Rock – Page 26 – 7th Level Music

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol announce winter and west coast U.S. tours.

Austin trio Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol today announce yet ANOTHER tour today, this time adding Western US headlining shows following their January & February East Coast tour with Lip Critic supporting.

RBBP is currently on tour with King Buffalo in the Southwest. Complete EU & UK tour dates for Spring 2025 will also be announced soon. See current dates below.

All March tickets Artist pre-sale on December 11th at 10am local time HERE. (password: bigdumbtour)

March tickets general on sale December 13th at 10am local time.

BIG DUMB RIFFS is available on digital, LP and cassette, released May 10th, 2024. Order/stream the album on all formats HERE.

RICKSHAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL – LIVE 2024:

12/10 Tucson, AZ – 191 Toole *

12/11 Las Vegas, NV – Swan Dive *

12/12 San Diego, CA – The Casbah *

12/13 Santa Ana, CA – Constellation Room *

12/14 Pioneertown, CA – Pappy & Harriet’s *

12/17 Fort Worth, TX – Tulips *

12/18 Oklahoma City, OK – Resonant Head *

12/19 Kansas City, MO – recordBar *

12/20 St. Louis, MO – Off Broadway *

* w/ King Buffalo

RICKSHAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL – LIVE 2025:

01/17 Austin, TX – Antone’s

01/24 Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall

01/25 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger

01/30 Nashville, TN – DRKMTTR +

01/31 Atlanta, GA – The Earl +

02/01 Charlotte, NC – Snug Harbor +

02/02 Washington, DC – DC9 +

02/04 Millersville, PA – Phantom Power +

02/05 New York, NY – Mercury Lounge +

02/06 Brooklyn, NY – TV Eye +

02/07 Medford, MA – Deep Cuts +

02/08 Montreal, QC – La Sotterenea +

02/11 Toronto, ON – Monarch Tavern +

02/12 Cleveland, OH – Beachland Tavern +

02/13 Hamtramck, MI – Small’s +

02/14 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle +

02/15 Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club +

02/16 Minneapolis, MN – Zhora Darling +

03/19 Phoenix, AZ – Linger Longer Lounge

03/20 San Diego, CA – Whistle Stop

03/21 Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon

03/22 Oakland, CA – Thee Stork Club

03/24 Portland, OR – Show Bar

03/25 Seattle, WA – Barboza

03/27 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge

03/28 Fort Collins, CO – The Coast

03/29 Denver, CO – Bluebird Theatre

03/30 Colorado Springs, CO – Vultures

05/15 Brussels, BE – Obsidian Dust Festival

05/18 London, UK – DesertFest London

05/23 Berlin, DE – DesertFest Berlin

+ w/ Lip Critic

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Howard “Keep Running” with their new single.

Howard delivers rock infused with Hammond organ, fuzz, and electronic elements that have travelled through the decades. Inspired by legends like Deep Purple and The Doors, they reinvent the genre with a modern energy. Following their self-produced debut EP HOWARD I in 2018, the band hit the road, sharing stages with acts such as Ayron Jones, Yarol Poupaud, Last Train, Ko Ko Mo, Mars Red Sky, The Psychotic Monks, Slift, and Dätcha Mandala. Their first album, Obstacle, was released in 2020, right on the eve of the first lockdown. Despite their tour being postponed, the album received positive coverage in specialized press in France. Refusing to be discouraged, Howard released their second album, Event Horizon, in 2022, followed by a 50-date tour over two years, including a sold-out release party in Paris (FR) with +300 people.

On stage, the band reaches a whole new level, captivating audiences with a dynamic and intricate show. Howard has established itself as one of the most promising emerging bands in today’s french rock scene. By the end of 2024, the trio continues their rise, signing with RAGE TOUR and planning to release a new album on March 28th 2025.

