I know I’m getting to the BOM early, but I’m only going to have one more post after this before we move into next year, and besides, I already have the recipients picked out, so I don’t see any need to tarry. Oh, and if you don’t know by now, December is henceforth renamed Decembeard, although I do encourage you to just grow a beard every month, forever and always. Ok?
Now, this month’s winner is whomever this guy is! While I don’t know his name, I do love his beard; I can only hope my beard seasons itself as beautifully as his has. This savory gentleman, who, given the time of year, might be the coolest Santa ever with a beat-up pick-up for a sled, was posted on The Twilight Singers’ facebook page, and not only is it a terrific shot featuring a terrific beard, it’s got Greg Dulli’s fingerprints on it. Also terrific. Anyway, sir, your beard is storm born and wicked as hell, so congratulations!
Oh, and this month’s runners up are Kevin Clark and Tim Herzog from the North Carolina sludge metal band Black Skies. I never got around to reviewing their new album, On the Wings of Time, so I’m making up for it by honouring their singer/guitarist and drummer right here and now. But really, they would’ve made it based on those beards alone because those are some legit fuckers. Sea captain up front, wizard in the rear. Hell of a job, fellas.
In the spirit of brevity — or laziness, if you prefer — I’m going to go back to something I wrote awhile ago and give it a face-lift for the sake of this review (if you want to read the original version of this passage, go here):
You know, as far as I’m concerned, if you sound exactly like Black Sabbath you are doing something right, so keep on with yo’ nocturnal self, ’cause Black Sabbath are the pinnacle of doom and metal. Stealing their crooked staff for your midnight stroll through the graveyard of evil is hardly a crime. In fact, it’s a noble thing to do. The truth of the matter is, any band worth their salt will have elements of The Stooges, Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, or AC/DC in their music.
Right, so on their debut full-length, Capricorn, San Francisco’s Orchid present us with an album full o’ witchy-riffed psych-blues that, had it been recorded in 1969, would be the subject of the first chapter of all tomes concerning the history of heavy metal. I mean, not only does the music sound like Iommi shit it out himself from atop a moss-covered tower, but the song titles read like a stoned Sabbath freak got a hold of some fridge magnet poetry at a party; dig “Eyes Behind the Wall,” “Black Funeral,” “Masters of it All,” “Cosmonaut of Three,” and “Electric Father” for the most obvious examples. Their 2009 EP, Through the Devil’s Doorway, made a lot of hay, but Capricorn has blown the gates of the void wide open, and is a swirling tempest of dark mastery and cosmic wizardry in spite of the familiar force of its headwinds. Or perhaps because of it.
Check out the video for “Cosmonaut of Three” from Capricorn!
Elder tap that critical vein, the one where the blood runs slow and thick, and they must know how good their stuff tastes, how addictive it really is, because like any pusher worth their salt, they hook us five songs at a time every two to three years. Thank Satan’s graces that those five songs hold enough crushing doom to keep us down and out until the next batch roll around. ‘Twas the way with their self-titled debut and just when you thought they’d been pinched and were gone forever, lost to the land of the tattooed sodomites, they show up like a greasy cousin to ruin your life once more. And with news that Black Pyramid has crumbled, now is the perfect time for Elder to indoctrinate the proud and confused with their spaced-out Sleep worship. On Dead Roots Stirring, the Massachusetts trio take the fuzz-punch of their debut and trick it out with a heavy dose of harmonics and melodic riffs, creating a more energized psych-doom that treads other genre waters as well, like stoner rock and post-rock. The end result is 52 minutes of boundary-baiting boldness; part Wizard, part Sasquatch, part Jupiter, all Awesome.
Orchid
Elder