They want to riff and they want to rock, and on their self-titled debut full-length, UK trio Stubb do plenty of both. Originally formed in 2006 with a different bassist and drummer alongside guitarist/vocalist Jack Dickinson, the band recorded a demo a year later with Tim Cedar of Part Chimp and, in 2009, reemerged having imported a new rhythm section in the form of Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight’s Peter Holland (bass/vocals) and Christopher West (drums). This incarnation of Stubb hit the studio with Cedar late in 2010 to lay down the eight songs that would become Stubb and took to the road in 2011 with Stone Axe on a European tour.

The album is released through Superhot Records, boasts a mix and master job by Tony Reed of Stone Axe, and finds Stubb aligning themselves to a rising tide of British heavy rock – that’s not to say “a new wave” – that includes such riff-happy clean-vocal acts as Grifter, Alunah, and indeed, Trippy Wicked, among many others. Fuzz abounds, but Dickinson, Holland and West do more than just follow the guitar through verses and choruses, touching on acoustic freak-folk and heavy rock classicism in a manner that does nothing to upset the overall flow of the album, which gradually reveals a strength of songwriting to complement the initial catchiness of the first couple tracks. Although it’s been six years since Dickinson started the project, one might think of Stubb as a new band, as his chemistry with Holland and West presents itself here for the first time. On either level, though, Stubb’s Stubb gleefully preaches to the choir of Heavy while showing the band has more to them than just riffs and grooves.

Even if that weren’t the case, with the engaging fuzz and ripping leads that open kickoff track “Road,” riffs and grooves would almost be enough. The nod-inducing stomp and Dickinson’s tone remind of when The Atomic Bitchwax took on Core’s “Kiss the Sun” for their own self-titled debut, but Stubb push a strong chorus all their own, Holland offering backing support for Dickinson’s lead vocal while West’s snare pops clearly and crisply, keeping the song upbeat but not too fast. Stubb wind up at their strongest in this middle pace, maximizing the impact of the riffs and still allowing for a laid back, stonerly feel. “Scale the Mountain,” which follows the opener, continues the momentum, making the first nine of Stubb’s total 35 minutes a powerful opening duo, and reeling back in its first second as if to steel itself for the five minutes of riffing to come.

Dickinson again works a solo into the intro as a precursor to the verse, but shifts the method some, stepping back to let Holland take the lead in singing the chorus. The two have enough variance in their diction that the shift is pretty clear, and as they move back and forth throughout Stubb, “Scale the Mountain” is a solid foreshadow of what’s to come. Holland’s vocal work in Trippy Wicked has left him more than prepared to tradeoff with Dickinson, who here adds backing “woo”s to the memorable title/chorus line. A brief break seems to be waiting for a guitar solo to come in, but one never does, and the chorus returns to lead the song to its flange-y finish and Holland’s bass intro to the somewhat more subdued “Flame.”

It’s here that Stubb begin to unveil the classic rock linearity of the album’s structure. They’ve opened strong with “Road” and “Scale the Mountain,” and with “Flame,” they shift the mood a bit – granted, not as much as if they’d put the folksy “Crosses You Bear” in that third spot, but still. A bluesy, winding riff gives Holland the chance to add some choice fills, and West times well his jumps from the hi-hat to the crash, giving way to the driving second half of the track and the combined Dickinson/Holland vocals that mindfully veer from the verse/chorus patterning so far established. Holland’s bass again burns tubes alongside Dickinson on “Soul Mover,” which ingrains the line, “Oh baby, I don’t know what you like/But I’ll keep you satisfied” on the brain like it was branding cattle or internet memes. The pace is faster, perhaps expectedly, but “Soul Mover”’s shuffle is a departure even from “Flame” and further confirmation of Stubb’s classic heavy affiliations.

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I guess they’re making up for lost time, and who can blame them? It was seven years between A Natural Disaster and 2010′s We’re Here Because We’re Here, and with a label behind them that’s apparently willing and able to give the band some tour support (thanks, The End), no reason for Anathema not to put out a new record this year. I grew to appreciate We’re Here Because We’re Here over time, and since each Anathema album is nothing if not a progression from the last — it’s also usually masterful songwriting and gut-wrenchingly honest emotionality — I look forward to hearing what they do with Weather Systems when it’s released in April.

