Japan’s FRIENDSHIP returns with their merciless new album, Undercurrent, set for vinyl release through Southern Lord on June 14th. Following its CD release through Daymare Recordings earlier in the year, preorders for the LP version have been posted and several tracks from the album are available for streaming.

FRIENDSHIP offers vile, antagonistic, and visionary blackened, sludge-tone hardcore, focused on delivering maximum auditory torture, with the blasting directives of Full Of Hell, Nails, and Infest, backed with the oppressive tonal amplification of Sleep, Coffins, or Iron Monkey. The band is now revered as one of the heaviest modern acts in Japan.

Their second LP, Undercurrent showcases FRIENDSHIP‘s hybrid of ultra-heavy doom sludge/powerviolence as audible torture. With a more technical and precise attack, and a brighter and sharper tone than the preceding Hatred LP, all tracking, mixing, and mastering duties for Undercurrent were handled in Tokyo throughout 2018. The resulting album strikes hard with ten relentless tracks delivered in just over twenty-two minutes.

Stream the tracks “Demise,” “Vertigo,” and “Fiend” from FRIENDSHIP’s Undercurrent at Bandcamp HERE.

Just like with the Hatred LP, Daymare Recordings handles the release of FRIENDSHIP‘s Undercurrent digitally and on CD, and now Southern Lord delivers the vinyl on Friday, June 14th. Find preorders at Bandcamp HERE and find merch options and bundles at the Southern Lord US webshop HERE and Euro shop HERE.

Undercurrent Track Listing:

1. Demise
2. Vertigo
3. Punishment
4. Lack
5. Abandon
6. Fiend
7. Plague
8. Garbage
9. Wrecker
10. Hatred

Following their 2014 formation in the Tokyo area, FRIENDSHIP quickly issued their debut demo cassette, and quickly became known for their monolithic live volume levels and became notorious for releasing over a hundred shirt designs. The band also shortly thereafter self-released two CD EPs which both sold out in under a month (recently reissued as I and II on vinyl and cassette via Sentient Ruin),

FRIENDSHIP signed with Daymare Records in 2016 for the release of their debut full-length, Hatred. Recorded in Tokyo, Hatred was mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege and released on CD and digital versions via Daymare in June 2017. The vinyl version and international digital edition followed through Southern Lord in November 2017, and a cassette version was released by Sentient Ruin.

Over these recent years, FRIENDSHIP has shared stages with Full Of Hell, Sumac, Primitive Man, Endon, Palm, and many others, including supporting the mighty Sleep in Tokyo, as a part of Leave Them All Behind 2018. In September 2018, the band performed at Bloodshed Festival, as well as seven shows across the UK. Immediately following the tour, FRIENDSHIP began the construction of their follow-up album, which now rears its bestial head as Undercurrent.

Watch for FRIENDSHIP tour dates and more to be posted over the months ahead.

For review copies of FRIENDSHIP‘s Undercurrent in North America contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and internationally contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.

Stream / Share PELICAN’s “Cold Hope” OUT NOW.

PELICAN, the instrumental quartet whose singular vision of heavy music eschews classification, recently announced their first full-length in six years, and today they’ve released a new song from it, along with US and new EU tour dates.

“Cold Hope,” the second track to be released from Nighttime Stories – due June 7th via Southern Lord Recordings – is an unrepentant crusher imbibed with moments of atramentous psychedelia and is arguably the heaviest track on the album. Not only a standout song on the album, it’s also the name of a new biere de garde that the band members, who are known beer enthusiasts, are releasing in collaboration with the celebrated Chicago brewery Metropolitan.

Of the collaboration, the band’s Trever de Brauw states, “Both PELICAN and Metropolitan have somewhat limited scopes due to aesthetic limitations we’ve self-imposed: PELICAN will always be a niche enterprise because we play instrumental metal; Metropolitan’s brewing output is limited due to the fact that they only brew lagers, which take much longer to brew than ales and therefore tie up the capacity of their equipment. Thus, both of us are pursuing a very specific aesthetic/artistic mission and creating a legacy rather than doing things that might be more immediately profitable.” For Chicago-area folks keen to try the beer and get an advance listen of Nighttime Stories, the band and brewery will be throwing an album listening/beer release party at 7pm on May 30th at Metropolitan Taproom, 3057 N Rockwell St.

Stream PELICAN’s new track “Cold Hope” now at THIS LOCATION.

Southern Lord will release PELICAN‘s Nighttime Stories on June 7th. Preorders for the album in all formats starts today via the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp where “Midnight and Mescaline” is also streaming HERE.

With sold-out shows in Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, PELICAN has also announced an additional batch of US dates that include Champagne, Cleveland, Columbus, and Grand Rapids, along with a fall EU tour. Find tickets for upcoming tour dates HERE and watch for additional tour dates and announcements from PELICAN to be posted shortly.

