I prefer to review albums the year they are released in order not to appear dated, but sometimes albums find their way to me the following calendar year. I respect the effort (and, in some cases, money) bands put into sending me their music for review, so the least I can do is give them some blog time. Here’s a quick run through some music that was released in 2011, because it’s never too late…
Nordic Nomadic Worldwide Skyline
Tee Pee
When Chad Ross of Toronto psychedelic rockers Quest for Fire decides to go solo, he does so as Nordic Nomadic, and his output (2007′s self-titled album and this one), while softly bathed in psychedelic waters, is not drenched in the kind of fuzz that soaks Quest for Fire’s body of work. Instead, Ross reverts, like a mystic on a mountaintop, to the natural order of things, his dreamy folk dictated by delicate finger picking that dances over haunting drone, distant distortion, and deep bass, his voice a spiritual messenger sent to soothe your soul.
Roman numerals? Check. Skull wearing a crown? Check. Band name so good I can’t believe it’s never been taken? Check again. Yeah, I did all sorts of book cover judging with this four-song EP, making a barrel full o’ assumptions that the substance was going to match the style, and sure enough, it does. Chest’s MMXI EP is some bad-ass, bottomed out business, a feast of Finnish doom served at a rotting roundtable where the ghosts of Galahad and Gawain are scrounging up the sludgy scraps. It’s a thing of beauty when the eyes and ears work together, isn’t it?
Lauren K. Newman (drums) and Terrica Kleinknecht (guitar) originally began life as Stickitin, an experimental double drum duo (!), but must’ve decided that they could make a lot more sludgy noise if one of ‘em picked up a guitar, and thus Palo Verde was born. These Portland, Oregon (there it is again!) DIY females are as back-to-basic as they come, recording and self-releasing their own albums over the years out of their home studio, and have gigged in a million and one bands you and I have never heard of, a devotion no doubt laced with small traces of insanity. Which is why we get something like the unrehearsed four-song, 45 minute Zero Hour, completely unlikable in the best way possible, an unbearably raw, amplified beat down powered by corrosive, dying batteries. Apparently Palo Verde are best experienced live, but this album is certainly making an impression.
Bring the Knife Bring the Knife
Thrashachusetts Records
Bring the Knife is a Boston metal band whose self-titled debut 7″ fuses Anthrax thrash with C.O.C. crossover, tosses in a whole bunch of Wylde-esque squealing harmonics (courtesy of ex Glamorous Stuntcock axe wielder Pattie the Gimp), and delivers a barroom mosh madness that ought to have people betting on hardcore elbow thrusts like basketball games. Released on singer Duncan Wilder Johnson’s own Thrashachusetts Records label, Bring the Knife contains all kinds of treacherous bite, specifically Johnson’s socially conscious verbal attacks on “At the End of Days” and “I Walk Through Flames Every Hour to Feel Free” and the B-movie brain punch of “Werewolf Fuckdown” and “Viking Skull Thrust”.
Before we’re hit with the new Melvins full-length, Freak Puke, in June, the mega-cult stoner/doom/sludge/grunge/metal band has decided to treat us to a free download of a new five-song EP, The Bulls and the Bees. Free, you say? Yes, and I know how much you want it, so go here and get it. Now, The Bulls and the Bees features the four-man lineup we’ve grown accustomed to in recent years, with Buzz “King Buzzo” Osbourne and Dale Crover being joined by Coady Willis and Jared Warren of Big Business, but that won’t be the case with Freak Puke (that album will see the Melvins as a three-piece again, dubbed Melvins Lite, with Trevor Dunn beside Osbourne and Crover), so if you love the extra sack kick you get from Willis and Warren, be sure to click on that link. With the exception of “A Really Long Wait,” which is about three minutes of ambient seance spook, The Bulls and the Bees is busting with enormous, Buzzo-nutty riffs, whether they be of the massive and groovy (“The War on Wisdom”), punishing and drum-filled (“We Are Doomed”), weird and spacey (“Friends Before Larry”), or psychedelic and fuzzy (“National Hamster”) variety. There’s also plenty of scary but melodic vocals and it all sounds like it’s gonna plunge the Pacific Northwest into the ocean, so basically what we’ve got here is some good ol’ Melvins fare.
Check out the video for “The War on Wisdom” from The Bulls and the Bees!
Why is Torche so fucking good? Because they’re candy, that’s why. And they’re a black eye. Ok, I’m punch drunk, I admit it. I’m on a sugar high. I’m caught up in a vortex of pure pleasure, my mind dancing like metal shavings under a magnet; it’s what happens when I listen to a new Torche album. But euphoric straightjacket notwithstanding, I’m certain no other band has ever fused catchy and heavy so successfully as Torche, and Harmonicraft is a benchmark achievement. They blow the sky wide open right from the start with “Letting Go” and “Kicking,” both of which are standout, amped-up graduates from The Wildhearts’ school of power pop, then the leads completely lose it on “Walk it Off” and “Reverse Inverted” and you suddenly realize how good Torche sound with solos, and by the time the harrowing riff beast “In Pieces” announces itself as what is sure to be the loudest addition to Torche’s live set list, you’re flat out in comatose bliss. But it doesn’t stop there. Oh, no. Next you find yourself riding the haywire merry-go-round that is “Snakes Are Charmed” and when that merry-go-round flies off its bearings and runs amok in “Sky Trials,” you’re beyond thrilled to be part of the happy chaos. And so on and so on all the way down the rest of the 13-song line until the “Harmonicraft” itself lands amid a static attack and the Earth slowly falls out from underneath you on closer “Looking On”. The re-addition of a second guitarist (Andrew Elstner) seems to have given the Florida band opportunity to tweak their dynamic and push their signature rush of melodic sludge into the various creative avenues mentioned above, and thus Harmonicraft (which has been produced by the band and mixed by Kurt Ballou) bursts forth from the metal stratosphere with devastatingly delicious (and awesomely gay — see the cover and “Kiss Me Dudely”) certitude. Man, so fucking good might be an understatement.
Nordic Nomadic
Chest
Palo Verde
Bring the Knife
Torche