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j-dude773-blog · 7 years ago

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Ukraine Mystics SOOM Deliver Unforgettable Atmosphere in 2nd LP

~By Billy Goate~

Where to begin with SOOM? The band isn’t exactly a household name, not even within doom circles (unfortunately). But it should be. It really should. We’ve been tracking Soom (who I once depticted as “a haunting, dirgy doom band”) since their very first release, a three-way split in 2013 with Russian sludgers Pressor and the now defunct Lewiston, Idaho band Diazepam. Hey, international relationships may be complicated, but that doesn’t mean metal has to be!

I just figured out where to start: Сум. That’s Cyrillic script that transliterates as “Soom” and translates in a word we can all universally related to: “Grief.” Like the emotion of grieving, Soom is complicated. We’ve been exposed to the impressive expressive range of the band in their previous opus, ‘Ніч на полонині’ (“Night on the Meadow”) in 2014. Now for their second full-length, 'Джєбарс’ (2018), the Kharkiv trio of Kova (guitar/vocals), Tomrer (bass), and Amorth (drums) push those boundaries ambitiously forward. Soom’s label, Robustfellow, does a great job of getting us ready for the esoteric baptism of sound to follow:

Soom, who have previously combined heavy weirdness, hypnotic rhythms, otherworldly chanting and ‘recorded in a cavern’ sound with an ancient mysticism grounded in Ukrainian folk, are ready to go further and project the spirit of their native city through unearthly soundscapes of their sophomore album. Preserving the traditions of the first album, Soom creates a conceptual story, more uncanny in “spoken words”, more chaotic and deeper in music, combining doom metal with dark side of rave and Slobozhansky folk. The result of this mixture is unpredictable, so make sure you are ready for immersion.

That sums it up quite nicely and gives you a clue as to why I’m drawn irresistibly to the band with the motto, “Smoke Music, Listen Weed.” Today, Doomed & Stoned is proud to bring you the exclusive world premiere of Джєбарс by Soom, which releases on Friday, April 20th on Robustfellow Productions. You can get it on CD or digital format here.

There’s plenty to unpack in Soom’s sophomore record, so you’d best give ear and read along…

Джєбарс by SOOM

Now, I know what you’re all wondering: what’s up with that album title? Other than looking hella cool, something tells me there is something important about “Джебарс” that may be the key to understanding the whole album. Naturally, I found very difficult to translate on my own (well, ok, absolutely impossible – Google translate was being a bitch). Even a good friend of mind from Ukraine wasn’t entirely sure. “Why don’t you just ask the band?” she suggested. Grand idea! So I reached out to vocalist Kova for some insight.

“Джебарс,” as it turns out, is actually slang for “Djebars” or “Jabber” (as in GG Allin and the Jabbers). Of course, in English, we might take that to mean someone who talks really fast or incoherently. like he’s high and his mind is expanding. However, there’s more to this little rabbit trail. “In Kharkiv, we say Djebars to describe the Dude who smokes a lot of marijuana and listens to Soom, something like that.” In short, it’s a someone who savors “craft beer and weed and listening to slow chaos in his headphones, exhaling smoke into the Derzhprom” – that building you see on the front of album. This is going to be something of an Alice in Wonderland experience, folks.

The opening track beckons you into this world’s dark, foggy atmosphere, luring us with the emotive strains of strings and synthesizer. “Понад Секвоями: Джерело” roughly translates as “Above The Sequoias: Origin (Fountainhead)” and, indeed, it does have a rather primitive feel to it.

Towards the seven-minute mark, a narrator speaking in the native tongue speaks. I asked (nay, practically begged) Filipp Dobrov from the band’s record label, Robustfellow, (which has brought us such incredible acts as Ethereal Riffian, The Grand Astoria, and Somali Yacht Club) for a translation. “Firstly,” he cautioned, “the lyrics are strange and weird, containing lots of slang-words and double-meanings, mythological names that don’t have any translations.” This English translation, he says, doesn’t even really get close to the core.

The story begins as our protagonist, Djebars, walks aimlessly home one night. Then things get really weird and I can’t really describe it to you without sounding like a crazy person. That’s when I knew I needed to learn Ukrainian. There’s something about a forest and poison and a ransom and midwives and glue. It’s weird, man, just weird.

