Bands – Page 5 – Southern Lord Recordings Europe

Sunn O)))

Sunn O)))) formed in March 1998 in Los Angeles. A synthesis of diverse: drone, ur, noise, metal, minimalism/maximalism; supported by a cast of collaborators, O))) has two core members: Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson.

For twenty years, Sunn O))) have been challenging the way we think about music. In that relatively brief time, core members Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson have forged connections between the worlds of Metal, Drone, Contemporary Composition, Jazz and Minimalism with startling results while remaining true to the eternal principles of volume, density and weight.

The release of The Grimmrobe Demos (1999) sent tremors throughout the underground with its bold realisation of hitherto unimagined heaviness. Building on the innovations of Seattle pioneers Earth – and naming a track in honour of their leader Dylan Carlson – Sunn O))) forged even deeper into a realm of reverberating darkness. However it was with the release of ØØ Void (2000) that the duo staked their claim as an outfit that would redefine how we view – and hear – guitar music in the early 21st century. There were detractors and skeptics, of course. But, undeterred, O’Malley and Anderson continued to refine their sound with 2002’s Flight Of The Behemoth, featuring contributions from legendary Japanese Noise artist Masami Akita aka Merzbow.

Evolving at a rate contrasting with the pace of their diurnal riffs, Sunn O))) unleashed White1 in 2003. This ambitious sonic document constituted many listeners’ first contact with the outfit and demonstrated the flexibility of their aesthetic. Contributions from Runhild Gammelsaeter (Thorr’s Hammer), Joe Preston (Melvins/Thrones) and the arch-drude himself, Julian Cope, assisted the music’s rapid radiation from its molten core of heavily amplified ambience. Around this time, the mainstream music media started to take an interest: the baffled curiosity that greeted ØØ Void gave way to the suspicion that something not unlike a paradigm shift was taking place. In interviews, O’Malley and Anderson revealed themselves as engaged and articulate ambassadors for the world of sound they had created. Meanwhile, rumours of hooded figures grinding out immense, immersive riffs suggested that Sunn O))) were a live experience to be reckoned with. This was confirmed by a succession of actions including a thunderous performance at London’s Underworld on Halloween 2003, an event preserved for posterity on the live album The Libations Of Samhain (2004). Sunn O)))’s live career is littered with such landmark shows. The group’s performance at Bergen Cathedral, Norway as part of the Borealis Festival in 2007 was immortalised on vinyl as Dømkirke in 2008, for example, and they have staged similarly memorable interventions at many international music festivals including Barcelona’s Sonar (2009), Krakow’s Unsound (2009), CTM Berlin (2013), Japan’s Earthdom (2007) and Leave Them All Behind (2012), North Carolina’s Hopscotch (2012), Primavera in Barcelona (2015), Australia’s Totally Huge New Music Festival (2007) and All Tomorrow’s Parties/The Nightmare Before Christmas (2003, 2004, 2007 and 2009), Supersonic (2007 and 2009) in the UK, Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival (2009), OFF Festival, Katowice (2015), Meltdown Festival , London twice: Royal Festival Hall (curated by David Byrne) in 2015 & Queen Elizabeth Hall (curated by Jarvis Cocker) in 2007, Hellfest in France (2012 & 2016), Leave Them All Behind, Tokyo (2012). Adelaide Festival (2016). Sunn O))) also curated the 2011 edition of Holland’s legendary Roadburn Festival, bringing together Keiji Haino, Winter, Scorn, Earth, Voivod and Circle among other heavyweights. In November 2015, Sunn O))) presented a four-day program at Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, the Netherlands, including Annette Peacock, Magma, Julia Holter and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and Sunn O))) itself

At this moment the axis of the band irreversibly changed as grand vocalist and shamanistic Attila Csihar entered the constellation of the band. By the time White2 followed in 2004, which marked further steps into the collaborative experimental aesthetic spaces beyond and SUNN O)))’s initial recorded collaboration with the magnificent Csihar, there was no denying the group’s impact. The shockwaves travelled internationally and were received eagerly by an audience notable for its diversity. Metalheads, Noiseniks and experimental aficionados were united in their appreciation while countless artists and groups attempted to incorporate Sunn O)))’s visceral churn into their own creations.