Dig the news and the art:

Anathema will return in April with Weather Systems, their brand new studio album. Weather Systems is the follow-up to 2010’s We’re Here Because We’re Here, which has been featured prominently in numerous end-of-year polls and the producer, Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), has described it as ”definitely among the best albums I’ve ever had the pleasure to work on.”

The bar for Weather Systems has been set pretty high, but Daniel Cavanagh from the band is certain that the album will exceed these lofty expectations, stating, “it feels like we are at a creative peak right now, and this album reflects that. Everything from the production to the writing to the performances are a step up from our last album.”

He continues, “This is not background music for parties. The music is written to deeply move the listener, to uplift or take the listener to the coldest depths of the soul.”

The album was recorded in Liverpool, North Wales and Oslo, each place significant to Anathema past, present and future. The record was produced and mastered by five-time Norwegian Grammy nominated Christer-André Cederberg (Animal Alpha, In the Woods…, Drawn), who Daniel has described as “a revelation. His calmness and brilliance has helped to bring about the greatest inter-band chemistry that Anathema have experienced together in their career.”

Weather Systems will be available on The End Records on April 24, 2012.

Weather Systems track listing:
1. Untouchable, Part 1
2. Untouchable, Part 2
3. The Gathering of the Clouds
4. Lightning Song
5. Sunlight
6. The Storm Before the Calm
7. The Beginning and the End
8. The Lost Child
9. Internal Landscapes

UK mega-doomers Conan filmed the above clip for “Hawk as Weapon” from their forthcoming album at the Buffalo Bar in Cardiff. As you’ll find out less than a minute into the song, it’s unbelievably fucking heavy. That’s what Conan does. Whatever they decide to call their next record, which will be their Burning World Records debut and follow-up to 2010′s epic Horseback Battle Hammer (review here), I expect nothing less than total devastation.

If “Hawk as Weapon” isn’t enough Conan for you, I’d recommend hitting up their Bandcamp site where you can hear and download the whole show. Or, if you don’t feel like clicking the link, here’s the Buffalo Bar gig in its 47-minute entirety:

If you’ve managed to make it through that much low-end marauding with your bowels still intact, kudos. You’ve done better than I think most do at Conan shows. They are, simply put, one of the heaviest bands I’ve ever heard.

Next week: A stream of the whole new King Giant record and hopefully an album giveaway to accompany. Also my interview with Selim Lemouchi of The Devil’s Blood and reviews of Caveman Voicebox, Earth, Bushfire and others, plus some Buried Treasure and the latest news on the Desertfests in London and Berlin, so plenty to look forward to. I hope you have a great and safe weekend. I’m plum tuckered from this week, but I’ll still be dicking around on the forum, so feel free to say hi if you get a minute.

Pending that, I’ll be back here Monday with more zany fun.

Admittedly, it’s a cruel, heartless question to ask, and yet, can there be any doubt as to the answer? Could anything ever top Master of Reality? I ask the question mostly because I want to see if anyone sticks up for Vol. 4, which, apart from “Changes,” is about as flawless as an album can get. With the recent terrible news of Tony Iommi‘s lymphoma diagnosis, I think we’re due for a good time. So let’s have some fun.

Earliest Black Sabbath was nothing if not a coalescing of various elements into a cohesive whole. A kind of cultural distillation, ground down and remade into the singular most formative basis of doom — the album Black Sabbath. Only months later in 1970, they released Paranoid and refined the darkness of the first record, adding range and sonic breadth. While the title-track became the band’s signature piece, “Electric Funeral” and “Fairies Wear Boots” grew into the anthems of a subculture within a subculture, and they remain so to this day.

However, every time I put on Master of Reality and listen to it straight through, with each successive track, I say to myself, “This is the heaviest shit ever made.” And each song proves the prior assessment wrong — yes, even “Solitude” — until finally, “Into the Void” offers clear and indisputable truth of riff. It is pure in its muck, and as perfect as stoner rock has ever gotten. The standard by which the genre is and should be measured: the heaviest shit ever made.

But what about Vol. 4? It seems to have an answer for every challenge Master of Reality throws at it. A “Snowblind” for “Sweet Leaf,” “Supernaut” for “Into the Void,” “Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes” for “Lord of this World.” 1972 found Black Sabbath a more realized beast with a perfected heavy rock that seemed to already know the tropes of the metal genre it was shaping.

I could go on. I won’t. Is “Changes” enough to hold back Vol. 4 from standing up to Master of Reality? There are people who consider “Solitude” a misstep of similar magnitude. I leave it to you to decide in the comments.

