Harvey Milk - st

Lovingly pinched from StonerRock.com: I’ve gone over my history with Harvey Milk in greater detail before, but for context’s sake, the condensed version is thus: Once upon a time, I was a no-nothing mainstream metalhead who had grown tired of the crap I listened to. Then I discovered Harvey Milk and it was, more or less, a musical rebirth. I still don’t know a hell of a lot, but thanks to Harvey Milk, I know more than nothing.

I owe the band a debt of gratitude, one that I gladly repay a small portion of every time a new release of theirs hits my desk. Even when the material isn’t a game changer – like the good-but-not-great contribution to their recent split with Wildildlife – it deserves a mention, because, well, it’s Harvey Milk. It may be genius or it may fall short, but it’s still worth a listen.

That said, their s/t (something tells me that’s the actual title and not an abbreviation for “self titled”), also known as The Bob Weston Sessions, also know as “The Debut That Never Was,” is another essential Harvey Milk album. But in this case, the target audience is a little more precise, namely those already on board with the band. Why? Because you've heard it all before.

Continue reading: StonerRock.com – Harvey Milk – s/t.

Kayo Dot

Here’s the PR wire:  Coyote, Kayo Dot’s fourth studio album, is a single, narrative-driven, long-form composition written with story and text provided by a close, terminally-ill friend of the band, Yuko Sueta, in the final stage of her life. Coyote was once again engineered by Randall Dunn (SunnO))), Earth, Six Organs of Admittance) in Seattle, Washington, forging a new genre of “goth fusion” which combines elements of early Cure, Faith and the Muse, and Bauhaus with Herbie Hancock’s psychedelic album, Sextant, and Scott Walker’s recent album, The Drift. The lyrics and story were constructed with deliberate melodrama to pay homage as well to the intended gothic vibe, expressing the protagonist’s loneliness and longing to be in a better place, and her journey through her own personal looking-glass through a hallucinatory world of fear and wonder.

The musical objective this time around was to create a piece of music that uses the sonic aesthetic of this specific era of gothic art-rock integrated with a more modern-classical approach to form and architecture. To achieve this, Kayo Dot has put together a new instrumentation, which features trumpet (provided by former Candiria trumpet player Tim Byrnes) and alto saxophone at the lead, backed up by violin, keyboards, piano, organ, bass guitar, percussion, and a pronounced lack of guitar across the album. This album also marks the return of former Kayo Dot member, Terran Olson, whose contributions were heard on the band’s 2003 debut, Choirs of the Eye, as well as with Kayo Dot’s alter-ego, Maudlin of the Well. The music is also more rhythmically-driven than any previous Kayo Dot work, and being a performance-oriented composition, it was recorded mostly live (similar to 2006’s Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue). Coyote also brings back some of the aggression absent from 2008’s Blue Lambency Downward.

Keelhaul - Triumphantly Return To Obscurity

I’m not going to front – besides listening to a couple of tracks from previous albums, this was the first album of theirs I listened to front to back. But recently I had the great fortune of seeing them play in Brooklyn (a.k.a Hipster Hell) and their live performance – this is going to sound like an odd description of a band that consists of four thirty-something, very average dudes – was electrifying and refreshingly different.

Continue reading:  Hellbound » Welcome to the Hellbound.ca Archives » Keelhaul: Keelhaul’s Triumphant Return to Obscurity.

Keelhaul - Triumphant Return To Obscurity

Triumphant Return To Obscurity, out on Hydra Head Records, “picks up on the band’s progression as if they were steadily releasing records throughout their six year hiatus. The pace is precise, the instrumentation is masterful and the guitar tones are absolutely appropriate”, according to a press release.

Greymachine - Disconnected

This is not music for the lighthearted this is the stuff nightmares are made out of. Droning soundscapes layered into weighted guitar riffs, feedback and general noise. This is the dark underbelly of the avante garde.

