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doomedandstoned · 2 months

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BLACK PYRAMID Release First Single from Astounding Comeback Album

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

One of the albums doom metal fans can legit look forward to in coming months is the return effort from Massachusetts legends BLACK PYRAMID, one of the most visionary, commanding, and influential bands of the first two decades of the 21st century.

That may sound like some heavy lauding, and it is, but the band continues to live up to their reputation in their first new album since 2013's Adversarial.

Today, Doomed & Stoned brings you the world premiere of the first single "Bile, Blame, and Blasphemy" from the upcoming saga, 'The Paths of Time Are Vast' (2024).

The song begins with gentle electrified picking of a motif that's immediately accessible, met by warm bass tones and tapping cymbals. After introducing us to the main theme, it's developed with the full power of the band -- complete with swaying, downtuned riffs, Sabbathian trills, an unrelenting rhythm section, and the heroic vocal attack of Andy Beresky.

The chorus brings me back to the doom classic "Mirror Messiah" from the band's first album, 'Black Pyramid' (2009), which was (and continues to be) a hallmark of the genre. I love the sound of rolling chords during the breakdown and the solo is replete with depth and emotion. There are long stretches of instrumental work that simply buoy the imagination.

"Bile, Blame, and Blasphemy" introduces us to a narrative that runs throughout these 8 tracks, giving us lyrical clues as the record progresses. It is indeed "an epic tale of loss and redemption, death and rebirth, fire and frost."

Black Pyramid's The Paths of Time Are Vast is nothing short of sheer conviction from the band, giving the evolving medium of metal a much needed shot in the arm as the year progresses. It digs deep into the craw and you may find yourself thinking about it even when it's not rumbling the stereo speakers. Album of the Year contender for damned sure.

Look for Totem Cat Records to release Black Pyramid's fourth full-length on May 3rd in vinyl, CD, and digital formats, with pre-orders beginning soon. Stick it on a playlist with High on Fire, Elder, Stoned Jesus, and Aleph Null.

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SOME BUZZ

Evoking the molten, sludgy tones and the immersive atmosphere of their self-titled debut album, Black Pyramid greatly expands upon what worked wonders in the past, then seeks the transcendent path, pushing each element of their alchemistic sound to its unparalleled cosmic conclusion.

Slated for a May 3rd release, “The Paths of Time Are Vast” features Andy Beresky on guitar and vocals, Eric Beaudry on bass, and Andy Kivela on drums. This lineup of the band is now the longest running incarnation, actively gigging and touring since 2018, all the while honing their collective songcraft and solidifying their onstage chemistry. Working with Justin Pizzoferratu (Dinosaur Jr, Witch, Elder) at Sonelab, the band sought to capture the same visceral magic and sonic wizardry of their live performances onto tape, and then embellish in the psychedelic decadence of studio experimentation.

The resulting production is equally immense and ethereal, massive and otherworldly, elemental and insubstantial, as much an earthquake as an astral projection. Each song embodies the power trio’s raw energy, atavistic power and impassioned performances, juxtaposing elaborate arrangements with fiery free form improvisation.

Although past Black Pyramid albums were conceived as collections of stories told through individual songs, this marks the first time that the band has composed an album which tells a single solitary story. Utilizing both musical themes and lyrical imagery, “The Paths of Time Are Vast” relates an epic tale of loss and redemption, death and rebirth, fire and frost. This album is your golden ticket to voyage beyond the realms of birth and death, to take the journey through the many doors of radiant reality and dark dimension, to tread the celestial pathways carved in the carcasses of the stars, and to finally taste the vastness of time and space.