After DON’T MAKE ME GO BACK, Howard continues with second single KEEP RUNNING, a track that once again raises urgent themes. Supported by a one-shot music video featuring an individual pushing his limits behind a fake smile, the song is also about mental health. Maintaining appearances and ignore inner struggles by withdrawing and deceiving oneself ? Unfortunately, many can relate to this scenario. KEEP RUNNING explores three key emotions — depression, euphoria, and breakdown. In just three minutes, the track takes listeners on a journey from coldwave landscapes to wild arpeggios that explode into an intense rock finale, showcasing Howard’s newfound intensity. KEEP RUNNING embodies the aesthetic of their upcoming album OSCILLATIONS, set for release on March 28, 2025.

Keep your mind open.

[Keep subscribin’!]

[Merci à Angie à NRV!]

Review: Tombstones in Their Eyes – Asylum Harbour

First, how gorgeous is that album cover?

Apart from having a cool name and album cover, Los Angeles psych-rockers Tombstones in Their Eyes, have crafted a great album of psych-rock and shoe gaze – Asylum Harbour that’s as cool as both their name and its cover.

“In Your Eyes” opens the album with rumbling bass tones and vocals from John Treanor about his willingness to win the admiration of a distant lover that sound like they’re coming from across the harbor in the album’s title. “Sweet As Pie” is about appeasing a lover to make a relationship easier (“You’re sweet as pie when you get your way.”), with Courtney Davies joining Treanor on vocals. The feel of the track reminds me of some of Failure‘s work.

The guitar fuzz on “Mirror” (which I think is about self-blame for screwing up a good thing) is grade-A. Joel Wasko‘s bass on “I Like to Feel Good” takes the album into doom territory, with the rest of the band (especially Stephen Striegel on drums) plunging into the abyss with him. “I’m Not Like That” has Treanor trying to convince a lover he’s not as bad as he seems while acknowledging his faults.

That being said, Treanor admits “I don’t wanna be the one to change.” on “Gimme Some Pain,” an acoustic cut that would easily fit on an Alice in Chains record. “By My Side” has Treanor calling for his lover to join him in good times and bad, and possibly in another dimension considering the sound of the track. Treanor has to face tough truths on “The Sky Is Blue” (“The sky is blue, and I’m nothing to you.”), and the crunch of the guitars on it only hammers the point home more for him.

“Set Me Free” has Treanor asking to escape a self-built prison of doubt, and the wall of guitars behind him might help his escape plan. The album ends with Treanor still looking for love (“It would be nice if you looked at me. It would be nice if you cared.”), but probably not finding it soon…even though the track is the most upbeat on the album. He ‘s hasn’t given up all hope.

The album’s title refers to a nautical term for a place to wait out a storm. Treanor and the rest of Tombstones in Their Eyes have sought safety in music and each other while the world thunders around them. We can all relate to that at the end of 2024, can’t we?

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll feel good when you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotions.]

Liquid Bear release title track from upcoming album, “Second Life.”

Confronting their respective influences and breaking down musical genre boundaries, french prog’ band Liquid Bear, explores themes such as addiction, the search for meaning, and the passage of time. The quartet delivers a raw yet enchanting rock sound, featuring bold compositions enhanced by remarkable instrumental mastery. With a discography that mixes grunge, stoner rock, progressive, and psychedelic rock, the four musicians offer an experience that is both visceral and cerebral. Liquid Bear released their first EP, Unwind, at the end of 2018, followed by their second, Heavy Grounds, in March 2021. Alongside their music, the band has developed an increasingly sophisticated visual identity, exemplified by the animated video for Billions of Crabs, and Closer to an End.

Liquid Bear’s debut album, Second Life, will be released on February 7, 2025, as an independent production, with the title track dropping today, accompanied by a lyrics video : https://youtu.be/LVsLG1x2ZTQ.

Second Life, the first single and title track of their upcoming album, showcases their unique vision of rock that is both original and modern. This introspective track delves into retracing one’s choices and imagining what could have been different if another path had been taken. With its stormy riff combining a fretless guitar and Hammond organ, Second Life captivates the listener. The powerful track is paired with a psychedelic visual journey through a being in a state of constant reconstruction, where every particle dances and resonates with the music.