PELICAN Tour Dates:
w/ Cloakroom:
6/20/2019 Loving Touch – Ferndale, MI *
6/21/2019 Lee’s Palace – Toronto, ON *
6/22/2019 Bar de Ritz – Montreal, QC *
6/23/2019 Great Scott – Boston, MA * SOLD OUT
6/24/2019 Brooklyn Bazaar – Brooklyn, NY *
6/25/2019 Boot & Saddle – Philadelphia, PA * SOLD OUT
6/26/2019 Ottobar – Baltimore, MD *
6/27/2019 Club Café – Pittsburgh, PA * SOLD OUT
6/28/2019 Northside Yacht Club – Cincinnati, OH *
6/29/2019 Metro – Chicago, IL *
9/13/2019 Loose Cobra – Tolono, IL
9/14/2019 The Shrunken Head – Columbus, OH
9/15/2019 Grog Shop – Cleveland, OH
9/16/2019 The Pyramid Scheme – Grand Rapids, MI
10/05/2019 Soulcrusher Fest – Nijmegen, NL
10/06/2019 Lido – Berlin, DE
10/07/2019 Beatpol – Dresden, DE
10/08/2019 Futurum – Prague, CZ
10/09/2019 Feierwerk – Munich, DE
10/10/2019 Legend Club – Milan, IT
10/11/2019 Fuzz Club – Athens, GR
10/12/2019 AM Fest – Barcelona, ES
10/13/2019 Amplifest – Porto, PT
10/15/2019 Islington Assembly Hall – London, UK
10/16/2019 Gorilla – Manchester, UK
10/17/2019 Classic Grand – Glasgow, UK
10/18/2019 Asylum – Birmingham, UK
10/19/2019 Desertfest – Antwerp, BE

Nighttime Stories marks PELICAN‘s first release written front to back with guitarist Dallas Thomas, who took over guitar duties upon founding member Laurent Schroeder-Lebec’s departure in 2012. In the process of writing the album, the quartet endured a slew of realizations, tragedies, and glimmers of optimism that guided the creative process to the most potent work of their nineteen-year career. 

Nighttime Stories was an album title initially proposed for Tusk, the hallucinatory art-grind band that included PELICAN members Trevor Shelley de Brauw, Larry Herweg, and Schroeder-Lebec, in addition to vocalist Jody Minnoch. The writing of Nighttime Stories was instigated shortly after Minnoch’s unexpected death in 2014, and some of the dissonant viscera and dark psychedelic structures that were characteristic of Tusk’s sound began to unconsciously inform the album’s direction. In homage to their departed colleague, PELICAN applied the previously discarded title and pulled many of the song titles from notes Minnoch had sent to inspire the direction of the unrealized album. As the writing of Nighttime Stories progressed Thomas also experienced a heavy loss with the passing of his father, to whom the album pays tribute on opening track “W.S.T.” (on which he performed his guitar parts on his father’s Yamaha acoustic). 

For review copies of Nighttime Stories and interviews/coverage of PELICAN in The Americas contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and internationally contact lauren@rarelyunable.com. http://pelicansong.com https://www.facebook.com/pelicansong

Copenhagen, Denmark-based trio HALSHUG will release their third studio full-length, Drøm, through Southern Lord Recordings. Now confirmed for release on July 19th, the album’s cover art, track listing, preorders, and more have been issued, and a video for the lead single, “Fantasi,” has been premiered through Cvlt Nation.

On Drøm, HALSHUG expands their sound from the dirge-driven d-beat of their earlier albums Sort Sind (2016) and Blodets Bånd (2015), and explores the dynamics of longer songs, more audible lyrics, and altered tempos, which result in different shades of industrial, dark-wave, and post-punk. Drøm was recorded by Simon Sonne (Orm) in Copenhagen, mixed at Dead Air Studio in Western Massachusetts (The Men, Warthog), and mastered by Peter Peter (The Sods, Bleeder).

HALSHUG offers their first single from Drøm with a video for the track “Fantasi,” which was shot by the band with a phone and directed/edited by Christopher Leo Andersen. “Fantasi is the third song on our new record. It’s a song about getting lost in each other’s fantasies,” the band offers. The “Fantasi” video makes its debut through a premiere hosted by Cvlt Nation.

See HALSHUG’s “Fantasi” video via Cvlt Nation RIGHT HERE.

Southern Lord, who has delivered HALSHUG‘s prior two LP’s, will release Drøm on LP and digital formats worldwide on July 19th. Find digital preorders at Bandcamp where “Fantasi” is streaming HERE and watch for vinyl preorders and bundles to be posted in the coming days.

According to HALSHUG, the title Drøm (translated to “dream”) refers to a wider theme of the record which views dreams as, “a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind. And also, sort of a vision, or a wanting of something more than just what is. The dream is volatile. It can burst. One moment it felt real, and moments later it can’t even be recalled.”