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#D&S Debuts #Black Pyramid #Northampton #Massachusetts #doom metal #Totem Cat Records #HeavyBest2024 #D&S Reviews #Doomed and Stoned

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athetos · 6 months

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It’s not world-ending but one thing that irks me is when I show a friend an extreme metal song I love and they just say “it all sounds the same/like noise, I don’t get it.” I’m perfectly fine with the I don’t get it part, there’s genres I’m not a huge fan of obviously, and yeah, heavy metal is abrasive, that’s kind of the point. I also don’t expect someone to understand the insane variety in metal; while all subgenres typically have downtuned guitars and harsh vocals, that’s kind of where the similarities end. No, the thing that bothers me is that it comes off as rude and dismissive. There’s plenty of ways to say you don’t personally care for a song without being negative. For me, my go to is “not something I’d go out of my way to listen to, but I can see why you like it.” Because there is something there that my friend enjoys, and when I listen, I try to find one or two of those things. I like understanding why people are drawn to certain types of music.

(Also, if you say those things about rap, you kinda sorta might be racist. Please reflect on that.)

#p #I once sent a very important to me song to my then-partner to share with her #and she called me on speaker phone with her friends to just laugh and say how it was the worst dumbest song they’d ever heard #I’m not ashamed to say I cried afterwards lol #I might be too sensitive about this but I think it’s good practice to idk… respect your friends interests?#and this goes not just for music but other genres of media too

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black-arcana · 8 months

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“To protect your freedom, you have to be active": How Within Temptation's new album Bleed Out was inspired by a world in crisis

Within Temptation's new album Bleed Out is their most fired up to date, proving there's much more to them than just being "the symphonic band"

(Image credit: Tim Tronckoe)

In September 2008, Within Temptation visited Kherson, a port city in the south of Ukraine, just north of the Crimean Peninsula. The Dutch metallers were nearing the end of a year-and-half-long tour for their fourth album, The Heart Of Everything, and it was their first time in the Eastern European country.

Two days later, they would play a show in the capital, Kyiv, but it’s Kherson that sticks out most vividly in their minds: a former Eastern bloc city on the rise, the beautiful tree-lined streets, the wide Dnieper River. During their stay, they were treated to a ceremonial tour with the mayor and invited, poignantly in hindsight, to plant a tree for peace.

“They put us in national clothing and gave us traditional food,” vocalist Sharon Den Adel says, remembering the warm welcome. “We had an amazing few days.”

When Russian president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city to fall. Russian troops occupied the city from March to November, before it was recaptured by Ukrainian forces. “The resistance there was really strong,” says Robert Westerholt, Sharon’s husband and Within Temptation co-founder/studio guitarist.

“Every night, they would come out and literally slit throats of Russian soldiers, [come] out of corners and attack them in every way they could. They were really paranoid, the Russians, they never felt at ease there.”

That staunch defiance inspired the band to write Cyanide Love, one of several songs on the band’s new album, Bleed Out, about the Ukraine War. ‘Sunflowers will soon be growing over your grave,’ sings Sharon over tense synths and downtuned guitars, a reference to a viral video on the first day of the invasion: a Ukrainian woman offers sunflower seeds to a Russian soldier with the harrowing wish that they bloom in his pocket after his death. ‘You’ll take it, you’ll face it / The barrel of my smoking gun.’

“We really hope to go back [to Kherson] one day,” says Robert, and his voice aches with sadness.

We’re sitting in the stylish but homely kitchen – all high ceilings and tall windows – of Sharon and Robert’s house in a pretty, peaceful countryside town, 40 minutes from the manic tourist bustle of Amsterdam.

The couple have lived here for 15 years, and it’s very much their haven. As we talk, their two sons are next door playing a videogame on the TV. Their friendly black labrador, Charlie, demands a head stroke, and gold balloons strung across the front door celebrate their daughter Eva’s recent high school graduation.

But it’s also Within Temptation HQ, the base where they’ve masterminded the band’s shift from ethereal, dark-edged symphonic royalty to a powerhouse of modern heavy metal (see: 2019’s Resist). We’ve been invited here for a world-exclusive playback of Bleed Out, the band’s eighth album, which, at the time of our visit, hasn’t even been officially announced.

As Robert leads us through the house, we pass a rail in the hall that holds several leather jackets, and an enormous canvas bearing the artwork of The Heart Of Everything. Inside the white-walled studio, art and guitars hang on one wall above a low sofa. Sharon and Robert seem relaxed and excited to talk about the new album, although even now they’re still making last-minute changes.