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We aren’t given too much time to ponder the words, in any event, because the first track transitions immediately into a second. Mystical plucking send ripples through a smoke filled chamber, Kova’s guitar playing very much invokes the spirit of regional folk songs dating back centuries (Soom has been known to drawn upon them for inspiration). A gorgeously downtuned bass makes its entrance (say hi to Tomrer). A toxic snow of noise and chanting lyrics now envelop us. It’s a grief of a different sort now, one of sheer cacophony, which explains the title: Вщент (“Burned Out”). Stick around until eight minutes in and you’ll surely be rewarded with one of the most addictive sludge grooves I’ve heard in a while. Things escalate into a full frenzy, with drummer Amorth gushing a cathartic vomit of cymbals and blast beats to join Tomrer’s bass battering.

When I read on the band’s “About Us” page that their genre was rave doom. I thought it was a joke (you know, the sardonic sense of humor many doomers have, even poking fun at their own craft and trade). However, by the fourth track, “Під променем тьмяним захована мрія” (Under A Gleam The Dream Is Hidden), it all hit me like a cocktail of hallucinogens. This number, the longest of the record at thirteen minutes, is indeed trance inducing. At first, you want to dance, then you start to feel woozy, and finally sick to the pit of your stomach.

I can imagine just how powerful this music must be performed at full amplitude in a live setting. We’ve seen some evidence of this in Rita Fevraleva’s incredible photographic coverage of the annual Sludge Convention and Tune Low, Play Slow in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, which draw bands from both Russia and Ukraine.

Tomrer’s bassline arrives just in time to reel us in, and Kova’s mystical riff revives us to life, just long enough to get one more dance in – this time a more obvious illusion to the rave in the minute interlude, “Сувенір фен-шуй” (“Feng Shui Souvenir”). I bet there’s a story waiting to be told someday behind that one and perhaps one day I’ll draw the band out with some of that prime Oregon ganja and get them to tell me all about it.

Now venturing onto the B-Side of Джєбарс, we take “Полтавський Шлях” (“Poltavian Way”), which may be my fav of the record because it’s a solid, slowed-down doom drudgery. Ain’t it delicious? From what I could determine, Полтава (Poltava) is an old Ukraine city located along the Vorskla River, with a history that goes back well into the Middle Ages. During this time it was involved in, among other things, the Mongol invasion of Рѹ́сь, when it was a loose federation Slavic tribes. Whether the song is about this or the many storied events of the city’s history that might be brought to mind as one walks the path along the river, I know not. Nevertheless, you can feel the gravity of every note as the rhythmic pulse of every note gives wings to your imagination and the soaring, stinging guitar play encourages you to take flight.

A short, drunken interlude “Спокій і тиша цілодобово” (“Peace And Silence 24 Hours”) brings us to the album’s proper conclusion. “Коляска” (“Wheelchair”) was the first single that Джєбарс revealed some weeks ago, so it’s interesting to listen it now in its context. Kova tells me Коляска an “insider term for the drugs of bad quality which put you you in wheelchair, at best, or just kill you.” Not so long time ago, he continues, there was a drug called spice – “something like liquid synthetic cannabinoid.” Yeah, we had that dogshit here in the US, too, unfortunately. “You could smoke even the paper if you pour this shit on it and you got high so fast and kill your mind for an hours. It was like an more opiate than weed. So it was a bad time.” As for Kova, he sticks solely to nature. “We call it 'KЦ’ ('KaTse’)” which is “good old weed of high quality.”

Confession time: when I first heard “Коляска,” it felt a bit stressful and off-putting, juxtaposing buzzing noise, shrill feedback, and one possessed guitar with eerie eastern-style melisma with a mesmerizing drumbeat. Hearing it again, so deeply engrossed in this juggernaut of a record, and I felt as though I could be entangled in one sweaty fever dream, had I not the familiar surroundings of home to ground my sanity to.

