Portland, Maine, rockers Sun Gods in Exile make no bones about who they are or what they do. Their second album, Thanks for the Silver (Small Stone), is guitar rock all the way through – a dudely amalgam of Southern riffing and solos that puts a figurative edge to the literal “double-guitar” lineup distinction. It’s easy to imagine six-string connoisseurs swishing the work of Tony D’Agostino and Adam Hitchcock around a brandy snifter to air them out – or at very least popping the top of a can and enjoying the hiss and the fizz as a song like “Moonshine” plays out its Southern course. At times Thanks for the Silver is almost a caricature of heavy Southern rock masculinity, and coming from a band located in the northernmost state in the continental US, that has its own issues, but damned if the five-piece don’t do it well, and the sophomore outing shows marked growth from where their 2009 debut, Black Light, White Lines (review here) left off, most notably with the inclusion of Christopher Neal’s keyboards.

The effect Neal has on Sun Gods in Exile’s sound is to add melodic range and complement the riffs with long-sustained notes, as on a song like “Smoke and Fire” on the second half of the album, on which he fills out the verses behind Hitchcock’s lead vocals (everyone but D’Agostino provides backups), or “Since I’ve Been Home,” a classic road song in the same tradition with which labelmates Dixie Witch often align themselves. Despite its liberal soloing and guitar prominence, “Since I’ve Been Home” – as close as the 10-track Thanks for the Silver gets to a centerpiece – is a highlight more for Hitchcock’s vocals and those that back him for what’s probably the album’s most memorable chorus. Earlier cuts like the opening duo “Hammer Down” and “Moonshine” find D’Agostino and Hitchcock, as well as bassist JL (since replaced by his brother, Mark Lennon) and drummer John Kennedy, purposefully making room to account for Neal in the songwriting. The Hammond sounds add flourish to the riffs but are almost always in service to the guitar, as are the bulk of the rhythms, as are the structures, the vocals, and so on. If you’re someone who tunes out solos or thinks they’re needless wankery or if you’re even slightly unimpressed by scorching leads, Sun Gods in Exile simply is not the band for you. Their ballsy classicism – excellently balanced by Benny Grotto’s recording job and mix – won’t so much touch a nerve as get on one, and, frankly, you’ll miss the point of Thanks for the Silver, which if I haven’t yet made it clear, is all in the guitar.

Read more »

Red Fang‘s building up an awful lot of pressure to keep making hilarious videos. “Hank is Dead” is their third in a row, and what starts with awkward junk-glances in the shower ends with a PBR-fueled (PBR being the thread that unites the to-date trilogy of Red Fang clips) rager/air guitar championship. Spandex is had, blood is spilled, invisible necks are licked — in short, Red Fang‘s specific brand chaos ensues, and as always, it looks like a blast to have put it all together.

Enjoy “Hank is Dead,” followed by some PR wire info and European tour dates:

Portland, Oregon’s Red Fang are premiering their new video today on YouTube for “Hank is Dead”, which is taken from their critically acclaimed release Murder the Mountains. Red Fang worked with director extraordinaire, Whitey McConnaughy on the video.

Drummer John Sherman spoke about the “Hank is Dead” video:

“Another great concept from the brilliant mind of Whitey McConnaughy. This one came together super quick with the help of some insane Portland locals and their sick air guitar skills. We basically just threw a big party and had a blast while a bunch of cameras ran. That is my shower Aaron and Bryan and Bobcat are in at the intro, btw. It still has a weird ring around it…”

Red Fang are currently on tour in Europe with Mastodon. The tour runs through Feb. 11 in London and includes Red Fang headline dates in addition to the shows with Mastodon.

Red Fang European tour with Mastodon
01/27 GER, Stuttgart Juha West*
01/28 SWI, Zurich Xtra
01/29 GER, Frankfurt Batschkapp
01/30 GER, Munich Backstage Halle
01/31 GER, Berlin C-Club
02/01 GER, Osnabruck Bastard Club*
02/02 GER, Cologne Essigfabrik
02/03 HOL, Tilburg 013
02/04 FRA, Le Havre Le Mate L’Eau*
02/05 ENG, Bristol Academy
02/06 ENG, Manchester Academy
02/07 SCO, Glasgow Barrowland
02/09 Norwich, UEA
02/10 ENG, Birmingham Institute
02/11 ENG, London Brixton Academy

*Denotes headlining dates

Congratulations to Portland, Oregon, weirdo duo Wizard Rifle on their signing to Seventh Rule Recordings for the release of their upcoming album. Witch Mountain drummer Nathan Carson sent me an email a while back telling me I should check them out, and I did, and they ruled, so good for Sam Ford and Max Dameron, being the latest in the seemingly continuous streak of worthy bands out of the Pacific Northwest. Kudos.