Up until yesterday, the album had a different title; on the few tracks we were sent in advance, it was The Ultimate Sacrifice. The new name, Sharon says, is stronger, and more representative of the real-life struggles that have inspired some of the songs.

She was in Sweden when she heard about the invasion of Ukraine. Her immediate response, like many others, was one of shock and fear, admitting that the old-fashioned method of warfare – troops and tanks on the ground – was not something she had expected to see in her lifetime.

“Maybe that’s naïve, but not in Europe,” she says, curled up barefoot on a nearby armchair. “Kyiv is only a two-and-a-half-hour flight by plane [from the Netherlands]. It’s the same distance as Spain, where I’m going in a few days.”

Before they press play, they show us the artwork, which depicts a hooded figure in shades of black and red. “It’s dark,” Sharon notes, “because the album is dark.”

While Within Temptation’s last record, Resist, blew their sound up to supercharged proportions, just one listen of Bleed Out is enough to confirm that this is Within Temptation’s biggest, heaviest record so far. Stepping things up a level was necessary to match the severity of the source material.

Opener Go To War sets the tone with a colossal guitar part and an apocalyptic choir, a chorus dripping in grandeur, and a marriage of synths with the unmistakable mechanical judder of tech metal. The latter influence, Robert says, has filtered into the band’s sound not through bingeing on Meshuggah albums, but because its cold, almost cruel, mechanical nature best helped to paint a picture of a universe in crisis. “Somehow this [sound] resonates with that.”

The title track follows in the same vein, anthemic and cinematic, with hints of the epic symphonic and gothic doom of their earlier material. It all sounds huge – built to fill the massive rooms the band have become accustomed to playing these days. “Certain elements have come back in, that made us in the beginning,” says Robert. “They still inspire us.”

When we suggest it’s a culmination of every step in the band’s sonic evolution, Sharon agrees: “But with an extra layer of heaviness.”

“We have been searching for this for quite some time, to have a sound that is heavy, but still has this melancholy and beautiful storytelling lines,” she continues. “And finally, it happened on the very last few songs [we wrote]. Sometimes you have just one song that opens the door.”

It would be easy to draw parallels between Within Temptation’s current approach and a band like Sabaton, who have made a career out of songs that go big on bombast and heroism. Robert is quick to shut the comparison down. “We’re not making war songs. We’re not doing history lessons,” he says, arguing that the band didn’t find inspiration in the grim reality of the battlefield. “It’s more the drive of people and their personal stories. We won’t be going onstage with a tank.”

Within Temptation are reluctant to call this a “political” album, but there’s no doubt it’s their most socially aware yet, far removed from the fantastical tendencies of old. For our listening session we’ve been joined by the band’s manager, Martijn, perhaps a sign that, while Sharon and Robert are keen to discuss the inspirations behind the album, they’re cautious about the sensitivities involved.

Go To War, Cyanide Love, Worth Dying For and Wireless directly reference the invasion. The latter talks about the danger of propaganda. “I remember that I was in Russia once and saw something on my own social media,” says Sharon.

“I asked someone sitting next to me, ‘What are they saying?’ And the guy said, ‘Yes, these Americans, blah, blah… completely the opposite of what I’ve been reading on social media where I’m living. If you don’t go deeper, if you don’t search for more information that tells you the story from different perspectives, then you will believe the state television. So that’s why it’s important to tell stories, to give counterweight.”

The band almost called the track Mark Of Cain, a reference to Cain murdering his brother Abel in the Book Of Genesis. “Russia sees their neighbour country as… something that belongs to them or like family,” continues Sharon. “It’s like you wear the Mark Of Cain, everybody knows you killed your brother.”

Meanwhile, Sharon says the title track was written about Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly breaking hijab rules and died in the custody of the country’s morality police. Her death sparked nationwide protests.

“It’s inspirational that some people are willing [to protest], knowing when they take off their scarf, what’s going to happen to them,” she says. She viewed the protests as a generational conflict: “There’s a lot of women taking a lot of risk to do that, but also men from their own generation supporting them and also getting into trouble… the older generation are trying to keep things how they are, and the younger generation are ready [for] change.”

