Deathchant share "Holy Roller" video via Revolver Magazine from forthcoming LP on RidingEasy Records

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

L.A. quartet Deathchant share a wild video from their forthcoming sophomore album Waste today via Revolver Magazine. Waste is the band's debut on RidingEasy Records. Watch and share "Holy Roller" HERE. (Direct YouTube and Bandcamp.)

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

CROWN share live studio performance from Roadburn Redux session for "Neverland" via New Noise

“A nihilistic listening experience” – The Quietus 

"Brings forth the tangential and historical relationships between industrial and its 'sister' genres like coldwave while splicing them with influences that range from shoegaze to black metal." -- Heavy Blog Is Heavy

"Long-standing darkness merchants... brooding, Katatonia-esque gloom." -- Metal Injection

"Promises to change the way we hear heavy music." -- PopMatters

Experimental duo CROWN share a live studio video for the song "Neverland" from their recently released sophomore album on Pelagic Records today via New Noise Magazine. Watch and share "Neverland" HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

CvltNation recently shared the intense and beautifully directed video for "Illumination" Watch and share "Illumination" HERE. (Direct YouTube.) Metal Injection previously hosted the "Illumination" single HERE. Heavy Blog is Heavy recently shared the single "Shades" HERE. PopMatters shared "Violence" video HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

The End Of All Things is for CROWN what Kid A was for Radiohead: an album that nobody was expecting from them.

Dark and moody; bleak and sublime; airy and crushing; mesmerizing and engrossing; bold yet unerring; strident, danceable and suffocating, all at the same time. An album oozing with tasteful, fragile hook lines flirting with the abyss they are hovering above, encapsulated within an ingenious major production, provided by one half of CROWN himself: David Husser has worked as a sound engineer, producer and musician all across the globe with artists like Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode or at Peter Gabriel's Real World studio, and has toured with his industrial band Y Front alongside Rammstein in the 90s. Paul Kendall (Mute Records, NIN, Nick Cave) said about David: “a distorting diamond... we have collaborated on a number of projects and I have been amazed by his ability to teach an old dog new tricks. He is simply the best recording engineer I have ever met.”

The other half of CROWN is founding father and vocalist Stéphane Azam, who has worked as live sound engineer for French blackgaze pioneers Alcest for years. Stéphane's low, soothing voice on The End Of All Things comes as a complete surprise to anyone familiar with the band's previous 2 records, which featured mostly screamed vocals – a fact showcasing the immense versatility of the musicians at work here.

Furthermore, In contrary to previous efforts, there are (almost) no vocal guest appearances on The End Of All Things – 'almost', because Karin Park of Årabrot lends her beautiful voice to closing track “Utopia.” David pushed Stéphane from the start of the writing and recording process to do all the vocals himself, for the sake of coherence: he wanted the band and the album to have one single “captain of the vessel. Stéph sings with a very low voice now, and it was a challenge to make space for that sound- and production -wise, we had to find some kind of relief in the low register. It took us pretty long to find what we consider the right recipe to make it work”, Husser explains.

Crown started out in 2011 as 2 men and a drum machine, and their debut album instantly got them an invitation to the prestigious Roadburn Festival in 2013, and a record deal with Candlelight Records. The duo's early sound was defined by hissing electronics, soaring heavy guitars and the absence of “real” drums, touching on industrial metal acts like Godflesh, Ministry or Killing Joke. The End Of All Things is clearly a departure from that sound in almost every imaginable way.

“Life is change, it’s the only thing we can always expect”, says Husser. “It's the same with music. I personally feel offended when a band just regurgitates their own ideas and delivers a copy of the previous album, over and again... I want to take risks and let myself in for adventures and ventures into new territories, otherwise it wouldn't be art anymore.”

The End Of All Things is a seminal album, which could well turn into a new 'Shape Of Heavy Music To Come'. Get involved.  

The End Of All Things will be available on LP, CD and digital on April 16th, 2021 via Pelagic Records. Pre-orders are available HERE

Artist: Crown

Album: The End of All Things

Record label: Pelagic Records

Release Date: April 16, 2021

01. Violence

02. Neverland

03. Shades

04. Illumination

05. Nails

06. Gallow

07. Extinction

08. Fleuves

09. Firebearer

10. Utopia

On The Web:

crownritual.com

crownritual.bandcamp.com

facebook.com/CROWNBAND

pelagic-records.com

Bay Area band Thought Leaders (ex-Totimoshi, The Mass) show heavier side to 80s style post-punk on upcoming debut LP

Bay Area heavy post-punk band Thought Leaders share the first single today from their forthcoming full length debut via New Noise Magazine. The new band is made up of underground punk vets, including ex-members of The Mass (Crucial Blast Records), Totimoshi and Dora Flood. Hear and share the lead single "Jane Doe's Estate" HERE. (Direct Bandcamp.)