Two bonus tracks are offered following the hefty tour de force we’ve just experienced. The first, “Наґно” (“Nagno”) appeared as a lonely single in the summer of 2016, something to tide us over then as fans anxiously awaited the band’s follow-up to that incredible first album Ніч на полонині. (“Night on the Meadow”) from 2014. The music instantly soothes our nerves from the long journey with the mystic melody making that Soom has become synonymous with in my own mind. The reverberating vocals bring us another song-chant, speaking of the “ancient knowledge of water and smoke” that brings something strange, perhaps terrible, to life.

If I was trapped in some delirious dream state by the conclusion of “Наґно,” the second bonus track, “Панічна Атака” (“Panic Attack”), makes me feel like I could be in a full-on, wide-awake, bloodlust nightmare. It’s frankly, one of the creepiest, crustiest sludge/D-beat numbers I’ve ever been a party to. The screeching vox reminded me of those moments of shrieking insanity in Skinny Puppy’s “Dig It”. After searching out the English translation, I smile to myself and said, “Yep, this song certainly did live up to its name!”

As might tell, I thoroughly enjoyed this mystical romp through the darker cultural and psychological corners of our world. The whole thing is an experience, man. It’s like nothing you’re hearing out of the West right now in doom circles. A kind of psychedelic nightmare, with strong bass lines, devastating low-end, caustic shreds, and that haunting singing that make you think of some insane monk singing in an empty cathedral during the witching hour. Beware: you just might get lost in the grooves of this record’s spin.

Follow The Band. Get Their Music.

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j-dude773-blog · 7 years ago

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Aussie Psychedelic Doomers INDICA Ready for Mind-Altering 420 Release!

~By Billy Goate~

We’re always keeping an ear on the developments of the heavy underground tucked a world away in the Land Down Under. There, the people of OZ are but hours from celebrating 4/20, and one band in particular can’t wait to share their latest project with you Doomers & Stoners. We’ve first got acquainted with INDICA when we published a profile of the Brisbane scene, the capital city of Queensland nested on the continent’s southeastern shore. The shamanic doom five-piece had just cooked up ‘Stone Future Hymns’ (2016), which admirably intertwined contemporary soundcraft with the ancient roots of myth and mysticism, carrying us high atop sacred Tamborine Mountain.

Back then, I introduced Indica’s line-up with this vivid roll call: “There is Jayesh Talati, the band’s singer and unrepentant 'guitar abuser,’ joined in his brutal exploits by axeman Jesse Haywood. Josh Dawson is responsible for hypnotic bass frequencies and Michael Flint for ritualistic beats. Craig Ferguson chimes in with the most curious of noises.”

We love slow, heavy, and spiritual music. We play our own interpretation of the classic sounds laid out before us. We are Indica.

Now, the second full-length by this mighty handful is upon us, titled 'Disparity Of A Day’ (2018). Indica frontman Jayesh Talati says it’s “much more of a spiritual journey than our previous album.” For instance, “the lyrical content and musical energy flow from song to song, tying together at the end in an ouroboros-like effect.”

Drummer Michael Flint was likewise reflective. “Disparity Of A Day is more than just a second album,” he told Doomed & Stoned. “It represents a positive shift in all areas of Indica’s collective and individual lives, musically and spiritually. A fully collaborative effort between the four of Us (five when you consider how much work Chris Brownbill put into production).”

Michael went on to tell us how the making of the album stretched him as a musician. “I’d never been given drum tracks to learn before now, and Jesse had demoed some absolute pearlers for my first time! I had to work very hard to nail them, but in doing so I became a more confident drummer – and by extension a more confident human.” In the end, the album got the kind of drumming it deserved.

Photo: William France

Today, we’re giving you a listen to “Wanderer,” which was the first track written for the new album. “I myself am very proud of it,” Jayesh says. “It is a prime example of the spiritual direction we often take, lyrically focusing on our connection with the Earth and the follies of mankind.” He adds, with a laugh, “Its also super fun to play.”

Having heard all seven tracks, “Wanderer” is also a very moving representation of the record as a whole. “The emotions and themes that evolve throughout the song match the album’s journey, as well,” Jayesh notes. Disparity Of A Day was composed with the kind of thought, passion, and intensity of conviction we ought to expect from a genre that, quite frankly, has been playing it safe and easy for far too long.