We haven’t heard Within Temptation this fired up in ages, but their initial intention wasn’t to make an album. They had spent the last two years releasing singles – Entertain You and The Purge in 2020 and Shed My Skin in 2021, all of which appear on the record – and enjoying the off-cycle immediacy of being able to write, record and upload. Following the outbreak of war, though, writing between their home and the Swedish studio of long-time collaborator Daniel Gibson, the remaining material came together over six months.

Other topics are discussed on the record, too: Ritual is a tongue-in-cheek, double-entendre-heavy paean to female sexual expression. Shed My Skin is about living by your own rules, free from the judgement of others, while Sharon describes Entertain You as “a song for the misfits”. It was inspired, she says, by a video she saw on social media.

“There was a trans woman who was walking in England, and she was bullied by three young guys. She’s not there for their entertainment, but they’re using her for entertainment because she’s different. I wrote that song [to say] we’re beautiful in our own way. To share some love.”

While some of the tracks were written and recorded almost three years apart, what holds the album together is the theme of freedom. “To protect your freedom, you have to be active,” says Robert. “If you’re passive, then you’re going to lose it. It’s about personal freedom, but also freedom for your country, for your friends, family… everything.”

“It’s a record about the unbreakable desire of humans to live free from tyranny and oppression,” agrees Sharon. “How many also are willing to give so much to achieve this not only for themselves, but for others and future generations. As an artist you have this platform, and we can talk about bubblegum. But I can also talk about things that matter.”

Having listened to the album in full, we decamp to a nearby brasserie for lunch, and to continue the conversation. Sharon drives, and as we cruise through the cool shade of the forest next to their home, she motions towards a large sand dune that meets the trees – a bizarre natural phenomenon where the cover art for her 2018 solo album, My Indigo, was shot. She’d like to record more solo work, she later tells us.

“One day, but not at the moment, because I need a little time. It’s been a rollercoaster. I have been writing songs since the war started, before that we had the pandemic, and after that we had to do all the shows that we couldn’t do during Corona.”

Once at the restaurant, we are shown to a table in a private corner outside, tucked away beside the hedges, where Robert and Sharon order us food and drinks. Clearly well-known, several members of staff come over to greet them during the rest of our interview.

Our conversation takes us all over: to Taylor Swift, an artist Sharon respects, and whether they would ever do Eurovision given the rise in metal acts (the answer is no, although Sharon was once on the Dutch judging panel).

We soon get back to the album – whenever an artist wades into the kind of matters discussed on Bleed Out, someone always complains that politics should be kept out of music. Have they received any backlash? “I deleted a message yesterday on Facebook,” says Sharon, explaining that a fan/troll had taken umbrage with the band’s song Raise Your Banner, from 2019’s Resist, which Sharon has taken to dedicating to Ukraine at their live shows, often waving a flag onstage.

“He said, ‘You’re preaching about freedom and then you preach war. You slut.’” She pauses to let the language sink in. He had complained about the lyric, ‘Blood for freedom.’ “It means you would give your life to have freedom,” she argues. “So, if he had put five minutes of effort into reading the lyrics, then he would know Raise Your Banner is taking a stand.”

“What annoys me a lot is that people say, ‘Don’t talk about politics’,” adds Robert. “It’s not even politics. It’s your opinion as an artist. Artists have opinions. That’s what art is for. That’s what makes it interesting.”

In 2021, Sharon was invited by Kerrang! to write a comment piece for International Women’s Day, and chose to argue the importance of access to abortion. Her research for the piece revealed vastly differing approaches across Europe. “There were people who didn’t understand my point of view,” she says of the response to the essay, as lunch arrives at the table. “Not everybody is in the same place at the same time when you write an article like that. But backlash is also a good thing, because then it gets the attention that it needs.”

The track Don’t Pray For Me from the new album makes the argument for bodily autonomy: ‘I don’t need your absolution, so don’t hold that sword over me / For my confessions I don’t need a church / I don’t need salt to know where it hurts.’