“Second Life” explores various aspects of the construction of our individuality and the influences of our social environment. After two EPs and two singles in which the quartet sculpted their modern Progressive Rock sound, this album stands as the cornerstone of what defines Liquid Bear’s signature sound.

The album emphasizes experimentation and sonic renewal, particularly through the unique approach of the fretless guitar. It features the band’s signature elements: Hammond organ, vocal harmonies, compelling riffs, and guitar solos, enhanced by the addition of drum machines and analog synthesizers.

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe while you’re here?]

[Merci à Angéla à NRV Promotion.]

Bonnie Trash announce first full-length album, “Mourning You,” and offer its first single – “Veil of Greed.”

Today Guelph, Ontario hell-raisers Bonnie Trash announce details of their new album, ‘Mourning You’, which is set for release on February 28th on Hand Drawn Dracula. Along with the announcement they have shared the first single and video from the album, entitled “Veil of Greed”.

‘Mourning You’ is, put bluntly, an album about death. Not death in the macabre, violent, or outrageous sense, but death as you or I might know it. A spectre lurking around the corner. Capricious, indiscriminate, and unexpected. Ordinary and all the more terrifying for it. Real. Fear in the eyes of a loved one about to die, and the fear in your eyes – staring back.

Bonnie Trash is the horrorgaze project of twin sisters Emmalia & Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor, wedding post-punk’s steely-eyed austerity to goth rock’s brooding grandeur.

‘Mourning You’ finds Bonnie Trash embracing a newfound sense of urgency. A lifelong project christened in 2017 with the release of ‘Ezzelini’s Dead’, the band’s debut EP which found the pair mining the Trevisan dialect and archaic Italian folklore of their heritage to grisly effect. Where their first full length, ‘Malocchio’ (2022), shrouded Bonnie Trash’s nightmares in dusky dreamlike reverb, ‘Mourning You’ is vivid and immediate. Emboldened by the addition of Emma Howarth-Withers on bass and Dana Bellamy on drums – whose thunderous rhythms sharpened 2024’s ‘My Love Remains the Same’ EP into a fine-edged blade – ‘Mourning You’ is less a post-mortem fantasia than a sudden, swift dagger to the heart. This is sorrow not as a lingering bruise, but a gushing wound.

Bonnie Trash unveil their new project with this first single “Veil of Greed”. Emmalia’s gripping and unyielding guitar riff with all the icy malice of Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine introduces the urgency of the uncomfortably ordinary horror story that unfurls across the record. The song’s gruesome imagery – feasting on hearts with rotten teeth – finds Sarafina worshipping at the altar of her agony. “I bow down before you and I know / You feed.”

“When you lose the one you love so dearly, it’s a cut that’s so deep, it rips your heart out of your chest. You try to continue on, but you suffer and you bleed” the twins comment. “Grief is like an open wound that will never fully heal. It can consume you if you let it. Sometimes, it’s best to let it feed, allowing the pain to exist with the beautiful memories you hold close to your heart.”

“Veil of Greed” video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQzTivht8mE
‘Mourning You’ album pre-order/pre-save links: https://ffm.to/mourningyou

Sarafina, the band’s singer and lyricist, has described the album as being about “losing someone you love. It’s about the horrors of grief, haunting you every day.” Inspired, largely, by the passing of Nonna Maria – who provided interstitial narration across the band’s early work – it’s these intimate details which render the songs on ‘Mourning You’ so devastating. The record explores love and grief as kindred spirits. Grief as love with nowhere to go. Love determined by the fear of its loss. A blood pact. A life for a life. The gnarled claw of remorse gripping you in twilight’s terror.

Though inspired by the shocking iconography of horrorshows, slasher flicks, and psychological thrillers, Bonnie Trash turns cinematic tropes on their head. Rather than fashioning nightmares into reality, the band paints reality as a nightmare, rife with pain, suffering, and gothic theatre. Bonnie Trash understands that everyday atrocities haunt the periphery of our lives. A black cloud looming on the edge of our vision. Curses abound. You can’t ward them off. You’d best make an unholy racket.