Other ideas come into play too, as the HALSHUG members describe, “A lot of the songs are about mirrors. The intimacy that is in privacy, alone with oneself. And the cathartic moments where interaction becomes wordless. They are mostly scenes or clips from dreams, that could have looked like either old movies or scenes from the hang-out area at a rave. Some of them are recollections of things that have happened, but most of them are dreamt or felt. Some songs are about dominance and submission, about letting go, either trusting or just not caring. Some of them are also statements, metaphorical or literate, about being subordinate as an individual in a complex power structure.”

To summarize on their intent, the band remarks, “The whole idea is to create a medium through which we can forward true human energy. It’s about lust, guts, and a protest against reality. A wish of life. It’s not important to us what genre we end up playing, it just happened to be like this.”

HALSHUG is also actively booking live actions around Europe, with new tours in May and September already posted and more in the works. Watch for updates to be issued through throughout the year in support of the new LP.

Drøm Track Listing:

1. Kæmper Imod
2. Dø Igen
3. Fantasi
4. Giv Alting Op
5. Spejl
6. 02.47
7. Tænk På Dig Selv
8. Ingen Kontrol
9. Et Andet Sted
10. Illusion

HALSHUG Tour Dates:
5/17/2019 Kasteneinkeller – Berlin, DE
5/18/2019 Ask A Punk – Hamburg, DE
5/22/2019 Sportamt – Bremen, DE
5/23/2019 OCCII – Amsterdam, NL
5/24/2019 The Pits – Kortijk, B
5/25/2019 Pitfest – Frica, NL
9/07/2019 Vaterland – Oslo, NO
9/12/2019 1000Fryd – Aalborg, DK
9/13/2019 Radar – Aarhus, DK
9/14/2019 Stengade – København, DK
9/20/2019 Kulturhuset – Gøteborg, SE
9/27/2019 Plan B – Malmø, SE
9/28/2019 Hus 7 – Stockholm, SE

HALSHUG:
Jakob Johnsen – bass/vocals
Mathias Schønberg – guitar
Mads Folmer Richter – drums

Review copies of Drøm will be released in the days ahead. For coverage of HALSHUG in North America contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and internationally contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.

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Southern Lord announces the next CASPAR BRÖTZMANN MASSAKER reissues in the ongoing series, continuing with Der Abend Der Schwarzen Folklore and Koksofen, now confirmed for release in July. Tracks from each of the two new reissues are now posted for streaming. The outfit will also be actively performing live this summer, including supporting Sunn O))) on tour in Europe.

CASPAR BRÖTZMANN is one of the most unique and innovative guitarists of the last forty years. With his Berlin-based trio MASSAKER, he evolved a whole new autonomous approach to writing rock songs, starting from sounds that were widely considered ornamental if not detrimental “sonic waste,” such as shrieking feedback and droning overtones. This plethora of sounds were arranged into tracks to sound like breaking concrete, grinding metal, or bursting glass, at once monumental and threatening, impenetrable, and hermetic, yet also archaically tender and loving.

Even today, as the art of noise has reached a level of sophistication that no one could have imagined thirty years ago, CASPAR BRÖTZMANN MASSAKER‘s music is resoundingly singular. Ultra-heavy riffs and beats, ominous tribal chants, and a raw physical force is conjured up by these three sinister and proud minds of their era. Their unhinged, unified stream of energy is captured on these remastered reissues and the results are thrilling.

Stream CASPAR BRÖTZMANN MASSAKER’s “Bass Totem”from Der Abend Der Schwarzen Folklore HEREb and “Die Wiege” from Koksofen HERE.

Both Der Abend Der Schwarzen Folklore and Koksofen will be reissued via Southern Lord on June 28th, with CD, LP, and digital formats made available. Find digital preorders for Der Abend Der Schwarzen Folklore HERE and Koksofen HERE, and watch for physical preorder options to be posted shortly.

CASPAR BRÖTZMANN MASSAKER will be performing live this summer supporting labelmates Sunn O))) on their upcoming European tour dates. See all confirmed performances below and watch for additional live actions to be posted.

CASPAR BRÖTZMANN MASSAKER w/ Sunn O))):
7/30/2019 Festsaal Kreuzberg – Berlin, DE
7/31/2019 Festsaal Kreuzberg – Berlin, DE
10/07/2019 Backstage Werk – Munich, DE
10/08/2019 ZKM – Karlsruhe, DE    
10/09/2019 Rosstall – Basel Kaserne, CH
10/10/2019 Felsenkeller – Leipzig, DE
10/13/2019 Kablys – Vilnius, LT
10/14/2019 Vene Theatre – Tallinn, EE
10/15/2019 Kulttuuritalo – Helsinki, FI

Originally released in 1992, Der Abend Der Schwarzen Folklore is the third MASSAKER album, released by Rough Trade Germany. According to BRÖTZMANN, the title track and “Bass Totem” are the band’s most accomplished songs. It’s certainly the most sonically refined of their albums, recorded during a residency over several weeks at the pastoral site of Conny Plank’s studio near Cologne, and produced by Ingo Krauss and Bruno Gebhard, who had worked with the famed Krautrock producer until his death in 1987.