You know the scenario. You can only pick one, so which is it?

Always sucks to see a good band go. British post-metallurgists Wiht released their impressive debut, The Harrowing of the North (review here), last year, and here we are just months later and they’ve announced their final show for March. If you missed it, guitarist Chris Wayper and bassist Joe Hall were kind enough to answer Six Dumb Questions back in November, and I was looking forward to hearing what they did next. So it goes.

All the best to Wayper, Hall and drummer Rick Contini in their future endeavors, musical and otherwise. Here’s the post from the band’s Thee Facebooks page:

WIHT – March ’09 – March ’12

It is with sadness and a great sense of pride, that we have decided to call it a day. This is a completely amicable decision and has been made in the best interests of the band. It has come to a point where we are no longer able to progress and take the band further, we feel this band deserves more respect than just to fade away. This simply is an issue of lack of time and funds; two of the three of us now have families and time has become a lot more precious. To progress as a band we need to dedicate a certain amount of time to write and record, let alone gigging and touring. This is why we have decided to call it a day at a point where we feel this is something to be proud of.

To have played and made music in a band comprised of three oldest and best mates for three years has been an absolute pleasure. We feel incredibly proud of what we have achieved with the limited time and resources that we have had. We are not for one moment suggesting this is something exclusive to our band, many bands manage to write, record and tour with limited funds and with children, unfortunately it hasn’t worked for us. 

We would like to thank the following bands and people for your huge support and influence over the years, it wouldn’t have been possible without you. Ross at Ghosttown Studios, Neil Best Edward, Dan at Desertscene Rock, Dave at Future Noise, Chris at Witch Hunter Records, Matthew Lee, Charlie Barnes, Elles, all our friends and family Ceara, Lorna, Bekki, Sydney, Vincent & Oscar. 

Huge shout to the bands we have played with and that have helped us out, Khuda; Wizards Beard, Tree of Sores, A Forest of Stars, Haar, Undersmile, Desert Storm, Conan, Slabdragger, Dead Existence, Lords of Bastard & everyone else that we have had the pleasure of sharing the stage with. 

But don’t fret, we have a killer finale for you. Lineup including Khuda, band Tree of Sores on 30th March at Royal Park Cellars, it would be amazing if you could come and send us off Leeds style! 

But before that we will be helping Wizards Beard celebrate their album launch at the same venue on 18th February with some killer bands from around the UK. 

Hails and Ales.

Wiht.

UPDATE: The band has confirmed that their last show will take place as part of the Desertfest in London. The festival’s website had this:

It’s with a mixture of happiness and sadness confirming the mighty Wiht. Clearly we are very happy to have the instrumental three-piece playing at Desertfest, but sadness that this will be their last ever gig. The three-piece grew up together in Kirkstall, Leeds (UK), and out of many a jamming session Wiht was born. If you haven’t listened to these guys before, your in for a treat never sticking to one genre moving around from stoner to psych and even some gloomy doom. They have released a self-titled EP and more recently their debut album, The Harrowing of The North. So DO NOT MISS OUT! on what will be the last time to hear the riffing instrumental wonderment that is Wiht.

“I want you/And I need you/And I’ll bleed you.”

In a lot of ways, the first chorus lines to opener “I’ll Cut You Down” sum up a lot of what’s happening on Blood Lust, the second full-length from Cambridge trio Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. And I do mean “happening.” As much as it can be in this genre, the hype behind this band and Blood Lust in particular has been stifling. So much so that at the end of 2011, they topped my “Top 5 Albums I Didn’t Hear” list. Suddenly I felt as if I’d neglected some great duty. I was out of touch. My life was about to change and all the hyperbole about best this-and-that was only a scale on the back of this Godzilla-sized monster of malevolent stoner doom.

Whatever. I gave in to the peer pressure and bought the record. The appeal was immediate when I first put it on. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats sounds like Electric Wizard‘s blown-out cousin getting off on oldie cult horror. Blood Lust practically draws a pentagram on its own notebook. The riffs are distorted in extrema and the vocals, cooed with a malevolent melodicism, follow catchy structures so simple they can’t help but get stuck in your head. That’s especially true of songs like “I’ll Cut You Down,” “Death’s Door” and “13 Candles,” but the swing of “Over and Over Again,” though it’s not as instantly memorable, has a hook all its own.