For their next full-length release, O’Malley and Anderson journeyed deep into the abyss. With Malefic (Xasthur) and Wrest (Leviathan) on vocal duties, Black One was misinterpreted by some as Sunn O)))’s attempt at a Black Metal record. In fact it was, as O’Malley told The Wire Magazine in 2009, “a stark exploration” of certain aspects of their work. However bleak and unforgiving, Black One was their most collaborative effort to date, an approach which similarly informed O’Malley and Anderson’s other major release of 2006, Altar. Co-credited to Japanese rock mutants Boris, this album explored a broad spectrum of sonic strategies from thick, oily miasma to graceful, almost country-ish songcraft. The two groups came together for triumphant live performances of the album at Club Citta in Kawasaki Japan May 2007, London’s Kentish Town Forum in December 2007 and at ATP New York in September 2010.

Advancing from a self-created world and operating on their own terms, Sunn O))) have proven themselves the model of what King Crimson’s Robert Fripp would call a “small, mobile, intelligent unit”. They are capable of expanding or contracting their line-up according to the needs of each project and of moving fluidly between the concert hall and the academy. For a 2006 collaboration with Banks Violette at the Maureen Paley Gallery in London, O’Malley and Anderson performed inside a sealed room while vocalist Attila Csihar clawed his way, vampire-like, out of a black coffin. The audience were permitted to hear – but not see – the sounds created, although the relics of the performance were later preserved in salt and exhibited. That same year, Sunn O))) performed alongside Liars, Burning Star Core and Leopard Leg as part of the music strand of the Frieze Art Fair, filling the London Hippodrome with wave upon wave of amplification with the assistance of Godflesh/Jesu legend Justin Broadrick.

Pushing forward in their recorded work but unafraid to embrace their past, in 2008 Sunn O))) announced a number of live shows to mark the tenth anniversary of their first release The Grimmrobe Demos. For these dates, O’Malley and Anderson returned to their original two-man line-up, thereby reminding audiences where and how it all began, exposing once again the fundamental core of their sound. The same year saw Japanese label Daymare Recordings reissue ØØ Void with an extra disc of collaborations with legendary British experimentalists Nurse With Wound. Their sixth album nevertheless indicated a group with its feet planted firmly in the present. Monoliths And Dimensions (2009) retained the heaviness of previous releases whilst incorporating elements of spectralist composition and jazz. The album’s finale, Alice, was the most elegiac and beautiful piece the group had ever recorded, its mood of profound melancholy enhanced by veteran jazz trombonist Julian Priester (Sun Ra/Herbie Hancock) and typically masterful group arrangements courtesy of Eyvind Kang.

2014 saw the long-awaited release of their collaborative album with Norway’s Ulver entitled Terrestrials. Following their 200th gig, playing before 2000 people at the 2008 Øya festival, Sunn O))) teamed up with Norwegian legends Ulver at their Oslo studio, Crystal Canyon. They recorded three “live in improvisation” pieces, starting that evening and ending at dawn, as Northern sunlight seeped in through the windows. The three-track recording is fluid like the flow of magma beneath the Earth’s crust: sonically uninhibited, unpredictably cosmic, haunting and stirring yet simultaneously ceremonious and beautiful. The same year saw an unpredictable collaboration with the cult composer Scott Walker, entitled Soused and released via the cult label 4AD, a body of work he wrote with SUNN O))) in mind. Sunn O)))’s dark reverbs adding nuanced textures of enigmatic yet disconcerting melody to Walker’s unmistakable and commanding baritone.

Composed in the aftershadow of the aforementioned recent successes in immersive collaboration, Sunn O)))’s latest full-length Kannon (2015) emerged both independently as a conceptual entity and with roots in the legacies of those projects. The band also engaged closely with the literal representation of Kannon, an aspect of Buddha: commonly known as the Guanyin Bodhisattva (Chinese: 觀音菩薩) amongst a plurality of other forms. Aliza Shvartz was commissioned to write a text / liner notes around these ideas and topics. She explores the relations and perceptions of their approach to these ideas via the metonym of music and discusses Sunn O)))’s place/approach within the framework of music and metal overall, exemplifying that Sunn O))) recognise and shape the physical, discursive and philosophical ideas that inspire, impact and transmute their sonic vision.

