Trends come and go, but the idea of a bunch of guys getting together in a garage and playing the kind of music that makes the neighbors call the cops — that’s forever. And it’s that idea that’s crystallized in the form of Radio Moscow. The power trio led by the Stratocaster genius Parker Griggs have found THE formula : powerful, crunching Sabbathstyle chords and fiery solos that earn the right to be called Hendrixian and plants its flag firmly in the territory where psychedelic rock and cranked-up blues meet.
Parker’s demo caught the ear of The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, who produced the 2007 self-titled debut. With « Brain Cycles », their second album Radio Moscow proves that they’re not a cheap time machine but a direct descendant from the golden age of Rock’n’Roll. In 2011, Griggs continued his psychedelic trip with « The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz » realesed by Alive Records. 2104 the band recorded their first album as a full trio untitled “Magical Dirt”.
The band has been touring heavily to an ever growing audience for the past 2 years, cementing their status as one of the most exciting Rock n Roll live acts around today.
Kaleidobolt is a power trio that came together in early 2014 in Helsinki. In the short time they’ve been together, they’ve gained the reputation of being one of the most exciting live bands from heavy metal´s world capitol Finland.
Their music is a dizzying maelstrom of progressive song structures, crushing riffs and loose psychedelic soundscapes, delivered with joy and ferociousness. Their first album was released in August 2015 by Pink Tank Records.
“The Zenith Cracks”, their second album will be released on July 1st.
“It would be tempting to say that Kaleidobolt were born 45 years too late, indeed had this album been released in the early seventies it would now be held up as a classic. But they are of the here and now….the ambitious song structures and the sheer heaviness in places make it a contemporary release, but a classic nonetheless. These guys exude class from every pore…”
(Dayz Of Purple And Orange)
Neurosis originally formed in Oakland, California in 1985 as a hardcore punk band. Over the years their sound progressed towards a doom metal style that also included influences from dark ambient and industrial music as well as incorporating elements of folk music.
In late 1985, Scott Kelly, Dave Edwardson and Jason Roeder (formerly members of Violent Coercion) founded Neurosis. In this early stage their sound was heavily influenced by pioneering British crust punk actssuch as Amebix, Axegrinder and Hellbastard. In 1986 Chad Salter was added on second guitar. In 1989 Chad Salter was replaced by Steve Von Till.
From 1990 to 1993, Adam Kendall was recruited to create the visuals and perform live with the band. Following his departure from touring, Pete Inc. took over the job, although Kendall continued to contribute visuals for the band until as late as 1997. Kendall also shot the footage for the “Locust Star” video. Josh Graham took over live visuals in early 2000, and stayed with the band until the end of 2012.
Often experimental and psychedelic in nature, the visuals have added to the reputation of Neurosis’ live performances, and it is safe to say that the way the band created an audio/visual experience has influenced and keeps influencing the underground scene beyond measure.
In 1996 and 1997, the group toured with Pantera, bringing them to mainstream attention.
Neurosis partnered with the now infamous Relapse Records, retrospectively paving the way for the rise of post metal as we know it today internationally.
Additionally, the band have founded their own independent record label, Neurot Recordings, which, in addition to releasing material from Neurosis and its associated projects, has since become home to several innovative musicians.
Neurosis are one the most influential underground acts of the past 30 years. Now more than ever, their approach has led the way for countless artists and their impact can be felt.
2012 saw the release of the first full length album since 2007´s “Given To The Rising” and 2010´s “Live At Roadburn” live album.
IN A SHADOW WORLD
An introduction to Neurosis’ Honor Found In Decay
It is said that great art has the power to take us outside of ourselves and bring us closer to ourselves simultaneously. Few bands have accomplished this rare feat on a more profound and consistent basis than Neurosis. For nearly three decades, their music has touched the hearts and minds of young men and women seeking contact with something beyond the physical world, something intangible, something that expresses the inner tumult of the human condition in a way that transcends time and space. Something that not only provokes questions but maybe even hints at answers.