From what I’ve been able to tell from listening, though, a big part of the appeal with Blood Lust is the familiarity of it. Riffs are recognizable without being easy to directly place, and the whole record brims with an occult ’70s vibe that’s mirrored in the artwork. If you took a survey of doomers and stoner heads and you asked them what they wanted to hear, you might come out of it with the mournful plod of “Curse in the Trees” or the mid-paced organ-laden stonerly chug of “Withered Hand of Evil.” That said, one of the most engaging aspects of Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats on these tracks is that they’re not immediately accessible to outsiders. Play this stuff for someone unfamiliar with the genre, and you’re going to get stared at — and that’s clearly on purpose. The band are preaching solely to the already-converted, and clearly it’s working. I paid $25 for this record.

Reportedly, that’s better than some have done on eBay. And simple though it is, Blood Lust shows several directions Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ progression could take. The progressive shuffle of “I’m Here to Kill You” is not only the best performance from drummer Red (Kat rounds out the lineup on bass), but also a bold stylistic departure from the rest of the album (maybe less so from “Ritual Knife,” but still). The same applies to the acoustic bonus track on the Killer Candy Records CD version, “Down to the Fire,” which takes Uncle Acid‘s psychedelic snarl and recontextualizes it over sweet Zeppelin melodies and percussion. That Blood Lust follows a lyrical narrative — about a murder — could also foretell development to come. They could just as easily “go prog” as so many did in the early and mid ’70s as they could stick to the formula of soot-covered distortion that works so well for them here.

Whatever the case, I don’t regret the purchase, which is a rarity for me when it comes to albums I’m buying because someone else (in this case multiple people) thinks I need to hear them, and for what it’s worth, if I was going to do my top 20 today, Blood Lust would probably be on it. Should be interesting to see where Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats go from here, and wherever that might be, I’ll try my best not to let it slip through the cracks.

Feels like three days ago after that Monster Magnet review, but you might recall earlier this afternoon when I put up that Dopefight video I rattled off a list of badass British bands. Well, I left off Alunah from that list, not because they don’t rule, but because I wanted to take a second to single out the four-piece and say congratulations on signing a deal with the Big Bad Mother’s House booking agency. Hopefully this means Alunah will hit the road prior to the release (and after too, I suppose) of their next album, but until then, I’m looking forward to their set at the Desertfest in London.

Here’s the news, swiped from the band’s website:

We’re very pleased to announce that this week we have signed with Bristol-based Big Bad Mother’s House music talent booking agency.

The agency is home to Riotgod (Monster Magnet members Bob Pantella and Jim Baglino), the Argentinian sludge rockers Banda de la Muerte, Venezualan heavy lords Cultura Tres and many more.

Alunah will be playing the International Powerhouse of Doom Festival on April 5 at Scruffy Murphys, Birmingham, with both Banda de la Muerte and Cultura Tres. Other bands on the bill include Stone Axe, Stubb and Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight.

Both Alunah and Cultura Tres will also be hitting DesertFest in April.

To contact Big Bad Mother’s House regarding an Alunah booking please email: info@bigbadmothershouse.com, call (UK) +44 1179390432 or +44 07505775703 or visit: http://www.bigbadmothershouse.com.

The UK scene is so fucking good. Whether it’s Orange Goblin leading the charge, or bands like Trippy Wicked and Stubb‘s rocking riffs, Serpent Venom‘s killer old-school doom, Conan‘s mighty thunder, Groan‘s smoked-out haze, or Dopefight‘s unbridled contempt, I’m in awe of the stuff coming out of there these days. Dopefight reportedly have a new album in the works, and over the weekend, they put up a video for the song “Fake Hippies,” which carried this explanation:

Why our forefathers and mothers upheld a movement that meant something, nowadays meaningless empty vessels try to stand for something they have no concept where their origin began.

Fake Hippies – Sponging off our hypocritical systems and their affluent parents that their governments financially protect.

Don’t get me wrong, fuck those people and everyone else. But while I can’t really argue with the reality of the point or the vitriol (not to mention the riffs) with which Dopefight present it, the notion of “our forefathers and mothers” upholding a movement that “meant something” strikes me as a little off base when one considers the fact that they were the same generation who also turned 40 in the mid-’80s and sold the planet up a river of three successive decades of corporate greed and warmongering (so far) — resulting in a complete undercutting of the “countering” cultural norms they claimed to be doing and actually failed to change in any substantive way — wahoo, we can show tits on tv; call me when there’s an equal rights amendment — or the fact that many of the participants in the original hippie movement, much like the privileged “Fake Hippies” Dopefight names this song after, were also part of the upper or upper middle class.

