Ghost Cult’s DJ Astrocreep caught up with the members of Dead Witches at the Heavy Psych Sounds Fest earlier this year in London. The band is a low key Stoner Doom supergroup (ex-Electric Wizard, With The Dead, Psychedelic Witchcraft, Sea Bastard), with a fascinating lineage and power songs. Their new album The Final Exorcism is out now via Heavy Psych Sounds. Check it out! Continue reading
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Psycho Las Vegas has grown and evolved over the years and has shaken off any comparisons to niche European fests and your traditional US fest, itself having no close comparisons, and being its own beast. Having everything under one roof including your stay can lead to late and debaucherous nights for some, packed and planned diverse schedules for the devout, a little compromise of both for others, but an all around good time for all. For a journalist working the fest, it goes by in a blur but you still experience having those stand out moments as well as highlights of your own. Continue reading
Danzig has been named as the final headliner of Psycho Las Vegas 2018. The fest will take place from August 17th-19th at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
As Ghost Cult announced last week the 2018 Psycho Las Vegas festival will be taking place from August 17th-19th at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The lineup promised to be a banger, with one notable change, Young And In The Way (YAITW) have canceled their appearance at the fest due to their impending breakup. They were to have played the pre-festival pool party event on August 16th. The festival will announce a replacement soon. Continue reading
The 2018 Psycho Las Vegas festival will be taking place from August 17th-19th at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Today the organizes have unveiled the final lineup, and it’s just AWESOME. Continue reading
Part II
Noticing Amenra would be doing an acoustic set on Saturday, it brought nothing but confusion since they are well-known for their vigorous, powerful live performances. Acoustic? Singer Colin van Eeckhout even admitted feeling very nervous at the beginning of the set. The band was sat in a circle in the semi-darkness of the stage, only slightly illuminated by beams of light. 013’s brand new main stage felt almost obscenely big for such an intimate setting. However, once they got started, this added a vibe of disconnection from the band that almost gave you a feeling you were watching something you weren’t supposed to see. They managed to find a way to play their 2009’s acoustic EP Afterlife so timid and delicate, that the crowd seemed to be in trance and didn’t wake up until their cover of Tool’s ‘Parabol’, which earned them a deafening applause. For their second set at the Afterburner, they were back to their post-metal selves, screeching, pounding and shredding in exactly the way we know and love them. Leaving us to timidly watch the ripples forming in our beers as if a T-rex came stomping by, while the magic from the night before faded to a distant memory.
An unexpected highlight on the Saturday was Brothers of the Sonic Cloth. Both captivating and furiously loud, their psychedelic visuals and droning music created the perfect setting for a lot of people to hang out on the floor of the main stage and take in the wall of sound the Americans produced. For those of us feeling more awake, progressive space-rockers Astrosoniq, led by a very Rock’n’roll looking singer, gave a more fast-paced performance in the Green Room. Walter, in official terms the artistic director of Roadburn, but in reality the true heart and soul of the festival, brought out his visuals to accompany Astrosoniq’s very psychedelic guitar riffs.
Roadburn 2014 favorites The Vintage Caravan showed up for a surprise gig at café Cul de Sac on Sunday. Well, I say surprise, but 30 minutes before showtime the venue was absolutely packed with people. There is only one way to actually see a band in Cul de Sac: be hella early. So we found ourselves snuggly between 150 hot and sweaty, hungover fans with no chance of reaching the bar or the toilets in the next hour-and-a-half. But boy, was it WORTH it. The Islandic rockers tried to drill out our hangovers with their heavy bass and guitarist Oskar‘s relentless headbanging let us forget that this was our fourth day at the festival already and we were supposed to be very tired.
The greatest thing about Roadburn must be the diversity of the people you meet. Surrounded by more foreigners than native Dutch, you usually leave the festival a couple of Finnish words wiser than you were before (none of which probably as innocent as they led you to believe). However, I’m not going to lie: people watching is right up there on my list of favorite pastimes, and there really isn’t a better place for it than Roadburn. Mainly because metal shows in themselves are beacons of creative and eccentric people. And Roadburn, well, that is the holy grail of metal shows. Amidst a goldmine of glorious manes and enviously long beards, there seem to be more crust punks than usual (thank you G.I.S.M and Converge) and of course every back patch under the sun.