In 1996, I was one of those young men. I was 20 years old when I heard Through Silver In Blood, and I could never listen to music the same way again. The album was—and is—so dense, so turbulent, so different than anything I had heard before. It was—and is—like its own weather system. It didn’t just challenge me to think differently; it forced me to. It opened doors that lay beyond the confines of my own narrow experience. Best of all—to an aspiring “writer” at least—the band’s lyrics seemed to be saying something. Not about politics or religion or society or even interpersonal relationships, but about the life of the mind. And the words could be applied to modern life as readily as life a thousand years ago—or three thousand years ago, when our gods were our own and almost everyone still had to fight for their daily bread.
With the passage of time and the accumulation of experience, Neurosis’ work has only become more engaging, more penetrating, more visceral and decimating. Similarly, the band has only become more cognizant of their purpose.
The music on Honor Found In Decay is both torturous and transcendent. It is the ongoing exposition of a vast internal dialogue that seems to carry the weight of eons. With the right kind of ears and eyes, it can seem like the trials and tribulations of mankind are being channeled through five individuals: Steve Von Till, Scott Kelly, Noah Landis, Jason Roeder and Dave Edwardson. And yet? They will be the first ones to tell you that they are just regular people trying to make sense of the world around them. The degree to which Neurosis allows them to step out of their everyday lives is the distance between one and zero, the distance between thinking and doing, the distance between this minute and the one that may or may not follow. Which is to say: Neurosis takes them outside of themselves and brings them closer to themselves. Simultaneously.
Ufomammut’s status as one of the most potent, powerful and artistic contemporary doom artists in existence continues to captivate the masses, and the band’s worldwide grasp grows wider with each release
In 16 years the band has played several times around Europe reaching North America in 2015, with a monthly tour that saw them play from Coast to Coast.
Ufomammut has performed at international music festivals like Roadburn, Hellfest, Asymmetry, Stoned from the Underground, Dour Festival, Ieper fest, Desert Fest, Metalride fest, FIMAV and Maryland Death Fest.
Ufomammut’s live show is supported by the internationally acclaimed video and graphic art of Malleus, a rock artists’ collective who conjure the entirety of Ufomammut’s visual impact.
Ufommamut´s 9th full length album “Ecate” was released in 2015 on Supernatural Cat Recordings.
**** WARNING! THE VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS FLASHING IMAGES****
Tesa is a three-piece heavy sludge from Rika, Latvia. They have been around for over 10 years and gained an international following through the approach of DIY ethics.
Their latest album “Ghost“ was released on Skyr Records in 2015.
To anyone who has heard the music of Kikagaku Moyo, it should come as no surprise that the band’s origins lie in hours upon hours of late-night jamming, illuminated by nothing more than the geometric patterns playing behind the band’s eyelids, resulting in a natural, free-floating sound, as of-the-earth as it is intergalactic.
What´s most surprising about the recordings that have surfaced the past 3 years, is how utterly centered and mature the band sounds, especially given their relatively short lifespan as a band. Boundless though they may be, Kikagaku Moyo, who sharpened their improvisational skills by busking on the streets of their native Tokyo sound anything but lost, their child-like wonder manifested in a confident, courageous exploration of sound. Labels – psychedelic, folk, prog-rock, psychedelic-folk-mixed-with-prog-rock – do little to accurately reflect the spectrum of influences on display, let alone the more impactful realization of completeness in Kikagaku Moyo’s songs.
Dead Meadow‘s unique marriage of Sabbath riffs, dreamy layers of guitar-fuzz bliss, and singer Jason Simon’s high-pitched melodic croon have won over psychedelic pop/rock and stoner rock fans alike. Although the band’s members met while attending all-ages shows in and around Washington, D.C.’s punk/indie scene, the trio draws more of its sound from such classic rock legends as Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath.
The trio formed in the fall of 1998 out of the ashes of local indie rock bands the Impossible 5 and Coulour, with singer/guitarist Simon, bassist Steve Kille, and drummer Mark Laughlin. The three members set out to fuse their love of early-’70s hard rock and ’60s psychedelia with their love of fantasy and horror writers J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft.
They released their six-song debut album in 1999 on Fugazi bassist Joe Lally’s Tolotta Records and a joint vinyl release on D.C. indie label Planaria Records. In 2001, the band released its second and third albums, Howls from The Hills and Dead Meadow, on Tolotta. Within a relatively short period, the D.C. trio received offers to tour with everyone from local D.C. hipsters The Make-Up to seedy psychedelic rockers Brian Jonestown Massacre; eventually, they landed the opening slot for high-profile indie veterans Guided by Voices. The group was also invited to record live for longtime cutting-edge British radio personality John Peel for BBC Radio One. Got Live If You Want It! arrived in 2002; that year, the band lost Laughlin and found a new drummer in Stephen McCarty.