The real difference seems to be they had Jimi Hendrix and we have John Mayer, which by itself is more than enough to justify Dopefight‘s frustration.

I don’t like listening to self-important 20-year-old leftists whose moms and dads pay their rent either, but they’re kids, and at least they’re on the right side of the argument for the time being until they, like their parents, grow up and continue to spiral our existence into oblivion as each successive generation’s “revolutionary” ideals have done in the past. However, I will say that if things are to be utterly hopeless (and they are), then I’m glad as hell to have Dopefight as the accompaniment to that hopelessness, because they fucking kill. Here’s “Fake Hippies”:

Burly-as-fuck British foursome Peacemaker announce their coming with the song “The Siberian Problem.” The track is taken from their already-recorded debut and in just over four minutes, manages to give a pretty solid idea of what they’re all about, which seems to be stomping your ass with a foot made out of sludge-riffed metal. Some might recognize vocalist Al Osta from his role as the post-Ben Ward frontman of Ravens Creed, and backed here by gang shouts of “blood, and, soil!” he’s in solid and throaty form, if a little high in the mix.

Nonetheless, being someone who considers himself as having roots more in extreme metal than not, I was stoked to see Peacemaker shares a similar experience, culling together Sam Taylor and Rich Maw of the death metal outfit Infliction with Osta and bassist Al Lawson, both of Satanic Fatwa. “The Siberian Problem” is doomed by definition and by design, but there’s an intensity behind its groove that one could probably trace back to deathly dealings if one had time before the punch of the song landed. Which one doesn’t. Why do I keep saying “one?”

Whatever. Thanks to Peacemaker for getting in touch and sharing their issues with the Russian wilderness. If you want to check them out, do so at their Bandcamp or their Thee Facebooks, and feel free to stream “The Siberian Problem” below, courtesy of the former:

Lo-fi duo Blut make their home in fucked-up drone and doomed riffing, working hard to sound as inaccessible as possible at any given moment. This is completely on purpose. The band’s warped vision of psychedelic extremity feeds into an overall perspective that is disaffected and hinting at a core of cerebral violence. Such as it is, their motto, “Drop out and fucking kill,” fits them well.

Over the course of several cassette releases and two full-length CDs — those being the interrelated Ritual and Ceremony (2010, review here) and Grief and Incurable Pain (2011, review here) — the initials-only two-piece of bassist N.B. and drummer/guitarist/vocalist S.M. have inflicted upon unsuspecting (or possibly suspecting) ears a sound that is pure in its misanthropy and songs that range between excruciating and unlistenable. The two albums develop ideas one off the other, but there’s an undercurrent of cruelty that remains no matter what might be happening in any given five-minute stretch.

Wanting to find out just what it is that could be behind such utterly demented musicality, I figured it was time to hit up Blut for Six Dumb Questions. Below, S.M. (joined by N.B. for the last question) provides answers to some of Blut‘s drives and motives. Please enjoy.

1. How did the two of you get together and start the band? Did you know what you wanted the sound to be going into it? There’s so much mystery around the band, with just the initials being given for the two of you. What’s the reasoning behind keeping that info so sparse?

We met whilst playing in a black metal band and decided to start Blut as a side-project, the sound of the band comes from our obsession with records like Earth 2 and Nightstick’s Blotter, also bands like Brighter Death Now and Deadwood. The basic idea was a style of music with heavy passages of psychedelic noise and drone with some doom riffs and slow minimal drums. In this band we basically are free to experiment with noise tapes, walls of guitar and bass distortion with no real boundaries or rules, if we want to write a 40-minute song, we will. The band is kind of a direct reaction against most modern types of extreme metal music, which have become stagnant, old, repetitive and boring.

As far as the initials-only thing, well, that was a necessity at the outset of the band due to a few problems with certain individuals. FUCK. After that the initials-only thing just stayed, and also this band isn’t really about posing or anything like that, we don’t even tell people we play music. It’s just not necessary.

2. Take me through your writing process for the first album and for Grief and Incurable Pain. When you’re writing these huge walls of noise, how do you know a song is over? Was there something new you wanted to try the second time out?