It’s no surprise that Greymachine operate this way since it features Justin Broderick and Diarmuid Dalton of Godflesh and Jesu fame as well as Aaron Turner of Isis and Old Man Gloom and Dave Cochran of Head Of David, God and Ice. Each of these musicians has mastered the art of turning extreme music on its ear and when they combine forces the results are like a bad car wreck. You want to turn away but you just can’t.

Continue reading: Double Play: Baroness and Greymachine – CraveOnline.com – Page 2.

Greymachine’s Disconnected is available for streaming on the band’s website.

Jodis

James Plotkin describes the sound of Jodis as “expansive, tonal, minimal, or all of the above. It has been described to me as a more relaxed Khanate, and a much heavier Low.”

Jodis’ debut album entitled Secret House will be released on October 27 via Hydra Head records. A track called ‘Continents’ is available for streaming on James Plotkin’s website.

Continue reading: James Plotkin – current actions.

Khanate - Clean Hands Go Foul

Clean Hands Go Foul, the fourth and likely final full-length from late experimental metal outsiders Khanate, deserves a warning label: “Not recommended for those with mild-to-severe mental disturbances,” it could read before countering, “Well, just promise not to hurt anyone, OK?”

Its brittle, monstrous tones shake whatever space they enter. Riffs coil, shatter, and splinter into notes that disperse like buckshot. Words trade mythology for purely imagistic hatred. You could imagine Khanate pushing some feeble soul over the edge. This was true of Khanate on their previous LPs, but Clean Hands Go Foul– which the band recorded in 2005 before breaking up in 2006– ups the aggression until it feels like a score for nervous breakdowns and wanton rampages.

Khanate once found a riff and marched behind it, cutting it open and bleeding it until but a din of feedback or a vortex of noise remained. Clean Hands doesn’t worry so much for the riff or the rhythms, though. Instead, it aims directly for the blood, or the sense that these songs are for, well, ending the world. Cuddly stuff, really.

Continue reading: Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Khanate: Clean Hands Go Foul.

Jesu mastermind and former Godflesh frontman Justin Broadrick and Isis leader Aaron Turner have teamed up to form Greymachine, along with fellow Jesu / Godflesh member Diarmuid Dalton and Head of David’s Dave Cochrane. Broadrick and Turner have both been known to maintain a ton of side projects, so it’s really no surprise that they’d eventually find each other.

What is surprising is just how obliteratingly noisy and sludged-out the result is. You can download the 10-minute Greymachine track “Vultures Descend” right here. “Vultures Descend” will find a home on Disconnected, Greymachine’s debut album, due August 4 from Hydra Head.

Please read full newsflash at: Pitchfork: Jesu + Isis = Greymachine.

Keelhaul

Stolen lovingly from (our favorite blog) www.terrorizer.com:

Keelhaul have finally got around to announcing their new album, ‘Keelhaul’s Triumphant Return To Obscurity. It’s out August 18th through Hydra Head.

According to their website:

“Keelhaul’s ‘Triumphant Return to Obscurity’, is not just a clever name for an album marking a band’s return from obscurity, it’s an album title for a band’s release marking that same band’s return from obscurity, innit?

Chris Smith, Aaron Dallison, Dana Embrose, and Will Scharf have been at it as Keelhaul for over ten years and it shows. This record picks up on the band’s progression as if they were steadily releasing records throughout their six year hiatus

Please read the full newsflash:  KEELHAUL ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM | Terrorizer.com.

Kayo Dot

Fresh off of a U.S. tour opening for Trey Spruance’s amazing Secret Chiefs 3, Kayo Dot has arrived in Seattle to begin recording its second full-length release for Hydra Head Industries.

Throughout the tour, Kayo Dot performed and refined the new compositions, bringing them to new audiences and honing them for the upcoming recording, with Toby Driver also picking up bass duties for Secret Chiefs 3 each night.

According to a press release, “The new music features another sonic shift in the ever-evolving sonic lexicon of Kayo Dot.

Please read the full newsflash at:  BLABBERMOUTH.NET – KAYO DOT Begins Recording New Album.