Der Abend Der Schwarzen also features their new drummer Danny Lommen, whom BRÖTZMANN and bassist Eduardo Delgado had headhunted at a concert with Lommen’s Dutch prog-core band Gore. Lommen shared their tastes in sheer volume and presence, and, “has a completely unique sound to his drumming, “as BRÖTZMANN marvels. “He plays ultrahard and clear, with authority and no compromise, nothing, not even the most turbulent and speedy beats, sound fuzzy – a statement.” This, he adds with a smile, would sometimes lead to intense moods during rehearsals, when he overpowered – no small feat – competing with the sounds of BRÖTZMANN‘s guitar.

The Tribe and Black Axis were still if very loosely rooted in some kind of heavy rock. Der Abend Der Schwarzen Folklore erases these residues from their genetic make-up, evolving into a free-form noise, strangely motionless like an earthquake rumble, that sounded like nothing else at the time. The opening title song gives the best example with its densely shifting chunk of howling and screaming guitar shreds and grimly determined rumbles from the bass, accented by heavy single beats or massively rattling, yet transparent outbursts from the drums. An impenetrable sense of threat fills the sound, interrupted only by breaks of skinny brooding, giving way to BRÖTZMANN‘s throaty growl evoking a lonely march through hostile wastelands under flaming sunsets. Culminating in an archaic choir chanting about black walls rising – a monstrous cloud of thick high-voltage tension.

BRÖTZMANN speaks of the heavy nature of the lyrics, inspired by 19th century artist Caspar David Friedrich’s painting “Das Eismeer,” translated to “the sea of ice,” which depicts a shipwreck the icy shores of Antarctica. It deals, of course, with ideas of the sublime in nature – but also “the end of hope,” as the painting was known until the sixties. And indeed, BRÖTZMANN credits his dark and brooding sounds to the uneasy times. With the wall down, the Eastern Block broken, East and West Germany were politically united but emotionally didn’t share much more than a certain angst and uneasiness with respect to the future, which erupted in ugly right-wing riots and violence. BRÖTZMANN felt the rise of a black folklore that he wanted to address, though he never admitted to it at the time because, he said, he didn’t want to sound like, “some naive romantic,” not underestimating the music’s gothic values; a weird idea, once you’ve listened to Der Abend Der Schwarzen.

Koksofen (which translates to “blast furnace”), originally released in 1993, has become one of MASSAKER‘s most popular albums. Like its predecessor, Der Abend Der Schwarzen Folklore, the album took shape in MASSAKER‘s rehearsal room below the Berlin subway station Schlesisches Tor, and was recorded at Conny Plank’s studio near Cologne, with Plank’s former associates Ingo Krauss and Bruno Gephard producing.

There’s a different kind of intensity to Koksofen. The features of MASSAKER‘s sound are in full bloom. Mountainous noises tower up and crash down, and tormented sounds rise from ominously seething grounds, haunting the entire songscape. The feel of doom and dread hangs heavily over the five songs, and the title song rumbles, shrieks and wails, plagued by BRÖTZMANN‘s guttural growls of war, suffering, and death.

BRÖTZMANN recalls one anecdote from shortly after the original release whereby bassist Edu Delgado called him asking to turn on the TV, thus discovering that “Hymne” was being used as background music to a report about the death penalty in the US. A different kind of intensity indeed.

Reflecting on the album to this day BRÖTZMANN remarks “Koksofen is still a mystery to me.” He continues, “I can still feel the troubled times in these songs.” The effects are certainly potent for the listener too. And the album undoubtedly affirms MASSAKER as the fiercely original and compellingly raw musicians that they are.

Review copies of the Der Abend Der Schwarzen Folklore and Koksofen reissues will be made available in the coming days. For press inquiries in The Americas contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and elsewhere contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.

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Texas crossover outfit POWER TRIP today kicks off a tour across the Midwest with support from their allies in Red Death, with shows in Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Des Moines, and St Louis this week. The shows surround POWER TRIP‘s spot supporting The Original Misfits as well as Fear and Venom Inc. at the massive Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois this Saturday, April 27th.

POWER TRIP has additional shows booked through the year, including stateside festival sets at Dark Lord Day with High On Fire and Nuclear Assault, Trouble N’ Texas Fest with Bitter End, Sound & Fury Festival with Have Heart, Fury, and Fiddlehead, Psycho Las Vegas with Yob, High On Fire, and Glassjaw, and the newly-confirmed Exit 111 Festival with Def Leppard, ZZ Top, and Mastodon. The band will return to Europe as well this June to play the Donnington Park Circuit, Plein Air, and more.

Watch for many more new POWER TRIP tour dates to be announced in the weeks ahead.

POWER TRIP‘s Southern Lord-released breakthrough album, Nightmare Logic, has earned praise from The New Yorker to Pitchfork’s Best New Music, to countless best-of/year-end lists. The band was awarded the Best Metal Album Of The Year from Loudwire and song placement in the WWE. Touring relentlessly, the band has headlined tours across North America, Europe, and Japan last year, recently supported Danzig on several US shows, had a track used in an episode of the YouTube Premium series Wayne, and was featured on the cover of Decibel Magazine’s February 2019 issue.

