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
https://www.instagram.com/southernlordrecords

“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

Philadelphia hardcore outfit JESUS PIECE is the maiden act to perform at the US version of Kerrang! Magazine’s K! Pit series, and the visual evidence of this occurrence is now online.

JESUS PIECE released their acclaimed Only Self LP through Southern Lord in August 2018, the album recorded at Bricktop Recording Studio in Chicago with Andy Nelson (Weekend Nachos, Like Rats, Dead In The Dirt), mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Integrity, Nails, Xibalba), and completed with artwork by Dom Pabon. With a smoldering reputation in the underground in their wake, the LP pushed the band into another dimension. One of the year’s most lauded hardcore albums showed up on year-end lists across the board, boundaries be damned. The album has ranked with the year’s heaviest hardcore releases and appeared on year-end lists abroad, including being crowned the #1 hardcore album of 2018 by Stereogum. Surrounding the release of the Only Self LP, JESUS PIECE has toured mercilessly alongside Darkest Hour, Comeback Kid, Burn, Knocked Loose, Terror, Vein, Year Of The Knife, and many more across North America, Europe, and Japan.

Kerrang! Magazine’s stateside staff has launched a US version of the London-based K! Pit series, and its maiden act, was JESUS PIECE. With a limited number of tickets given to fans who took part in an online lottery, a collective of diehards gathered at an undisclosed venue in Brooklyn to watch this metallic hardcore superforce do its thing in an intimate, immersive way, with several local, embedded videographers, as well as an array of mounted cameras, catching the action.

Kerrang! says, “…we decided to move 3,500 miles away to Brooklyn for our first-ever American K! Pit, featuring blistering Philadelphian hardcore upstarts JESUS PIECE. In a storm of grinding riffs and flying limbs, the band blasted their way through the back room of our favorite Brooklyn dive bar, The Gutter, whipping the crowd into an uncontrollable frenzy of spin-kicks and gang vocals that shook the rafters around them.”

See JESUS PIECE and friends in an up-close multi-angle experience RIGHT HERE.

JESUS PIECE is quickly developing a reputation as one of the heaviest, most uncompromising acts both on record and on the stage. With the brutalizing grooves of Disembodied, Turmoil, Harm’s Way, and labelmates Xibalba, the band incorporates elements of noise, ominous tones, and haunting atmospheres into their dynamic songwriting. With crushing, modern production, the eleven new tracks on their Only Self debut LP place JESUS PIECE among the scene’s darkest and heaviest acts.

Only Self is out now on CD, LP, and digital formats through Southern Lord. Find physical order options at the label shop HERE and digital at Bandcamp HERE, iTunes HERE, and through all other digital providers.

Watch for more on JESUS PIECE in the coming weeks.

For coverage of JESUS PIECE in The Americas contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and internationally contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.

https://twitter.com/jesuspiecehc
https://www.instagram.com/jesuspiecehc
https://jesuspiecehc.bandcamp.com
http://www.southernlordeurope.com
http://southernlord.bandcamp.com
http://twitter.com/twatterlord
https://www.facebook.com/SLadmin

Sunn O))) is pleased to 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 CD, digital and all other vinyl via Southern Lord, and CD and LP will be available to order from SUNN O))) and Southern Lord stores on April 19th.

Life Metal, their first studio album in four years, will be supported by SUNN O)))‘s first US tour since 2017 and the premier US tour of their 2019-2020 season, including stops at The Masonic Lodge in Detroit, Howard Theatre in Washington, DC, Agora Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio, Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago, Illinois (by demand second show added), The Caves in Pelham, Tennessee, and Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, New York. Dates and details can be found below, with more info to come soon.
SUNN O))) has also revealed two very special listening events in London and Paris in the lead up to the release. These are free, open to the public and available on a first come, first serve RSVP basis. Details and a band statement below.

“With great pleasure we present a few special public deep-listening sessions of our forthcoming album Life Metal. Our wish and intention are 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.” – Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson / SUNN O)))

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

Public listening event details:
3/31/2019 Gaîte Lyrique – Paris, FR
RSVP ticketed event, available to reserve today HERE. Event commences at 5:00pm.

4/09/2019 The Institute Of Light – London, UK
This is a free Pitchblack Playback event; there will be two sessions commencing approximately 7:00pm and 8:30pm. Limited space available, RSVP HERE.