The band moved to Matador for 2003’s breakthrough Shivering King and Others. Cory Shane joined the band in time for 2005’s Feathers. Their fifth studio album, Old Growth, followed in 2007. In 2010, Dead Meadow released Three Kings, a live album and concert film in the tradition of The Song Remains the Same. Later that same year, an Australian tour was announced that would include original drummer Mark Laughlin, eventually developing into a full-on reunion tour of the U.S. and Europe and Laughlin’s permanent return to the band as 2011 began. The group spent a long, patient time self-producing and recording 2013’s epic double-album-length release Warble Womb, the first Dead Meadow album made by the all-original lineup since 2001.
Philadelphia’s Rosetta has been exploring the outer galaxies of post-metal, hardcore, doom, ambient, prog, and more since 2003. The group had a longtime relationship with boutique label Translation Loss that resulted in three albums and a number of splits and EPs before their contract ended and they decided to soldier on as a completely independent band. Following a period of uncertainty and struggle, Rosetta was close to its breaking point when it self-released the bleak, moody The Anaesthete via Bandcamp in 2013. To the band’s happy surprise, the album became a best-seller on the site, the album’s success driven almost entirely by fans and word-of-mouth.
Reinvigorated by the positive reception, Rosetta recruited Eric Jernigan, a longtime friend and tourmate with his band City of Ships, for its follow up. The result, Quintessential Ephemera, shakes off much of its predecessor’s darkness to deliver a swirling mass of uplifting post-rock melodies and intense metallic release.
Crawling from the thresholds of Tucson, Arizona come atmospheric driven sludge trifecta North. Consisting of vocalist/bassist Evan Leek, guitarist Matthew Mutterperl, and drummer Zack Hansen, the trio have spent the past ten years sprawling their penchat for destruction and reformation throughout every infiltratable venue in their reach. Appearing with acts ranging from Alcest, Weedeater, This Will Destroy You and Cough, North have maintained a consistent presence while building an extensive underground following and dedicated fanbase.
This blistering instrumental three-piece from the hinterlands of Auckland, New Zealand has enchanted audiences with its rhythmic onslaught since 2006.
Described variously as “lead-heavy” with “sparse and beautiful” moments, the trio have carved out a unique brand of dark rock that is scattered with melodic hooks.
Instrumental metal standard bearers Pelican had a thundering comeback, with “Forever Becoming” in 2013, an eight-song album, that offer´s Pelican´s most refined work to date.
Before their hiatus, the group had laid a sizeable chunk of the groundwork for the instrumental metal scene that’s come into its own in the 17 years since they started playing together.
After 2009 the band found itself slightly adrift, and found the day to day struggle of being full-time underground musicians colliding with new families and non-musical careers. Wisely, they didn’t make any rash decisions, and as suits a band known for making dense, meditative sounds they simply patiently figured out how to move past their obstacles.
This reborn Pelican is purer, more focused, and far more assured.
A head-on ascent of the biggest, most monolithic theme in art is no easy feat
It takes a lot of experience and a lot of confidence to attempt such an immense, speaker-rattling meditation on the infinite cycle of death and life.
Pelican has plenty of both, and knows how to wield them in a way that is second to none to any band, that has surfaced from the international post metal scene.
Pelican have recently released a free live album, “Live At The Bottle” on their bandcamp site: pelican.bandcamp.com
Back in 2005, an unknown heavy rock trio from Fargo, North Dakota, released a self-titled demo on a CD-R, and it turned out to be a record that just wouldn’t go away. Egypt’s Egypt smoldered for the next several years on the basis of underground word-of-mouth, to the point that Lyderhorn Records put it out on vinyl in 2007 and cult stoner imprint MeteorCity picked it up for a CD release in 2009. By then, it had outlasted the band who called it quits in 2006.
They reunited for a one-off hometown gig in May 2010, “Become the Sun” was released early in 2013 on Doomentia Records vinyl and Totem Cat Records CD and widely lauded by media and fans, selling out initial pressings of both formats.