Find POWER TRIP’s Nightmare Logic LP at the Southern Lord webshop HERE and via Bandcamp HERE.

POWER TRIP:
4/23/2019 89th Street – Oklahoma City, OK w/ Red Death
4/24/2019 Riot Room – Kansas City, MO w/ Red Death
4/25/2019 Vaudeville Mews – Des Moines, IA w/ Red Death
4/27/2019 Allstate Arena – Rosemont, IL w/ The Original Misfits, Fear, Venom Inc. [info]
4/28/2019 Ready Room – St Louis, MO w/ Red Death
5/18/2019 3 Floyds Brewing – Munster, IN @ Dark Lord Day w/ High On Fire, Nuclear Assault
5/30/2019 Paper Tiger – San Antonio, TX w/ Bitter End, Hardside, Saintpeeler
6/01/2019 Trouble N’ Texas Fest – Dallas, TX w/ Bitter End
6/16/2019 Donnington Park Circuit – Derby, UK [info]
6/23/2019 Plein Air – Dessel, FR [info]
6/28/2019 Suvilahti – Helsinki, FI [info]
7/12-13/2019 Sound & Fury Festival – Los Angeles, CA w/ Have Heart, Fury, Fiddlehead
8/16-18/2019 Psycho Las Vegas – Las Vegas, NV w/ Yob, High On Fire, Glassjaw
10/12/2019 Exit 111 Festival – Manchester, TN w/ Def Leppard, ZZ Top, Mastodon

For coverage of POWER TRIP in North America contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and internationally contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.

SUNN O))) presents their first new album in four years, the Steve Albini-engineered Life Metal. Following the Record Store Day release of Life Metal last week, Southern Lord and the band have made the album available through their direct stores on CD and LP today, ahead of the official retail street date for all formats, next Friday, April 26th.
 
Also following Mary-Anne Hobbs’ BBC 6 Music morning show world exclusive first play of “Between Sleipnir’s Breaths,” another track has been shared today from the record. Listen to “Troubled Air” via Spotify, Itunes, Apple Music, and Bandcamp.
 
NPR is exclusively streaming Life Metal through a First Listen feature HERE.
 
Life Metal can now be purchased via the SUNN O))), Southern Lord, and Southern Lord Europe stores.
 
Life Metal is being supported by SUNN O)))‘s first North American tour since 2017. With Cleveland and Detroit shows now past, the tour is in Chicago tonight, Pelham tomorrow, back in Chicago for a by-demand second performance, followed by shows in Philadelphia, New York City, New Haven, and Pittsburgh before the final show in Washington on April 28th. Support for all shows will be provided by Papa M, with David Pajo (Slint, Interpol).
 
SUNN O))) Let There Be Drone (Multiple Gains Stages) w/ Papa M:
4/19/2019 Rockefeller Chapel – Chicago, IL [info]
4/20/2019 The Caverns – Pelham, TN [info]
4/22/2019 Rockefeller Chapel – Chicago, IL
4/24/2019 Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA [info]
4/25/2019 Brooklyn Steel – Brooklyn, NY [info]
4/26/2019 College Street – New Haven, CT [info]
4/27/2019 Carnegie Homestead Music Hall – Pittsburgh, PA [info]
4/28/2019 The Howard – Washington, DC [info]
Summer European Shows:
7/30/2019 Festsaal Kreuzberg – Berlin, DE w/ Caspar Brötzmann
7/31/2019 Festsaal Kreuzberg – Berlin, DE w/ Caspar Brötzmann
8/01/2019 Dekmantel Festival – Amsterdam, NL
UK Tour:
10/24/2019 SWX – Bristol, UK [info]
10/25/2019 QMU – Glasgow, UK [info]
10/26/2019 The Crossing – Birmingham, UK [info]
10/27/2019 Albert Hall – Manchester, UK [info]
10/28/2019 Roundhouse – London, UK [info]
 
SUNN O))) co-founders Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson set out on a path toward a new album production for Life Metal. Following pre-production sessions as a trio with T.O.S. on Moog at Dave Grohl’s 606 Studios in Northridge, California, in July 2018, SUNN O))) spent just over two weeks in Chicago at Electrical Audio (Studio A) with Albini at the helm. The album was mastered and the 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.
 
Life Metal features guest contributions from composer/musician/vocalist Hildur Guðnadóttir, longtime friend Tim Midyett (Silkworm, Bottomless Pit, Mint Mile), composer Anthony Pateras, and more. The album is wrapped in amazing, Renaissance style paintings by visual artist Samantha Keely Smith, and bold, imaginative photography from Ronald Dick.
 
Review copies of Life Metal will be issued in the coming days. For coverage of SUNN O))) in The Americas contact dave@earsplitcompound.com, all others contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.
 
