The Living Pins share "Downtown" video; "Impossibly cool" raves The Onion AV Club on EP

“A raw, bluesy track dripping with dark psychedelia, with a strut reminiscent of PJ Harvey circa To Bring You My Love or The Kills’ first couple records.”  -- Treble

"A lively union of post-grunge guitar psychedelia and Stonesy chug." -- Austin Chronicle

Austin, TX band The Living Pins share a new video today from their critically-lauded Freaky Little Monster Children EP -- their first release since their single song debut in 1996. Watch/share the psychedelic visuals of "Downtown" video via YouTube.

The Onion AV Club recently picked the EP in their 5 New Releases We Love feature, calling it, "equal parts sinister and sunny...both accessible and impossibly cool."

It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine previously launched the video for "Raven" HERE alongside a humorous interview. (Direct YouTube.) Austin Chronicle recently chatted with the band HERE. Treble hosted the lead single "Raven" HERE. Glide Magazine shared "Downtown" HERE. The Spill Magazine shared "Jaguar" HERE.

Brian knew his time had come. With clubs shuttered and parties postponed, this most recent iteration of The Living Pins — guitarists/vocalists Pam Peltz and Carrie Clark, joined by Brian the Drum Machine — groove through these crazy times with a full tilt swagger from the back room of an Austin house. 

Carrie is an inductee into the Austin Music Hall of Fame as the frontwoman for Sixteen Deluxe (Trance Syndicate, Warner Bros. Records). Pam is a published photographer and the producer of two Daniel Johnston songs, “Ain’t No Woman Gonna Make a George Jones Outta Me” and “Casper” on Daniel’s Continued Story album.

The Living Pins originally formed in 1996 during the heyday of iconic Austin clubs such as Liberty Lunch, Electric Lounge, and The Hole In The Wall. Pam and Carrie met as co-workers at Wheatsville Food Co-op and continued in the tradition of employee bands including the likes of Ed Hall, Cherubs, Sixteen Deluxe, Pong, Palaxy Tracks, and Cotton Mather. The original Living Pins line-up included Kathy Ziegler (Morningwood) and Leslie Petit (Bunny Stockhausen) and this incarnation of the Pins appeared on the 1998 Wheatsville band compilation The Wheat Album, with their cover of the T. Rex song, “Spaceball Ricochet”, produced by John Croslin (Spoon, Guided by Voices).

Now, the Living Pins are back as a two-piece with Freaky Little Monster Children -- their new fledgling baby bird EP of glam-psych-guitar explosions. Primordial 1990s Austin, meets 2000s oversaturated festival hangover, meets 2020 lockdown mind-melt champagne fountain.  

“We’ve never been to the Rites of Pan Festival at Jajouka, but something like that goes on in the back of our heads all the time.” —The Living Pins

Freaky Little Monster Children was mostly recorded late on Friday and Saturday nights during the lockdown of Fall of 2020, in the empty lobby of Splinter Group, an East Austin artisan collective. “Fingers crossed the power tools stay silent during the next guitar overdub,” was the mantra. Facemasks and headphones were the main accessories. Jeff Copas (Sixteen Deluxe, Mule Ear Productions) engineered and produced the EP plus added some sweet keyboard and percussion details. And special guest, Matt Devine (Medicine, Permanent Green Light, Possum Dixon), played his Mick Taylor-esque endless guitar solo on “Jaguar” from a different time zone out in L.A.

EP personnel:

Carrie Clark: vocals, guitars, tambourine

Pam Peltz: vocals, guitars, bass

Brian, the Drum Machine: beats

Jeff Copas: production, keyboards, percussion

Matt Devine: lead & rhythm guitars on “Jaguar”

Freaky Little Monster Children is available for download/streaming, released on April 9th, 2021 HERE. 