SUNN O))) Let There Be Drone (Multiple Gains Stages):
2/28/2019 Mousonturm – Frakfurt, DE [info]
3/01/2019 Orpheum – Graz, AT @ Elevate Festival [info]
3/02/2019 Divadlo Archa – Prague, CZ [info]
3/03/2019 Kampnagel – E. Hamburg, DE [info]
3/04/2019 Paradiso – Amsterdam, NL [info]
3/06/2019 L’Epicerie Moderne – Lyon, FR [info]
3/07/2019 L’Autre Canal – Nancy, FR [info]
3/08/2019 La Vapeur – Dijon, FR [info]
3/09/2019 QuasaRites Day/Le 106 – Rouen, FR [info]
3/11/2019 Le Temps Machine – Tours, FR [info]
3/12/2019 Stereolux – Nantes, FR [info]
3/13/2019 La Sirene – La Rochelle, FR [info]
3/14/2019 Le Rocher de Palmer – Bordeaux, FR [info]
4/17/2019 Agora Ballroom – Cleveland, OH [info]
4/18/2019 Masonic – Detroit, MI [info]
4/19/2019 Rockefeller Chapel – Chicago, IL [info]
4/20/2019 The Caverns – Pelham, TN [info]
4/19/2019 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]
4/28/2019 The Howard – Washington, DC [info]

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.com
https://sunn-live.bandcamp.com
http://www.southernlord.com
http://southernlord.bandcamp.com
http://twitter.com/twatterlord
https://www.facebook.com/SLadmin
https://www.instagram.com/southernlordrecords

Swedish crust metal punks MARTYRDÖD have released “Cashless Society,” the first single from their impending seventh studio album, Hexhammaren, which is set for release through Southern Lord on May 10th in North America.
 
MARTYRDÖD reveals about the “Cashless Society” single, “This track came about from riffs that spoke ‘käng.’ The result is way more metal than expected which made us really excited. Play it loud!”
 
The recording of Hexhammaren was once again handled by Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman (Wolfpack, At The Gates, In Flames) in Gothenburg, Sweden. The album will be available on compact disc and vinyl with A2 poster. Century Media Records is handling the release of Hexhammaren outside of North America where Southern Lord Recordings is releasing the album.
 
MARTYRDÖD states of Hexhammaren, “The album came out really strong. We tried to just let loose and not get distracted with details. The recording was straight up raw and sincere with fast takes and improvised solos.”
 
Stream MARTYRDÖD’s “Cashless Society” via Bandcamp at THIS LOCATION and YouTube HERE.
 
Southern Lord will release Hexhammaren to North American fans on May 10th; watch for additional audio previews, preorders, and more to be posted in the weeks ahead.
 
Hexhammaren Track Listing:

1. Hexhammaren
2. Rännilar
3. Helveteslarm
4. War On Peace
5. Bait And Switch
6. Nästa Syrien
7. Cashless Society
8. In The Dead Of Night
9. Den Sista Striden
10. Pharmacepticon
11. Judgement Day
12. Sthlm Syndrom
    
    

MARTYRDÖD, who has not toured on North American soil since their participation in the Southern Lord label tour in 2012, will make their US return this year. 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:
4/06/2019 Volume Club – Kiev, UA
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
10/11-12/2019 Scandinavia Deathfest – Stockholm, SE

MARTYRDÖD:
Daniel Ekeroth – bass
Jens Bäckelin – drums
Tim Rosenqvist – guitars
Mikael Kjellman – guitars/vocals

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

https://www.facebook.com/martyrdod
http://www.martyrdod.se
http://www.southernlordeurope.com
http://southernlord.bandcamp.com
http://twitter.com/twatterlord
https://www.facebook.com/SLadmin

BIG|BRAVE has announced their incoming fourth LP, A Gaze Among Them, set for release May 10th through Southern Lord. A brief trailer for the album, as well as its cover art and other details have been revealed. The band has also posted North American and European spring tour dates supporting the album.
 
Since their inception in 2012, BIG|BRAVE has 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.
 
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 Wattie, further demonstrates how BIG|BRAVE has blossomed. The trio sounds 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.
 
The same principles are the starting point for BIG|BRAVE‘s 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/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 has 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 utterly cathartic.
 
See a brief trailer for BIG|BRAVE’s A Gaze Among Them RIGHT HERE.
 