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Swedish crust punk/metal outfit MARTYRDÖD has issued an official video for “Helveteslarm,” the new single from the band’s impending seventh album, Hexhammaren, set for release in North America through Southern Lord on May 10th.

As with prior MARTYRDÖD works, the recording of Hexhammaren was handled by Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman (Wolfpack, At The Gates, In Flames) in Gothenburg, Sweden.

“Helveteslarm” explodes in a bold new video produced by Jimmy Johansson and Super Lino Puro. MARTYRDÖD checked in with the following comment: “Helveteslarm: It’s the sound of hell on earth. The sound of evil forces ravaging the world for power. War dogs, warmongers using liberation as a pretext for profiteering. The video was planned and shot over a couple of days only a few weeks before release. The Idea was to portray some of the real driving forces behind armed conflict in the world and their ruthlessness.”

See MARTYRDÖD’s “Helveteslarm” video now at THIS LOCATION.

Southern Lord will release Hexhammaren in North America on May 10th, with Century Media handling all other territories. Find digital preorders at Bandcamp where prior single “Cashless Society” and “Helveteslarm” are streaming HERE and watch for additional audio previews, physical preorders, and more to be posted in the coming days.

Surrounded by ongoing European festival and live performances, MARTYRDÖD will make their US return next month, their first time playing in North America since the Southern Lord label tour in 2012. The band will join Soft Kill and Wiegedood supporting Skeletonwitch across the West Coast and Midwest from May 22nd through June 1st, with Portrayal Of Guilt, Devil Master, and others playing on select shows.

MARTYRDÖD Tour Dates:
4/19/2019 Butcher’s Tears – Amsterdam, NL
4/21/2019 Neuronoise Festival II – Rennes, FR
5/22/2019 Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood, Portrayal Of Guilt
5/23/2019 The Independent – San Francisco, CA w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
5/24/2019 Bossanova Ballroom – Portland, OR w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
5/25/2019 The Crocodile – Seattle, WA w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
5/27/2019 The Metro – Salt Lake City, UT w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
5/29/2019 Marquis Theater – Denver, CO w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
5/30/2019 The Bottleneck – Lawrence, KS w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
5/31/2019 Turf Club – Minneapolis, MN w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood:
6/01/2019 Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL w/ Skeletonwitch, Soft Kill, Wiegedood, Devil Master
7/11-14/2019 Devilstone Festival – Anyksciai, LT
10/11-12/2019 Scandinavia Deathfest – Stockholm, SE

Review copies of Hexhammaren will be released in the days ahead. For coverage of MARTYRDÖD in North America contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and internationally contact Birgit.Luhmeyer@centurymedia.de.

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SUNN O))) releases their first new album in four years, the Steve Albini-engineered Life Metal, through Southern Lord as part of Record Store Day tomorrow, Saturday, April 13th. This special release of the album sees Life Metal as one of the official and highlighted RSD titles (#RSD19), and lets fans purchase the album one week before the label and band direct version of the record is available, and two weeks ahead of the album’s official retail release. See the RSD unboxing video for Life Metal HERE.
 
Tomorrow is also the Brooklyn-based listening session for Life Metal, set to take place at Future Space in collaboration with Southern Lord and The Tinnitus Music Series. The experience will feature a tower of loudspeakers, engulfing walls of fog and color. A congregation of guests are invited to explore the entire album, which is being played in its entirety at maximum volume. This event is free, public event on a first come, first serve basis. RSVP HERE.
 
Life Metal will be supported by SUNN O)))‘s first US tour since 2017. Beginning next Wednesday, April 17th in Cleveland, the tour will run through Detroit, Chicago, Pelham, a return to Chicago by demand, Philadelphia, New York City, New Haven, and Pittsburgh before the final show in Washington on April 28th. Support for all shows will be provided by Papa M, with David Pajo (Slint, Interpol).
 
SUNN O))) has also announced a run of UK tour dates for the fall, running from October 24th through 28th, with additional European performances to be announced.
 
Watch SUNN O)))’s Life Metal album teaser HERE.
 
SUNN O))) Let There Be Drone (Multiple Gains Stages) w/ Papa M:
4/17/2019 Agora Ballroom – Cleveland, OH [info]
4/18/2019 Masonic – Detroit, MI [info]
4/19/2019 Rockefeller Chapel – Chicago, IL [info] *SOLD OUT
4/20/2019 The Caverns – Pelham, TN [info]
4/22/2019 Rockefeller Chapel – Chicago, IL *BY DEMAND SECOND SHOW ADDED
4/24/2019 Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA [info]
4/25/2019 Brooklyn Steel – Brooklyn, NY [info]
4/26/2019 College Street – New Haven, CT [info]
4/27/2019 Carnegie Homestead Music Hall – Pittsburgh, PA [info]
4/28/2019 The Howard – Washington, DC [info]
SUNN O))) UK Tour:
10/24/2019 SWX – Bristol, UK
10/25/2019 QMU – Glasgow, UK
10/26/2019 The Crossing – Birmingham, UK
10/27/2019 Albert Hall – Manchester, UK
10/28/2019 Roundhouse – London, UK
 
Life Metal will see release on CD/LP for Record Store Day April 13th via USA/UK/EU indie retail, direct through SUNN O))) and Southern Lord stores on April 19th and will see worldwide retail release on April 26th.
 