Here’s the news off the PR wire:

Seventh Rule, home of such forward-thinking amplifier destroyers as Indian, Kongh, Sweet Cobra, Atriarch, and Batillus, is pleased to announce the signing of Portland‘s most wonderfully weird two-piece, Wizard Rifle. The label will be releasing the young band’s debut record, Speak Loud Say Nothing, on CD/digitally on March 13, 2012, with a special edition vinyl version to follow.

In the meantime, Wizard Rifle have posted the first song from their upcoming album, “Tears Won’t Soften Steel,” on their Bandcamp page, as well as ordering info for a brand-new T-shirt (designed by drummer/vocalist and visionary artist Sam Ford). Head on over and prepare to have your mind blown to bits: http://wizardrifle.bandcamp.com/

The two-man wrecking crew known collectively as Wizard Rifle first came together in the autumn of 2009. Based in Portland, OR, and drawing influences from Black Sabbath, Lightning Bolt, High on Fire, Karp, Sleep, Sonic Youth, Nomeansno, The Stooges, and Danava, Wizard Rifle are as difficult to describe as they are to ignore. Eclectic, innovative, and all-around out there, their sound is a constantly-evolving, always-adapting entity that changes with their moods. Frantic, chaotic, noise rock tempered with dredges of doom, swinging rock’n’roll, grimy grunge, and a heady dose of AmRep skronk — that‘s what Wizard Rifle are made of! The band is comprised of drummer Sam Ford and guitarist Max Dameron, who share vocal duties and down right mesmerize in a live setting.

The interplay between the two is fluid, jarring, mechanical and organic – a jumble of impressions, and a captivating spectacle. Wizard Rifle have done their best to spread their tapestry of noise across the entire continent, completing a full US/Canada tour with Norwegian noiseniks Arabrot alongside festival appearances at SXSW, Fall into Darkness, and PDX Pop Now and gigs supporting the likes of Lightning Bolt, Valient Thorr, Black Cobra, YOB, Agalloch, Witch Mountain, Chinese Stars, Thrones, Atriarch, Rabbits, and more. Be sure to catch them when they come crashing through your burgh, and look out for the release of their debut LP from Seventh Rule!

The cultish and furry-toned drone of Portland (and Idaho) foursome Uzala will be familiar to anyone pulled by the gravity of Megaton Leviathan‘s Water Wealth Hell on Earth, but on their self-titled debut vinyl/tape, Uzala are less concerned with expansive, infinite exploration than they are refining the process and cutting it into songs. Uzala‘s Uzala sounds open and rough in its production, but at the core there is a base of structure — it’s in there somewhere — that allows the noise a foundation to rest and build upon.

That winds up making a big difference as the album progresses. The lead vocals of guitarist Darcy Nutt provide an ethereal mood worthy of the latest incarnation of The Wounded Kings or Jex Thoth, but the black metal influences worked in by guitarist Chad Remains, who also provides backing screams behind Nutt‘s varied crooning on midsection songs like “Fracture” and “Wardrums,” put Uzala in a category more their own: definitively doomed, but working on an expanded definition of what that means.

At its strongest points, though, Uzala‘s Uzala is slow and classically menacing. Drummer Stephen Gere varies his tempo but seems to lumber no matter the speed, and bassist Nick Phit (ex-Graves at Sea, Atriarch) offsets the riffs with doomly groove, adding depth to the fuzz and reverb-soaked guitar lines and furthering the sense of ritual brought out in Nutt‘s singing.

The album is limited to 333 LPs through At War with False Noise and on cassette via Witch Sermon Productions. I was lucky enough to be given permission to host the cassette-only bonus track, “Cataract” for your streaming, which you’ll find on the player below, followed by some PR wire info. Please enjoy:

At long last, the blistering debut recording from one of the most-talked about doom bands of the past year is nearly within our grasp! Boise/Portland vintage doom merchants Uzala have aligned themselves with At War With False Noise and Witch Sermon Productions to unleash their monumental debut. The self-titled album will be manifested in wax by At War With False Noise, while Witch Sermon will handle the cassette version (which will feature a special bonus track, “Cataract”). Featuring Nick Phit (formerly of Graves at Sea, Atriarch) on bass, Uzala‘s lineup is rounded out by drummer Stephen Gere, guitarist/hellish vocalist Chad Remains, and chanteuse & axe-slinger Darcy Nutt (a world-renowned tattoo artist and devastating talent).