Things change. We’ve all become painfully aware of that in recent times. And Thought Leaders is a band thoroughly borne of change. 

The Bay Area based modern, aggressive post-punk quartet dishes out addictive, saturated songs in the vein of Killing Joke, Bauhaus and Gang of Four. However, the band’s sound is an interesting pivot for its members — coming from backgrounds in heavy prog acts The Mass (Crucial Blast Records) and Totimoshi, psychedelic Brit-pop Dora Flood and wiry post-rockers Lower Forty Eight — some of whom have also switched instruments in this new configuration. 

The band had just formed in early 2019, issuing its debut 4-song EP Wires Crossed in April that year and begun work on a full length album In Wastelands in early 2020 when the world suddenly ground to a halt. 

In Wastelands wasn’t supposed to be made this way. Pre-COVID, the plan was to record the album with Andrew Oswald (of Marbled Eye) at Santo Studio in West Oakland in June 2020. They had five songs done and four more in demo form when everything shut down. So the band mobilized. They all went mobile and committed to a fully remote recording process. In May, Kirk recorded drums for the five completed songs. Ville, Tyler and Andrew each recorded their parts in their home studios while still negotiating and refining the remaining songs to record. It was a gamble, but they wanted to do something.

With five songs completed, the band finished writing the remaining four and everyone once again recorded their parts separately at their homes. Files were sent to Tyler to mix. The process revealed that the band were onto something. Songs they had never played together began to take on a life of their own. And just as suddenly, they realized they had a powerful LP. Mixes were finished in January 2021 and sent to Justin Weis at Trakworx for mastering. The outcome is an incredibly satisfying album that incorporates elements of post-punk, metal and goth without drifting into cliches of any of these styles. 

Thought Leaders was formed when Tyler Cox (drums, The Mass) and Andrew Lund (bass, The Mass; guitar, Lower Forty-Eight) decided to start writing music in the vein of dark, gritty post-punk bands from the 80s, pulling from a wide array of influences like early Echo and the Bunnymen, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Wire. Singer Ville V, no stranger to the sound that was being constructed, joined and immediately began contributing lyrics, melodies, and music of his own. Kirk Snedeker was invited to play drums and was a perfect fit, having grown up absorbing many of the same influences. The band works collaboratively, with all members contributing musical ideas and production to create a sonic whole much greater than the sum of its parts.

In Wastelands will be available for download on July 9th, 2021 via King Of Sticks label. Pre-orders are available HERE. 

Thought Leaders are:

Tyler Cox - Bass

Drums - THE MASS (Bay Area proto-jazzpunk, Crucial Blast Records)

WRACK - all instruments, production, engineering

Engineered Thought Leaders’ debut demo/EP “Wires Crossed”

Mixed single “Radiator” and debut LP “In Wastelands”

Andrew Lund - Guitar

Guitar/Vocals- LOWER FORTY-EIGHT (Monotreme Records, UK)

Bass- THE MASS (Bay Area proto-jazzpunk, Crucial Blast Records)

Kirk Snedeker - Drums

Drums - Winchester Revival

Drums - The Locals (Chicago)

Ville V - Vocals

Guitar - Dora Flood (Bay Area psych rock, Elephant Stone Records)

Vocals/Guitar - The Bias / Antenna (CA/Finland 70s sleaze groovers, Ruska Records, Helsinki)

Artist: Thought Leaders

Album: In Wastelands

Record label: King of Sticks Records

Release date: July 9th, 2021

01. Enigma 41

02. Come Evening

03. Burning Glass

04. Jane Doe's Estate

05. In Wastelands

06. Shallows

07. Desire Reserve

08. Enemy Flies Above

09. Saturday Night Leave

Links:

https://thoughtleaders.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/thoughtleadersband

https://www.instagram.com/thghtldrs/

https://twitter.com/thghtldrs

 

Year of No Light share video for "Réalgar" from upcoming album & full discography box set on Pelagic Records

Bordeaux, France post-metal sextet Year of No Light share the first official video from their forthcoming fifth studio album Consolamentum today. Watch & share the epic video for "Réalgar" via YouTube HERE. 