Kannon is also very close to the cyclical character of mantra which the band has evolved into as a living creature with the live concert element – the organism that has flourished, metamorphosed and transcended tremendously over the past decade, and continues to do so. In order to document the intense sensate detail of their live sonic invocations, Sunn O))) have established two Bandcamp pages which serve as an exhaustive archive of their entire back catalogue, including rarities and essential live material. Their live Bandcamp page is compiled of taper and fan recordings, spanning from their 2002 show at the Blackbird in Portland up to their recent headlining shows in summer 2017. These documents are presented in their raw and unedited beauty and fans are invited to contribute to this sonic archive.

At the very beginning of 2018 SUNN O))) co-founders Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson set out on a path toward a new album production. They were both determined to create new music and a new method of working in the studio, without forgetting the long and proud history of production and studio accomplishments forged during their first two decades of existence (and the members’ own musical experiences out of the band’s). One long term goal was completely clear: to record Sunn O))) with Steve Albini in his Electrical Audio studio. Steve took the call, said “Sure, this will be fun. I have no idea what is going to happen.”

In July 2018 SUNN O))) spent just over two weeks in Chicago at Electrical Audio (Studio A) with Steve Albini at the helm. The results are astounding: there is breadth and luminosity of colour, it sounds vast. The sessions were impeccably recorded, authentically represented and completely accurate. The spectrum cracked the firmament open in clarity. An all analogue technique was used, they recorded and mixed on tape, providing a creative gateway for SUNN O))) to evolve their production methods into stronger, confident, performance based and a more logical executive process. The album was mastered and lacquers cut from tape in October by SUNN O))) ally Matt Colton at Alchemy in London. The LP version is a AAA album, recorded and mixed on tape via a completely analogue production, from the input of the band’s amplifiers and the air coming off the speakers in front of the microphones to needle touching the pressed vinyl on your turntable.

Continuing one of the main currents of the SUNN O))) concept, depth of exploration within collaboration, brought forth Hildur Guðnadóttir to the Sunn O))) constellation. Hildur is a sometime live collaborator of Sunn O))) and a renowned film music composer, former member of the bands Múm, Pan Sonic and Angel. She was a long time collaborator with the composer Jóhann Jóhannsson (RIP). Hildur lent her incredible attitude, as well as her voice, breath and electric cello, and the enigmatic haldorophone to the proceedings, culminating in the epic composition/concerto “Novæ”. The cosmos clearly expands.

The resulting album is titled Life Metal. It is fully realised and completely real. The record was produced by the core of Stephen & Greg & arranged by the greater constellation Sunn O))). Paintings by visual artist Samantha Keely Smith graciously adorn the sleeve and provide a perfect suitable mask to the proceedings. They collide ideas of 19th century romanticism & late 20th abstract expressionism (mysticism) with Sunn O)))’s approach to metal (via reference points of Arbo, Turner, Delville, Richter, Turrel, Wou-Ki). Photographer Ronald Dick shot them in baths of light colour representing depth of sound pressure in the work.

The Pyroclasts album is the result of a daily practice which was regularly performed each morning, or evening during the two week Life Metal sessions at Electrical Audio during July 2018, when all of the days musical participants would gather and work through a 12 minute improvised modal drone at the start and or end of the day’s work. The piece performed was timed with a stopwatch and tracked to two inch tape, it was an exercise and a chance to dig into a deep opening or closing of the days session in a deep musical way with all of the participants. To connect/reconnect, liberate the creative mind a bit and greet each other and the space through the practice of sound immersion. The players across the four pieces of Pyroclasts are Tim Midyett, T.O.S., Hildur Guðnadóttir, and as always Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson.

The music on Pyroclasts is inextricably woven to Life Metal. It exists on the very same tape reels, was explicitly recorded by Steve Albini. The brightness and vividity of that glorious session glares through these four tracks, the precision and radiance, prismatic lustrousness of the saturation, the elemental sculptural shapes, the abstract renderings. It is a sister, or perhaps a shadow album. Or perhaps the now apparent miasma or aether. But it also exists in a form of a pause, a time space which exist in between and around the compositional structures of Sunn O)))’s titanic works.

For the listener or recipient/participant there are deep rewards within the patience of pulling down the walls and letting the music feel, and feel the music. To be immersed will reveal great detail and colour, clarify image, encourage a depth of focus and stillness which may lead to a quite profound experience. Sitting inside the space of time. A deep form of elementalism, even atomism, and connection with presence moment, time and reality.