‘Mourning You’ is out February 28, 2025 on Hand Drawn Dracula. In mourning, all is lost.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re here.

[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity.]

Sleepbomb releases “Refuge / Resist,” latest single from upcoming album “The Sleeping Dead.”

“Refuge/Resist is like the film (Night of the Living Dead) itself.” – explains Clair Hamard. ‘Alternating long, uncertain pauses with both dramatic and physical tension. Just like the scene in the movie that presents characters at complete odds with each other building up a precarious shelter threatened by the zombies amassing outside, the harmonic construction of this track is constantly challenged by an imminent dissonant attack.’

With every moment of calmness, supported by repetitive drone-sounds, Sleepbomb deliver the symbiosis of etherial vocal harmonies and agressive riffing. While the absence of any real resolution at the end of the track heralds the future failure of the plan hatched by the characters, unable to cooperate.

According to bassist, Tim Gotch, “Refuse/Resist” reflects the dichotomy of the film “as a whole.” “It begins as a refuge for Barbara, who enters the seemingly deserted house while fleeing from the zombie. She quickly discovers that the house is less of a refuge than she thought, exacerbated by the abrupt arrival of Ben. Ben quickly proves himself to not be a threat as he dispatches multiple zombies.”

Subtitled Excerpts from their score for George Romero’s 1968 ‘Night of the Living Dead‘ and based on their full length score for the film, The Sleeping Dead is an epic serving of filmic doom. Starting with the drum parts fully synchronized with the cinematic imagery, during the recording process each track was pared down to the essential character of each scene from the most influential zombie film of them all. ‘Unlike ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’, we knew that the final product would not be a fully synchronized score due to rights issues and the large amount of dialogue in the film.’ states Gotch. ‘This meant that we were able to edit down some of the longer sections into a “song” format and really focus on the feel of the scenes for The Sleeping Dead record itself rather than retaining the full length of tracks just for timing requirements.’

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Earhammer Studios by Greg Wilkinson (High on Fire, Autopsy), The Sleeping Dead shows Sleepbomb in a heavy, focused mood.

Pre-order The Sleeping Dead coming out this January 24 via Koolarrow/Consouling Sounds here. Or on Bandcamp here.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t resist subscribing.

[Thanks to Dan as Discipline PR!]

Open Head share new single, “N.Y. Frills,” ahead of upcoming new album due January 24, 2025.

The sound of What Is Success, Open Head’s second album and debut for Wharf Cat Records (out Jan 24), started with an argument in the practice space. The members of the heaviest band in Kingston, NY, and perhaps the entire world, were tired of their instruments. The post-punk they’d been playing together for the previous five years or so was beginning to feel like a sort of prison—the opposite of the freedom they initially got together to pursue.

“Nothing sounded good,” remembers Jared Ashdown, one of the band’s two guitarist-vocalists. “It was, ‘I hate my guitar,’ ‘I hate my bass,’ Alright, then let’s stop playing them.”

Something clicked. Bassist Jonathan McCarthy gravitated toward synthesizer, playing low notes like idling hovercraft. Ashdown picked up a sampler loaded with industrial field recordings made by drummer Daniel Scwhartz, running them through a bevy of effects pedals and using them as uncanny percussion instruments. Schwartz himself began incorporating rhythms drawn from Open Head’s mutual love of left-field electronic dance music. Rather than actually putting down their guitars, Brandon Minnervini and Ashdown delved further into their ongoing exploration of extended techniques, turning their instruments into celestial chimes or electric motors, sometimes vast and textural and other times pinprick-precise.