The first album we had no real idea, we had a bunch of riffs and some ideas for drones so we sort of just pieced it all together over time. We rehearsed that record a lot more and it wasn’t as spontaneous-sounding as the newer material. On Grief and Incurable Pain, it was decided to have a less accessible sound. We wanted to delve deeper into the dark black metal-style psych drones. Also, the bass guitar was a lot higher in the mix than the rhythm guitar, actually nearly all the riffs on the structured drum led parts of the new record are played on bass, allowing the guitar to then be used as an outlet for noise solos and heavily-delayed feedback improvisations. We basically wanted Grief and Incurable Pain to sound less like a metal record and more chaotic and even less organised than anything we’ve ever done before.

3. Do you record live? The albums sound so harsh. What were you trying to accomplish in the studio, and how much of the material is improvised?

The drums are recorded first then we play over them together, so I guess it’s half-live. We wanted to make these records sound real murky and dark. Absolutely nothing is polished or clean-sounding, everything is pretty much first take. If an instrument drops out or we make a mistake, it’s kept, and I’d say almost all the drones and noise sections are improvised or played loosely around like one or two riffs.

For us, doom and black metal have become far too acceptable now. The danger is gone, the badly-recorded noisy element has died and instead people are polishing their sound way too much. We recorded our first two albums in an attic onto old Dictaphones a Korg cassette 4-track and a beaten up old computer for digital transfer and some looping tasks. Some of the vocals were recorded in a crawlspace under old blankets by candlelight. We have old valve P.A. systems as our guitar amps, shitty old cabs and a collection of fucked microphones, this adds to the overall rotten ambience and is something that more mainstream musicians will never understand. We have also recorded samples and improvised instruments in actual forests and woods.

Another thing is the lack of creativity with bands now, a lot of bands seem to think a digital amp and a Line Six multi-effects pedal is the holy grail. Well, the way I see it is Hendrix had a valve amp that was simple as fuck, a fuzz pedal and a wah and he did more with that than these new bands can achieve with an arsenal of unlimited digital shitty affects.

4. To date, everything you’ve put out has been available on cassette. What is it about the format that keeps you loyal to it? So much focus seems to be on vinyl these days. Is there something in particular about the way Blut sounds on tape that you enjoy?

People buy vinyl but they don’t seem to listen to it. It ends up in a box and they just download the album as mp3. Why? Vinyl and tape sound way better — CD still sounds good to me also — but cassette is a real passion for us. It’s just that cool heavy sound, the background hiss, the fact that tapes play at slightly different speeds on different cassette decks as well, awesome!

5. How do the titles Ritual and Ceremony and Grief and Incurable Pain relate? Both have the “and” in there, but are they meant to be a summary of what the albums convey, or is there something else behind picking them? Put side by side, the two album covers seem to be staring at each other.

Well both these albums are part of a trilogy. The next record is called Drop Out and Kill. It’s our farewell punk rock-kind of record. After this one we intend on changing our sound again, make it darker sounding, more noise and less drums, maybe. As far as the album titles go, Ritual and Ceremony came from an occult encyclopaedia and Grief and Incurable Pain came from a biblical text. The art is supposed to look the same, actually when you spread the sleeves out next to each other it looks like some fucked up comic book. Unintentional but cool.

6. Any other plans or other closing words you want to mention? When is the split tape with Decaying Citadel due out?

S.M.: Split tape with Decaying Citadel should be out next year. We have recorded covers of The Melvins, “Leeech”/”Boris” and Doom’s “Lifelock” for that split. It was good to record some covers. It’s actually probably some of our more listenable material, we were going to record a Bauhaus cover but never got round to it. Maybe next time. “Hollow Hills,” maybe. A live show would be good next year or some sort of performance. Drop out and fucking kill.

N.B.: Well this is the first time I could be bothered to say anything for this interview. I just have this to say… Buy a valve amp and ditch your shitty Marshall combo, throw away your Mac with its fancy fucking GarageBand program. Steve Jobs is dead. His life has become a toilet book to be stacked in with your cheap porn collection. Move on. You will be ok. Delete your Facebook and try to have at least one ounce of integrity. The underground is not meant to be pretty… Fuck life…

Blut’s Blogspot page

Bubonic Productions

Stole this news right from Blabbermouth, and I expect I’m not the only person to do so this afternoon. Wishes for a complete recovery go without saying, and I know that headbangers, riffers and all the other miscreants around the world who’ve been touched by Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath‘s work over the years have the man in their thoughts today.

Legendary Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with the early stages of lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphocytes, a type of cell that forms part of the immune system.