In late October 2019, following a successful UK tour ending in a sold-out concert at the mythical Roundhouse in London, SUNN O))) entered studio 4 of the BBC Maida Vale. On invitation to record a live session for Mary Anne Hobbs to be broadcast on Samhain via her excellent radio show on BBC6. To enter the legendary John Peel studios was to enter a temple of music and experimentation, liberty in ideas and sound.

The band was nearing the end of a long touring year around the Life Metal and Pyroclasts albums. SUNN O))) had developed the compositions extensively, embracing the formative concepts of the Life Metal album conceptually and emotionally, but actualised and evolved into vast, open and bright hyper-saturated arrangements. Particularly the pieces the band chose to perform on this recording: Troubled Air and Pyroclasts. The former enriched into a total aspect of the band’s ethos and form in many ways, and Pyroclasts had evolved to become all-inclusive radiation of O))). The radiation embraces collaboration and freedom of interpretation by each player, within a structural format of the massive monuments of sound and distortion which define SUNN O))).

Anna Von Hausswolff and her band had accompanied SUNN O))) on the UK leg, and Anna joined SUNN O))) in the studio on synths and with her tremendous voice on the Pyroclasts pieces. The resulting album ” Metta, Benevolence BBC 6Music : Live on the invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs” Was released in early 2021.

For Sunn O)))’s 25th anniversary in 2023 the band recorded a seven inch EP for the legendary Seattle label Sub Pop’s equally legendary singles series. SUNN O))) also recorded celebratory 25th anniversary demos with producer Brad Wood; all leading toward a brand new forthcoming album to be recorded in early 2025.

Post-pandemic, SUNN O))) continues to plan live activities with dates across North America and Europe. In celebration of their 25 years founders/guitarists Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson returned to the live aspect in its core, original raw form and performed several tours across Europe and North America as a duo.

Together they relentlessly pursue their exploration and elaboration of Sunn O)))’s legendary experiments with the physicality of sound in instrumental based live performances with remarkable events at some of their favourite venues, as well as concerts as part of singular events and in unique spaces such as David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, Italy’s impressive cultural complex Labrinto Della Masone, Germany’s Ruhrtriennale Festival of Arts, Royal Festival Hall & The Barbican in London, Bergen’s Dømkirke and Manchester International Festival being a few emblematic examples.

Immersed in profound valve amplification, spectral harmonics, distortion and volume. Pure and primaeval riffs of temporality, massively heavy structures of sound pressure. Devoted audiences bear witness to a live experience of physical sound, fog and glacial maximalism like no other.

All hail.

-Joseph Stannard, Lauren Barley & Stephen O’Malley

SUNN O))) DISCOGRAPHY 1998-2024

1999 The Grimmrobe Demos
2000 ØØ Void
2002 Flight of the Behemoth
2003 White1
2003 Veils It White / EP
2004 Live White / Live album
2004 LXNDXN Subcamden Underworld
2004 White2
2004 Cro-Monolithic Remixes for an Iron Age/ 12”
2005 Candlewolf of the Golden Chalice / 12”
2005 Black One
2005 Solstitium Fulminate / Live album
2006 Angel Coma / 12”
2006 La Mort Noir dans Esch / Alzette / Live album
2006 WhiteBox
2006 Altar / collaboration with Boris
2007 Oracle
2008 Dømkirke
2009 Monoliths & Dimensions
2009 Che / collaboration with Pan sonic
2009 (初心) Grimmrobes Live 101008 / cassette
2011 The Iron Soul of Nothing / collaboration with Nurse With Wound
2011 Agharti Live 09-10 / Live album
2012 Rehearsal Demo Nov 11 2011 / 12”
2014 LA Reh 012 / 12”
2014 Terrestrials / collaboration with Ulver
2014 Soused / collaboration with Scott Walker
2015 Kannon
2015 青木ヶ原 // 樹海 7″
2016 Нежить (Live in Moscow)
2018 Downtown LA Rehearsal / Rifftape March 1998
2019 Life Metal
2019 Pyroclasts
2021 Metta, Benevolence
2023 Evil Chuck b/w Ron G Warrior 7″ / Sub Pop singles series
2023 25th Anniversary Rehearsal Demo

Sleep

Formed as a Bay Area hc/ punk rock band called Asbestosdeath, the band changed their musical direction and name and debuted as Sleep with their “Volume One” album in 1991. After Justin Marler left the band, the core lineup of Al Cisneros, Matt Pike and Chris Hakius went into the studio to record a demo cassette that they sent to Earache Records. The recording was released in November 1992 (exactly as received by the label!) under the name “Sleep’s Holy Mountain” and went on to forever alter the musical landscape. Countless current bands cite “Sleep’s Holy Mountain” as a major inspiration, and the unique sound and style of the record can be heard in many subsequent releases by bands from all over the world.