SUNN O))) co-founders Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson set out on a path toward a new album production for Life Metal. Following pre-production sessions as a trio with T.O.S. on Moog at Dave Grohl’s 606 Studios in Northridge, California, in July 2018, SUNN O))) spent just over two weeks in Chicago at Electrical Audio (Studio A) with Albini at the helm. The album was mastered and the 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.
 
Life Metal features guest contributions from composer/musician/vocalist Hildur Guðnadóttir, longtime friend Tim Midyett (Silkworm, Bottomless Pit, Mint Mile), composer Anthony Pateras, and more. The album is wrapped in amazing, Renaissance style paintings by visual artist Samantha Keely Smith, and bold, imaginative photography from Ronald Dick.
 
Review copies of Life Metal will be issued in the coming days. For coverage of SUNN O))) in The Americas contact dave@earsplitcompound.com, all others contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.
 
https://sunn.southernlord.com
https://www.instagram.com/sunnofficial
https://www.facebook.com/SUNNthebandOfficial
https://sunn.bandcamp.com
https://sunn-live.bandcamp.com
http://www.southernlord.com
http://southernlord.bandcamp.com

SUNN O))) has revealed a US listening session in addition to their events in London and Paris in the lead-up to the release of Life Metal, set for release April 26th through Southern Lord.

Confirmed for April 13th, the Brooklyn-based listening session will take place at Future Space in collaboration with Southern Lord Recordings and The Tinnitus Music Series. The experience will feature a tower of loudspeakers, engulfing walls of fog, and throbbing color. A congregation of guests are invited to traverse the outer zones of consciousness and expanses of the cosmos through sound/time and sound/energy. This event is free, open to the public, and available on a first come, first serve basis.

SUNN O)))‘s Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson offer, “With great pleasure we present a few special public deep listening sessions of our forthcoming album Life Metal. Our wish and intention is to offer the astounding presence, detail, and color of this recording on great PA systems in a public situation as an introduction. Part of the joy of producing and mastering this album in the studio was that we were fortunate to be able to listen on the perfect high-fidelity playback situations for the record, top precise studio sound guided by the best ears in the business. With these public listening sessions, we hope to get a step closer to that experience of being inside the studio for you all at these special events, a few weeks before the album is unleashed upon the world.”

See SUNN O))) on the road April 17th-28th and RSVP for a Life Metal listening session April 13th at Future Space in Brooklyn HERE.

Life Metal, their first studio album in four years, will be supported by SUNN O)))‘s first US tour since 2017 and the premier stateside tour of their 2019-2020 season, including a newly announced stop in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Homestead Music Hall, as well as stops at The Masonic Lodge in Detroit, Howard Theatre in DC, Agora Theatre in Cleveland, Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago (second show added), The Caves in Pelham, Tennessee, and Brooklyn Steel in NYC. Dates and details can be found below.

SUNN O))) will collaborate with Record Store Day (#RSD19) to release Life Metal for the first time on CD and vinyl on April 13th via USA/UK/EU indie retail. April 26th marks the official release date of the digital and all other vinyl variants via Southern Lord, and CD and LP will be available to order from SUNN O))) and Southern Lord stores on April 19th.

Watch SUNN O)))’s Life Metal album teaser on YouTube HERE.

SUNN O))) Let There Be Drone (Multiple Gains Stages):
4/17/2019 Agora Ballroom – Cleveland, OH [info]
4/18/2019 Masonic – Detroit, MI [info]
4/19/2019 Rockefeller Chapel – Chicago, IL [info] *SOLD OUT
4/20/2019 The Caverns – Pelham, TN [info]
4/22/2019 Rockefeller Chapel – Chicago, IL *BY DEMAND SECOND SHOW ADDED
4/24/2019 Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA [info]
4/25/2019 Brooklyn Steel – Brooklyn, NY [info]
4/26/2019 College Street – New Haven, CT [info]
4/27/2019 Carnegie Homestead Music Hall – Pittsburgh, PA [info]
4/28/2019 The Howard – Washington, DC [info]

Public listening event details:
April 9th – The Institute Of Light in Hackney, London
This is a free Pitchblack Playback event, there will be two sessions commencing approximately 7:00pm and 8:30pm. Limited space available, RSVP at this link.

April 13th – Future Space, Brooklyn
RSVP ticketed event, from 7:30pm-10:30pm. The album will be played back in its entirety at maximum volume. RSVP at this link.