There’s nothing happenstance about it, and in an age where word can travel faster than it ever has, Egypt have slow-burned their way to the fore of the American stoner rock underground. 2016 saw the release of “Endless Flight”, a stoner album of epic proportions and “their best work to-date, hands down” according to the Obelisk.
After over 10 years of slinging their Texas-sized psychedelic blues doom, Dallas-based Wo Fat is going stronger and rocking harder than ever, promising to continue on their swampadelic visionquest of overdriven, fuzz-laden riffage and jazz-minded jam explorations with the next chapter, entitled Midnight Cometh, looming on the horizon.
Throughout their sonic odyssey of five studio albums, a live album, and two splits, beginning with The Gathering Dark in 2006, they have stayed true to the deep, dark blues that wails from within and have continually forged their riffs with a primal grooviness, giving them a consistency of style. But just as notable is their willingness to survey unflinchingly the outer edges of trippiness on the ledge of one footpath only to make a tight turn and trample full on with monolithic heaviness down another.
2009’s Psychedelonaut really began to solidify the Wo Fat name in the Stoner Rock world, garnering them wider critical recognition, leading to releases with Nasoni and Totem Cat Records which, in turn, led to their two most critically acclaimed releases to date, The Black Code (2013) and The Conjuring (2014,) both released on the iconic stoner rock label, Small Stone Records, with The Conjuring landing on NPR’s “Top Ten Metal Albums of 2014” list, among numerous other “best of” lists.
For the release of Midnight Cometh, the newest slab of riffage lurking in your future, which is easily their most daring psychotropic exploration of heaviness to date, Wo Fat has teamed up with a label on the rise, Ripple Records, who have proven themselves to be Brothers in the Riff by peddling some of the finest of the new fuzz. With voodoo drums beating and endless waves of molten, blues-drenched guitar riffery, Wo Fat carries on their tradition of keeping things heavy and fuzzy, but also groovy, which all too often is the missing element in so much modern heavy music.
Supersonic intergalactic heavy rock trio Mothership based out of Dallas, Texas give a real sense of hope that all is well in the universe, and that pure honest rock and roll has once again returned to this planet on a mission to unite true believers. Consisting of brothers Kyle Juett on bass/lead vocals, Kelley Juett on guitar/vocals, and Judge Smith on drums, these guys have created a unique sound.
The band released their sophomore album, Mothership II, in November 2014 on Ripple Music, an unrelenting onslaught of heavy riffs, head-banging grooves, and mind-melting solos.
The Berlin-based power duo Dyse are known for their criminal brand of noise rock. Neckbreakers reminiscent of the most vicious outputs on the Amphetamine Reptile roster, Doom, Hardcore, Rap.
Dyse are a noise rock´s magician´s trick, a lethal chimaera, programmed to kill.
Dyse is the duo to end all duos and one of the new millenium´s prime german underground acts, delivering to maniacal fans around the globe.
Stinking Lizaveta is a power trio from Philadelphia that plays heavy instrumental rock. MusicMight categorizes them as “doom jazz”. Their 1996 debut album “Hopelessness and Shame” was recorded by Steve Albini. Albini was so impressed by them, he brought them to the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival he co-curated in 2004. The band’s first two albums were on Compulsiv, their third came out on Joe Lally’s now-defunct Tolotta Records label; later releases have been on At a Loss Recordings in the US and Monotreme Record in UK and Europe. Their most recent release, 2012’s “7th. Direction”, was released via German label Exile On Mainstream.
Extensive touring has included supporting Clutch on a 2005 US tour, and in the UK in 2006 they toured with Clutch and Corrosion of Conformity.
The band gets its name from a character in the 1880 Russian novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Kaleidobolt is a power trio that came together in early 2014 in Helsinki. In the short time they’ve been together, they’ve gained the reputation of being one of the most exciting live bands in Finland.
Their music is a dizzying maelstrom of progressive song structures, crushing riffs and loose psychedelic soundscapes, delivered with joy and ferociousness. Their first album was released in August 2015 by Pink Tank Records.
kaleidobolt.bandcamp.com Arena Vienna / small hall / adv 16 € / 19.00h
Arabrot has been an outsider on the Norwegian music scene since their beginning in 2001. During the first few years they received little recognition from the glossy establishment in their homeland, but Arabrot carved their own path and quietly built a reputation among music fans in Europe as a daring and uncompromising live band. Today, Arabrot is one of Europe’s defining underground bands.