Artist: The Living Pins

Album: Freaky Little Monster Children

Record Label: self-released

Release Date: April 9, 2021

01. Raven

02. Downtown

03. Jaguar

04. Fish and Beads

On The Web:

livingpins.com

thelivingpins.bandcamp.com

instagram.com/livingpins

facebook.com/livingpins

ALASTOR (RidingEasy Records) stream forthcoming album early via Metal Sucks

"Alastor are all about the classic, darker aspects of the genre, and they nail that sound and general mystique well" -- Metal Injection

"They really nail that satisfying middle ground between super heavy, super catchy, and super psychedelic, and even if they aren't reinventing the wheel, they're pretty damn good at spinning it." -- Brooklyn Vegan

"The absolutely KILLER sophomore album by the Swedish occultists. Chock full of psychedelic, dark, fuzzed-out melodic doom stompers." -- Metal Sucks

Swedish rock band Alastor are streaming their forthcoming album Onwards and Downwards today ahead of release via Metal Sucks. Hear and share the full album HERE. (Direct Bandcamp and YouTube.)

Brooklyn Vegan recently shared the official video for "Death Cult" HERE. (Direct YouTube.) Metal Injection previously hosted the first single HERE. Heavy Blog Is Heavy recently shared "Dead Things In Jars" HERE. 

Excelsior! It’s the hail of yore that one should go ever onward and upward. And so, fittingly Onwards and Downwards is the occultist Swedish band Alastor’s clever call to arms… and also a reflection of our collective dark state of mind these days. 

“If our last album Slave to the Grave were about death, this record is more about madness,” says guitarist Hampus Sandell. “You can look at the whole record as one person’s gradual slip into insanity. An ongoing nightmare without end. It also sums up the state of the world around us as this year has clearly shown.” 

Alastor is heavy doom rock for the wicked and depraved. Drenched in heavy, distorted darkness and steeped in occult horror that will make your skin crawl and ears cry sweet tears of blood, the band is revitalized in 2021 with meticulously crafted songs and new drummer Jim Nordström bringing a hard-hitting and precise energy. 

“It’s a more focused record but at the same time it’s more personal and naked. More raw emotion and pain,” Hampus says. The band recorded the album with the help of Joona Hassinen of Studio Underjord, who has helped with mixing since their ”Blood on Satan’s Claw” EP in 2017. Christoffer Karlsson of The Dahmers also assisted with overdubs and encouraged the band to demo the material early on, aiding in the album’s more deliberate and tighter feel. 

From the first note of opener “The Killer In My Skull” the guitars are far thicker and out front than ever, and Nordström pummels the snare and kick like a young Dave Grohl. Bassist/vocalist Robin Arnryd’s chorus-drenched voice soars above it all like a one-man choir, at times harmonizing beautifully with shimmering Hammond organ notes. Nary a moment is wasted on the droning navel-gazing of lesser bands. Particularly, the driving anthem “Death Cult” which sounds like it would fit comfortably on QOTSA’s Songs For The Deaf, though there’s considerably more heft here. The title track pays its due to the Devil’s tritone in a marvelously woven framework of intertwining melodies befitting the album’s theme of descent into madness. 

The quartet released its epic 3-song debut album Black Magic in early 2017 via Twin Earth Records, followed by the 2-track “Blood On Satan’s Claw” EP on Halloween the same year. Joining forces with RidingEasy Records in 2018, Alastor summoned the 7-track hateful gospel Slave To The Grave, which was packed with dynamic twists and turns, and funereal girth. It was met with considerable praise, setting the stage for the band’s greatest step onward (and upward… or downward, depending on your preferences.) 

Onwards and Downwards will be available on LP, CD and download on May 28th, 2021 via RidingEasy Records. 

Artist: Alastor

Album: Onwards and Downwards

Label: RidingEasy Records

Release Date: May 28, 2021

01. The Killer In My Skull

02. Dead Things In Jars

03. Death Cult

04. Nightmare Trip

05. Pipsvängen

06. Onwards and Downwards

07. Lost and Never Found

On The Web:

facebook.com/alastordoom

alastordoom.bandcamp.com

ridingeasyrecords.com

Year of No Light premiere "Alètheia" track from upcoming album & discography box set

Top-tier post-rock, suspenseful throughout and culminating in an explosive, cathartic climax.” -- Brooklyn Vegan

Bordeaux, France post-metal sextet Year of No Light share a new track from their forthcoming fifth studio album Consolamentum today on all DSPs. Brooklyn Vegan yesterday premiered the track, which is available HERE. (And, direct YouTube, Bandcamp and Spotify.)