One of the most spotted patches this year was obviously Neurosis. You’d think that playing two ’30th Anniversary’ sets would bring about its problems. After all, having a thirty-year spanning discography to choose from can’t be easy. Remarkably enough Neurosis managed to represent each and every one of their records during their shows, right back to their 1985 hardcore punk debut Pain of Mind. It is astounding to see how much they have grown and changed over the years, before they settled into their skin of a contemporary hurricane of genres, set to a baseline of doom. When the final tones of 1999’s ‘The Doorway’ sounded at the Afterburner, it left us with nothing but goosebumps, hands sore from clapping and a profound sense that 366 days are way too many to wait until the next Roadburn.
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WORDS BY CÉLINE HUIZER
As we dash towards the holidays and the end of the year Ghost Cult is feeling good about this season of giving. So we are giving our fans a chance to get to know our partners, peers, and friends from bands in the world of music. They will chime in with some guest blogs, end of year lists, and whatever else is on their minds as we pull the plug on 2015. Becky Laverty, publicist of Pioneer Press, who takes care of many of our favorite bands in the UK and europe, and handles all things press for Roadburn Festival, Damnation Festival and many others. This lovely lady has agreed to write us a list of her favorite releases of 2015, “in no particular order”.
Chvrches – Every Open Eye
I listen to this to the point that my boyfriend hates it. ‘Empty Threat’ in particular is a banger
Marriages – Salome
I missed seeing them live twice in April, but finally saw them on tour with Deafheaven.’Love, Texas’ is a favourite.
Chelsea Wolf – Abyss
Listening to this feels like drowning, but in a good way.
The Bridesmaid – Grayson
A short release, and one I worked on, but it’s a fantastic first release and I can’t wait to hear what they produce next.
With The Dead – With The Dead
Another I worked on – which was an honour (featuring Lee Dorian of Cathedral) and a lot of fun. The album just crushes, pure and simple.
Insect Ark – Portal/ Well
These are mesmerising live and beautiful to listen to on record. Highly recommended.
Carly Rae Jepson – Emotion
I had to swap this in at the last minute… it’s full of pure pop hits, which in my opinion, is hard to beat.
Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars
I listen to this when I’m alone and working quite a lot.
Royal Thunder – Crooked Doors
I have a lot of love for Royal Thunder and want desperately for them to play over here again. ‘Time Machine’ is such a strong opener. Pow!
Tribulation – Children of the Night
Another band that nails it live – 100%, and they’re big fans of a lemon cheesecake martini, I hear.
Follow Becky Laverty and Pioneer Press
Dorrian. Bagshaw. Greening. One band. Shall we just stop now?…
Given the press surrounding the marriage of ex-Electric Wizard (and please can we not forget Ramesses?!) members to Rise Above founder Lee Dorrian, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we’re about to experience our own version of the mid-90s East-West Rap war. So let’s forget all that nonsense and focus on Doom supergroup With The Dead’s eponymous debut album.
With The Dead (Rise Above) ploughs a similar furrow to their West Country rivals yet delivers a filthy edge to whirling vocals and Tim Bagshaw’s riffs which energises the sound somewhat, and lifts it above that over-trodden path. The crushing riff of opener ‘Crown of Burning Stars’ is lightened ever so slightly by a slow groove, slightly fuzzed production and a Psych effect to Dorrian’s bellow which doesn’t dilute its lascivious, malevolent sneer. The ensuing ‘The Cross’ possesses a lively yet portentous structure, sonorous rhythms performing a lazy American smooth with the mind, the groove almost catching but never testing the gravitas.
Whilst the occasionally bloated ‘Nephthys’ falls into the same stodgy moss as Witchsorrow, a Sludge mentality gives the titanic, crawling ‘Living With The Dead’ an early fire: first flattening with oscillating guitars and roars, then dropping to a gentle, sparing rhythm. The explosion is coming however, and in true Hammer Horror-drenched fashion: the hypnotic yet mournful crush swaddling the listener in a diseased cocoon. The head-nodding, slow rut of ‘I Am The Virus’ is decorated with cosmic effects and more cavernous roars, those brief flashes of lead and hulking drums enlivening some rather clunky lyrics. In an unbearably tense finale the crushing weight of closer ‘Screams From My Own Grave’ gradually imbues the sense of claustrophobic, crawling terror that is so obviously the intention.
With The Dead is yet another 2015 Doom album that won’t win prizes for originality, and one wonders how much further this particular twig of the branch has left to grow. It’s an album that does, however, possess enough variance, power, identity and nefarious intent to be a worthy addition to the annals.
7.0/10.0
PAUL QUINN