THE LATEST GRIMM INCARNATE FROM THE DISGUSTING DUO.
PVRE HELLISH RIFF-MANGLING.
180 GRAM BLACK VINYL
Rec: Los Angeles 012
Mix: Paris 013
MASTERED BY BRAD BOATRIGHT
SIDE A: LAST ONE / VALENTINE’S DAY (18:02)
SIDE B: INVISIBLE / SLEEPER (20:26)
SOMA020/LORD180
A SPLIT LABEL RELEASE ©2013 BETWEEN IDEOLOGIC ORGAN & SOUTHERN LORD
MAXIMUM VOLUME YIELDS MAXIMUM RESULTS
DIGITAL VERSION OF THE ALBUM HERE: http://sunn.bandcamp.com/album/la-reh-2012
Ferocious Florida hardcore unit Centuries exploded into our consciousness and attacked our senses in August 2013 with their Southern Lord debut full length, Taedium Vitae. At the time of announcing this record, we did say that we hoped they would return to Europe in support of this record, having previously toured in 2012 with Poland’s Drop Of Lies, today we are very pleased to announce that Centuries have confirmed a mammoth tour across continental Europe and the UK, with Fjort, Esoteric Youth and Blank on specific dates.
Here are the tour dates so far…
FEBRUARY AND MARCH TOUR 2014
13. Feb GER Potsdam Black Fleck +
14. Feb GER Braunschweig Nexus +
15. Feb PL Gdynia Klub Desdemona ^
16. Feb PL Warsaw Przychodnia Squat ^
18. Feb GER Berlin Tiefgrund ^
19. Feb GER Leipzig Zoro ^
20. Feb CZ Ostrava Plan B Hardcore Cafe ^
21. Feb HU Budapest Trafik ^
22. Feb IT Bologna Freakout Club ^
23. Feb IT Milano TBC ^
24. Feb AT Graz TBA ^
25. Feb AT Wien Ekhaus ^
26. Feb GER Köln Sonic Ballroom ^
27. Feb GER Bielefeld AJZ
28. Feb BEL Liege La Zone
01. Mar BEL Ieper Joc Ieper
02. Mar UK Brighton TBA **
03. Mar UK Hull O’reillys **
04. Mar UK Manchester/Leeds TBA **
05. Mar UK London TBA **
06. Mar FR Paris TBA **
07. Mar FR Clermont Ferrand Sprint Bar **
08. Mar FR Lyon TBA **
09. Mar GER Trier Exhaus **
10. Mar NL Leiden Sub071 **
11. Mar GER Giessen AK44 **
12. Mar GER Essen Emokeller **
13. Mar GER Münster TBA **
14. Mar GER Nürnberg TBC **
15. Mar GER Darmstadt Oetinger Villa **
16. Mar GER Hamburg TBA **
+with Blank
^with Fjort
** with Esoteric Youth
Anything you can do to help raise awareness of these tour dates would be very much appreciated, and the band shall be available for face to face interviews whilst out on the road, so do get in touch if you are interested. I shall confirm the remaining details in the next days.
ABOUT THEIR DEBUT, TAEDIUM VITAE…
Recorded with Kris Hillbert at Legitimate Business in Greensboro, the album is a relentless barrage of abrasive, blackened, emotive hardcore played with utmost intensity and a strong sense of urgency. On Taedium Vitae, Centuries take their potent brew of dark hardcore, tragic melodies, volatile d-beat leanings and emotive angst-ridden vocal assault to extreme new levels.
They might be young, but they have already gained great reputation in their home state for being one of the most sincere, intense and hardworking bands, what’s more, on Taedium Vitae, they have carved a bold and assured sound which would lead anyone to believe they have been cutting their teeth for decades already.
If you would like to get your hands on a promo copy of the album then please get in touch and I will gladly provide.
“Centuries do what they do with incendiary passion and ire, and bulldoze through all doubts in the process. Another excellent dose of abrasive hardcore from the Southern Lord stable.” – ROCK A ROLLA
“Glass half empty or half full? For Florida’s Centuries, the answer is almost certainly “smashed into tiny shards”…Centuries concentrate on expressing violent anguish at breakneck tempos, as intense as a high-speed car smash. There’s no let-up, no pause for breath and no hope…Now that’s what K! calls emotional hardcore.” – 4K KERRANG!