The  album’s crushing, velvety fuzzed-out sound is attained by a Blake Green (Wolvserpent) production and mastering by long-time At War with False Noise cohort Andy Lippoldt of Persistence in Mourning. The simply amazing artwork was created by vocalist /guitarist Darcy Nutt, while layout and design was summoned by Stephen O’Malley.

Not to be confused with the British ultra-sludge outfit on Rise Above — that’s Moss –  The Moss hail from Portland, Oregon, and play a self-aware brand of pre-prog ’70s heavy rock. One could sit for days and rattle off a list of bands to cite, but the names are mostly interchangeable as they manifest here, and it would be more about indulgence on my part than saying the four-piece give a more than respectably-riffed showing on Wulfram, their first and full-length demo, balancing two guitars and hooky vocals well alongside solid grooves and modern approaches against classic influence.

Where most bands will write usually write an initial batch of songs and cut a demo on the quick, Wulfram is more of an album than a sampler, with songs like “Widow Trakk” and “La Cantina” providing earnest boogie rock that’s both assured within its style and still immediate as one might expect with a unit’s early material. The guitars of Adam Burke and Tony Pacific work well together with Burke on vocals and Pacific handling leads, and bassist Beth Borland and drummer Ben Spencer make what might otherwise be standard fare motoring riffs sound fresh with interesting, upbeat rhythms and vibrant fills.

The songs and aesthetic are vinyl-ready in a way that’s more Graveyard than Witchcraft, despite the organ in “Un Vultur,” and several interludes break up Wulfram appropriately and allow for a decent flow between the tracks. Basically what it all rounds out to is another act emerging from one of the strongest American scenes who are worth checking out. What has yet to cease amazing me about Portland is that there isn’t just one style of heavy being played around the city. That is, it’s not just like everyone’s trying to hone in on one sound or style — there are as many takes on it as there are bands. The Moss indeed prove to have their own spin with Wulfram, and hopefully there’s more to come.

Check them out on Thee Facebooks here, and, if you’re so inclined, you can purchase a download of Wulfram via their Bandcamp for a mere $6.66. Here’s the stream of the record from that page:

These dudes were recommended to me via the contact form. It’s been a little bit (surprising how long, actually; over a month) since I wrote about a band from Portland, but Towers, who formed in Spring 2010 draw the attention with pulsing ’90s-style noisy churn and throaty shouts on the track “The Fields,” and let the fuzz do both the walking and the talking on the more stonerly “Lost Missile,” so I’m not about to argue with the suggestion. Pretty heavy stuff.

There’s something angry in the vocals, which even on “Lose Missile,” adds an element of intensity. They’re obviously still a pretty new band, but guitarist Max Rees, bassist/vocalist Rick Duncan and drummer Darryl Swan do solid work blending their riff-based and noise elements. Early Helmet is a factor, and by extension Totimoshi — I’d draw a direct comparison between Duncan‘s singing on “Western World Death Blow” and the latter — and things get a little weird on the aptly-titled “Machine,” where they take the noise rock and toss it over a synth dance beat. Strange times we live in.

Anyway, the tunes are cool, and Towers are doing local shows for anyone in Oregon or the Portland area who might want to catch them. There’s more info on their Thee Facebooks page, and they’ve also got the songs on ReverbNation, which is where I heard them. Here they are for your listening convenience:

Fearsome Oregonian foursome Red Fang have already toured this year with Saint Vitus and Crowbar as part of the Metalliance tour, and joined the ranks of the vastly more commercial Mayhem Festival, brought to you by an energy drink whose name I’m not going to mention because, fuck it, I’m not getting paid to. Their streak of high-profile runs is set to continue through the fall, it seems, as they’re booked for the month of November with reigning metal champs Mastodon and The Dillinger Escape Plan.