Photo: William France

“Wanderer,” Michael confirms, “is a story of struggling through adversity and coming out the other side stronger. A tale of prevailing against the weight of a world that demands you quash your individuality in favour of productivity.”

“We all had frustrating moments trying to fit the pieces of Disparity Of A Day together,” he concludes, “but those struggles brought out the best in all of us. We’ve put a lot of ourselves into these songs. My only hope is that people enjoy it as much as I do.”

Indeed, with Disparity Of A Day Indica have unleashed the potential of doom metal to speak to the soul in vital and refreshing ways, and that is just the kind of album I’m willing to get invested in.

Give ear…

Follow The Band. Get Their Music.

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j-dude773-blog · 7 years ago

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DEMON HEAD Square Off Against Tyranny In ‘The Resistance’

~By Billy Goate~

Sometimes all you need to carry on in the face of adversity, to trudge on through the hard times, is a good song – the right song. Copenhagen’s DEMON HEAD have not just one, but two such songs, timed perfectly for the dazed, frustrated, and angry among us watching a generation quickly loose its way. “We must be brave,” they remind us in the new 7" record ‘The Resistance’ (2018), “there’s no time to waste.”

Of course, most reviews will immediately reference the early-Pentagram influence of the Lieblingesque vocals, but there’s so much more at work here. This reminds me of the whole Vietnam protest era of rock 'n’ roll that gifted us with many of our most memorable and culturally significant songs. More importantly, these bands lit a match to a movement that led to a social awakening – what is now referred to as the counterculture. Many say we need another good countercultural movement to shake up the complacent attitudes that have led to so much suffering, violence, and hatred. If one rises again, music like this will once again play a vital role.

Right on the heels of the very successful album, Thunder On The Fields, Demon Head return with a noticeably more somber tone. Yes, you could argue they’ve always struck a gloomy, graveyard rock pose, but this time it’s about real life monsters. The Resistance, the band says, is a “timeless narrative of the struggles and nightmares of an underground, partisan movement in the face of totalitarian power.”

Demon Head affectionately refer to the two-song EP as “our homage to those who defy tyranny.” This Friday, April 20th, The Sign Records will issue The Resistance on a limited vinyl run, along with the full digital release, and both will be available at that time here). Right now? Right now, there’s a message to be heard. Give ear…

Follow The Band. Get Their Music.

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j-dude773-blog · 7 years ago

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SLEEP Foist Big 4/20 Surprise!

~By Billy Goate~

Um…Well, this is definitely one way to get everyone to pretty much go ape shit.

Remember that big SLEEP album we we’ve been talking about forever? And some doubting Thomases among us were thinking it was going the way of Tool? You know, forever in limbo? Well, this news just dropped and it ain’t April 1st, so I’m pretty sure it’s on the level. And I just pinched myself, so I know I’m not dreaming.

On Friday, April 20th, Sleep will release their first new album since Dopesmoker cratered the landscape almost two solid decades ago. The album is titled ‘The Sciences’ (2018) and it will be released on Third Man Records. In full. Yep.

Tracklist:

The Sciences

Marijuanaut’s Theme

Sonic Titan

Antarcticans Thawed

Giza Butler

The Botanist

Didn’t see any physical release info on their record label’s site yet, but I imagine we’ll learn more on 4/20.

iTunes, on the other hand, already has The Sciences locked, loaded, and ready to go here. I haven’t done this many 30-second song previews since I was a freshman in college!

Now is the time to freak the fuck out.

UPDATE I:

The Sciences is now streaming Spotify and available for download on Google Play, as well. Fingers crossed for a Bandcamp download in the weeks ahead!

UPDATE II:

Andy Beresky from the stoner-doom band Black Pyramid made an insightful observation about the viral marketing tactic employed in dropping The Sciences on 4/20 via Jack White’s label, Third Man Records.

The new Sleep album is the most important and will perhaps be the most influential record of the digital era. Mark my words, this surprise strategy with no traditional promotion or marketing, deliberate misinformation and chaos, and deliberately pressing such a scarce amount of physical copies so that it immediately sells out and drives up digital sales, is going to be a mile marker in how we think about marketing and promotion.