“We were fighting for that and talking about it [when I was in my teens], and we’re still fighting the same battles,” she says, explaining that the issues facing women are increasingly at the forefront of her mind, especially given her own daughter’s coming of age. “It doesn’t seem like we have stepped forward yet.”

Within Temptation have always been equally fascinated and horrified by the human predisposition for destruction and harm, whether it be towards our planet or fellow man. As far back as 2004’s The Silent Force, the haunting Forsaken painted a desperate picture of the end of days. ‘Our time has run out, our future has died / There’s no more escape… We’re the last of our kind.’

They also grappled with the futility of war in 2007, on Our Solemn Hour, from The Heart Of Everything, which interspersed symphonic excess with excerpts from Winston Churchill’s Be Ye Men Of Valour speech.

In 2020, they had started planning a stage production worthy of their grandiose vision, although the pandemic put their plans on ice. Instead, their blueprints became The Aftermath, a CGI livestream in 2021 which took place in a post-apocalyptic world. It depicted the band performing in the remnants of a ruined landscape, escaping to space as the planet burns in a fireball below – a sobering statement on the man-made challenges facing us today.

“It was a thought experiment of what would be very possible in the future,” says Robert of his sci-fi vision. “There were two thoughts behind it. One, we are getting more aware that we’re really destroying our planet and ourselves. That’s pretty obvious right now. But the second thing is the big perspective – it’s quite logical that people, at a certain point, will definitely [abandon Earth and] go into space.”

Another subject the band are interested in is the increasing, perhaps dangerous, control modern technology has on our lives. They’re huge fans of Charlie Brooker’s Netflix series Black Mirror, while a similar narrative rippled through 2019’s Resist. Their live shows have become increasingly futuristic in theme, while the video for recent single Wireless was made using AI. We mention that Black Mirror actor Aaron Paul voiced concerns about AI, and that soon we might not be able to tell what’s real and what’s not. “I think that’s already the case,” says Sharon.

We ask about the rise in AI-created music online, and if they worry about the artistic implications. Robert is dismissive. “Music is not just about listening to something, it’s the whole story around it, where you are at a certain place,” he says. “We’re very interested in what it can do. It’s one big experiment.”

How would you feel if someone used AI to make a Within Temptation song, and people thought it was an official track? “What I could find difficult is they could make lyrics, that are offensive, that I didn’t write, and people might think I did,” says Sharon.

Robert shrugs. “But then you can tell them you didn’t.”

“But if they can’t tell the difference…” Sharon perseveres.

Robert is still unconcerned. “If it’s not on your official website… it’s really no issue at all.”

Sharon looks at us with a wry smile. “So even we have our discussions about that.”

When Within Temptation were able to resume touring after the pandemic, they brought The Aftermath to life. Rescheduling their long-postponed Worlds Collide UK arena tour with Evanescence, suddenly they were operating, conceptually and visually, on a whole new level.

Their pyro-packed stage production even included a huge humanoid head. They cite Iron Maiden, who they have toured with several times over the years – the most recent outing being on 2022’s Legacy Of The Beast run – as their main inspiration. “Those bands who do something special visually have always inspired us to do the same,” says Sharon.

And while they’ve been a bona fide arena band in mainland Europe for years, it felt like, finally, they’d cemented the same status in the UK. “I think everywhere the venues will now be a bit bigger,” smiles Robert. “We felt it was a milestone in our career. We didn’t care too much about what we were making [financially] with the show, but just to make it the most memorable show that we could. We never thought that we would reach this far.”

Sonically, too, it feels like Within Temptation could go anywhere. While Bleed Out is littered with symphonic elements, it’s a musical label that now feels uncomfortable, something they’ve long outgrown. “We don’t feel like a symphonic band,” says Robert.

Sharon agrees. “But I don’t know what to call ourselves now either. I don’t have a new box to put ourselves in.”

And even as they’re making the final changes to Bleed Out, their minds are fixed on the future. As hectic as the last year has been, the process of making the new album has got their creative juices flowing.