Watch & share the epic music video for "Réalgar" via YouTube HERE. 

Consolamentum is the band's first album on Pelagic Records. To celebrate joining the label and Year of No Lights's 20th anniversary, they will release a limited edition deluxe wooden box set of the band's entire discography, titled Mnemophobia on July 2nd. The handmade, hand-silkscreened wooden box features 12 vinyl LPs in 6 gatefold sleeves, exclusive colored vinyl variants, a slipmat, metal pin, patch and poster. For more information, see HERE. 

Year of No Light's lengthy, sprawling compositions of towering walls of guitars and sombre synths irradiate a sense of dire solemnity and spiritual gravity, and couldn't be a more fitting soundtrack for such grim medieval scenarios. But there is also the element of absolution, regeneration, elevation, transcendence in the face of death. Consolamentum is dense, rich and lush and yet somehow feels starved and deprived.

It comes as no surprise that ever since the beginning of their career, the band have had an obsession for the fall of man and salvation through darkness. The term “consolamentum” describes the sacrament, the initiation ritual of the Catharic Church, which thrived in Southern Europe in the 12th - 14th Century – a ritual that brought eternal austereness and immersion in the Holy Spirit.

“There's a thread running through all of our albums”, says the band, collectively “an exploration of the sensitive world that obeys a certain telos, first fantasized ("Nord") and reverberated ("Ausserwelt"), then declaimed as a warning ("Tocsin"). The deeper we dig, the more the motifs we have to unveil appear to us. Yes, it's a bit gnostic. This album is invoked after the Tocsin, it's the epiphany of the Fall."

With debut album Nord (2006) and sophomore release Ausserwelt (2010), the band made

themselves a name in the European avant-metal scene. Extensive tours of Europe, North America and Russia in 2013 and 2014, including two appearances at Roadburn festival, Hellfest and a spectacular performance in a 17th Century fortress in the Carpathian mountains introduced them to a broader and quickly growing international audience.

With their seminal 3rd album Tocsin, released in 2013, Year Of No Light reached the peak of their career thus far – a logical decision that Consolamentum was made with the same team again: recorded and mixed by Cyrille Gachet at Cryogene in Begles / Bordeaux, mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side.

“We wanted this album to sound as organic and analog as possible”, comments the band. “All tracks were recorded live. The goal was to have the most natural, warm and clean takes possible, to give volume to the dynamics of the songs. We aimed to have a production with a singular personality.”

For the adept listener, Consolamentum seems to be venturing deeper into the dark and claustrophobic spheres explored on Tocsin – but the band doesn't conceive of the evolution of their music in a linear way, as it would be apparent from looking at their discography. 

“It’s more a matter of sonic devotion. Music against modern times. Year Of No Light” is above all a praxis. We wanted intensity, trance, climax and threat, all of them embedded in a bipolar and mournful ethos."

Consolamentum is huge, poignant, frightening, sublime, smothering and cathartic – and, much like Decibel Magazine says of its predecessor, it's “audacious, memorable and supremely confident."

Consolamentum will be available on 2xLP, CD and digital on July 2nd, 2021 via Pelagic Records. Preorders are available HERE. 

Artist: Year of No Light

Album: Consolamentum

Record label: Pelagic Records

Release date: July 2nd, 2021

01. Objuration

02. Alétheia

03. Interdit aux Vivants, aux Morts et aux Chiens

04. Réalgar

05. Came

On The Web:

facebook.com/yearofnolight

pelagic-records.com

Swallow The Rat (NZ, ex-My Education) & Clone (NYC, ex-Dead Leaf Echo) streaming upcoming split LP early via No Echo

"Swallow the Rat’s ‘Preservation Plan’ is a taut, melancholy post-punk track with abrasive guitars and hazy, shoegaze density, reminiscent of Sonic Youth with more soaring guitar leads and haunting organ. Meanwhile, Clone’s ‘Woman of the Year’ puts up a dense wall of guitars and a dizzying atmosphere, ecstatic and hallucinatory all at once. They’re two complementary sides of the same, mesmerizing, guitar-heavy coin.” -- Treble

“Dissonant delayed guitars and martial drums abound, and the overall sound recalls late-‘80s/early-‘90s dark indie rock acts.” — Big Takeover

"Both bands share a love for dissonant guitars, off-kilter yet satisfying vocal melodies, and an overall air melancholy in their sonic approach." -- No Echo

Kindred spirits from far across the globe, Brooklyn, NY quintet Clone and Aukland, NZ trio Swallow The Rat are streaming their forthcoming split LP today via No Echo. Hear and share the full album HERE. (Or listen/share via Bandcamp.)