Iommi, 63, is currently working with his doctors to establish the best treatment plan and remains upbeat and determined to make a full and successful recovery.

This comes as Black Sabbath — Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums) — are writing and recording their first album in 33 years in Los Angeles (still set for release this fall) with producer Rick Rubin. They will now go to the UK to continue to work with Tony.

When Amebix vocalist/bassist Rob “The Baron” Miller dropped a line and requested a review of the band’s first album in more than 20 years, my response was simple: I’m not qualified. In saying so, I was sincere. I was never cool enough to be the crust punk anarcho kid. I never had the backpatch, the “No Gods, No Masters” tattoo, the smell. Amebix’s two legendary and massively influential LPs, Arise! (1985) and Monolith (1987), have gone unexplored on my part for years, so when Sonic Mass (released by the band in cooperation with Easy Action Records) came along, I felt I had no basis to appreciate it and that I wouldn’t be able to judge it with the proper context – I’d be out of my league, in other words. Miller, probably well thinking I was a total ass, sent the album anyway. It was released in Sept. 2011, and I slept on the download as I do a lot of downloads, the added element of intimidation not helping the cause, until I finally saw the album on Nathan Carson of Witch Mountain’s year-end list on The Bone Reader (credit where it’s due), which was endorsement enough for me to at last give Sonic Mass the listen it deserves. I relate this story mostly to explain what took so long on the review and to cover my ass in case I get some contextual element horribly wrong or come off ignorant of Amebix’s legacy (which, again, I am), but also to give some background on the effect Sonic Mass had on me as a listener.

A lot of albums, it being months after the release, I’d probably just let go, but Sonic Mass hits with an air of profundity suited to the decades since Amebix’s last studio full-length. Working within and outside the genre the band helped create, it is timeless, and so I feel less constrained by time in talking about it. Or maybe that’s just my way of justifying having slept on a cool record. In any case, Amebix’s third album doesn’t arrive completely without warning. The trio of Rob, brother/guitarist Stig C. (Chris) Miller and drummer Roy Mayorga (ex-Nausea/Soulfly/Stone Sour) came together for shows in 2009 and in 2010 released the Redux EP reworking three classic Amebix tracks – “Arise!,” “Winter” and “Chain Reaction.” It was a move justified by a change in methodology and sound and a firm way of noting that 21st Century Amebix is not the same band it once was or just an act trying to recapture the rawness of their early work. Instead, the material on Sonic Mass is imbued with a sense of drama more befitting a modern interpretation of the early-‘90s heyday of Peaceville-style gothic doom than sleeping-on-your-floor punk, though strains of industrial intensity remain consistent, however more cleanly they might be presented here. Structured for vinyl, Sonic Mass works in two sides, but the 10 songs make linear sense as well; a flow mirrored within the tracks coming to a final apex on pre-album single “Knights of the Black Sun” that satisfies a tension built over the course of the preceding 43 minutes. Still, there’s a grandiosity to Sonic Mass immediately on opener “Days” that flies in the face of crust’s keep-it-simple ethos, at least partially.

I say “partially” because on Sonic Mass, no matter how indulgent Amebix get, they only once lose sight of structure, and when they do it, it’s on purpose. Accordingly, “Days” is more circumstance than pomp, beginning with The Baron’s bass and a semi-spoken delivery of the appropriate opening lines, “We came out of the night/Bloodied yet unbowed/From days we always will remember.” Mayorga and Stig soon join in with a military march worthy of some of Primordial’s constant battle with post-conflict regret, Mayorga enhancing the grandeur with synth strings and choirs soon swallowed by a mounting wall of guitar. The ensuing final minute is given to the repetition of “These days will never come again,” and heavier setup for “Shield Wall,” which is precisely what it sounds like: A protective battlement. Flowing directly from “Days,” Mayorga counts in and Stig soon unleashes a grinding churn that wouldn’t be out of place on Monolith were it not topped with layers of noise and wailing highs. They don’t keep the battle theme, though, and instead moving into more spiritual ground with “The Messenger” and “God of the Grain,” which mark the point at which the crux of Sonic Mass really gets under way. The atmosphere is set and Amebix have already established that the palette has widened and they’re able to move in a varied ambience and still evoke a feeling of consistency – not something one might expect a band who hasn’t put out new material in 20-plus years to do – but if Sonic Mass proves anything, it proves there’s power in defying expectation.