So, uh, good for them. Here’s the dates off the PR wire:

Red Fang has just confirmed a Fall North American tour with Mastodon and Dillinger Escape Plan. The tour kicks off Nov. 1 in Los Angeles, CA, and runs through Dec. 1 in Lake Buena Vista, FL. A complete list of dates is below:

11/01 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern Theater
11/02 Sacramento, CA Ace of Spades
11/03 San Francisco, CA The Warfield Theater
11/05 Portland, OR Roseland Theater
11/06 Seattle, WA Showbox SODO
11/07 Boise, ID Knitting Factory
11/08 Salt Lake City, UT The Depot
11/09 Denver, CO The Ogden Theatre
11/11 Chicago, IL The Riviera Theatre
11/12 Milwaukee, WI The Rave Ballroom
11/13 St. Louis, MO Pop’s
11/14 Kansas City, MO The Beaumont
11/16 Detroit, MI The Fillmore
11/17 Indianapolis, IN Egyptian Room
11/19 New York, NY Terminal 5
11/20 Philadelphia, PA The Trocadero
11/21 Boston, MA House of Blues
11/23 Montreal, QC Metropolis
11/25 Toronto, ON Kool Haus
11/26 Buffalo, NY Town Ballroom
11/27 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
11/28 Norfolk, VA The NorVa
11/29 Asheville, NC Orange Peel
12/01 Lake Buena Vista, FL House of Blues

To coincide with the tour announcement Red Fang have released an exclusive B-side from Murder the Mountains titled “Black Hole” on their [Thee] Facebook[s] page.

For many bands, the immediate-interest factor is brought on by pedigree. “Former members of,” and so forth. Not so in the case of Portland, Oregon¸ trio Lamprey. What most excited me about their Ancient Secrets release wasn’t what they’d done before, but what they’re doing now, and more specifically, how they’re doing it.

The pursuit of clean, thick low end has been a mainstay of heavy sounds since Sabbath, and though Lamprey aren’t the first act out there to feature bass instead of guitar (they count Om as a principal inspiration), their use of two bass players to do it stands them out right away. Bassists Justin Brown and Blaine Burnham, who also handles vocals, work off a riff-based and grooving ethic – underscored by Spencer Norman‘s heavy-landing drums – but in terms of methodology and how they get there, Lamprey are more unique than they give themselves credit for.

Their recently-reviewed Ancient Secrets release is rough around the edges, but there’s no denying that Brown, Burnham, and Norman have their influences in order, taking Sleep’s stonerly fixations to new aural valleys without the songs coming out of it sounding like a mash of muddy bass fuzz. The idea behind hitting up Brown for this interview was to get some introduction to how the band came to be and came to cast off the notion of being guitar-led in their riffs, how Brown and Burnham developed two distinct tones (you can hear a difference on Ancient Secrets) and how they can separate themselves from the pack in a crowded Portland scene.

Brown was honest, humble and entertaining in his answers. Please enjoy the following Six Dumb Questions.

1. Tell me about how the band got together. Where did the idea for two bassists come from? It seems like you cut out the middleman of having ultra-low-tuned guitars, but were you worried at all about capturing more than just bottom end in the recording of the album?

Blaine, Spencer and I all got to know each other working at a glass factory, where we basically shoveled hot lava in a 100-plus degree industrial hell. For a brief period during that time, Blaine and I were in a band called Glaciers, in which he played bass and I was the rhythm guitarist (I never played bass before Lamprey). It was a side-project for both of us, as we were in other bands and neither of us were writing any of the material, so it didn’t last long.

Fast-forward a few years, and a fairly serendipitous chain of events took place. Blaine and Spencer went to a show, I believe it was The Abominable Iron Sloth, and they were so inspired they walked out of there with what they referred to as “metal boners.” They were intent on starting the heaviest band in the land. At that same time, I had my own epiphany about what I wanted to do musically. I was playing baritone guitar in a band called Bruxing, and it just wasn’t doing it for me. I couldn’t seem to make it sound massive enough – when I turn on my amp and pull a string I want it to raze cities, you know? Those low tones just invoke this incredible physiological response in me, like I’m riding a horse at full gallop or something. And so I thought about some of my favorite tones, such as those of Om and Karp or Big Business, and realized I’d been trying to make my guitar sound like a bass.

I cashed out my 401k and bought a Rickenbacker, and as I was leaving the store with it I bumped into Blaine in the street. He told me about his and Spencer‘s quest for heaviness, and it just hit us — what could be more crushing than two basses? We weren’t necessarily convinced it would work, tonally, but we met up about a week later at my practice space and went for it. I remember that at this first practice, Spencer hadn’t played his drums in several years and I was new at bass. Before plugging in, I made a disclaimer that the riffs I had been working on were more stonery than straight up metal. I mentioned the almighty Sleep as an influence, and the boys just got these wild ravenous looks on their faces, grinning in anticipation.