New Noise Magazine previously premiered the lead tracks from both bands HERE. Treble hosted two additional tracks HERE. Big Takeover Magazine recently launched two songs HERE. 

New Zealand's Swallow the Rat (featuring ex-My Education guitarist Brian Purington) and New York's Clone (ex-Dead Leaf Echo, Squad Car) shared a stage in Queens, NYC on perhaps the last day before the city shut down in 2020. A mutual appreciation society was formed over drinks later that night. Swallow the Rat were in town to play the New Colossus Festival, while Clone were playing what was to be the first date of their debut tour of the East Coast. There were plans to share the stage again in New Orleans and in Austin at SXSW.

A global pandemic put an end to this, but the bands kept talking. Both had recently recorded EPs, and so a plan was hatched: a split 12" with songs from both bands. Four tunes apiece, about the irony of memory recall, the loss of friends by their own hand, frustrations of gender role psyche and the fear of looking back. Dissonant delayed guitars and martial drums abound, despite the oceans and continents separating the groups.

Swallow The Rat / Clone split LP will be available on LP and download on May 21st via Headbump Records. Pre-orders are available via Rough Trade in the US HERE and Golden Antenna in the EU HERE. 

Artist: Swallow The Rat / Clone

Album: Split LP

Label: Headbump Records

Release Date: May 21, 2021

01. STR - Fall Away

02. STR - Preservation Plan

03. STR - Don’t

04. STR - Station

05. Clone - Deja Vu

06. Clone - Speak, Memory

07. Clone - Woman Of The Year

08. Clone - Easy On The Eyes

On The Web:

facebook.com/swallowtherat

instagram.com/swallow_the_rat

twitter.com/swallowtherat

facebook.com/clonebknyc

instagram.com/clonebknyc

twitter.com/clonenyc

Deathchant share new single "Gallows" from RidingEasy Records debut LP, Thin Lizzy harmonies meets Melvins sludge

"Like if Thin Lizzy and Melvins got together. Deathchant is about to become your new favorite band" -- Metal Injection

"A raw, punk spin on classic heavy metal." -- Brooklyn Vegan

L.A. quartet Deathchant share a new single from their forthcoming sophomore album Waste today via all digital service providers. Waste is the band's debut on RidingEasy Records. Brooklyn Vegan premiered the track yesterday HERE, and it is available to hear & share today via Bandcamp, YouTube and Spotify.

Revolver Magazine recently shared the hilarious and insane video for "Holy Roller" HERE. (Direct YouTube)

Heavy music’s evolution has always been a murky swamp of sub-genres. So, combining Thin Lizzy’s glistening twin guitar harmonies with Melvins-grade sludge and a hearty dose of proto-metal psych probably shouldn’t sound so revolutionary as it does in the hands of L.A. quartet Deathchant. But theirs is a special, transcendent sound.

Waste, the band’s sophomore album and first for RidingEasy Records, is anything but. The 33-minute, 7-song blast flows seamlessly from song to song, aided by droning segues, while simultaneously slithering between genres and moods. Rumbling noise, chiming guitar melodies, bluesy boogie, NWOBHM thrash, COC grunge and punk fury all rear their head at times, sometimes all at once. 

Though you wouldn’t be able to tell by the concise structures and well-crafted songs, a lot of Deathchant’s music is improvised, both in the studio and live. That’s not to suggest their songs are jammy — they’re very tightly organized compositions. But the four musicians have that special musical telepathy that allows them to keep the song structures open-ended.

“Improv is a huge things for us and always has been,” singer/guitarist T.J. Lemieux says. “The musical freedom to look at the other dudes in the band and be able to take things wherever we want to go is magical. I like the feel of flying off the hinges.”