“Sleep’s Holy Mountain” created such a humongous buzz that major label London Records signed the band. Unfortunately, the label lacked the vision necessary to actually follow through and release the album that Sleep recorded, mostly because it took the not-radio-friendly form of a Single song — a 63 minute long ode to weed — called “Dopesmoker.” Sleep returned to the studio and edited the track down to 52 minutes and retitled it “Jerusalem”, but it was again rejected. London Records shelved the record and dropped the band, leading to their dissolution.

“Dopesmoker” was recorded by Billy Anderson (Neurosis, Melvins) at Record Two Studio in Comptche, California While recording the song, it began to form differently than the band had originally envisioned. Pike stated that the “song was getting slower and slower and then it got weird. We started tripping out and second guessing ourselves.” Recording the album was difficult. Pike recalled that “there was so much to memorize for that album, and we had to do it in like three different sections because a reel-to-reel only holds 22 minutes. It was really cool, but it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in in my life.”Sleep were in the studio for one month then went home to rehearse and returned for another month. Pike noted that they ended up with two or three different versions of the song.

In the aftermath of the breakup of the band four versions of the album were released. In 1999″Jerusalem” came out with a running time of 52 minutes and is a single composition split into six identically-named tracks. There are 3 different versions/releases of “Jerusalem” : (1) a rare London Records promotional disc (2) a bootleg with cover art by Arik Roper, and (3) the Rise Above/Music Cartel Records All three of these versions are edited and considered unauthorized versions. The version of the album titled Dopesmoker was released on April 22, 2003 by Tee Pee Records on compact disc and vinyl with a 63-minute running time. That version is the only version the band considers to be “authorized” and worthy of release. “Dopesmoker” stands as one of the towering achievements in recent metal history, a mesmerizing, intoxicating, and incredibly complex song that is still unrivaled in the annals of (stoner) metal.

In 2011 Southern Lord was contacted by Sleeps’ Al Cisneros about the possibility of releasing a deluxe version of this classic recording. The rights to the record had reverted back to the band and Cisneros wanted to breathe some new life into the old beast. Southern Lord was overwhelmingly ecstatic about the challenge of taking the reigns of one of the most important recordings in the history of Heavy Metal! The Lord version features brand new artwork by long time Sleep artist: Arik Roper who created something specifically special for the albums’ rebirth. The biggest difference between this new version and the old releases is the phenomenal remastering job by From Ashes Rise guitarist Brad Boatright (OFF!, Noothgrush). His vision was to enhance the original recording without changing it drastically. What he has done makes this epic opus sound invigorated, more powerful with more clarity and all around unbelievably mammoth. His work was enthusiastically approved by the band and considering how focused, vigilant and protective of their masterpiece the band is, that is nothing short of a miracle! Also exclusive to the reborn version of “Dopesmoker” is a unreleased live track of one of the best songs the band ever did: “Holy Mountain”. The booklet features newly penned liner notes by the band helping shed some new light on this holy grail of a album. “Drop out of life with bong in hand, follow the smoke to the riff-filled land”!

Sleep reformed in 2009 and now includes Jason Roeder of Neurosis on drums. In 2014 the band recorded a brand new song: “The Clarity”

The first new song from the masters since their life changing, anthemic 63 minutes & 36 second opus to marijuana: Dopesmoker (1999)!: “The Clarity” on side A, Etching on side B. Artwork (Etching) by David V. D’Andrea. Mastered by John Golden. Recorded by Noah Landis. “The Clarity” 12” was previously only available directly from the band via their merch table or online web-store. This Southern Lord version has been recut by Adam Gonsalves/Telegraph Mastering and pressed on 180 gram vinyl at RTI.

The Lord version also has the ultra heavy-weight vinyl housed in a thick plastic picture disc style sleeve with the iconic Sleep logo silk-screened in GLOW IN THE DARK INK on the front.

While there may have been a few like them before them, there were none like them really and certainly none of after them. And so in 2009 when they were reborn with Cisneros who’d been reframing the world with the band OM, Matt Pike doing double duty with this and his HIGH ON FIRE, and the estimable Jason Roeder doing the same with NEUROSIS, SLEEP did what it had done and what it had left to do. Largely and without pause, make music in tune with The Ages.