Arabrot first recieved widespread recognition with the Steve Albini produced third album, The Brother Seed (2009). Following this album, Arabrot went into a creative blaze the succeeding years. For instance, they did live scores at silent film showings (“Faust” from 1926 in Trondheim, “Häxan” from 1922 at Øyafestivalen, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” from 1920 and “Die Nibelungen” from 1924 at Verdensteatret in Tromsø) and did commissioned work for the highly regarded Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. In the middle of all this, Arabrot produced the exploratory EPs AbsoluteNegativism, I Rove and Mæsscr, two albums under the Nernes Skagen moniker, as well as two stand out albums: The gargantuan Billy Anderson-produced double album REVENGE and the needle-sharp Solar Anus, again featuring Steve Albini as a producer. For Solar Anus, they received the Norwegian Grammy in the metal category.
Arabrot’s flourishing lyricism adds an unmatched depth. Macabre renditions of classic works like the Bible and Dante’s Inferno meet philosophical themes derived from the historical avant-garde. The existentialism of Camus and Sartre; the surrealism of Bataille and Lautréamont; the eroticism of Henry Miller and de Sade; the romantic writings of Coleridge, Poe and de Quincey; mystic thinkers such as Aleister Crowley and Jorge Luis Borges, oppositionals like Féderico Lorca and of course Norway’s chief contrarian Jens Bjørneboe all make their way into Arabrot’s unique character.
„See I was born too late and I’ll never be like you. “ What was sad but true for SAINT VITUS in 1986, is still relevant for BUG today.
Inside the no scene and far, far away from the hipsters?
Two steps forward or three steps back?
Music therapy for Burnout patients?
Soundtrack for losers and nerds?
Longterm Non Progressor?
Since 1997 BUG has been living the DIY dream of the long gone 80 ies HC/Punk Underground. BUG is all about bluesy rhythm, distorted guitar melodies, slow, deep and hard bass lines, spastic drums and frantic howling. They can’t follow no trend, so they are playing autistic Post Post Blues/Aggro/Vintage/Jazz/Punk/Doom/HC/Anti/Sludge/Noise Rock. The lyrics are about personal misery and the pitch black side of human nature, politics and the old stars of entertainment industry. But BUG don’t take them too seriously. Good fellow Austrian Labels like ROCK IS HELL/ INTERSTELLAR/NOISEAPPEAL Records put out there records over the past years. BUG were honored to play with the crème de la crème of guitar/Noise underground like BL’AST, THE KOJN, IT’S EVERYONE ELSE, HELLA COMET, ZENI GEVA, ACHEBORN, ZEN GUERILLA, KURT, AGAINST ME, KEELHAUL, SENSUAL LOVE, ANALENA, WUNSCHKINDER, FRESNEL, BREATHER RESIST, RIVERWITCH, HSD, FUCKHEAD, PHILLIP Q., TODESSTERN, MADE OUT OF BABIES, DISGRACIA LEGEND, REFLECTOR, OXBOW, TEN VOLT SHOCK, UNHOLD, UNSANE, BETONGABI, TURN OUT, MEN KILLING MEN, JULITH KRISHUN, NEUME, IZEN, ARABROT, NARROWS, UNITED MOVEMENT, BLACK BOOKS, PLANKS…
“….This song says: don’t even think of trying to fuck with me, because you’ll be stone cold dead a second after….” Cracked
“ ….flirrende Soundwälle und hammerschwerer Noiserock….“ Big Kult
„ ….Mit „Klotho“ haben uns BUG einen kongenialen Kompagnon geliefert, der mit uns die dunklen Ecken unserer Gedanken erkundet und den perfekten Soundtrack – inklusive Katharsis – dazu liefert. Dass dabei lyrisch wie musikalisch eher der Fehde- denn der Samthandschuh gebraucht wird, sollte sich von selbst verstehen….“ Noisy neighbours
„ ….Bug sind brachial und wirken rundum gemein und bösartig, ohne dabei großartig in bestimmte vorbestimmte Raster zu passen….“ broken violence
„ BUG = Hendrix + Mayhem – Unsane“ unknown Slovenian lady
roadtriptoouttaspace.com 