EXCLUSIVE TRAILER: Genre and Where Earthless Fits

San Diego-based trio Earthless return with their new full-length album “Black Heaven” on March 16 via Nuclear Blast Entertainment.  As commented on this here blog, the synchronicity displayed and the deep understanding of each other’s playing styles sets them apart from most instrumental jam bands right now, the trio, consisting of Isaiah Mitchell (Guitar), Mike Eginton (Bass) and Mario Rubalcaba (Drums) have an untouchable ability to jam flawlessly, fusing heavy psychedelic rock with krautrock and blues.  Today THE SLUDGELORD are thrilled to be able to share an exclusive trailer of the band sharing their thoughts on genre and where Earthless fits.  “Black Heaven” is available here 

Band info: facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Stinking Lizaveta - "Journey to the Underworld"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 17/02/2017

Label: Translation Loss

Stinking Lizaveta’s new album “Journey to the Underworld” finds the band in deadly form, crafting music that is seriously weird and complex yet still delivers an addictive riff high.

“Journey to the Underworld” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Witches and Pigs

2. Chorus of Shades

3. Sharp Stick in the Eye

4. Six Fangs

5. Blood, Milk and Honey

6. Journey to the Underworld

7. Love Song For Jusu

8. A Stranger's Welcome

9. Allegro

The Review:

It’s an impressive feat for a band to be in their 23^rd year of existence to release an LP that sounds as raw and hungry as a debut. Stinking Lizaveta’s new album “Journey to the Underworld” finds the band in deadly form, crafting music that is seriously weird and complex yet still delivers an addictive riff high.

The Philadelphia trio have honed their idiosyncratic sound to perfection here, delivered with a telepathic tightness. The band’s style of riffage recalls retro rockers like of Earthlessand Comets On Fire but is so vital and fresh it could only have come from the present. Instead of the endless molten jams into the outer realms of the previously mentioned acts, Stinking Lizaveta travel just as far into the unknown but tie themselves into carefully orchestrated labyrinthine constructions but still find room for wild unhinged solos.

The propulsive drive of opener “Witches and Pigs” contains traces of proper Thin Lizzy-esque classic rock while “Chorus of Shades” features some glorious shredding and irresistible leads that are steeped in NWOBHM. “Sharp Stick in the Eye” is an almost funky strut with a groove that winds itself tighter and tighter as the band’s playing gets more frenetic.  There is a heaviness and darkness in these songs though that sees them slip across into noise rock territory, an underlying nastiness that adds a sweet sharpness to proceedings.

The title track seems them ease up a little on the intensity to allow a little psychedelic rock to bubble to the surface. “A Stranger’s Welcome” sees them employ passages of acoustic guitar to bring a spaghetti western dustbowl feel which although brief provides a powerful contrast to the epic riffage that surrounds it.

“Journey to the Underworld”is another incredible release from a truly unique band. Stinking Lizaveta manage to make instrumental metal that sounds like nothing else out there. Here’s to another 23 years of madness 

“Journey to the Underworld” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Yawning Man - “Historical Graffiti”

By: Victor Van Ommen

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 18/08/2016
Label: Lay Bare Recordings

“Historical Graffiti” is a drug that calms the soul of the listener”

“Historical Graffiti” DD//LP track listing:

1). The Wind Cries Edalyn
2). Her Phantom Finger of Copenhagen
3). Naomi Crayola
4). The Secret Language of Elephants
5). Historical Graffiti

The Review:

This new Yawning Man album, “Historical Graffiti,” has been a long time coming. The last we heard from Gary Arce (Guitar), Mario Lalli (Bass), and Bill Stinson (drums) was in 2010, when they released “Nomadic Pursuits.” That album continued the story that “Vista Point” and “Rock Formations” before it told; life out in the Southern Californian desert is trippy. This happens to be a story we don’t mind hearing time and time again.

“Historical Graffiti” is in many ways a continuation to this story instead of a re-telling of it. That is to say that this album isn’t what we have come to expect from Yawning Man.Yes, the songs are still instrumental, orbiting around Arce’s fluid guitar creations by way of steady drumming and lush bass lines, but there’s more to the band this time. These five songs are excerpts from jams that Yawning Mandid one late night in Buenos Aireswith Sara Ryan, Adolfo Trepiana, and Malene Arce on the violin, bandaneon, and keyboard respectively.

At the album’s core, “Historical Graffiti” is still a Yawning Man album. But it’s the inclusion of these extra musicians – and instruments – that make the band sound freer than ever before. The songs are presumably based on free form jams and according the liner notes, all of the songs were recorded in one night, in one go.

The lazy drum and bass lead-in to the album’s opening track “The Wind Cries Edalyn” immediately sets the tone. Things will be low key this time around. The percussion won’t be hit too hard and the general tempo in the songs will be kept to that of a sunny Sunday afternoon by the swimming pool. Arce, Lalli, and Stinson lead the proceedings, all the while offering Ryan, Trepiana, and Malene plenty of room to dive in swim through the airwaves.

Space is given to each other and space is taken, and there’s not a single moment in which one of these band members feels overlooked. These are jams done by musicians who play with and into each other, feeding off of a desire to get acquainted on a musical level. The dreamy sway of each individual track is proof that these six musicians took their time and enjoyed identifying with each other on this level. After all, this collaboration might a one-off, so why rush things?

Each song is comfortable, like hanging in a tire swing and feeling the cool breeze to blow through your hair. Troubles are forgotten while these songs fade in and out of the jams they came from, calming the heart rate and allowing the mind to drift. There isn’t one song on here that feels rushed. Even in “Naomi Krayoli,” when the album’s groove gets kicked up a notch, there is no push and no finish line, just exploration of the mind and soul using music as a vessel to do so.

The addition of extra instruments wasn’t a necessary step for Yawning Man to take but the results of them taking it are sublime. By expanding their set up, Yawning Man has made an album brimming with spiritual jams that go a long way in helping the listener expand their mind. All of these extra elements and how they have been put to use add depth to the melodies, resulting in a drug that calms the soul of the listener.

“Historical Graffiti” is available here

Band info: facebook || bandcamp

FFO: Fatson Jetson, Desert Sessions, Ten East, Sons of Alpha Centauri