SECT

Comprised of an international cast of scene veterans, who cut their teeth in that formative moment of political, cynical, antagonistic extremes, SECT unites vocalist Chris Colohan (Cursed, Burning Love, Left For Dead), guitarists James Chang (Catharsis, Undying) and Scott Crouse (Earth Crisis, The Path Of Resistance), bassist Steve Hart (Day Of Suffering), and drummer Andy Hurley (Racetraitor,FocusedXMinds, Burning Empires, Earth Crisis, Vegan Reich)

The result of these musicians’ alignment is a caustic, riotous, belligerent style of vile hardcore fed by a boundless well of socio-political vitriol.

SECT gets right down to the blast beats and breakdowns that fight it out in their chaotic jams. They cut the shit and go for the throat with no time to waste, “because the Orwellian police states and irreparable social and ecological disasters we once saw off on the horizon are now on our front doorsteps, in full swing. And in just such a volatile, precarious moment as this for civilization, there is more reason than ever to keep lashing out at a world more suicidally-bent on its own destruction and the exploitation of people, species and the ecosystem itself, than perhaps ever before in history.”

For SECT, this is the purpose of hardcore as they know it, conveying an urgency that transcends age, credentials or scene politics, to convert desperation into real talk and action.

Sarabante

Sarabante is a crust/ hardcore punk band from Athens, Greece formed in late 2006.. During the summer of 2011, they released their first album “Remnants”.
The LP was released by Sara Records, the band’s own label, followed by a limited edition CD by Southern Lord Records. Ensuing was an Eastern European tour and numerous local live shows, while releasing in spring of 2013 “Έρμαια Των Καιρών / Under The Shadows”, a 7” EP via Man in Decline Records.

Ruin

Southern Lord are extremely pleased to be reviving the music of Philadelphia’s lost punk heroes, Ruin. Long considered a treasured local delicacy of the city’s earlier hardcore scene, Ruin released two albums during their original run, 1984’s He-Ho and 1986’s Fiat Lux, both of which will be combined in for a vinyl release this December.

Set against the backdrop of a city destroying itself in slow motion, Ruin were of a Philly generation that had to create its own culture to push back against the despair and dead ends that they were confronted with. Their relative isolation is mirrored in the distance between Ruin’s muscular, turbo-garage jams and the rest of US punk/HC at the time – the band got it across not through violent speed and mania, but with body-shaking chunks of simpler punk that refused to fit in with the wider template. Labelled from their early days as a Buddhist hardcore band (though not strictly the truth), Ruin are an object of intrigue that have rewarded the curious since 1982, but getting your hands on either out of print He-Ho or Fiat Lux has never been an easy task. A recorded output that totals 28 tracks (including a couple of significant Leonard Cohen covers that were praised by the artist himself) will at last be available on a wider scale, including original scans of the detailed lyric sheets and inserts, as well as in depth retrospective notes that help to place Ruin in Philly and punk history.

Performing on candlelit stages all clad head to toe in white, Ruin aren’t a band to listen to if you want to hear another near identical iteration of a New York, LA or Midwest sound – they simply couldn’t be playing for any other reason than to satisfy themselves and realise their ideas. They rocked hard and loud but in their own method, and the heat and sweat of their playing emanates from the rich recordings.

Power Trip

Power Trip executes music with raw energy. They’ve trimmed the fat on every reference they pull from – whether that’s Hardcore, Metal or Punk – to make music that actually cuts in 2017. Hailing from Dallas, the band have toured the world relentlessly for years. Their musical proficiency, perfect song structure, rich tones, fierce riffs, delivery and collective attitude has seeded them as one of today’s most prolific acts in any astute or heavy genre. Power Trip boldly surprise their broad fan base by performing alongside less obvious artists – closing the gap that in 2017’s social climate desperately needs to be filled. One month you can catch them playing with Title Fight, Merchandise or Big Freedia, the next you can catch them on a long tour with Napalm Death or Anthrax. They’re a powerful storm of aggression, gaining more and more momentum with true, honest spirit.