This new approach has paid dividends for Open Head, who have been attracting more and more attention of late. Recent underground favorites, who have shared stages with bands like, Geese, Dummy, Show Me The Body, Cola, and Water From Your Eyes over the past couple of years, the band’s newest material has come in for critical praise as well, with early singles “Catacomb” and “House” attracting attention from Pitchfork, Stereogum, Consequence, BrooklynVegan and Post-Trash who described “House” as “a pummeling, ruinous single that draws deep from the well of NYC avant-garde.”

Today, the band are back with a new preview of their LP, a track called “N.Y. Frills” that is premiering with FLOOD.

Open Head say of the track:

In a sort of homage to New York No-Wave, N.Y. Frills is an encounter with the monotone Goliath that is Manhattan. Our guitarist Brandon Minnervini sings the song, and together with bassist Jon McCarthy he wrote it while working for a fabrication business in Kingston, sanding designer aluminum shelving. Every so often, Brandon would be tasked with delivering the products to ultra-wealthy patrons in New York City.

A drive that started at a dusty Kingston warehouse would end in the alien opulence of a Manhattan penthouse, or a private AI sports betting clubs, or a ‘development workshop’ full of untouched fabrication machines occupying prime manhattan real-estate, and then back again. Brandon brushed up against the type of wealth most never see. The song is a meditation on contact with those who live with such extravagance, and their detachment from those who make it possible on physical and material level. From a similar perspective the song describes Open Head’s relationship with New York City in general–one of both proximity and distance, where the city is always within reach, yet the band is always a visitor, an outsider to its tempo, its density and its size.

Lyrically, the song is the return journey from a brush with the extravagant. It begins in the high-rise, amidst the luxury class, and with each verse drops “lower still,” until the narrator sinks to become the ground itself—no different than the physical earth that supports the weight of the city. “Heaven’s gate, sink and wait, object love, interest rates.”

LISTEN TO OPEN HEAD’S “N.Y. FRILLS”

PREORDER WHAT IS SUCCESS HERE

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Tom at Terrorbird Media.]

Camp Saint Helene is featured on Angel Olsen’s upcoming “Cosmic Waves Volume 1” album with a new single – “Wonder Now.”

Last week, Angel Olsen announced Cosmic Waves Volume 1, out December 6th via somethingscosmic. Cosmic Waves Volume 1 is a compilation project consisting of both new, original songs from Camp Saint Helene, Poppy Jean Crawford, Coffin Prick, Sarah Grace White, and Maxim Ludwig on Side A, and a collection of covers from the aforementioned artists performed and recorded by Olsen on Side B. The artists on Cosmic Waves Volume I draw from a sprawling, myriad sounds, eras and inspirations, and unsurprisingly, each song illuminates a new artist Olsen finds spectacular. Hearing Olsen refract the artists’ songs back to them reveals the depth of Olsen’s imagination, while spotlighting multiple exciting artists at work.

On the heels of “Glamorous” by Poppy Jean Crawford and “The Takeover (Poppy Jean Crawford Cover)” by Angel Olsen come two new songs from the compilation: the beautiful, big sky folk-oriented “Wonder Now” by Camp Saint Helene and “Farfisa Song (Camp Saint Helene Cover)” by Angel Olsen.

Created by Elizabeth Celeste Ibarra, Dylan Nowik, Wesley Harper and Alex Wernquest, Catskills, NY-based Camp Saint Helene approach their craft akin to a ritual, leaning into the notion that art and expression are sacred experiences on an overstimulated planet. Often informed by the spirit of a defunct Christian-summer camp turned arts-colony deep within the mountains of New York, their music searches for shimmers of hope amidst hints of doom and invites listeners on a journey of self-discovery amidst shifting perspectives.

Describing her introduction to Camp Saint Helene, Angel says “We were driving to Trust, NC to shoot the cover and campaign for Big Time and Silken Weinberg and Angela Ricciardi were introducing me to some projects they were about to work on – one being for the band Camp Saint Helene, an album that was the perfect backdrop of cult folk for our adventure into the wild mountains of Buncombe county. After our shoot wrapped, I kept coming back to the record and feeling like it had encapsulated the memory of a chapter ending, and when I want to go back to the days of sunset at max patch, I put it on.”