Likewise, the band itself is similarly amorphous in its membership. “We run the band with an open door. No lineup is definitive,” Lemieux explains. On Waste, the lineup is: Lemieux, George Camacho on bass, Colin Fahrner on drums, and John Belino on second guitar. 

Waste was recorded live in a rented cabin in the mountains of Big Bear, CA. “We packed a big-ass van and set up in the living room and kitchen,” Lemieux says. “Tracked it live, with overdubs after.” The whole album was recorded over two separate weekends, engineered by Steve Schroeder, who also recorded the band’s 2019 self-titled debut album. 

“I’d say it has sort of a DIY LA punk aesthetic,” he adds. “Very ironically going hand in hand with a classic metal vibe: Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, classic Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and other melodic heavy rock bands.” 

Waste will be available on LP, CD and download on June 25th, 2021 via RidingEasy Records. 

Artist: Deathchant

Album: Waste

Label: RidingEasy Records

Release Date: June 25, 2021

01. Rails

02. Black Dirt

03. Holy Roller

04. Gallows

05. Waste

06. Plague

07. Maker

On The Web:

deathchantnoise.bandcamp.com

instagram.com/deathchantnoise

ridingeasyrecords.com

Swallow The Rat (NZ) issue new video & Clone (NYC, ex-Dead Leaf Echo) share 3rd single from upcoming split LP

"Swallow the Rat’s ‘Preservation Plan’ is a taut, melancholy post-punk track with abrasive guitars and hazy, shoegaze density, reminiscent of Sonic Youth with more soaring guitar leads and haunting organ. Meanwhile, Clone’s ‘Woman of the Year’ puts up a dense wall of guitars and a dizzying atmosphere, ecstatic and hallucinatory all at once. They’re two complementary sides of the same, mesmerizing, guitar-heavy coin.” -- Treble

“Dissonant delayed guitars and martial drums abound, and the overall sound recalls late-‘80s/early-‘90s dark indie rock acts.” — Big Takeover

Kindred spirits from far across the globe, Brooklyn, NY quintet Clone and Aukland, NZ trio Swallow The Rat each share a new track from their forthcoming split LP today via Big Takeover Magazine. Hear and share both tracks HERE. (Or listen/share via Clone's Bandcamp or STR's Bandcamp.) Watch Swallow The Rat's "Fall Away" video on YouTube. 

New Noise Magazine recently premiered the lead tracks from both bands HERE. Treble recently hosted two additional tracks HERE. 

New Zealand's Swallow the Rat (featuring ex-My Education guitarist Brian Purington) and New York's Clone (ex-Dead Leaf Echo, Squad Car) shared a stage in Queens, NYC on perhaps the last day before the city shut down in 2020. A mutual appreciation society was formed over drinks later that night. Swallow the Rat were in town to play the New Colossus Festival, while Clone were playing what was to be the first date of their debut tour of the East Coast. There were plans to share the stage again in New Orleans and in Austin at SXSW.

A global pandemic put an end to this, but the bands kept talking. Both had recently recorded EPs, and so a plan was hatched: a split 12" with songs from both bands. Four tunes apiece, about the irony of memory recall, the loss of friends by their own hand, frustrations of gender role psyche and the fear of looking back. Dissonant delayed guitars and martial drums abound, despite the oceans and continents separating the groups.

Swallow The Rat / Clone split LP will be available on LP and download on May 21st via Headbump Records. Pre-orders are available via Rough Trade in the US HERE and Golden Antenna in the EU HERE. 

Artist: Swallow The Rat / Clone

Album: Split LP

Label: Headbump Records

Release Date: May 21, 2021

01. STR - Fall Away

02. STR - Preservation Plan

03. STR - Don’t

04. STR - Station

05. Clone - Deja Vu

06. Clone - Speak, Memory

07. Clone - Woman Of The Year

08. Clone - Easy On The Eyes

On The Web:

facebook.com/swallowtherat

instagram.com/swallow_the_rat

twitter.com/swallowtherat

facebook.com/clonebknyc

instagram.com/clonebknyc

twitter.com/clonenyc