Nightmare Logic has taken Power Trip’s classic Exodus-meets-Cro-Mags sound to new places. With hooks and tightness rivaling greats like Pantera or Pentagram and production by the esteemed Arthur Rizk, Nightmare Logic punishes fans not only sonically but with pure songwriting skill. The sophomore release and second on Southern Lord Records, raises the bar and pushes Power Trip to new extremes. Since 2013’s Manifest Decimation, the band admits they’ve not only gotten better at their instruments, but have also reinvented their songwriting process into a more nuanced and clever system. The shift shows on this record and does so without losing any of the aggression so essential to the band.

Gale’s lyrics reflect that aggression by honing in on the devaluation of human life by those who’ve gained power through money and politics. By creating a broad dissection of human suffering above reproach from personal agendas, the lyrics attempt to unify and inspire listeners. Coming from the hardcore world, where every band vaguely fights “the man”, wants to live free and break down the walls, Power Trip noticeably stands out. Instead of skirting around the fetishization of fighting back, Nightmare Logic focuses in on real oppression felt by many all over the world, whether that’s fighting addiction and the pharmaceutical industry (Waiting Around to Die) or right-wing religious conservatives (Crucifixation). Taking cues from Discharge and Crass in Margaret Thatcher’s UK, Nightmare Logic delivers poignant social information directly into those homes engulfed in the sour turn of global politics towards right-wing agendas. Touring the world on Nightmare Logic, Power Trip will play to scenes much further outside the bubble of contemporary underground punk music than any other current band, all while pushing the envelope of the modern punk ethos.

Poison Idea

Formed in 1980, POISON IDEA became a household name in the hardcore/punk scenes early in their career, and are known as one of the most notoriously in-your-face acts in the American musical underworld, with an enraged, high-energy live set even more rambunctious than the massive roster of singles, EPs, full-length studio and live releases and more, across a realm of labels including Pusmort, Tim/Kerr, Epitaph, Farewell, TKO, Southern Lord, and their own Fatal Erection. They’ve been an incredibly influential act to major performers including Nirvana, Pantera, Napalm Death, Machine Head, Eyehategod, Emperor, Turbonegro and an endless list of others.

It is with massive enthusiasm that Southern Lord Recordings announces the brand NEW Poison Idea studio LP: Confuse & Conquer featuring eleven raging new anthems. Recorded by Joel Grind (Toxic Holocaust) and mastered by Brad Boatright (From Ashes Rise), the record booms with thirty-five minutes of fully ignited hardcore punk in the monolithic style the band has provided for three-and-a-half decades now.

Pelican

It’s been a long journey for Pelican—from their sludgy reductionist beginnings in the DIY spaces of Chicago, through their tenure as forerunners to the burgeoning international community of artists fusing post-rock’s dramatic melodicism with thinking man’s metal, and to their ascension into the canon of the elder statesmen in the brainy and brawny realm of the underground rock world. The band encountered no shortage of ups and downs along the way, and those peaks and valleys often found an analog in the moods and timbres of Pelican’s sonic palette, with youthful frustrations channeled into the unrepentant dirges of their self-titled debut or new opportunities afforded by their increasing popularity manifested in the expanded vistas of City of Echoes. In the process of writing their sixth album Nighttime Stories, the quartet endured a slew of realizations, tragedies, and glimmers of optimism that guided the creative process to the most potent album of their eighteen-year career.

One of the most profound shifts in Pelican’s operating procedure came with the departure of founding member Laurent Schroeder-Lebec back in 2012. Along with fellow guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw and drummer Larry Herweg, Schroeder-Lebec shared duties in the hallucinatory art-grind band Tusk, with the dual collaborations resulting in a near-psychic interplay between the musicians. The only added personnel for Pelican was bassist Bryan Herweg, whose familial ties within the rhythm section were evident with his in-the-pocket playing. Though Schroeder-Lebec’s exit had been planned with enough foresight for the band to gradually incorporate Dallas Thomas as a replacement, the alteration could be felt in their first album with a line-up change. Forever Becoming contained the requisite breadth and muscle of their earlier albums, but it also sounded more like a band that was focused on creating dimension in the studio as opposed to replicating the enveloping force of their live show. “It felt like it would have more musical continuity from the previous albums if the three original members handled the writing rather than approaching it with a new lineup,” Shelley de Brauw says of that album, but the subsequent years of playing together—whether in the practice space, the studio, or on stage—altered the writing chemistry for Nighttime Stories. “Rather than try to bend Dallas to fit into Pelican, we’ve all dug into our subconscious to find the shared similarities in our styles—particularly the era of the late 90’s and early 00’s where bands were beginning to push hardcore and metal in a more exploratory direction.”