“It’s so funny. As soon as we finished [Bleed Out] we were like, ‘We want to make another album.’ But we’re going to take our time for the next one,” she insists. “We were working full force from our house [during the pandemic]. I loved what I was doing, but at the same time I was also very tired. So I can’t wait to have a little bit of a break. This summer, we have a few festivals and then I have some time to really get both feet on the ground.”

She won’t take her foot off the gas for too long, though. After 27 years of constant innovation, Within Temptation don’t know how to stand still. “What I feel like now is actually writing again,” she laughs, shaking her head. “It’s very strange and positive!”

#sharon den adel #robert westerholt #within temptation #interview

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goodbysunball · 11 months

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You're my buddy, you're my pal

A couple more for the road. A long overdue nod to the great Bruit Direct Disques, and Khanate's massive return to a world that befits their sound. Without further adieu:

Khanate, To Be Cruel (Sacred Bones)

After a double-digit years-long hiatus, Khanate orchestrated a surprise return to follow up Clean Hands Go Foul with To Be Cruel. I can't say I've listened to much Khanate in the interim, but To Be Cruel makes a strong case for revisiting the band's discography. Given the members' forays into other projects, I was expecting the sound to shift dramatically here, but that was incorrect: the band has doubled down on its glacial pace, heaving guitars and Alan Dubin's backed-into-a-corner vocals, at once human and feral. What's changed is only a greater attention to composition, allowing for some breaks in the drudgery to incorporate ideas from free jazz and improvisation. About two-thirds of the way through opener "Like a Poisoned Dog," the song is overwhelmed by feedback, the drums let loose and the bass holds the line; it's a brief, but thrilling moment, a break in the stark black atmosphere. Much of that atmosphere is owing to Stephen O'Malley's guitar and Alan Dubin's vocals, though I was glad to read an interview with James Plotkin where he agrees that some of the lyrics Dubin screams are patently absurd. That being said, the broader ideas behind the lyrics, coupled with their deadly serious delivery, induce chills throughout. Control is ceded to Dubin on the spare "It Wants to Fly," but his strongest performance is saved for the title track at the end. "To Be Cruel" is vintage Khanate, O'Malley and Plotkin squeezing every ounce from their chords, Tim Wyskida hammering the drums to punctuate each painfully slow movement. Rather than find release, the band chooses to return to the same structure at the beginning of the song, now teasing feedback out between strikes, slowly burying Dubin alive. To Be Cruel is the band's best work, as room-flattening, caustic and focused as ever, enough for me to consider making a trip if they tour behind it.

Nusidm, The Last Temptation of Thrill (Bruit Direct Disques)

Ah, Glen Schenau's inimitable Nusidm returns on one of my favorite labels, Bruit Direct Disques. We must enjoy these moments of kismet, no? The Last Temptation of Thrill fleshes out a refined version of Nusidm found on Hatred of Pain: less vocals, less crowded, and reimagining the dirge as something miasmatic and smothering. Largely gone are the clean, tromolo-picked guitars, but the drums carry the weight, something made perfectly clear on "Katy und Abel" and the beginning of the fully dystopian "Run to the Shops." There seems to be a lot more electronic layering in these tracks, songs built up not by clenched muscles but by feedback, pitch-shifted vocals, pedals and maybe even tape loops. This approach makes "Sit and Watch the Sunrise" come across as a threat, and reaches a logical, thrilling endpoint on "Arm Unemployed" and "Melody Moody - The Re-incision." The slow build of noise in the latter cancels out the jazzy bass line reprised from Hatred of Pain's "Vapid" and covers itself in thick mud, vocals escaping through the air vent and desperate for a response. The record builds up in fits and starts, interspersed with instrumental tracks, the best of which are on the B-side: "Tagging My Friends" brings back the frantic clenched-teeth acoustic playing, and "Talking to Animals" is all feedback and woodwind shrieking, taken home by the downtuned bass. The album's elements coalesce on the chaotic "Arm Unemployed," previously released but finding its home as the penultimate track here, which kinda sounds like Glen's take on rap-metal, if they ever made room for a xylophone solo. It must be heard to be believed, but you'll be nodding along for its five-and-a-half minute duration. The Last Temptation of Thrill is Nusidm as confounding as ever, but as potent as ever, too; the artist-label pairing here greater than the sum of its parts. Three hundo copies to go around, and sharply outfitted in Glen's own artwork and font to further confuse the issue. Come join me on his planet.