I started in on the riff that would later become “Oiwa” and we just blasted off. The tones worked, we locked into each other. It was the sound we’d all been after. As far as the delivery of that sound, we are first and foremost a live band. We never thought about how Lamprey would sound pouring out of some shitty car stereo. Our intention is to fill the air in a room with so much pressure it feels like you’re standing at the bottom of the ocean. That’s another great thing about low tones at massive volumes; it envelopes you, it pounds on your sternum — but without the piercing treble of a guitar that make your teeth want to explode. I like to think of our sound as brutal yet smooth: a soothing punishment.

2. What is the interplay like between the two basses on stage? It sounds on the record like there’s lead and rhythm bass, but is that the way it actually works out?

I suppose, generally speaking, you could say that Blaine plays rhythm bass and I play lead, but that’s not a strict rule or anything. He handles all the vocals (except for a few spoken passages, which on the recordings are done by Spencer, who writes most of our lyrics as well), so he’ll tend to play a more traditional bass line, root notes and such.

Being a reformed guitar player, I play lots of chords and harmonizing melodies. We’ll often play the exact same part, or just at different octaves, for a kind of doubling effect. And no matter which of us is playing what, we’re ultimately a beefed-up rhythm section; occasional flurries and bursts aside, the basses do their thing in whatever pocket the drums carve out for them.

3. Talk about the amps and equipment used on the album. There are separate distinguished tones between the bass and, well, the bass. Did you and Blaine develop your tones separately or together as part of the same band, and was there work involved in making them mesh together?

When Lamprey began, we had already established the basic foundations for our respective tones. I played my Rickenbacker through an Orange Rockerverb 100 and matching 4×12 cab. The Rick has this fast growly tone with lots of mids, and playing it through a guitar amp really helps fill that sonic niche that we might otherwise lack by not having a guitar. Blaine is a bassist’s bassist. Wielding a Gibson Thunderbird for ultimate thump, he started out with a Sunn Sorado through an old 2×15 cab.

The earliest days of the band are what we refer to as a kind of amplifier cold war — Blaine added a vintage Ampeg to the mix, as the Sorado was no match for the Orange in terms of volume. Then I would add another head, and Blaine would have to catch up to me again, in terms of wattage. We began collecting cabs, pondering the tonal possibilities an array of assorted speaker sizes might hold in store for us. It became a sickness; we couldn’t even fit it all in the practice room!

We finally called a truce when he found this weird, one of a kind monster amp made by a guy here in town. It’s called the Big Black, and all I know about it is that I have to really push my hot-rodded Orange to keep up. As far as cabs go, we’re always tweaking and experimenting. I’m currently running my Orange through two Orange/Matamp 4×12 cabs, along with a Sunn Concert Bass through a 2×15, but only because there’s not room in the van for anything more than that. The 12′s give me a crisper, snarlier sound that sits right on top of Blaine‘s smooth boominess, which is our overall plan.

He’s running the Big Black through some old Fender cabs, dual 12s and 15s, that project with surprising depth. Our eventual goal is a backline consisting entirely of Monolith Loudspeaker cabinets, which are based on old Sunn and Acoustic designs and made in Portland. Beyond all that, we sculpt the finishing touches with a few select fuzz pedals, some vintage Electro-Harmonix effects, some wah and our finger attack.

4. What’s the story with Ancient Secrets? Do you consider it a full-length or an EP? Was there a self-released version before the Captain Couch one, and if so, was it different somehow?

Actually, we consider it more or less a demo. We went into Ghost Town Studios, run by our friend David Pulliam, as a very young band with a very small budget. I think we’d been together about three months and had four songs. We just wanted something better than a practice space recording to give out at shows. We did it live in a day, with one more day for vocals and mixing.

Shortly thereafter, Blaine founded Captain Couch Records, and now I help him run it. The idea behind the label was to record and put out into the world music from all these amazing bands in Portland that no one knows about. The house Blaine lives in hosts these epic shows about once a month, and it seemed like a natural progression to begin recording and distributing music from our favorite bands to help launch them up to the next tier.

Obviously, Lamprey is a priority for us, so we went back to Ghost Town to record a song for a 7” release, the label’s first official offering. We then also recorded “Cylenos Crassidens,” a newer song, and redid “Thulsa” (as the original take was embarrassingly sloppy), and added them to the EP. We felt better about the revamped version, and put that out through Captain Couch (which, by the way, rhymes with “pooch” — it’s a Portland thing).

5. The Portland scene is so multifaceted and it seems like every week there’s another band putting out an album. How do you distinguish yourselves among such a glut of bands, and do you have any favorite acts to share the stage with you care to recommend to those on the outside?