While Pelican has frequently strayed from the unanimous locked-in riffage of their first few records in favor of more complex instrumental interplay, it’s hard to imagine an earlier incarnation of the band writing songs as meticulously crafted and detail-oriented as Nighttime Stories tracks like “Midnight and Mescaline” or “Abyssal Plain”, where the compositions recall everything from the triumphant call-to-arms of classic Dischord bands to the vicious troglodyte battery of the Melvins to the dynamic interwoven melodies of bottom-heavy indie cult heroes Chavez. But there’s also the requisite lurch and stomp of their early years, as evident on the unrepentant crusher “Cold Hope”. It’s the heaviest Pelican record in a long time, and it was at least partially due to the cultural climate. “We were halfway through writing the album when a significant portion of the country signaled that they were ready to publicly embrace totalitarianism, bigotry, and white supremacy, and the resulting dread and anger we experienced had a considerable effect on the shape of the material that followed,” Shelley de Brauw says with regards to the grim mood surrounding the album’s gestation period.

There were personal tragedies that informed the creative process too. Nighttime Stories was a title originally proposed for a Tusk record that never developed. Their vocalist Jody Minnoch passed away unexpectedly in 2014, and many of the song names and aesthetic themes on Nighttime Stories stemmed from ideas Minnoch floated past his bandmates shortly before his death. Additionally, many of the dissonant chord voicings and idiosyncratic structures that were part of Tusk’s signature sound began to surface on the album, so it felt appropriate to pay homage to their departed colleague. Thomas also experienced a heavy loss in his life with the passing of his father. The album’s opening track “WST” is a somber ballad performed on an acoustic guitar handed down from father to son, with his initials serving as the title.

Nighttime Stories isn’t entirely mired in bleakness. Though the album certainly veers towards the darker end of Pelican’s songwriting, the energized urgency on tracks like “Arteries of Blacktop” and sublime melodicism on songs like “Full Moon, Black Water” suggest a renewed vigor for the band. Perhaps it stems from three of the four members becoming fathers in the six-year gap between albums. Maybe it’s a product of rediscovering a common musical language as a reformulated quartet. Maybe it came from reuniting with Pelican and Australasia producer Sanford Parker for the tracking of the album. Tracked in their original stomping grounds of Chicago at Electrical Audio and bolstered by Matt Bayles’ mixing skills, Nighttime Stories throbs with guttural force in its most malicious moments and shimmers with beauty in the moments of respite.

Pelican have always excelled at vacillating between the savage sounds of various niches of metal underground and the more delicate and nuanced sounds of Midwest’s cerebral indie community, proving that they can make either end of the spectrum more vibrant and compelling through the art of contrast. With Nighttime Stories, the pendulum has swung back to the angst and ire of their younger years while delivering it with the nuance and wisdom that’s come with nearly two decades of writing and performing. Southern Lord is proud to offer up Nighttime Stories to the world on CD/LP/digital on June 7, 2019.

Paranoid

Paranoid is a Swedish hardcore-raw-punk-metal band from Frösön/Östersund, formed in 2012. The foundation is in Disclose-inspired noise blended with Venom-styled black metal. A destructive vortex of violently rotating northern winds of head banging chaos and pure d-beat fury. The intense sound combines the best traditions of swedish råpunk and loud japanese insanity.

Okkultokrati

OKKULTOKRATI makes it their business to tear apart the rock ‘n’ roll guidebook and mash it in to vicious combat music for fans of punk, d-beat, black metal and generally anyone with a penchant for unsavory anthems delivered with inimitable attitude. They have earned a ferocious reputation for siphoning elements of disparate genres in to their toxic, distorted brew, a trait that can be observed across the whole of the Black Hole Crew collective encompassing Haust, Dark Times, Blood Suckers, Drugged SS, and others. Once the sheer slamming force of their tunes has sunk in, the iconoclastic quintet has a tendency to pull the rug from under the whole contraption, sending their tracks tumbling in to experimental and industrial forays that further their capacity to ensnare the listener in their bear trap.

“Okkultokrati is definitely rooted in punk, but in the same way that Venom and Motorhead is. Slithering, metallic black rock and roll with moments of crushing doom is the central theme.” – Brooklyn Vegan