This just off the PR wire:

North Carolina disciples of doom, Black Skies, are set to embark on a US tour throughout the month of July. Founding members Kevin Clark and Michelle Temple will be joined by ex-Des Ark drummer/Kevin’s former roommate Tim Herzog. Black Skies‘ new material retains the heaviness of their earlier work, with more dynamic song structures and a psychedelic edge creating a more interesting overall sound. Following the tour, the band will begin preparations for recording what they hope to be their best release to date.

Says guitarist Kevin Clark of the upcoming trek: “We’ve had our share of ups and downs over the past 12 months, but getting out West last year was without a doubt one of the better moments. We are thrilled to be heading out there again this summer, seeing the faces and places that made it such a blast. We played with a lot of great bands and met a lot of awesome souls with a true love and hunger for music. Those people are a big part of the drive for us to continue doing what we love to do, and we are eternally grateful for them.”

Black Skies tour dates:
6/27/2010 Local 506 – Chapel Hill, NC (pre-tour kick off show)
7/01/2010 The Smiling Moose – Pittsburgh, PA
7/02/2010 The Summit – Columbus, OH
7/03/2010 Cobra Lounge – Chicago, IL
7/04/2010 The Frequency – Madison, WI
7/05/2010 Blue Moose Tap House – Iowa City, IA
7/06/2010 TBA – Lincoln, NE
7/07/2010 3 Kings Tavern – Denver, CO
7/08/2010 Burt’s Tiki Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT
7/09/2010 Rocky Canyon – Boise, ID
7/10/2010 The Comet – Seattle, WA
7/11/2010 Rotture – Portland, OR
7/12/2010 TBA – Ashland, OR
7/13/2010 The Hemlock Tavern – San Francisco, CA
7/14/2010 The Stork Club – Oakland, CA
7/15/2010 TBA – Cayucos, CA
7/16/2010 Relax Bar – Los Angeles, CA
7/17/2010 The Rogue Bar – Scottsdale, AZ
7/18/2010 Rio Grande Satanical Gardens – Albuquerque, NM
7/19/2010 TBA – Oklahoma City, OK
7/20/2010 Red 7 – Austin, TX
7/21/2010 TBA – New Orleans, LA
7/22/2010 The Nick – Birmingham, AL
7/23/2010 The Buccaneer Lounge – Memphis, TN
7/24/2010 Springwater Supper Club – Nashville, TN

Coming in 2010: One of the most comprehensive southern metal documentaries in history! Appropriately dubbed Slow Southern Steel, the 80+ minute film is executive produced by Karim Khan (I’m Better than Everyone Records) and directed by Rwake vocalist guitarist CT and David Lipke with the additional and integral assistance of George Hancock, Alix Petrovich and Beer WolfChristian Sweeney (who will be releasing a paperback version of the production) among many others.

Slow Southern Steel peers into the world of true southern metal/doom through live footage and personal interviews; CT‘s devout commitment/knowledge/love of the topic at hand bringing the movie to life in a way few first-time directors can. Said CT about the laborious undertaking: “I knew there were things I could get out of these bands that other film makers could not.” Added Khan, “There’s just something very appealing to me about taking unyielding heavy songs and adding a strong southern element to them.”

At press time, the film was still being shot and thus far, featured bands will include (in alphabetical order): A Hanging, ASG, Baron Grod, Beaten Back to Pure, Beer Wolf, Black Skies, Black Tusk, Blackblood Division, Blood of the Sun, Collapsar, Colossus, Cough, Dark Castle, Deadbird, Dead-I-On, Dixie Witch, Doomsayer, Eyehategod, Flesh Parade, Haarp, Hawg Jaw, HOD, Hope and Suicide, Hostile Apostle, House of Lightning, In the Lurch, Jucifer, Ketea, Khann, Kylesa, Mala Suerte, Music Hates You, Parasytic, Queen Beast, Royal Thunder, Rwake, Seahag, SeaWitch, Sourvein, Speedealer, Spickle, Suplecs, Subrig Destroyer, The Devil and the Sea, The Dumps, The Roller, The Unbeheld, Vessel of the Divine, Weedeater, Withered and Zoroaster.

Slow Southern Steel will make its debut at the renowned Little Rock Film Festival in May of 2010 where many of the bands featured will be in attendance (stay tuned for further details). Additional festival previews will follow.

The DVD edition is slated to be released in 2011 via fast-growing, vinyl-only (and now DVD) Chicago imprint, I’m Better than Everyone Records.

Fine. So they take the ever-emulated “Stones from the Sky” riff (the Helen of Troy for the post-metal movement; the riff that would launch a thousand bands) and transpose it onto Power Pellut opener “Black Molly.” Big deal. They play fast, thick metal that’s doom more in aesthetic than actuality, and though we all know expensive equipment does not a good band make, an angular track like “Rabbit Hole” has a sub-tech plod that seems to point out the behemoth doth stride. I’d be lying as well if I said “Corky’s Revenge,” with its deeply concerned screaming repetition of the lyric “March of the retards!” didn’t have a certain charm.

Sadly “The Gambler” isn’t a Kenny Rogers cover (that would have ruled), but instead another missing link from Remission brought straight out of Power Pellut‘s thunderous tones and dino-footprint riffing. Bassist Scott and drummer Trey, the former nearly indistinguishable from Lonnie‘s guitar, do an able job of providing additional heft to the material, bolstering the sludgy, nine-minute “Neato Bandidito” into a monstrously proportioned groove that devolves into feedback for its last two minutes as it makes way for closer “If Only I Could Reach My Utility Belt.” Kudos to the band for not putting “Neato Bandidito” last, and it’s an especially notable performance from Trey, but the big rock finish about three minutes in that leads to — you guessed it — more noise feels somewhat anticlimactic and ends Power Pellut on an underwhelming note of “meh.”

There’s potential here, but until the band becomes more self-aware in their songwriting and clearer about who they are as musicians, Power Pellut are going to have a hard time becoming any greater than the sum of their parts. That said, the pieces and influences the band has are well mixed and put together in such a way as to create something new from them. It’s just that a lot of young bands are finding the same results from the same equation. If they can manage to bring something individual to the table, they’ll be devastating. For now, they’re not off to such a bad start.

Power Pellut on MySpace

I’m Better than Everyone Records