Look for A Gaze Among Them to be available May 10th via Southern Lord; preorders will be available shortly.
 
A Gaze Among Them Track Listing:

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

BIG|BRAVE has announced spring tour dates in North America and Europe including dates with Daughters, Mydisco, and more. The band will be on tour through the summer; watch for more dates to be posted in the weeks ahead.
 
BIG|BRAVE Tour Dates:
3/10/2019 Lee’s Place – Toronto, ON *
3/12/2019 The Sinclair – Cambridge, MA *
3/13/2019 Warsaw – Brooklyn, NY *
5/16/2019 Musikverein – Nurnberg, DE ^
5/17/2019 Spree – Berlin, DE ^
5/18/2019 LAS – Poznan, PL ^
5/19/2019 TBA – Prague, CZ ^
5/21/2019 Patronaat – Haarlem, NL ^
5/22/2019 Kavka – Antwerp, BE ^
5/23/2019 Le Bulle Cafe – Lille, FR ^
5/24/2019 Rough Trade – Bristol, UK @ Raw Power Festival
5/27/2019 The Cluny – Newcastle, UK ^
5/29/2019 Instants Chavirés – Paris, FR ^
5/30/2019 Magasin 4 – Brussels, BE ^
6/01/2019 Gaswerk – Winterthur, CH ^
6/03/2019 Cairo – Wurzburg, DE ^
6/04/2019 Schute – Hamburg, DE ^
6/11/2019 La Sala Rossa – Montreal, QC

• w/ Daughters 
  ^ w/ Mydisco
  

“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

Review copies of A Gaze Among Them will be released shortly. For coverage of BIG|BRAVE in the Americas contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and abroad contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.

http://www.bigbrave.ca
http://www.bigbrave.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/bigbravemusic
https://.southernlordeurope.com/band/bigbrave/
http://www.southernlord.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/SLadmin
http://www.twitter.com/twatterlord

Swedish crust metal outfit MARTYRDÖD will make their return to the US this spring, providing support for Skeletonwitch on tour in late May into early June.

MARTYRDÖD, who has not toured on North American soil since their participation in the Southern Lord label tour in 2012, will make their triumphant American return this year. 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 recently recorded their seventh LP, Hexhammaren, with Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman (Wolfpack, At The Gates, In Flames) in Gothenburg, Sweden. Hexhammaren will see release in May through Southern Lord in North America with Century Media handling the release for other territories.

Watch for additional tour dates and album updates to be issued in the weeks ahead.

MARTYRDÖD Tour Dates:
4/06/2019 Volume Club – Kiev, UA
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 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
10/11-12/2019 Scandinavia Deathfest – Stockholm, SE

For coverage of MARTYRDÖD in North America contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and internationally contact Birgit.Luhmeyer@centurymedia.de.

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PELICAN, the instrumental quartet whose singular vision of heavy music eschews classification, is set to release their first new music in six years via a two-song 7″ on Southern Lord coming as an indie exclusive on Record Store Day (April 13th, 2019 #RSD2019). The band’s penchant for commanding live performances will be apparent when they head out for a run of US tour dates this June, accompanied by Midwestern masters of thunderous slowgaze Cloakroom.

Channeling the visceral intensity of their live shows, PELICAN‘s “Midnight And Mescaline” is an unrelenting riff marathon, careening from eviscerating heaviness to metal-infused fretboard frenetics to cathartic melody in a compact five-minute sprint. Paired with B-side “Darkness On The Stairs,” the new release taps into the band member’s shared roots in the late ’90s DIY music scene, reinvigorating the quartet with impassioned punk ferocity.

In conjunction with the 7″ and tour announce, Southern Lord has just digitally released a deluxe reissue of the quartet’s 2013 album Forever Becoming, featuring vastly improved mix and mastering of the original songs replete with a revised version of the previously Japan-only bonus track “Bardo.” Initially recorded by Chris Common under optimal conditions at Chicago’s Electrical Audio, Forever Becoming was mixed in less-than-ideal circumstances at a makeshift studio in Los Angeles, yielding mixes that varnished the incredible tones generated during tracking. When the subject of a vinyl repress came up, Common, now helming his own proper studio, asked for another crack at mixing the album. The result brings a new level of low-end depth, atmospheric clarity, and tight, punchy heaviness to the album. Vinyl pre-orders are coming soon and is available from all digital retailers and streaming services now.