Terrine, Standing Abs (Bruit Direct Disques)

Terrine's last album Les Problèmes Urbains was described in the press release as "certainly one of the most demanding (comical) in the world." I'm unsure if my familiarity with the work of Claire Gapenne as Terrine is such that I understand her intentions more clearly, or if I've just accepted being wholly outside the joke. Whatever the case, her latest album Standing Abs is checking all the boxes for me. It opens with "She's So Kind De Ouf," full of harsh electronics and rhythms popping up and disappearing, all of the different elements building to a blaring climax. If you know Terrine, you know that these moments are fleeting, and the song is shortly followed up with acoustic piano and what sounds like a beat made by basketballs. The piano has been a strong part of Terrine's sound, but now it is woven into the album's fabric rather than included solely as a jarring shift in instrumentation. The rest of the album is a really interesting push-pull between modern electronic composition, with a nod to EDM, and these shorter pieces featuring spare, empty-room piano. It's hard not to think of ZNR's Barricade 3 when confronted with the dichotomy of electronic and acoustic sounds, presented to emphasize their contrast; but I will also echo Matt K.'s comparison to Lolina in his review of the album. Like Lolina's best work, there is a logic here, albeit coy and evasive, that still captivates. The stretch of songs from "Carrageenan Do Dad Jokes" through "Nuage De Nuls" features some of the same elements, but it's as if the beats and piano merge, split, or disappear altogether throughout. Far from being a purely academic exercise, there's plenty that just knocks here, too: "Les Moucherons à Oranges" sounds like the rhythm is being played on the piano strings, a kick drum coming in to intermittently stabilize the situation. "La Nimpro" unceremoniously kicks you out of the loft at the album's end, and the cycle is complete. It's a blast, shedding any sense of sabotage (hello, "L'anniversaire") and stepping confidently into their Sambas.

#Khanate #Sacred Bones Records #Nusidm #Terrine #Bruit Direct Disques

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khlur · 10 months

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tickles my brain so good

#HOW DOWNTUNED ARE THOSE GUITARS BRO #Spotify

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mikeladano · 7 months

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REVIEW: Mick Mars - "Loyal to the Lie" (2023) single

MICK MARS – “Loyal to the Lie” (2023) single Mick Mars is finally out with his first solo track since 1994’s “Bittersuite” and it’s a banger. Too much of a banger? In this reviewer’s opinion, the song is recorded for more modern tastes. Chunky, downtuned guitars and distorted, unremarkable lead vocals (by Jacob Bunton) characterize this fast, heavy smoker. Everything sounds very processed in a…

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#hard rock #heavy metal #Jacob Bunton #Loyal to the Lie #mick mars #Paul Taylor #Ray Luzier #The Other Side of Mars

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dustedmagazine · 1 year

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Pile — All Fiction (Exploding in Sound)

All Fiction by Pile

Rick Maguire was ready. Pile’s frontman had been punting on the idea that the group’s “traditional rock band” setup of two guitars, bass, drums and a single vocalist needed reexamination since the aftermath of Dripping — whether it was studio time for a record or burnishing their reputation as your favorite band’s favorite band on tour, something was always in the way of a fundamental rethink to their sound. With Green and Gray firmly behind them, the departure of second guitarist Chappy Hull and a pandemic lockdown, there could be no more excuses. It was time to see what was left in the tank.

Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupuis writes in the press bio of All Fiction that Maguire was heavily influenced by Mt. Eerie’s unusual timbres, Kate Bush’s ambition and Aphex Twin’s production. Broadcast, Krzysztof Penderecki, Portishead and Tinariwen are invoked as reference points. He says he was tired of the band’s identity, that he’d switched from a guitar to using synthesizers as his main instrument for composition, that lyrical directness took a backseat to more abstract forms of word association, that he “wanted to use different instruments and recording techniques to highlight the songs rather than creating the visual of a band performing them.” To hear Pile tell it, All Fiction is the band’s Kid A, a decadently grand break from the past.