Watch Visualizer for Camp Saint Helene’s “Wonder Now”

Stream “Farfisa Song (Camp Saint Helene Cover)” by Angel Olsen

On the concept of a compilation reimagined as a dialogue, Olsen explains “I personally always learn something new about the process when I’m engaging someone else’s words and melodies in such a close way. It’s fun to write and make my own stuff, but listening to and putting myself into various different styles of songs can lead to new ways of thinking and creating.”

On December 6th, somethingscosmic will present the Cosmic Waves Volume 1 release show at In The Meantime in Los Angeles. The bill will include Camp Saint Helene, Sarah Grace White, Maxim Ludwig, Poppy Jean Crawford, Coffin Prick (DJ), and special guests.

Pre-order Cosmic Waves Volume 1

Stream “Glamorous” by Poppy Jean Crawford

Watch Visualizer for Poppy Jean Crawford’s “Glamorous”

Stream “The Takeover (Poppy Jean Crawford Cover)” by Angel Olsen

Keep your mind open.

[I wonder if you’ll subscribe today?]

[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

You’re going to “Love” Lambrini Girls’ new single.

Lambrini Girls (Phoebe Lunny and Lilly Macieira) today share new single ‘Love’ from their much anticipated debut album Who Let The Dogs Out released 10th January 2025 via City Slang. With their headline tour next year moving quickly, they also announce a string of intimate record in-store performance to join the records release.

Who Let The Dogs Out is a take-no-prisoners debut from one of the UK’s most fun and fearless bands, ripping through a laundry list of social ills, and is a raw distillation of Lambrini Girls’ anger, energy, and charisma. The album bottles everything wrong with the modern world and shakes it up. If peppering political songs with humour is like sticking a sparkler in some bread, then this record is like a fireworks display in the factory itself: strange, dangerous, exciting.

The band say of the single, “Love” isn’t a critique on real affection—it’s about mistaking toxicity for love. Like a moth drawn to a flame, unable to discern between warmth that soothes and a fire that burns you, and getting pissed off about it.

It’s an embrace full of sharp edges, a kiss that stings. Poison pretending to be sweet, venom dressed up as nectar. When love is learned through chaos, pain feels like connection. It’s the cycle of chasing affection through suffering and holding on because you’ve never known anything else.

It’s about the bitterness and resentment from trying to find something, only to realise it remains elusive. What this song conveys isn’t love at all; in fact, it’s very opposite.”

Watch / Listen to ‘Love’ HERE

Who Let The Dogs Out

10th January 2025 via City Slang

Pre-order HERE

Tour Dates

Thur Nov 28 – M&S Bank Arena – Liverpool, UK #

Fri Nov 29 – Alexandra Palace – London, UK # SOLD OUT
Sat Nov 30 – Alexandra Palace – London, UK # SOLD OUT

Tue Dec 3 – Brooklyn, NY, Union Pool – USA SOLD OUT

Wed Dec 4 – Brooklyn, NY, Babys All Right – USA LOW TICKETS

Fri Jan 10 – Rough Trade – Liverpool, UK

Sat Jan 11 – Rough Trade – Nottingham, UK

Sun Jan 12 – Rough Trade – Bristol, UK

Mon Jan 14 – Rough Trade East – London, UK

Tue Jan 15 – Resident – Brighton, UK

Thu Jan 16 – Rough Trade Berlin – Germany

Tue Feb 25 – Lille, Aeronef – France
Wed Feb 26 – Nantes, Stereolux – France
Thu Feb 27 – Paris, La Maroquinerie – France LOW TICKETS
Sat Mar 1 – Ravenna, Hana Bi – Italy
Mon Mar 3 – Prague, Bike Jesus – Czech Republic
Tue Mar 4 – Leipzig, Moritzbastei – Germany
Wed Mar 5 – Berlin, Neue Zukunft – Germany
Fri Mar 7 – Stockholm, Hus7 – Sweden
Sat Mar 8 – Oslo, John Dee – Norway
Sun Mar 9 – Goteborg, Pustervik – Sweden
Tue Mar 11 – Copenhagen, Ideal Bar – Denmark LOW TICKETS
Thu Mar 13 – Rotterdam , Rotown – Netherlands LOW TICKETS
Fri Mar 14 – Amsterdam, Melkweg – Netherlands LOW TICKETS
Sat Mar 15 – Eindhoven, Effenaar – Netherlands
Mon Mar 17 – Cologne, Bumann & Sohn – Germany