“A relentless barrage of detonated emotional and sonic intensity, constantly on the verge of collapse and disintegration into chaos. It might testify for a lot of pain, but it is definitely beautiful to listen to…Centuries have just started, and Taedium Vitae is already up there with say, When Forever Comes Crashing…Taedium manages to push the envelope just this little bit further into the abyss the same way Comity did when their debut came out in 2002.” – METAL HAMMER
“The filthy overdriven guitars and ragged vocals spew out at a furious pace; this is primitive crusty hardcore voice of the post-rock meandering many of Centuries’ peers indulge in… it’s a good shot of adrenaline in the arm.” – ROCKSOUND
“The songs form a cohesive barrage of anger as they slip seamlessly into one another. Vocally, it’s beyond raw and it’s easy to imagine there was blood dripping from the microphone at the end of the recording sessions. Centuries may be tired of life, but this album is proof that there’s still plenty to be thankful for.” – MUSIC OMH
“Taedium Vitae is loud, raucous, intelligent, and short. All in all, a great listen. In the end, that is all that matters, right? Here’s to hoping Centuries has a long career ahead of them. Pick them up. You will be glad you did.” – ECHOES AND DUST
“Taedium Vitae is a striking and thrilling experience which burns physically and mentally whilst casting a wash of pleasure and satisfaction which marks the band as the future of hardcore.” – RINGMASTER REVIEWS
Following the release of Blood!, the freshly-unearthed/released LP from iconic ’80s Santa Cruz surf/skate/hardcore act, BL’AST!, Vice Magazine’s music channel Noisey.com is hosting an exclusive video from the mixing sessions of the album from earlier this year in Dave Grohl’s 606 Studios in Northridge, California.
Featuring BL’AST guitarist Mike Neider and vocalist Clifford Dinsmore as well as Southern Lord’s Greg Anderson and Dave Grohl himself, the video portrays the crew discussing the band’s impact on the West Coast hardcore/punk scene back in the day and shows them bringing these lost recordings to life on the legendary Neve console as featured in the recent Grohl-produced documentary Sound City as well as classic ’80s live footage and photos of the iconic act.
Tune in and scope out the video interviews now at Vice/Noisey AT THIS LOCATION.
And if you missed it, last week Spin Magazine posted a worldwide exclusive stream of Blood! alongside an in-depth feature including Dinsmore, Grohl, ex-guitarist/current Alice in Chains vocalist William Duvall and more RIGHT HERE.
Formed in 1982, BL’AST! released their debut album, The Power of Expression in 1985, scorching audiences everywhere with their unique and innovative, technical and boundary-free style of raging hardcore punk. This caught the attention of SST Records who released the band’s second album, It’s In My Blood, in 1987, as well as their third LP, Take The Manic Ride in 1989. BL’AST!’s wide-eyed, ambitious approach and intense perseverance became an influence for many bands to come.
With words from the creators themselves, the story of how the impending collaborative Terrestrials LP from SUNN O))) and ULVER was conceptualized and created has been dispatched to the public, in addition to the first auditory indication of the material the album presents.
Oslo, Norway, August 10th, 2008. Following their 200th gig, playing before 2000 people at the 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.
“We were sitting in the console room, early in the morning, listening to the takes. Someone said, ‘ah, sunrise over Crystal Canyon,’ as if the night had been a dark one. We all laughed and Greg proposed it as a title. In that setting it sounded perfect. The boys had mentioned wanting the music to orient towards the light, like some lost pilgrim stretching before the sun. We kept that mental picture for the processing.” – Kristoffer Rygg
That take became the album’s opening piece, “Let There Be Light,” which builds up from silence and darkness and proceeds – ceremoniously, coruscating – O’Malley and O’Sullivan creating the backdrop for Rygg’s Basso Profondo chants. The music unfolds over eight minutes before reaching a crescendo of bass and brass, introducing both Anderson and ULVER as we know them. The Sunn has risen.
“Western Horn” accelerates on a single and austere note of sustained bass and low end, evolving gradually into a haunted soundscape. Crying violins, clusters of Fender Rhodes, guitar pickups, and metal plate drones are gradually layered beneath Anderson’s augmented bass feedback.
“Eternal Return” introduces Rygg singing a lyric evoking ancient Greece, Egypt and the Biblical lands. The song is palindromic, echoing the lyric, beginning and ending with the same bass line and musical pattern, though the guitars are ultimately reversed as the song implodes upon itself.
After the session, ULVER spent a fortnight enhancing the dynamics of the original recordings, adding their own distinctive sheen to the mix, while never losing sight of the SUNN O))) gestaltqualität and remaining careful not to become caught up in studio stratagems.