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The full title of Cherry Choke’s second album is A Night in the Arms of Venus Leads to a Lifetime on Mercury, and it’s a saying taken from the fact that mercury used to be used as a treatment for syphilis. Venus, then, is a prostitute giving you the disease. The vaguely evocative sexuality and antiqueness of the line perfectly suits the sophomore outing from the British threesome, who made their debut on Elektrohasch Schallplatten with a self-titled in 2009 (review here). A Night in the Arms of Venus, for short, collects nine vinyl-minded retro rockers the swing of which will be welcome to anyone on Graveyard’s trail, but Cherry Choke are rawer, more garage-sounding, injecting a Stooges wiriness into heavy blues grooves and ‘60s proto-psych pop. Fronted by guitarist/vocalist Mat Bethancourt (of Josiah, The Kings of Frog Island and Dexter Jones Circus Orchestra), they are a classically-directed power trio and the songs follow purposefully simple structures, Dan Lockton’s drums coming on with a casual uptempo swagger and open feel that reminds some of Blue Cheer’s early bombast, but on the whole, these songs are more melodically aware than were the San Franciscan progenitors of the genre. Bethancourt made his bones as a fuzz rocker in Josiah, but if that’s to be the object of search here, it’s found more on Gregg Hunt’s bass, which pushes the uptempo “Winchester Geese” over the line of psych rock and heavy psych rock. The guitars are cleaner in a classic combo-amp fashion and well-suited to the mod vibe of the tracks.

And the songs, for their part, are built on catchy choruses and steady execution. They feel natural and retro but not posturing or chic for the sake of being chic. A Night in the Arms of Venus varies in mood and tempo but keeps a consistent aesthetic nonetheless, even as the later “Silver Crossed My Mind” veers into backwards guitar and mellotron psychedelia, departing from the straightforward 45rpm-single-ready songwriting of “The Day She Came to Play” or the Hunt-penned “Blue Mass,” which directly precedes following side B opener and album highlight “Evol,” on which Bethancourt layers acoustic and electric guitar to ecstatic effect. It is the guitarist’s construction acumen all over A Night in the Arms of Venus, but Hunt and Lockton make for more than an enriching presence in the rhythm section, fueling a freakout of their own to contrast Bethancourt’s calmer approach on “I Need Not Know Redemption” or playing off the Who-style grandiosity of opener “Crying out Loud” with solo-worthy runs and fills later in the song. Hunt’s contributions make some of these cuts stand out, and that’s as much the case with “Crying out Loud” as it is with the more extended closer “Splinters,” which tops seven minutes and finds Bethancourt answering back with a bit of fuzzy warmth of his own while Lockton foreshadows the jam to come as he keeps time on his toms amid sub-swirl channel-pans in the guitar leads and a forward focus that seems impossible given the seemingly unhinged aesthetic in which Cherry Choke are working.

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If 2011 was lacking anything, it was new music from British gloom rockers Crippled Black Phoenix. Their last album, 2010′s I, Vigilante (half-reviewed here), was as stunning as its cover art, and as the band has posted the track “A Letter Concerning Dogheads” from the forthcoming (Mankind) The Crafty Ape, it sounds like there are good things yet to come. If you’re in Europe, they’ll also be touring in March. More info on that is here.

Until then, here’s the announcement of the album, which was sneakily put up last week, and the Soundcloud stream of “A Letter Concerning Dogheads.”

(Mankind) The Crafty Ape, the fifth Crippled Black Phoenix album is upon us and it marks a new chapter in the history of the band. The thematic focus for this album is firmly planted in the corruption of mankind and injustice, but also ultimately in the hope that all is not lost, and that there’s a common thread connecting people of like-minds wherever you may travel.

The music and themes have been created as to represent the world inside and outside of the mind, with no compromise. On (Mankind) The Crafty Ape, the band showcases a new level of focus, and that’s not to say there was a lack of focus on previous efforts, it simply says that the methods and attitude in making the new album are another move toward finding the total uncompromised potential within the music.

Pre-order now and receive a free poster!

The song is called “Portrait of Dorian Gray,” and it takes its name from Oscar Wilde‘s 1890 novel. It was written in 2006 and released in September on Pagan Altar‘s split with Mirror of Deception on Cyclone Empire. Reportedly, it will also be included on Pagan Altar‘s 2012 full-length, which will be the follow-up to 2006′s Mythical and Magical. Definitely something to look forward to in classic doom.