This city is unreal; a veritable cache of undying energy and uniquely talented musicians. The thing is, it’s been that way for a long time, only no one has been paying any attention until recently. Obviously, bands like Red Fang, Witch Mountain and Grails have put us all on the map and inspired hordes of Portlanders (ourselves included) to craft their own oblation to heavy music – often yielding truly epic results.

Honestly, I’m not at all sure that we do stand out yet – I still think of us as a young band, cutting our teeth and working the bugs out. But the three of us have a shared vision, musically speaking, and we believe in the sound we’ve conjured. It moves us, and I think that kind of fervor can be very contagious, especially at full volume in a small room.

I’m sure the very same can be said about a slew of other bands in this town, and we’re lucky enough to be friends with them and play out with them. I would strongly urge anyone interested in Portland‘s stoner/doom/metal scene to explore a few of my favorites: Zmoke, Heavy Voodoo, Diesto, Avi Dei, Rabbits, Lord Dying, Purple Rhinestone Eagle and pretty much anyone that any of these bands might share a stage with.

6. Do you know when you’ll be back in the studio for more recording? Any other plans or closing words you want to mention?

As I alluded to earlier, we’ve just released a 7” split release with Zmoke, which can be found at any of our shows or at CDBaby. We’re constantly working on new material, and when we have enough ready to warrant some studio time, we really want to work with Adam Pike at Toadhouse Studios, as he’s recorded quite a bit of our favorite music.

In the interim, we want to do some traveling and test the waters outside of our hometown — hopefully a West Coast tour will happen next spring. We’d like to reach new ears here at home, too, by opening for bigger bands. We’re actually opening for Karma to Burn in October — which we still can’t quite believe is really happening — and hope to get together with Rabbits in the near future. For now, though, we just want to keep playing shows with all the killer bands in this town, and work as hard as we can to feel worthy of the incredibly supportive response we’ve been receiving.

On that note, I would be remiss not to acknowledge that Blaine, Spencer and I would not be fulfilling any of our 16-year-old selves’ rock ‘n’ roll fantasies if not for the infinite support and encouragement of our collective better halves, the Lamprey Ladies. Ellie, Sarah, and Kim help finance our gear habit, design our art, work our merch table, tolerate us practicing in the basement, and don’t seem to mind our beards smelling like beer. We think that rocks.

Lamprey on Thee Facebooks

Captain Couch Records

Congratulations to Portland, Oregon, thunderthrashers Nether Regions, whose bassist/vocalist Joseph Wickstrom (interview here) checked in to let me know the band has signed to Abnormal Gait Records, previously responsible for a host of Hour of 13 merch and music, which you can see in their BigCartel store.

The label will be issuing a remaster of Nether Regions‘ first album, Into the Breach, on gatefold vinyl come November, topped with new artwork by the very, very metal Hal Rotter, who has worked with Skeletonwitch and Cattle Decapitation in the past and whose Rotting Graphics enterprise/gallery can be found here.

Kudos to Wickstrom and the rest of Nether Regions. All the best to them in getting the reissue together and the inevitable next project to follow. Here’s a live video for the song “Pale Faced God” from Into the Breach to celebrate with:

Oppressive in its atmosphere and crafted with an unrelenting darkness of aesthetic, Forever the End, the Seventh Rule Recordings debut from Portland, Oregon’s Atriarch is an intelligent masterwork that harkens to a very particular sense of drama. In listening to the record, it’s hard to believe the album is only 36 minutes long, because when you’re in it, the sound is so open, so sparse, and the spaces the guitar, bass, drums and vocals occupy so overwhelming, that it seems hard for a band to affect such a mood in so short a time. It’s a grieving, sorrowful atmosphere, playing modern doom tonality off depressive ‘90s-style guitar weeping that’s more Gothic than “gothic,” but owes something to drunken teenage late nights spent hanging out in cemeteries nonetheless. The four mostly-extended tracks of Forever the End keep to linear structures, and the result is they flow together almost as one larger piece. That they’re wrapped around a central and pervasive sonic misanthropy only enhances this feel, and through all of “Plague,” “Shadows,” “Fracture” and “Downfall,” Atriarch balance doomed heaviness with black metal’s cultish sensibility, vocalist Lenny resting far back in the mix for vicious cavern screams or cutting through with a sort of monotonic clean singing.