This changes everything. It is as innovative as when KISS and the Grateful Dead innovated merchandising in the 60’s and 70’s, and it will be just as influential. Not every big release will follow this blueprint, and Jack White is making soooooooo much money off digital sales right now that people are going to totally rethink how they monetize digital sales.

The music itself? It’s okay, it’s actually not terrible, sounds like Sleep, but that’s completely besides the point. It’s all about the viral hype that this blitzkrieg digital marketing strategy has created. Freakin’ brilliant. Well played, Jack White, well played….

Indeed, the Jack White connection explains so much, in retrospect – why a general press release didn’t go out via the usual PR people to music bloggers, or even to the fans directly via Sleep’s Facebook page. Instead, only the biggest online music news outlets were informed. As far as I know, that may have even happened virally, too, with a choice Jack White webzine like Pitchfork being notified and the other mags stumbling over each other to be the second and third to get the word out.

Insofar as the digital distribution is concerned, I now get why Bandcamp was left out of the equation and iTunes and Google Play were utilized, instead – all revenue streams that can be controlled by Third Man Records, for a smooth rollout and no loose ends. Just a theory, anyway.

UPDATE III:

By now you know that the first vestiges of vinyl for The Sciences came and went rather quickly, selling out within hours from the Third Man Records store. If you missed out or were discouraged by the prices (and shocked by the poachers trying to resell them for twice as much on eBay), keep in mind that these were an early, special-edition run. Word is, there will be more physical releases of the new Sleep record – enough to make all of us vinyl collectors happy (and more than likely at much more affordable prices.

Follow The Band. Get Their Music.

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j-dude773-blog · 7 years ago

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HIGH ON PHILLY A Doomed & Stoned Compilation

Happy 420, you beautiful Doomers & Stoners out there! Been working hard behind the scenes to bring you a new installment in our ongoing scene-by-scene compilation series, showcasing the doom metal and stoner rock bands from the heavy underground (with a few surprises thrown in).

Today, we bring you ‘Doomed & Stoned in Philadelphia’ (2018), featuring 28 artists from in and around The City of Brotherly Love. It’s our gift to you, with the hope that you’ll have a very high 420!

Big thanks to Brian Schmidt, who is based in the Philly scene, for coordinating this project and to Rain Fice for the amazing album art! As always, we remind you to please support the bands if you dig their music. Oh, and don’t bogart that comp, man. Pass those fuzzy vibes around! (Billy)

Doomed & Stoned in Philadelphia by Doomed & Stoned

DOOMED & STONED IN PHILADELPHIA By Brian Schmidt

Sitting along the Delaware River on the east coast of what most of the planet would consider a rather weird country lies the 5th largest city in the USA, Philadelphia.

Philly is not just the birthplace of America, it’s also the birthplace of numerous other wonderful and amazing things, such as the Philly Cheesesteak, and a very rich artistic community. Here we not only have the highest number of murals out of any city on the planet, but we also have an incredibly rich and vibrant music community. Whatever you fancy, we have it here- jazz, hip hop and rap, various forms of electronic, country, folk, indie, singer songwriter, and styles so weird they can’t be classified into any one specific genre. You name it, we have it.

However, the the heavy underground rock and metal community is what really stands out from the crowd. Philly is also often called Seattle’s sister city and with that comes a love of all things Grunge. Soundgarden and Alice In Chains fans take note! There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of rock and metal bands regularly playing out in this area, including from the surrounding areas in Pennsylvania, Delaware and South Jersey.

What I aim to bring to your ears is the doom, sludge, stoner and psychedelic rock movement that has been gaining more and more steam the world over the last few years, and especially here. While our doom-stoner scene may not be as large as other cities, such as Portland, what we lack in quantity we make up for in quality.

The sense of community here is also so strong that we all consider each other to be family. Come spend some time here with some of the bands you’re about to listen to and it won’t be long before you’re sharing a blunt or bong with them and crashing on each other’s couches when you’re too hammered to make it home.

So sit back, light that fatty, and let the sounds of the city of brotherly love take you to another realm.

Share The Love.

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