ALBUM REVIEW: Earthling Society - "Ascent To Godhead"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 04/08/2017

Label: Riot Season

“Ascent To Godhead” is a wild ride that demonstrates Earthling Society are the real deal when it comes to modern psychedelic rock.

“Ascent To Godhead” DD//LP track listing:

1). Can You Levitate?

2). Ascent To Godhead Part 1 (Godhead/Going For Refuge/The Celestial Mind)

3). Electric Bou Saada

4). Ascent To Godhead Part 2

The Review:

Riot Season Records continue to unearth the gems in the oversaturated world of psychedelic rock with Earthling Society’s new LP “Ascent To Godhead”. The latest offering from the Fleetwood trio is a truly epic voyage that begins with sun-drenched optimism and slowly descends into a dark well of noise.

The jangly garage rock of “Can You Levitate?” opens proceedings in hopeful fashion. This is as close as the band get to a proper pop song but it is coated in enough scuzzy fuzz and unhinged wah to remain reassuringly dirty. Once you have emphatically responded in the affirmative to Earthling Society’s request to levitate, the journey to the outer limits truly begins with “Ascent To Godhead (Part 1)”. A multi-stage mantra built around minimal repetitive guitar lines, minimal percussion and droning sitars, the track begins in classic Spacemen 3 territory. As the track shifts between movements, the atmosphere becomes hazier as the ascension turns darker.

While the first half of “Ascent To Godhead” achieves mind-expanding results with a relatively restrained sonic pallet, the second half sees Earthling Society unleash distortion overload. “Electric Bou Saada” is a monstrous jam built around huge riffs and searing solos that comes on like a more ragged Earthless tussling with Acid Mothers Temple. Just as the track reaches a furious peak of free rock intensity the band take a left turn into a more subdued Can-style groove. This maintains an air of menace even though the volume and dirt has been stripped away. This leads into the hellish finale of “Ascent To Godhead (Part 2)” where the journey has reached its destination to discover a nightmarish world in place of the expected utopia. An unrelenting fuzz-heavy riff etches itself into your brain as saxophones screech all around. The cacophony eventually subsides to a soothing keyboard based coda that attempts to bring the listener back to earth as gently as possible.

“Ascent To Godhead” is a wild ride that demonstrates Earthling Society are the real deal when it comes to modern psychedelic rock.

“Ascent To Godhead” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: The Cosmic Dead - "Psych Is Dead"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 28/04/2017

Label: Riot Season

Somehow the band manage to make relentless repetition sound like a captivating journey into the unknown, packed with more subtle detail than a million prog metal odysseys.

“Psych Is Dead” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Nuraghe

2). Psych Is Dead

3). #FW

The Review:

Sometimes just one chord can be a whole lot heavier than an onslaught of riffs. The Cosmic Dead demonstrate this in style over the first half of stellar new LP “Psych Is Dead”. “Nuraghe” is a yawning 22 minute black-hole, a hypnotic mantra with an inescapable density. The track is based around a shuffling monochord groove that ebbs and flows between eerily blissful calm and outbursts of molten distortion. Somehow the band manage to make relentless repetition sound like a captivating journey into the unknown, packed with more subtle detail than a million prog metal odysseys.

The Glasgow astral voyagers thankfully provide a little respite after this epic mind-melting trip with the title track of “Psych Is Dead”. Layers of clean guitar loops and warm synth drones build up to create a wall of transcendent soothing noise. Drums are kept subdued and distant which help the band create an enveloping ambience reminiscent of “Beaches and Canyons” era Black Dice.

The calm is soon shattered by the closing crash of “#FW”. Another one-chord affair, this differs from “Nuraghe” due to its single-minded dedication to a pounding primal snare thud and guitar clang that builds up an unstoppable head of steam towards the albums close.

If “Psych Is Dead” it is because The Cosmic Dead have destroyed it and created something dark and intoxicating from its smouldering remains.

“Psych is Dead” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

The Art Of Burning Water - Living Is For Giving, Dying Is For Getting (Album Review)

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 20/10/2014

Label: Riot Season

‘Living Is For Giving, Dying Is For Getting’ CD/DD/LP track listing:

1. No Day Is Tragedy Free
2. You Get What You're Given
3. Happiness Always Ends In Tears
4. At The Hands Of Them
5. Feast Of Testicles
6. Snake State Nausea
7. It Will All Make Sense When We're Dead
8. December 14th 1990 (Sadness Begins)
9. Great British Hope Destroyer
10. How To Be A Worrier

Bio:

Noise was made and dance halls emptied. Tears were shed and sorrow was aplenty. Laughter filled the vans and the smoke filled our lungs. With tinnitus to unite us, only we can make failure fun. Beats and noise strength in the face of some grim and harsh times. Intestinal fortitude tenfold. We'd make Mr. Balboa proud

The Band:

MIKE | Drums and P.M.A
KUNAL | Sub noize
GRIEF | High noise and throat

Review:

I’m not entirely sure how or why I thought The Art of Burning Water were some kind of quirky indie band, until I came across them a few years back. Since this point, I have come to associate them with bands such as Palehorse and the Afternoon Gentleman, and whilst different to the utter misery of the former and raging grind of the latter, they are definitely pushing their own kind of extremity.

Which brings us nicely to their latest; ‘Living is for giving, Dying is For Getting.’ After a brief sample ‘No Day Is Tragedy Free’ drags itself along in reluctant malice with white noise screams searing over the top and then, without warning they blast into the hyper punk of ‘You get what you’re given.’ It’s pretty clear that accessibility is not much of a priority, there is no feeling that they are making music for anyone other than themselves and as a result they go wherever they please and make a brutal but intelligent racket in the process.

Sonically they fall somewhere between Knut and various grind / noisecore bands, although there are some (relatively) straight up and memorable riffs  to be found in the likes of ‘At the hands of them.’ and ‘It will all make sense when we’re dead’, which makes a good contrast and holds your attention without becoming monotonous.  There is some interesting times signatures and clever flips in rhythm in the middle of “It will all make sense when we’re dead” and genuinely sinister chord progressions in “Snake state nausea” add variety and make for a listen that seems more progressive and intriguing on each listen.

At the time of writing there are still new elements coming to light which highlight how much thought has been put into the record.  The playing is impeccable, well planned and clearly they are all masters of their respective instruments.

The vocals are never anything less than all out fury and desperation. Serving almost as the proverbial nails down the board in the background, it’s as if they are there purely to be unpleasant for the sake of it (which by the way is meant as a compliment).  The riffs and aforementioned dynamics and technical changes carry the overall sound and for me are what form the songs, rather than relying on standard structure / verse / chorus.

If you’re looking for pure nihilism and fury and an example of a band pushing themselves to the extreme, with no regard for others opinion and with the intention of making a hideous racket, then look no further. At 20 minutes long it’s a little brief, but needs to be no longer. This is a crushing work of utter despondency which I can’t recommend enough.

Reference points; - Knut, Ken Mode, Eyehategod

7/10

Words by: Chris Wilson

You can pick up a copy here

For more information:

http://artofburningwater.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-of-burning-water/199317980081118