In a new interview with Pitchfork, My Bloody Valentine leader Kevin Shields revealed that a new MBV album has been worked on, and will see a release sometime in 2018. The band hasn’t released new music since their critically acclaimed 2013 comeback album MBV (m.b.v. records).Continue reading
Linkin Park will be releasing their new album, One More Light, on May 19th, and we have another new song for your listening pleasure today. Continue reading
Linkin Park recently confirmed that they will be releasing their new album, One More Light, on May 19th. With that announcement they also released the ‘Heavy’ single, and now they’ve unveiled the official video for the track. Continue reading
Linkin Park recently confirmed that they will be releasing their new album, One More Light, on May 19th. With that announcement they also released the ‘Heavy’ single, which surprised a lot of fans for it being anything but heavy at all. Continue reading
Linkin Park has confirmed that they will be releasing their new album, One More Light, on May 19th, and the first single has made its way online. Continue reading
Heavy metal is my world, and has been for decades, but the word “heavy” itself can be used to describe other types of music as well. Sure, hearing Pantera play ‘Suicide Note Pt. II’ live was the heaviest thing my ears have ever heard, but I’m talking about the heavy music that hits your heart as well. For example, when you hear ‘Redemption Song’ by Bob Marley, or Johnny Cash‘s cover of ‘Hurt,’ your whole soul feels like it has been taken over by the artist until the song ends. That’s the heavy I’m talking about, and last Friday Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released the heaviest record of 2016.Continue reading
As if torn from the comic book origins I obsessed over as a child, Spirit Adrift’s past, like their members identities are shrouded deep in mystery. I didn’t know much about these newly signed to Prosthetic Records purveyors of the finest psychedelic doom we have heard in a long time, going in. But what I can tell you with certainty: with just two songs this band is ready to knock the US doom scene flat on its ass.
Comprised of the cryptically named JK on guitar and vocals, UB on drums, and DD on bass, and ascribing to the ancient philosophy of “Musica Universalis”, the band is as ambitious with songwriting, especially as they are secretive. obviously wishing to just suck you into their tractor beam with only the music, these songs are immense feeling. Behind Beyond clocks in at a nearly 28 minutes combined. Every note, trilled guitar riff, swooping bass glide, or crashing cymbal hit is deliberate, but very loose sounding too. ‘Specter of Ruin’ leads off with a contemplative plucked riff and an almost nautical feel, before the riffs smash your ears apart. JK’s otherworldly singing voice and harmonies are excellent. I actually wonder what the band will do live, since these vocals are crucial to the sound. After a chilled out mid-section it advances to a marching waltz cadence, and some more amazing riffs. The major key and the epic sounding drums are downright sunny and uplifting.
‘Perpetual Passage’ is even more obtuse and eerie. A very somber opening is more in the vein of trad doom influences. JK’s lead playing is the icing on the cake for the entire release. Just close your eyes and soak in the glory. suddenly the band jumps a few more decades ahead flavor-wise, praying to the altar of Matt Pike, the Jehovah of all jammage. Fully formed, the song is as big as the celestial bodies the band references. The end of the track swells and recedes over and over in your head like a mantra.
If this is just the start of what Spirit Adrift is going to offer us, I cannot wait for their full-length to arrive later this year.
8.0/10
[amazon asin=B019QQ3R12&template=iframe image1]
Much as with Eddie Vedder’s ukulele musings, there’s often debate as to whether the somewhat-less-than-Heavy products of Rock stars deserve attention from the scene purely because of their purveyors’ status. Step forth Dane Kristian Harting, whose early Thrash / Noise tendencies are sacrificed in favour of a spiky, summery Americana.
There are moments of true beauty within Summer of Crush (Exile on Mainstream): the harmonies of opener ‘Traveller’ and ‘White Spirits’ touching the heart alongside Harting’s honeyed airs, the latter tracks squalling lead guitar adding a post-style crush to an acoustic riff which evokes those late ‘Hippy’ highs such as CSNY. ‘Temporary Rooms’ and ‘How High’ have a Country Pop twang, the vocal adding some real sunshine to worlds normally coated in a hellish darkness.
The insouciant chanting of the brief ‘I Am You 2’, fired by a pedal-affected riff which resonates through the instrumental ‘Spirits Revisited’, adds experimentation and atmosphere to a largely stripped-down sound. ‘Ship Of Fools’, meanwhile, sees those of us of a ‘bongo’ bent patted into ecstasy alongside a harsher yet still melodic vocal and more atmospheric organ, increasing to a euphoric crescendo in not dissimilar fashion to early 90s Rock adventurers Largo.
More hostile squealing punctures the fragile, sparing lilt of ‘Digging Up Graves’ and it’s here that one fully realises the level of creativity and skill on display. It would be easy for these brief flurries of Harting’s roots to stick out like sore thumbs and make a track ‘clunky’ by merely not belonging. Here, they have an organic meld like instant displays of emotion: the fizz of lead squalls in the hypnotic, dreamy ‘South North Passage’ epitomising the rude disturbance of a deep meditation, telling its story wonderfully.
The main feature is of course that light melody, reminiscent of late Beatles or Oasis in the penultimate ’Soul Sister’: an edgy, electro-brushed ballad which could be the final straw for some yet, for those of us who are capable of appreciating the softer things in life, the gathering of the most heavenly aspects of an album both delightfully enticing, and just barely Rock.
7.5/10.0
PAUL QUINN
There’s something about summertime that makes stoner/doom even better than normal, isn’t it? The hazy vibes, feeling of sluggish inertia and of course; flowery shirts just don’t work as well when there’s a raging blizzard outside and you can’t feel your toes. Hence Leicester based burnouts Prophets of Saturn’s timely decision to drop sophomore album Retronauts (Independent) when the sun, and most likely your tiny mind, is high in the sky.
Thankfully steering clear of the current retro rock trend where bands are falling over themselves to declare how much they love Black Widow and Dennis Wheatley novels (just ignore the racism), Prophets of Saturn are all about the power of the almighty riff, and it’s not unfair to say they have borrowed one or two from glaringly obvious influences Sleep and Acrimony. The lyrical references to wizards, occultism and weed are to be expected, which may explain why George Sanderson’s vocals are low in the mix; his presence clearly isn’t crucial.
The quartet play a loose, free-flowing form of stoner doom that washes over you like a haze of bong smoke on a sunny afternoon, albeit with a nicely pulsing bass presence that ensures things remain suitably heavy. The pace varies, with ‘Ultra Wizards’ calling to mind Cathedral at their most playful whilst seventeen minute closer ‘Damavand’ is a lysergic hail to the slow and the punishing.
While so many bands of this ilk are content to rip off Electric Wizard, Prophets of Saturn has their own, admittedly blurry identity. Their vibe is more mushroom tea and garish sci-fi paperbacks than Hammer Horror and witchcraft, and although this may mark them as a less threatening prospect, listeners should not be deceived, for Retronauts is a suitably smoky and weighty piece of work that improves with every spin.
7.0/10
JAMES CONWAY