Listen to PELICAN’s remixed/remastered Forever Becoming reissue at THIS LOCATION and watch the “Deny The Absolute” video from the reissue HERE.

Across almost twenty years, five full-lengths, seven EPs, and hundreds of live shows, PELICAN has cultivated a chemistry that borders on telepathy, catapulting the band from basement shows in their native Chicago to outlier appearances at international music festivals including Primavera, Roskilde, Pitchfork, Bonnaroo, Roadburn, and Maryland Deathfest, and headlining tours across four continents.

Watch for additional tour dates and music announcements from PELICAN to be posted shortly.

PELICAN w/ Cloakroom:
6/20/2019 Loving Touch – Ferndale, MI w/ Greet Death
6/21/2019 Lee’s Palace – Toronto, ON
6/22/2019 Bar de Ritz – Montreal, QC
6/23/2019 Great Scott – Boston, MA
6/24/2019 Brooklyn Bazaar – Brooklyn, NY w/ Planning For Burial
6/25/2019 Boot & Saddle – Philadelphia, PA w/ Planning For Burial
6/26/2019 Ottobar – Baltimore, MD
6/27/2019 Club Café – Pittsburgh, PA
6/28/2019 Northside Yacht Club – Cincinnati, OH
6/29/2019 Metro – Chicago, IL w/ Young Widows

For coverage of PELICAN in The Americas contact dave@earsplitcompound.com and internationally contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.

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Norwegian rockers Okkultokrati reveal a trio of live dates on the horizon in Sweden and Denmark, where they shall be road testing new material that they are currently working on. Their previous acclaimed album Raspberry Dawn was released via Southern Lord in 2016 – more on that album below.  

OKKULTOKRATI LIVE DATES:
February 14: Gothenburg @ Musikens Hus
February 15: Aalborg @ 1000Fryd 
February 16: Copenhagen @ Musikcafeen

More info on Raspberry Dawn below…
While paying homage to their native 1990s black metal heritage, the cinematic synth/goth rock of the prior decade, and the raging early punk movement ahead of that, Okkultokrati still manages to create sincerely original and infectious music through every bar of Raspberry Dawn, resulting in a starkly raw and original sounding album. 

STREAM OKKULTOKRATI’S RASPBERRY DAWN

On Raspberry Dawn, Okkultokrati thrusts the heretic rock and roll that they have cultivated since their 2008 inception into more extraordinary situations. Classic ‘70s riffing, snotty punk, and brash, old-school metal are inventively mixed with pulses and spikes of darkwave and ice cold, psychedelic repetition. They execute these infectious tunes effortlessly, playing with the attitude they retained from their roots in rural hard rock attitude, and busting a propulsive stomp that aligns them closer to the clarity of recordings from decades past, also exemplified by spring reverb twangs that ping across the mix like rubber bands. With organ touches, violent slaps of static, and blown out sci-fi overtures backed by the band’s preexisting taste for the curious and the macabre, amping-up both the drama and the feel-good extremes that they have always lathered their sound in, Raspberry Dawn is weird, wired, and quite possibly the holy grail for those looking for radical rock reinvention and new sensations in the current era.

PRAISE FOR RASPBERRY DAWN:
“Norway’s Okkultokrati takes the age-old black metal imprint of snarling Venom-style vocals and general nihilism, and updates the proceedings with fresh approaches that employ punk, hardcore, death metal, goth and much more. The new record is more evolution for the band, as the general doom and gloom has been replaced by almost sunny (but still chainsaw-like) riffs and more melody. Imagine Motörhead at their beer-raising fun best, but with synths, occasional piano, and more, then you may have the idea…” – CLRVYNT

“The song (Hard To Please, Easy To Kill) offers nostalgia for those who went through a powerful goth phase in high school, while offering a vision into an alternate timeline when the ‘80s never ended, only got weirder. It must be heard to be believed…” – INVISIBLE ORANGES

“If you were to lock Ian Curtis, Robert Smith, Mat McNerney and Fenriz in a recording studio for 24 hours then this would likely be the musical fallout.” – AVE NOCTUM

“Raspberry Dawn carries such a manic energy and flamboyant disregard for what’s expected of it that it is arguably both the most interesting and defiantly punk rock statement the band has made thus far.” – THE QUIETUS

“Commendably individual, and coated in a dirty film of fuzz.” – TERRORIZER

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