Review copies of Life Metal will be issued in the weeks ahead. For coverage of SUNN O))) in The Americas contact dave@earsplitcompound.com, all others contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.

https://sunn.southernlord.com
https://www.instagram.com/sunnofficial

https://www.facebook.com/SUNNthebandOfficial
https://sunn.bandcamp.comhttps://sunn-live.bandcamp.com
http://www.southernlord.comhttp://southernlord.bandcamp.com
http://twitter.com/twatterlord
https://www.facebook.com/SLadmin
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“BIG|BRAVE are big and oceanic, their music flowing and crashing like waves…Robin Wattie’s clear, piercing vocals, which occupy an emotional zone right at the point between ecstasy and abject despair.” – Pitchfork

“BIG|BRAVE have somehow made a ruthlessly loud record that is also fascinating, and consistently elegant.” – Drowned in Sound

BIG|BRAVE share the first full track “Sibling” from their incoming album, A Gaze Among Them (Southern Lord, May 10th) by way of a brilliant video by Mathieu Ball & Robin Wattie. Watch and share the video now on YouTube.

Since their inception in 2012, BIG|BRAVE have explored terrains of experimental rock with a clear focus on the key principles; space, volume, and raw emotion. The essence of BIG|BRAVE‘s magic has always been the way they balance these dynamics, and particularly how much sheer power comes from the beautifully quiet moments.

The same principles are the starting point for the new album, only the approach is different, beginning with the question “How do we take very little and make something bigger than what we actually have?” vocalist and guitarist Robin Wattie explains further “the biggest challenge was to not do what is easiest. i.e. what we knew worked for the last albums or what is, for us, easy to write. With A Gaze Among Them, Mathieu and I put ourselves through the ringer – I did not want to do what seemed to me to be a ‘logical next step’ in what we could do musically. I wanted to go back to our original concepts and work from there – space, tension, minimalism and voice (finding melody and musicality in pieces that consist of one note for longer than ten minutes, for example) were the primary concentrations I wanted to push.”

In the process of revisiting their early intentions, BIG|BRAVE have boldly evolved, emerging with a thrilling new body of work that is all at once refreshingly new, explosively heavy, dynamically loud, beautifully minimal, carefully repetitive, and totally and utterly cathartic.

A Gaze Among Them features Robin Wattie (vocals, electric guitar, guitar amp, bass amp), Mathieu Ball (electric guitar, guitar amps) and Loel Campbell (drums) with guest appearances from Thierry Amar (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt Zion) on Contrabass and Seth Manchester’s synth overdubs. The album was recorded with Seth Manchester at Machine with Magnets in Pawtucket Rhode Island.

The beautiful image adorning the cover (created by Robin Wattie) further demonstrates that BIG|BRAVE have blossomed. The trio sound rejuvenated and confident, and A Gaze Among Them is the sound of a band truly honing their craft, and feeling totally satisfied with it. Compelling. Necessary. Important.

A Gaze Among Them is available for preorder via Southern Lord and on Bandcamp.

BIG|BRAVE – ON TOUR:
May 16 Nurnberg, DE @ Kantine %
May 17 Berlin, DE @ Urban Spree %
May 18 Poznan, PL @ LAS %
May 19 Prague, CZ @ Altenburg 1964 %
May 21 Haarlem, NL @ Patronaat %
May 22 Antwerp, BE @ Kavka %
May 23 Lille, FR @ La Bulle Café %
May 24 Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade %
May 25 London, UK @ Raw Power %
May 26 Glasgow, UK @ Stereo %
May 27 Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny %
May 28 Brighton, UK @ East Street Tap %
May 29 Paris, FR @ Instants Chavirés %
May 30 Brussels, BE @ Magasin 4 %
May 31 Mannheim, DE @ JUZ %
June 1 Winterthur, CH @ Gaswerk %
June 3 Wurzburg, DE @ Cairo %
June 4 Hamburg, DE @ Schute %
June 5 Malmo, SWE @ Plan B %
June 7 Gothenborg, DWE @ Skjul Fyra Sex
June 8 Stockholm, SWE @ Slaktkyrkan
June 14 Wilkes-Barre, PA @ Karl Hall
June 15 Philadelphia , PA @ Johnny Brenda’s ^
June 16 Raleigh, NC @ Pour House ^
June 17 Atlanta GA, The Earl ^
June 18 Birmingham AL @ The Nick ^
June 19 St. Louis, MO @ Fubar ^
June 20 Omaha, NE @ Midtown Art Supply ^
June 21 Colorado Springs, CO @ Triple Nickel *
June 22 Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive *
June 24 Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club *
June 25 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean Downstairs *
June 26 Detroit @ Sanctuary *
June 27 Boston, MA @ Hong Kong *
June 28 Brooklyn, NY @ Kingsland *
June 29 Portland, ME @ Geno’s *

^ w/ Primitive Man

• w/ Dreadought
  % w/ MyDisco

A Gaze Among Them, Tracklisting:

1. Muted Shifting of Space
2. Holding Pattern
3. Body Individual
4. This Deafening Verity
5. Sibling