“Plague,” the tone-setting opener from which no light can escape, does bleed right into “Shadows,” with Brooks’ guitar emitting patient, cyclical patterns that set the stage for Maxamillion’s drums, which have the solemn duty of holding together material that’s both intricate and slow. The production on the whole of Forever the End is raw – the guitar sounds raw, Nick’s bass, though about the only show of warmth Atriarch have on offer, is raw, the vocals are raw – but the drums sound crisp and clear nonetheless. Maxamillion’s snare seems far back as “Shadows” moves into its lumbering heavier section after three minutes in, but the bass drum and toms come across well, and as the song once again shifts to a quieter movement to set up a solo section from Brooks, the hi-hat is bright, but not at all lacking in presence. That helps as the cacophony builds to the track’s apex – some rare double-kick and killer fills there amid Nick’s bass leading the groove – but it’s still the guitar that leaves the most lasting impression as it and some sampled throat singing close out. Atriarch don’t feel too concerned with “the ending” as an essential piece of the structure of their songs (this too helps the “take it as a whole” vibe of Forever the End), but “Shadows” satisfies on that level nonetheless, and as “Fracture” seems to start with a minimalist sparing of guitar and bass, most striking of all about it is the gradualness, the patience with which Atriarch execute the slow march to dominating heaviness.

Read more »

With sinewy classic rock groove at their fingertips, Portland, Oregon, four-piece will issue their second full-length, War to Head, on Sept. 20. The album, which includes a cover of Deep Purple‘s “Black Night” that you can hear in the latest audiObelisk podcast, is full of hazy riffing, dueling solos, infectious melodies and love of the heavy prog of old. I think no single track shows that better than “Can’t Cure Deceit.”

Anyone who got off on Graveyard‘s Hisingen Blues earlier this year will dig the inflection in Caleb Heinze‘s vocals, and where War to Head has several really strong choruses, on “Can’t Cure Deceit,” Heinze rides the riff of Ian Watts‘ fuzzed-out guitar perfectly as Monte Fuller‘s drums cut to half-time and the bass of Brian True smoothly adds tonal heft to the song overall, using Watts‘ progression as a base for launching several excellent fills.

Ape Machine are self-releasing War to Head, and I was fortunate enough to get permission to host “Can’t Cure Deceit” for streaming. Check it out on the player below, followed by a few words from Watts that sum up the track nicely:

From Ape Machine guitarist Ian Watts:

“’Can’t Cure Deceit’ is a juxtaposition of violent lyrics with some heavy and psychedelic sounds. Almost like a stoned, hallucinatory, pre-meditated, violent mission.”

Low-end fetishists Lamprey made their debut with the Ancient Secrets EP last year through Captain Couch Records, a label that specializes in highlighting acts from Portland’s fertile heavy underground. The EP, which was four songs/32 minutes, seems to have been given a boost to full length with the inclusion of opener “Cynelos Crassidens,” unless that was just left off all the other track lists. In any case, the trio present a complete idea on the version of Ancient Secrets I got for review, and that idea, in a word, is “bass.”

Two basses, in fact. Lamprey have taken the ritualistic Om bass/drum ethic and pushed it further by including a second four-stringer. Plugged into a fortress of Sunn, Orange, Kustom and other amps, both Justin Brown and Blaine Burnham (who also handles vocals) provide rich, vibrating tone, fuzzed out, occasionally wah’ed to excellent effect, and tailored excellently to the groove that Spencer Norman’s drums provide. In the 40 minutes of this incarnation of Ancient Secrets, Lamprey pursue more of Sleep’s riffy awesomeness than Om’s spiritual enlightenment, but no question Al Cisneros is at the center of the influence either way, and while that’s not exactly uncommon in the scope of heavy doom, one has to admire Lamprey for undercutting all the other bands out there who try and make a guitar have as much low end as a bass and just having two bassists. You can almost hear everyone else slapping their forehead and asking themselves why they didn’t think of it first.

Ancient Secrets finds some of its most glorious moments when Burnham and Brown meet up for quick flashes of harmony – playing off a classic metal idea with their own twist – but the basic groove of “Oiwa” is a highlight unto itself. Burnham’s vocals keep mostly to sub-melodic shouts, but he does show ambition for diversity of approach with a few whispers and, on closer “Thulsa” some spoken growls. Though the crashing end “Cynelos Crassidens” plays off slow/fast tempo changes and excellently sets the tone for the rest of Ancient Secrets, “Oiwa” might be my pick of the album, for its more cohesive feel and the sense of foreboding the quiet opening brings about before the riff kicks in. That riff, like many Lamprey have on offer, puts just enough spin on a typical stoner progression to be engaging, and as the song develops, it becomes the band’s most effective build and Norman’s best half-time cymbal work. The drums feel far back in the mix (would you be amazed if I said the bass dominates?) and somewhat weakened by the production – that is, I imagine they hit with more impact live – but in the 8:22 of “Oiwa,” they still give an overwhelmingly positive impression.