This is an overstatement. In the same way that some people only know how to be who they are regardless of what they go through, Pile’s reinvention is by a matter of degrees, a slow-burning battle of inches. Perhaps more than anything, what All Fiction makes clear is that every new Pile record is the most like themselves they could possibly sound; it is the most Pile listeners have ever heard the band be.

Don’t read that in a negative light, though. Lessons learned both from the full-on improv jam sessions that comprised In the Corners of a Sphere-Filled Room and Maguire’s pandemic pet project of solo reworkings of old material, Songs Known Together, Alone, have fed directly into two fistfuls of songs that are at once as tight and as expansive as the band has ever been. The trio isn’t unrecognizable in their compositions, but it’s the way they use space that appears to have shifted. The result is formidable for fans and an easy entry point for those just joining the journey.

“Loops” was a logical first single, but its prominent, unusually polished percussion suggested this was going to be a much heavier record sonically than it is. More indicative is the last half-minute’s reverb-heavy solo guitar outro, which I said upon its release hints at a whole other song, a whole other world. That whole other world, as it turns out, is the record writ large: Though longtime acolytes will appreciate there are grimy guitar tones on “Gardening Hours” and a dour downtuning on, say, “Link Arms,” Maguire himself shoulders the weight of topics including the subjectivity of perception (it’s right there in the title, after all), big tech, the nature of making art, and the usual human concerns of anxiety and death while the music follows fleet-footed behind his instantly recognizable, miasmatic delivery punctuated by unshakable epigrams and notes that slide in and out of language.

For years, my biggest complaint about this band was how almost good they were at sequencing to the point that I thought they were doing it intentionally; think of how jarring A Hairshirt of Purpose’s segue from “Hairshirt” to “I Don’t Want to Do This Anymore” is, or the jam tacked onto “Appendicitis” in what otherwise would’ve been a perfect album closer for You’re Better Than This. That kind of maddening internal logic was part of their smirking low-stakes charm and a quirk you could (and I did) come to love. But something happened with Green and Gray in which they fully, finally worked out that the “rock” parts could commingle with the quieter, more introspective moments in a more fluid fashion, often in the same song. What resulted was 2019’s best album.

All Fiction furthers that thinking, another reason this feels less like a leap and more like a carefully considered step toward further Piledom — the band’s flowing, peripatetic nature makes writing about individual songs less important than considering the whole. It’s easy to catch yourself relistening to “Nude With a Suitcase” to see if there’s a bassline leitmotif from “Gardening Hours” (or some other record, not for the first time with this band) or wondering how the nearly five-minute “Blood” passes by percussionless at the same emotional tenor as the rest or considering how smartly the string quartet is deployed as a through-line from “It Comes Closer” right down to the final swell of “Neon Gray.” It wouldn’t be Pile without a transition like the one from “Forgetting” to “Poisons,” but even that still manages to work in context; if such things bother you, too, you’ll find yourself forgetting it’s there on repeat listens.

All of this writes around what All Fiction distilled to, which is what Pile has always distilled to: a guy wrestling with life’s antagonistic forces, trying to make sense of a world that doesn’t easily offer up proof of any. Green and Gray was an apotheosis of that, a resigned sigh backing reluctantly out of youth. All Fiction does the same, mostly with topics larger than relationships, but it’s still those unadorned drippings scattered across an increasingly surreal lyrical landscape that hit home hardest. On “Neon Gray,” Maguire laments, “Digging at nothing without romance / It’s just mist, but not from this distance / It’ll work until it won’t, I guess.” The beauty of this delivery can’t be overstated as the album’s last clearly sung words before the strings surge and his final chorus carries you out. Like any great Pile song (or any art worth a damn, really), it lodges in your throat, chokes you up, gets you thinking — and if what you’re thinking after a listen through All Fiction is that Pile is still your favorite band’s favorite band, it’s past time you found a new favorite band.

Patrick Masterson

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