ve got anything on your mind or something I should look out for, leave a comment. There’s nothing better than being exposed to new music.

I think when the smoke clears over the next decade or so, we’re going to see a lot of bands come down the line who cite Colour Haze as an influence. The German heavy psych trio have left an indelible mark on underground rock over the course of their 15-plus years together, and though they’ve all but disavowed their earliest works — albums like 1995′s Chopping Machine, 1998′s Seven and the 2000′s CO2 are all out of print and quite rare (though 1999′s Periscope was reissued on guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek‘s Elektrohasch Schallplatten imprint in 2003) — their latter-day material has made for incredible depth of listening and the strength of their playing continues to reach new heights.

So where to start? First, let it be said that the entire available discography is exceptional. 2008′s All was my favorite album of that year, and 2003′s Los Sounds de Krauts is nothing short of miraculous. You might think it strange then that I’m going with 2006′s Tempel as my pick for newcomers.

It’s a question of exclusion. On 2001′s Ewige Blumekraft, Koglek, bassist Philip Rasthofer and drummer Manfred Merwald were still getting a feel for their sound. Los Sounds de Krauts, as I’ve said, is great, but it’s a double-CD, and might be too much to handle in terms of giving new listeners a full appreciation of what the band can do. Tempel‘s predecessor, the 2004 self-titled, is close, but the tracks aren’t as memorable.

And as for All, the only reason I didn’t pick that is because the album is better experienced if you’re already familiar with what the band has done before. It might be the best Colour Haze record to date (and I do include last year’s Burg Herzberg Live release in that), but you won’t know that unless you hear the others first — and especially hearing Tempel first, then going to All, I think that’s the best way to grasp how special Colour Haze really is. You get to hear the chemistry between Rasthofer, Merwald and Koglek and come to understand it’s really not all about the riffs, but about each instrument and how they play off each other. Perhaps even more important then where you get started is that you get started. Here’s Tempel opener “Aquamaria” to speed your way. Enjoy.

It is hour three of a football game about which you couldn’t care less if they paid you. Your family is just approaching the line of intoxicated where the passive aggression is activated. Your little cousin has just asked you where he or she can score some pot. You were hopeful this year would be different. You need an escape.

Suddenly, you remember The Obelisk posted a buttload of videos for just such an occasion, called it a “Pre-Thanksgiving Media Blitz,” figuring that maybe on this most familial of holidays, heads might need a break from everything, if only for a couple minutes. And is there a better way to spend that break than watching high quality live videos from Kyuss, Dozer, Colour Haze, Alabama Thunderpussy, Dixie Witch, Black Pyramid and — for those whose day is even a little more stressful — Acid Bath? You’ve already hid out in the bathroom long enough to do all the crossword puzzles in that book. Relax and enjoy the entertainment. At least catch your breath.

Truth be told, this is as much for me as it is for any of you who might see the benefit of it. Being the pajama-clad social misfit I am, even the thought of bringing my family together with that of The Patient Mrs. is enough to make me want to crawl into a hole. I fully anticipate excusing myself from the before-dinner goings on to come upstairs and watch at least one of these clips. And to make it holiday-special, I tried to find the best quality stuff I could. The Colour Haze video from DunaJam alone gives me a sense of inner peace, which I anticipate needing on Thanksgiving as much as another glass of wine.

If you’re like me (and if not, congratulations on your well-adjustedness), please enjoy the videos after the jump and remember, no matter what the tv tells you, you don’t actually have to get up at five in the morning to go shopping at Target.

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Someone told me salt water air is a natural remedy, so I’ve left the valley for a weekend cure on the shore of the Long Island Sound in hopes of reducing the swelling and discomfort still lingering after Monday’s wisdom teeth removal. Of course, since most of my ideas about health come from the 19th Century (bacon cures tuberculosis!), it’s a crapshoot as to whether or not it will work. I still have some vicodin should the need for it arise.

Since the weather here today is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen since the weather here yesterday, and since in times of sunshine and heat my mind automatically gets visions of German psychedelic rockers Colour Haze, I give you the below video, shot at this year’s Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, The Netherlands. I was upstairs on the 013 Popcentrum balcony when they played this version of “Sundazed” from 2003′s Los Sounds de Krauts. Enjoy

Quietly issued while everyone’s back was turned and intended as a stopgap to sate those eagerly awaiting the material recorded at Duna Jam in Sardinia, the new live record from Deutsche heavy psych magnates Colour Haze — appropriately titled Burg Herzberg Festival 18.Juli 2008 — captures over two hours’ worth of the trio’s set from the traditional hippie fest. Since their studio albums basically are intended to recreate the band’s sound in the most natural way possible, there’s not much of a leap in terms of how they actually pull off the songs, but like any live record worth a damn, there are tiny imperfections and changes to make it special for fans and other repeat customers.

Since it was recorded after the release of last year’s All, several cuts from that album make an appearance, including the 15-minute title track, the ?ber-catchy “Moon,” and “Lights.” A whopping 20-minute version of “Peace, Brothers & Sisters!” — actually shorter than the studio one that showed up on 2004′s self-titled — kicks off disc two, and “Love” is another highlight there, just as “Aquamaria” from 2006′s Tempel stands out on disc one. They go as far back as 2000′s CO2 with “Get it On” and “Inside,” which is the first part of a medley also including covers of “American Woman” by The Guess Who and Grand Funk Railroad‘s “Into the Sun.” Pay close attention and you’ll even catch a bit of “Hey Jude” in there. No joke.

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