O’Malley would join ULVER once in a blue moon to develop and sculpt the production more closely with Rygg – overseeing additional recordings of trumpet, viola and violin and attempting to illuminate, and preserve, the unique atmosphere of the collaboration. Over the course of several of these short visits, now some years since the original recording session took place, things slowly and steadily grew to become Terrestrials.
“I remember the vibe in the room back then was more rāga than it was rock. And despite the fact that the walls were literally shaking from volume, it was actually quite a blissed out, psychedelic session. I wanted to preserve that vibe in the final mix.” – Stephen O’Malley
And while Pandit Shankar (may he rest in peace) was not physically present, his spirit loomed large, perhaps together with a few nameless Persian ghosts attracted by the boys’ mutual appreciation for composers like Conrad, Riley, Glass, Alice Coltrane and Shivkumar Sharma.
“You know that opening sequence of Koyaanisqatsi, where the desolate desert landscapes, waves and cloud formations roll over the screen accompanied by deep male chanting and organ ostinatos. That’s where we were.” – Daniel O’Sullivan
So: serene, vociferous, and visually charged stuff. Supreme sounds of synergy from two seminal forces – and friends. Remember to play loud.
In advance of Terrestrials’ street date, now confirmed as February 4th, 2014 in North America, an excerpt of Terrestrials’ immense third composition, “Eternal Return,” is now playing AT THIS LOCATION.
Terrestrials Track Listing:
1. Let There Be Light
2. Western Horn
3. Eternal Return
Additional information and samples from the Terrestrials experiment will be available in the coming weeks prior to the album’s release.
Southern Cali’s lethal XIBALBA has just unleashed a new video for “Soledad,” one of the most punishing tracks on their Hasta La Muerte LP, released in 2012 by Southern Lord.
Filmed by Mike EYK and edited by Whobangin’, “Soledad” was culled from footage from their seemingly nonstop tour schedule over the past two years. XIBALBA’s monstrous on-stage delivery and interaction with the crowds amidst brutal dance floor action throughout the video, plus the copious amounts of partying captured between gigs, more than adequately displays the band’s incessant hard-touring ethos.
Check out “Soledad” RIGHT HERE.
XIBALBA earlier released an official video for the LP’s title track HERE, and Hasta La Muerte can be heard in its entirety HERE.
Having unloaded their downtuned, beatdown-ready death-infused hardcore onto North American audiences steadily for the past two years, in addition to tours of Europe and Japan this year, the band has just locked a new Winter excursion, set to sweep across the US this February and March. XIBALBA’s trek begins February 15th, as they cut through the center of the country with a bout of headlining dates in order to join up with the rest of the tour package in Chicago on February 20th, which sees them providing support for Comeback Kid, also joined by Backtrack, Downpresser and To The Wind. The caravan then hits East Coast and Southeast, storms through SXSW and then pushes west, closing with a round of shows in California.
XIBALBA Tour Dates:
2/15/2014 East Side Joe’s – Las Vegas, NV
2/16/2014 Salt Haus – Salt Lake City, UT
2/17/2014 Helms Deep – Denver, CO
2/18/2014 Jackpot Saloon – Lawrence, KS
2/19/2014 A220 East – Cedar Falls, IA
XIBALBA w/ Comeback Kid, Backtrack, Downpresser, To The Wind:
2/20/2014 Beat Kitchen – Chicago, IL
2/21/2014 The Pyramid Scheme – Grand Rapids, MI
2/22/2014 Pike Room – Pontiac, MI
2/23/2014 Agora Theater – Cleveland, OH
2/25/2014 Middle East – Boston, MA
2/26/2014 Santos Party Haus – New York, NY
2/27/2014 Empire – West Springfield, VA
2/28/2014 Reverb – Reading, PA
3/01/2014 The Casbah – Charlotte, NC
3/02/2014 Rockettown – Nashville, TN
3/04/2014 The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
3/05/2014 Epic Problem – Tampa, FL
3/06/2014 Backbooth – Orlando, FL
3/07/2014 Speakeasy – Lake Worth, FL
3/08/2014 Atticus Bar – Jacksonville, FL
3/09/2014 The Forge – Birmingham, AL
3/10/2014 Goodtime Charlie – Tupelo, MS
3/12/2014 Never Say Never Festival – McAllen, TX
3/14/2014 TBA – Austin, TX @ SXSW
3/15/2014 Walters – Houston, TX
3/16/2014 South By So What – Dallas, TX
3/19/2014 Pub Rock – Phoenix, AZ
3/20/2014 Chain Reaction – Anaheim, CA
3/21/2014 Industry Theater – Lancaster, CA
3/22/2014 The Metro – Oakland, CA
3/23/2014 Rock City Studios – Ventura, CA