Hear and share the track "Réalgar" via Bandcamp, Spotify and YouTube. 

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

ALASTOR (RidingEasy Records) share "Death Cult" video from forthcoming album 'Onwards and Downwards' via Brooklyn Vegan

"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

Swedish rock band Alastor share the first video from their forthcoming album Onwards and Downwards today via Brooklyn Vegan. Watch/share "Death Cult" video HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

Metal Injection previously hosted the first single, the driving rocker "Death Cult" HERE. Heavy Blog Is Heavy recently shared "Dead Things In Jars" HERE. (Direct Bandcamp.)

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

WARISH (feat. Riley Hawk) share trainwreck late night TV appearance "Destroyer" video, sophomore album 'Next To Pay' out today!

Remember when indie rock sounded all grimy, corroded and metal-sludgy -- the last thing you'd hear in a commercial or being played at an arena show? Warish do. It's music to the ears of anyone who wants to damage their ears." -- Rolling Stone

"Warish totally rules... An awesome mixture of punk energy, biker rock fuzz, and grunge growl." -- Kerrang!

"Sludgy and punk-y at the same time, with an Iggy and the Stooges meets Misfits vibe, plus a bit of stoner rock and metal mixed in, as well." -- Consequence of Sound

Southern California trio Warish release their anticipated sophomore full length Next To Pay everywhere today on RidingEasy Records. In celebration of the occasion, the band also shares the video for album track "Destroyer" via Metal Injection. The video depicts a trainwreck late night TV show appearance and is available to watch/share HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

Consequence of Sound yesterday shared a full album stream of Next To Pay HERE. The album is now available on all streaming services and Bandcamp HERE. 

Brooklyn Vegan recently shared the "Scars" video HERE. (Direct YouTube) Revolver Magazine premiered the video for "Say To Please" HERE. (Direct YouTube.) Kerrang! hosted the demented video starring Barney the Dinosaur for “Second Hand Misery” HERE.

With a name like Warish, the San Diego noisy punk-metal trio assured listeners they were in for a maniacal bludgeoning from the get-go. But the band has never been as dark and bitingly vicious as the wholly ominous Next To Pay. The band’s mix of early AmRep skronk, dark horror rock and budget doom antipathy is taken to a whole new level on this 13-song invective. 

“‘Next To Pay’ is about a sense of imminent doom, everyone is going to die,” vocalist/guitarist Riley Hawk says. “It’s not the happiest record, I guess.” To say the least. On the title track opener, Hawk screams through shredded vocal chords with the tuneful rage of Kill ‘Em All era James Hetfield and the seething desperation of Kurt Cobain. 

“This album is more of an evolution, it’s a little more punk-heavy,” Hawk says of the group quickly founded in 2018. “We figured out what our sound was.” And with that evolution comes a change in the lineup. Original drummer Nick (Broose) McDonnell plays on about half of the songs, while new drummer Justin de la Vega brings an even tighter urgency to the remaining, more recent tracks. Bassist Alex Bassaj joined after the debut album was recorded and here showcases muscular and melodic low end previously missing. Riley Hawk is also the pro-skater son of Tony Hawk. 

Inspired by early-Nirvana, The Misfits, The Spits and Master of Reality-era Black Sabbath, Next To Pay keeps things heavy and pummeling at all times. The guitars are heavy and powerful, though decidedly not straightforward cookie cutter punk; more like Greg Ginn’s and Buzz Osbourne’s wiry contortions, and occasionally drenched in chorus effects. The rhythms bash right through it all with aggressive force ensuring that nothing gets overly complicated. Warish’s cover of 80s Dischord Records punks Gray Matter turns the emotive flail of “Burn No Bridges” into a Motorhead style basher. 

Next To Pay will be available on LP, CD and download on April 30th, 2021 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available HERE.

Artist: Warish

Album: Next To Pay

Label: RidingEasy Records

Release Date: April 30, 2021

01. Next To Pay

02. Another No One

03. S.H.M. (Second Hand Misery)

04. Burn No Bridges

05. Say To Please

06. Seeing Red

07. Destroyer

08. Woven

09. Scars

10. Ordinary

11. Superstar

12. Make The Escape

13. Fear and Pride

On The Web:

instagram.com/warish.usa

facebook.com/Warishband

ridingeasyrecs.com