Tue Mar 18 – Amiens, La Lune Des Pirates – France
Wed Mar 19 – Luxembourg, Rotondes – Luxembourg
Thu Mar 20 – Reims, La Cartonnerie – France
Fri Mar 21 – Rouen, Le 106 – France

Sat Mar 22 – Brussels, AB Club – Belgium SOLD OUT

Tue Apr 1 – The Fleece – Bristol, UK SOLD OUT
Wed Apr 2 – Papillion – Southampton, UK UPGRADED / LOW TICKETS
Thu Apr 3 – Castle & Falcon – Birmingham, UK UPGRADED
Fri Apr 4 – Future Yard – Birkenhead, UK
Sat Apr 5 – Whelans – Dublin, Ireland
Mon Apr 7 – The Crescent – York, UK
Tue Apr 8 – Brudenell Social Club – Leeds, UK SOLD OUT
Wed Apr 9 – Saint Lukes – Glasgow, UK UPGRADED
Thu Apr 10 – Gorilla – Manchester, UK
Fri Apr 11 – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham, UK SOLD OUT
Sat Apr 12 – Chalk – Brighton, UK
Thu Apr 17 – Electric Brixton – London, UK

Sat Aug 9 – Gunnersbury Park – London, UK +

# supporting IDLES

*Festival

+The Libertines

Tickets available HERE

Keep your mind open.

[I’d love it if you subscribed.]

[Thanks to Amy at After Hours PR.]

Rewind Review: Windhand – self-titled (2012)

Richmond, Virgina’s Windhand released their self-titled full-length debut in 2012 and have become doom metal heavyweights since then.

You might think it’s an EP at first, since it only have five tracks, but the last two are each over ten minutes long. There are more heavy riffs and growling menace on this record than there are in a den of angry bears.

Starting with “Black Candles,” the double-whammy of guitarists Asechiah Bodgan and lead guitarist and producer Garrett Morris hits you out of the cemetery gate and Dorthia Cottrell‘s spooky vocals must have caused chills in 2012 because they still do now.

“Libusen” starts with the sound of a thunderstorm, and it’s peaceful at first, and then Nathan Hilbish‘s bass and Ryan Wolfe‘s drums hit like sledgehammers. Cottrell sounds like she’s singing from, or possibly toward, a portal to another dimension that Morris’ guitar solo has apparently opened.

“Heap Wolves,” the shortest song on the album at a little under five minutes, wastes no time in hitting hard and heavy for its run time. Cottrell’s vocals are often hard to decipher, but that’s often the point. They become another instrument, a chant, a spell, a hypnosis.

“Summon the Moon” starts off slow and menacing, like something awakening under a swamp. Hilbish’s bass is the low rumble of a yawning beast until it turns into a hungry roar. Cottrell’s hypnotic voice becomes one of ancient, seething rage while Wolfe uses big hits with simple cymbal hits to create a slightly unsettling effect.

You can help but crank “Winter Sun.” It’s perfect for putting on a suit of magic armor, casting a spell to commune with spirits, and digging an ancient book out of a collapsed tomb inhabited by a wraith. The fuzzy snarl throughout makes you feel ready for battle rather than dreading the dark forces plotting your demise.

It’s a powerful debut and Windhand has since taken the metal world by storm. I’ve been to multiple shows where they’re not playing and people are talking about them. This is a great place to start if you’re still new to them.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]