Power Trip has released one of the undeniably great albums of 2017 thus far with Nightmare Logic, out now on Southern Lord Records. While on tour with Iron Reagan, Ghost Cult’s Keith Chachkes caught up with front man Riley Gale at Webster Hall in New York City to discuss politics, radical philosophy, metal and more. With inspiring music and a chaotic live show, Power Trip are one of the most impressive bands on the scene today. Continue reading
Darkest Hour will be releasing Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora on March 10th via Southern Lord Records, but thanks to Noisey, you can stream the riff-filled party for your ear holes today. Continue reading
Darkest Hour will be releasing Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora on March 10th via Southern Lord Records, and the third single has made its way online. Continue reading
Darkest Hour will be releasing Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora on March 10th via Southern Lord Records, and the second single has made its way online. Continue reading
Darkest Hour recently confirmed that their new album, Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora, will be released on March 10th via Southern Lord Records, and today we have the first single for your listening pleasure. Continue reading
The Power Of The Riff, the purveyors of the heavy, the hardcore and the underground have announced their headliners for their annual December fest. Continue reading
Epic doom band SUNN O))) is streaming their entire new album Kannon, out this Friday via Southern Lord. You can hear the album at this link:
The band has also made available and entire set to stream live as well at Boiler Room TV here:
Kannon had a limited white vinyl Record Store Day release last Friday, but will see official worldwide release on gatefold LP, CD and digital formats this Friday. Order the album directly via the SUNN O))) store here, at Southern Lord here, at Bandcamp here.
The band is planning many live rituals in 2016, but has announced a brief tour of Australia already. Tickets are on sale now.
SUNN O))) Australian Tour Dates:
Mar 12 2016: Adelaide Festival – Adelaide, AU w/ Magma [tickets]
Mar 15 2016: Manning Bar – Sydney, AU [tickets]
Mar 16 2016: Max Watts – Melbourne, AU [tickets]
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More than an odd Melvins comparison has been levelled at Montreal trio Big|Brave and indeed, the riffs within second full-length Au De La (Southern Lord) possess the squealing, throaty exhalations of Grunge. There is, however, a whole other weirdness going on here, which you might expect from a band just coming off a tour with Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Not least the trend-bucking omission of a bassist from the ranks…
Vocalist Robin Wattie is Björk as a native witch-woman, intoning melodiously then yelping like a possessed shaman whilst managing to retain that harmony. Those riffs, meanwhile, purveyed by Wattie and fellow guitarist Mathieu Ball, carry a Drone-like pace: squalling and whining on the pregnant-with-tension ‘Do.No.Harm.Do.No.Wrong…’, yet groaning under the monstrous feedback of ‘Look at How the World Has Made a Change’. The muscle-tightening edge is maintained by Louis-Alexandre Beauregard’s tribal resonance, powerfully leading each track to a crescendo of noise in an understated yet marked fashion.
Here, however, instantaneous drops to silence raise the hackles as much as the violent explosions of agony. Staccato opener ‘On the By and By and Thereon’ seemingly comes to a premature conclusion before kicking on again into a terrifying sequence of double-hammers. The sampled undercurrent of ‘And as the Waters Go’, meanwhile, is initially pierced by a single crash of rhythm guitar, Wattie’s steadily building vocal growing from a high incantation into a demented wail, the whole continually punctuated by brief zephyrs of calm which pounce upon the listener and chill the soul. Flashes of atonal lead and a pulsing coda bring to mind Sonic Youth on zopiclone, truly bewitching stuff that shreds the nerves while attempting to kiss them better.
The early, soft Psychedelia of closer ‘(re)Collection Part II’ gives way to Wattie’s languid howls, the subsequent near-unbearable intensity of moaning leads and rhythmic drums running through an a Capella Punk centrepiece to a Freeform frenzy and a delightful, Shoegaze finale. An exercise in barely-controlled expression, this is a fascinating album – at times stunning, at others beguiling, but always compelling – and one that ensures Big|Brave will force their way into your memory.
7.5/10
PAUL QUINN
Black Cobra and Wolvhammer will be venturing on a West Coast tour in December. Black Cobra will begin working on a new album with a tentative release towards later in 2015 via Southern Lord. Wolvhammer ‘s Clawing Into Black Sun (out now via Profound Lore Records and on vinyl on guitarist Jeff Wilson’s Disorder Records) was recorded by Dan Jensen at Hideaway Studio in Minneapolis, MN.
WOLVHAMMER Desanctifying North America 2014 Part II w/ Black Cobra:
Nov 30: Triple Rock Social Club – Minneapolis, MN *
Dec 01: Machinery Row – Great Falls, MT *
Dec 02: The Hop – Spokane, WA *
Dec 03: Rotture – Portland, OR
Dec 04: Highline – Seattle, WA
Dec 05: Wow Hall – Eugene, OR
Dec 06: Press Club – Sacramento, CA
Dec 07: Sweet Springs – Los Osos, CA
Dec 08: Catalyst – Santa Cruz, CA
Dec 10: Brick By Brick – San Diego, CA
Dec 11: Complex – Los Angeles, CA
Dec 12: The Garage – Ventura, CA
Dec 13: Thee Parkside – San Francisco, CA
Dec 15: The Divebar – Las Vegas, NV *
Dec 17: Lost Lake – Denver, CO *
Dec 18: Replay – Lawrence, KS *
*WOLVHAMMER only
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Disorder Records on Bandcamp
Southern Lord seems to be making its move towards becoming a hardcore label official. All jokes aside, the recent releases of material by Xibalba, Nails, Trap Them, and even d-beat lycanthropes Wolfbrigade is telling of the direction that the label wants to go in. But Poison Idea? Now there’s a throwback.
Reaching back in time to re-re-release the seminal classic, Poison Idea’s third release, not-so-subtly entitled Kings of Punk, so that we may educate ourselves on what actually defines the phrase Hardcore Punk in a world where tough guy crews like Crowd Deterrent wear proverbial Burger King crowns and refer to themselves as such with no irony. It’s raw, nasty, dirty, uncompromising, and pretty damn good. I’ve been late to the party as far as this band is concerned, and I even missed their recent show in Quincy, but better late than never, because if you never, then how can you at all?
Jerry A.’s drug and alcohol infused spit will get in your ears as he yells about cops, being angry, and leading different ‘Lifestyles’ (see what I did? I hope not). “Pig Champion” plays licks that are simple enough to be punker than you, but also tastefully executed and catchy so songs like ‘God Not God’ manage to stick around in your head while you imagine yourself drunkenly making room for yourself to slamdance. The rhythm section rumbles dutifully behind, but still has enough energy to feed positively off the guitar and vocals to create an atmosphere that lives up to the album’s semi-facetious name. I’m coming across as too academic here, but only because otherwise this review would be detailing what kind of foolish act I would partake in while listening to any given song.
While the original material on its own stands the test of time, there are also live versions of every track and beyond, intermingled with some chuckle-worthy banter by Jerry A., this being the product of altogether too much liquor and too few brains left intact from just being too “punk” to articulate linear thought. It’s an exercise in how many different ways one can huff glue and still be functional enough to say something negative. Also a completely original forgery of Motörhead‘s self-named jam which I can’t seem to remember the name of, and a hateful sampled piss-take where someone clearly is in need of Mr. Clean.
Taking the time to listen to Poison Idea has shown me just how important they were in the formation of hardcore punk as a genre, so I feel like even more of a nerd because I’m gonna namedrop them like everyone else when asked about the history of hardcore. It’s always good to learn things.
8.5/10
Sean Pierre-Antoine