Metal Riot

Photo by Ester Segarra

A friendly reminder that Beastmaker fucking rule and are about to drop a true monster of an album Inside The Skull on Rise Above this May 19th. It is heavier, gnarlier and all around more blissfully doomed the fuck out. Loving the promo. Man, “Of God’s Creation” and “Psychic Visions”…wait til you hear those new bad boys. Massive, vintage Sabotage Sabbath meets darker heavy modern doom and hard rock sounding monuments to heavy glory…it’s all there. It is gonna flatten a lot of the stuff released so far this year, IMO. The tones and general sense of presence of each track is simply large and in charge, baby.

The band are about to kick off a highly drooled over tour with mighty Zakk Sabbath as well (and my boys in Geezer are on a NY show, I believe). Beastmaker assure me that ,“We are ready to rise from the crypt for the blood feast!”

Check the dates out below. Highly worth your time, and I do mean highly. \m/

In the microcosm of friends that I live in there are many women coming together to support and exalt one another in the arts. This is a marked shift from what you see in pop culture which is women competing with one another, exploiting their selves and each other for success, and approval from our patriarchal culture. – Sera Timms

Ides Of Gemini are one of the more deserving bands in the underground, always searching for both revelatory experiences and the breaking of new ground within their art. While the band have benefited from strong support from major players within the scene, from early support from Neurot to a tour with Ghost to finding a new coveted home with Rise Above Records, the band have also faced their share of setbacks that have forced their momentum to sort of develop via ebb, flow and word of mouth despite their hard work. Original drummer Kelly Johnston-Gibson incurred a career-threatening injury while on tour in the US in 2015, causing founding members J. Bennett and vocalist (and then-bassist) Sera Timms to reassess their next move. After enlisting Scott Batiste of Saviours as a stand-in drummer for a short West Coast tour, things clicked and Scott soon became a permanent member. The band then expanded to a quartet for the first time, as Sera relinquished her bass-playing duties to newcomer Adam Murray.

The band have never shied away from making their own path and now return with an album called Women, a simple celebration and study of the sacred feminine perfect for these times when the President sexualizes his own daughter while cutting off all funding to UN Family planning or when just the other day one of the premiere and most dedicated writers in metal – who happens to be female – was attacked deplorably by a site for having a disability . It is great to see some bold art from a band that is far more respectful and also features a woman in a primary – not token/ fashion appendage – role. Sera’s drifting vocals on the hook of new song “Mother Kiev” are positively consuming yet far from predictable, while many still gush about the band’s bold recent take on “Strange Fruit” as a doom dirge. You can hear a mid tempo new track “The Rose” now at Cvlt Nation.

Women is produced by the talented Sanford Parker and features guest appearances from Tara Connelly of Clay Rendering (on Queen Of New Orleans) and Marriages and solo singer-songwriter Emma Ruth Rundle (on She Has A Secret), a personal favorite of mine. Nicola Samori’s cover art looks like something out of a museum, delicate and yet strong and romantic despite being interpretively marred by a partial smear. But perhaps that is up to the viewer or listener to decipher if the art or songs indicate damage, obscurity or survival.

Read my latest interview with the band, this time with vocalist Sera Timms, below.

After Cathedral’s monumental swan song The Last Spire, easily one of the best
doom records and farewell records in the history of metal and a huge win for
post 00’s true heavy metal, many wondered if we would hear Lee Dorian’s raspy,
unique voice again. The high wizard of Rise Above Records has returned much
sooner than some may have expected with the new, less active band With the
Dead, featuring fouding Electric Wizard rhythm section Tim Bagshaw and Mark
Greening.Their new S/T record is excellent.

This was a huge year for doomy, sludgy, stoner bands-especially those on the
more extreme side. From Demon Lung’s A Dracula‘s groovy but bewitching might
to Crypt Sermon’s classic sound to Hooded Menace’s death infused slime sludge
to Lucifer rising and proving we’d still have Gary Jennings of Cathedral’s
mighty talent in the scene as well! Hearing Dorian intone ,“Illuminate this
cosmic heart” on With The Dead’s “Crown of Burning Stars” is more than a
simple pleasure in life. If you love the real history of metal, this album
will hit you like numerous super hard birthday punches from your best mates.
It’s all there for doom fans. Haunting, occult samples to rattling, room sound
drums with cutting cymbals to bulldozer riffs at ponderous tempos from beyond
the grave, your mind will drift to brink of the edge of outer space with
Dorian narrating like Lewis Carrol’s mad hatter was an undertaker and Master
of Reality was mandatory listening at your funeral. “I Am Your Virus” features
some cleaner passages on guitar and great use of space, but the majority of
the passages on this album are crushing, doomy yet melodic and fully
charred like a dying, still smoking caldera.

Ghost‘s highly anticipated (by ghouls and trolls alike) new record Meliora has an official first video for Sabbath meets Flash Gordon sounding first single “Cirice”? I love everything this refreshing band touches.

Best talent show ever? I dunno. I remember my sixth grade performance of Partners In Kryme’s “Turtle Power”  was pretty shell-tastic (me and my friends had paper mache turtle masks and hockey goalie padding for shells). But this new Ghost video might ust have us beat. You decide BELOW.

Gothenburg’s Horisont have a new single with dwarf-tastic art. Outer space dwarf is gonna take your lunch money! And heck…the music is great as well. Seriously, the shitty VHS quality and potent punch of the band’s new jam makes me want to induce munchies and eat tater tots pronto while whipping my hair back and forth (except I’m bald and currently out of sticky icky). This band is killer and RIYL Amulet or Witchcraft and great classic influenced metal/hard rock of that ilk, though. Plus my buddy Tom from top notch doom band The Order Of Israfel is in Horisont’s ranks as a guitarist, so check ’em out HERE now!

I can still remember when NPR was just the background for day trips to antique sales in my parents old station wagon. Now NPR is streaming the new album from Electric Wizard. Go figure. Anyway, this is one of THE most important records of the year and one of the darkest jewels in the grim crown of Electric Wizard releases. Stoned but not dethroned, baby. Eletric Wizard are currently on the covers of New Noise (USA) and Decibel.