Read more »

January 8, 1806

“Proceed to the top of the mountain next to the which is much the highest part and that part faceing the Sea, from this point I beheld the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed, in frount a boundless Ocean… we arrived on a butifull Sand Shore, found only the Skelleton of this monster on the sand.” Clark

The above quotation is taken from the collected journals of Lewis and Clark as they encountered the skeleton of a beached whale on the ocean shore. Given the fact that they traipsed around the Pacific Northwest and named a bunch of stuff after themselves, I could think of no better source for a podcast title saluting the scene in that region, which itself feels like it’s currently leaving its mark on the international heavy underground.

In our recent interview, YOB guitarist/vocalist Mike Scheidt discussed this as “a time when the music is really vital,” and that phrase in particular has stuck with me. It’s true. Seattle and elsewhere in Washington has been a musical hotbed for 20 years or more, but Oregon — with the seeming nexus in and around Portland — is just beginning to command respect when it comes to heavy rock and doom. The music is fresh, and that while that’s invariably something that won’t last forever (at least it never has in the history of geographically-centered scenes), if we can take a slice of it at this moment, there’s something really special happening.

Accordingly, you’ll find as you listen that a lot of the songs here are new. Of the 31 tracks included in this podcast, 25 are from albums released in the last half-decade. As I always say with this kind of thing, it’s not a complete document, and I’m limited to the CDs I can get my hands on at any given time, but I hope as you make your way through the almost four hours, you get a sense of the vitality Scheidt was talking about. Even among the bands who’ve been around for a longer time — Earth and the Melvins, for example — I tried to make sure I was as recent as possible.

I was also trying to give a sense of the sonic diversity the region has on offer, from the straightforward classic rock of Stone Axe to the cinematic ambience of Grails, the simplistic riffing of Witchasaurus Hex to Megaton Leviathan‘s massive dronegaze. There might be some abrupt changes from one song to the next as a result, but just imagine all this stuff happening in roughly the same place. It’s amazing.

Download audiObelisk Transmission 018 by clicking here, the banner at the top of this post, or the big link on the sidebar. If you’re more the streamy type, have at it via the player above. Full tracklist with timestamps and release years is after the jump, appropriately enough, we start with new YOB…

Read more »

The thing about “V.L.A.” the lone posted track from Portland, Oregon, outfit Stoneburner is that it hits really hard. It’s not the most original track ever — it’s slow and growly, with an atmosphere as grey as the band’s picture that serves as the album cover for their 2009 Demo — but it doesn’t just plod. It stomps. There’s heavy-footed, and then there’s this.

And yeah, it’s an older track, too. Information about the four-piece is sparse on their Thee Facebooks, but they’ve reportedly got more recording in the works for later in 2011, and hopefully they’ll be able to grow a bit stylistically while also keeping this thunderous lumber to their step. I dig it, thought you might too, so here’s “V.L.A.” from the Stoneburner Bandcamp page:

If anything good has come of starting the forum on this site, it’s been finding a slew of new bands worth checking out. The latest in that lineage (it’s longer than you might think) is mathy Portland, Oregon, outfit Mongoloid Village, whose name I saw because they’re opening for YOB and Dark Castle in their hometown on Aug. 9. Their entire self-released record, Folly, is streaming at their Bandcamp page.

It goes by quick (more of an EP than full-length), and there are some parts that are pretty manic, but the Melvins riffs meet with some angular noise-type influences, and the result is heavy and modern enough to still sound fresh but not like some band who’s just tech because they feel like noodling for seven minutes in a song. “The Albina Leprechaun” makes no bones about where it comes from stylistically, but Mongoloid Village put their own stamp on what they do across all seven of these tracks, and I dig it. “Nocturnal Emissions” gets off on some Houdini weirdness and “MS Drunk: A Sober Assessment” throws some melody in the guitar late in the song to hook you for the rest.

They have an element of that skinny-kid hardcore bombast to some of the Folly material, and claim a Big Black influence on their Thee Facebooks profile, so maybe that’s where it comes from. Balanced with the technicality and the throaty vocal shouts, it reminds my East Coast ears of earlier Dillinger Escape Plan at three-quarter speed toward the end of “Corn Eyes,” but the atmosphere in “Ship of Fools” and the slow build there is doomier and less frantic, speaking to a patience that hopefully Mongoloid Village will be able to develop going forward.

Cool tunes, felt like sharing, so here goes: