REVIEW: Wheel of Smoke, Sonic Cure (Polderrecords, 2019)

November 27, 2019November 27, 2019 Wayne EdwardsPolderrecords, Wheel Of Smoke

Wheel of Smoke is a Belgian band that has been around since 2005. Their sound overlaps a number of categories including psychedelic, stoner, and space doom. Having independently released three full-length albums and an EP through 2016, their newest one is Sonic Cure, out November 29, 2019 from Polderrecords, and it’s a winner. Johan Overloop joined the band on “analog modular synths” in 2017 and appears here for the first time on a Wheel of Smoke recording, along with Filip Remans (guitar), Erik Heyns (guitar), Jouk Opdebeeck (drums), and Tristan Michiels (bass). The addition of keyboards/programmables has expanded the scope and sound of the music and allowed new avenues of expression.

Vocals are used sparsely in the music on the new album so the songs have a largely instrumental feel even when voices are deployed. First up in the set is “Sonic Cure,” where we start off drifting in space, hearing the murmurs of celestial bodies and listening to the sound of building velocities warbling through the void. Halfway through, focus and direction emerge (like the formation of planets from stardust in cosmos over the passage of time). The second track is “Brainshaker” and it starts with a catchy boogie vamp that quickly unwinds into galloping conundrum. The slow open of “Beamed” lets you take a breath before the ride begins. Keyboards are more prominent here than in the first two songs; they are a bigger part of the sound overall and are the main jam before the guitar steps in toward the end. “On A Wave” offers mystical desert rhythms and whispering insinuations that lift your thoughts into impossible planes. After you get there, the guitars reach out and alternate between sharp punches and persistent caresses on your person. The closing, “Electric I,” is a straight-up 9 minute 42 second psychedelic frenzy. When it ends, you are not really sure if it is over, so you feel like listening to the whole album again. I did that twice.

What I like especially about the music of Wheel of Smoke is that way it wraps you up. The compositions find a way to curl around you and before you know it they are working from the inside. It is not as simple as a long fade in or even a slow build. It is more mercurial than that. Once they get you, you’re had. Give the new one a listen and see what I mean. You can get Sonic Cure through the usual streaming platforms [here], and Polderrecords is offering a wide range of vinyl options and a digipak if you want to get physical [here].

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/wheelofsmokeofficial/

https://www.instagram.com/wheel_of_smoke/

https://polderrecords.bandcamp.com/

Review by Wayne Edwards

Cannibal Corpse, Thy Art Is Murder, and Perdition Temple at Higher Ground in Burlington, Vermont, Concert Review

November 19, 2019April 14, 2022 Wayne EdwardsCannibal Corpse, Hells Headbangers Records, Higher Ground, Metal Blade Records, Nuclear Blast, Perdition Temple, Thy Art Is Murder

Cannibal Corpse rolled into South Burlington, Vermont Sunday night on their Red Before Black Tour. Their show at Higher Ground was a Fall highlight for North Country Metalheads looking for a night of extreme music.

The opening band was Perdition Temple, a three-piece Death Metal act featuring Gene Palubicki on guitar and vocals with Ronnie Parmer on drums and Alex Blume working the bass. Fast and aggressive, the riff-heavy, driving guitar broke the ice and set the tone for evening. Palubicki’s coarse voice and precision fretting filled the room with energy and threat. Wrapping up a tight 30 minutes in a blistering frenzy, Perdition Temple surely made the list for a lot of new fans in the audience.

The middle act was Thy Art Is Murder, an Australian band whose music is usually placed in the deathcore category. I heard many fans in the crowd saying they’d come specifically to see Thy Art Is Murder and that didn’t surprise me at all – they have a big following and they don’t tour the US all the time. The band puts up a powerful wall of sound with two guitars via Andy Marsh and Sean Delander that surround frontman CJ McMahon. The bass backing by Kevin Butler and clinical drumming by Jesse Beahler complete the scene.

CJ McMahon was suffering from a respiratory infection which caused him obvious discomfort but his performance didn’t seem to suffer at all. Leaning into material from their new album Human Target (Nuclear Blast), Thy Art Is Murder shook the room and played to their strengths, not neglecting fan favorites. In fact, the only time the crowd was actually singing punchlines was during the Thy Art Is Murder set. McMahon talked the crowd into greater participation by reflecting on how wild the show in Montreal the night before had been. Burlington, he told us, was great, but Montreal was unmatchable. The circle pits were going in force, presaging the vortex they would become with the headliner. There were no disappointments with their solid heavy work.

The main event was Cannibal Corpse, rounding out the tail end of their Red Before Black (Metal Blade) tour. Standing in the pit in the dark after the band had taken the stage but before they began playing, I could see vocalist George Fisher, Corpsegrinder. He stood with his back to the crowd taking deep, fierce breaths, filling his lungs to ready himself for the auditory assault he and the band were about to perpetrate. Hit the lights, hit the sound, and the crowd erupted to “Code of the Slashers.” Moshing started almost immediately and within a few minutes, an enormous circle pit had formed in the Higher Ground Ballroom with a pulsing jagged edge. Metal was happening.

The band lead with three songs from the latest album then took a tour through their long catalogue of music. Rob Barrett and Erik Rutan brought the riffs and shreds with veteran accuracy while founding members Alex Webster and Paul Mazurkiewicz steadied the songs with an unbreachable foundation. Fisher did not disappoint with his signature hair whipping head snaps, his face completely covered by the result when he sang. This is a band that never makes any excuses and always delivers the fury.

Never slowing down, Cannibal Corpse announced in October that they would begin working on a new album, their 15^th full-length release, as soon as the current tour wraps up. See the show while you can. Cannibal Corpse, Thy Art Is Murder, and Perdition Temple is a great lineup. They are three bands that complement each other by employing similar musical themes while maintaining unique identities and performance styles.

Flux Capacitor at Nectar’s in Burlington, Vermont, Live Set Review

November 18, 2019April 14, 2022 Wayne EdwardsBurlington, Flux Capacitor, Nectar's

I caught up with Flux Capacitor last week on their Ambush Glowing Tour when they played Nectar’s in Burlington, Vermont. They were the perfect band to welcome music lovers in from the cold for a beer and a jam.

Flux Capacitor is a three-piece band from Reading, Pennsylvania made of the brothers Specht: Peter (guitar), Jason (drums), and Michael (keyboards). They have recently beeen joined by Cassy Yost who steps in for part of the set and who, by the way, renders an amazing vocal interpretation of the Jefferson Airplane standard, “White Rabbit.” The band describes their music as the “melding of varied rock idioms with elements of electronica – in the context of fluid improvisation.” I can’t argue with that. They opened their set with a 10+ minute jam that rolled amazing guitar passages into consuming keyboard entrancements and back again. Peter’s voice is hypnotic, cruising as it does through, and along with, the other instruments. You can truly float away in the listen and completely forget where you are. In the first set (they played more but I only got to see the first one), after the trio opened with extended musical forms, Cassy Yost joined for several, mostly shorter pieces, adding her strong vocal presence. The four of them together were perfectly cohesive and there didn’t seem to be a transition at all, just a flow. Toward the end of the set, the trio took over again and laid down some more long-form wonderment.

Make sure you see Flux Capacitor whenever you get the chance. They are on the road in the South for select upcoming December dates. It is a great evening of music and you’ll want to come back and get some more. Meanwhile, their newest release is Set to Gravitate which you can hear on Spotify and other streaming platforms, or you can buy at Bandcamp [here].

Tour dates and band info: http://fluxcapacitorband.com/

Bull Elephant, New Release Review

November 15, 2019 Wayne EdwardsBull Elephant, ClawhammerPR, Doom Metal, Eat Lead and Die Music

The self-titled opener Bull Elephant (Eat Lead and Die Music) stormed onto my computer and stabbed me in the ears this morning. A metal band with a secret roster, Bull Elephant calls itself “hybridoom” on Instagram and “progressive doom” on Twitter. The music to me moves between what we have come to know as doom and branches out into death metal territory, with even a little speed in a couple of flashes and maybe a folk metal moment, too. This diversity of music styles in the same set by a single band speaks to the range of interest that fans have – we like lots of different kinds of metal.

Here is how the press release describes the album: “Bull Elephant is the story of a slain African elephant that occultist Ahnenerbe SS attempted to bring back from the dead as a new form of battle asset. However, before re-animation could be completed it was intercepted by a mysterious witch-shaman, pursuing her own agenda and redirecting the undead creature’s purpose.” Wow. How’s that for a concept to construct an album around?

Across seven songs, the concept is interpreted more in the music than even in the lyrics. The title song begins the rampage with a growling roar hurtling out of the darkness. This is doom. 40 seconds in there is a tempo change and the vocal goes melodic only to peal into rage a half a minute later. You get the sense of something wrong in paradise. These tempo changes are used in the next couple of songs as well, but in different ways to further the ideas of breakdown and change. Suddenly in the middle of the album “Corrupted Truth” launches a blast of speed that will loosen your teeth. The intermittent chaos is cranked up a notch in the second half, culminating in the closing song that sums up the whole affair, “Dread Reactor.” This final song has great hooks and the heaviest guitars, along with cascading percussion and deadly persuasive lead breaks. You can feel the zombie elephant stomping the terra – if you close your eyes and put your mind in right place, you can live in the middle of it. It’s a monster track.

The official release date is November 29, 2019, but you can check out a song or two ahead of time on YouTube. Bull Elephant is getting a lot of play in the office around here and it still sounds strong every time. Highly recommended.

Speedealer, Blue Days Black Nights, New Release Review

November 15, 2019 Wayne EdwardsBlue Days Black Nights, Speedealer

Speedealer is a veteran punk/metal band formed in 1992. Their newest release is Blue Days Black Nights, and it has all the power, energy, and attitude of their earlier work. What we get here are ten tracks that range from speedy punk to bruising metal, in no particular order.

It has been a good long while since the band has released new studio music (about 15 years), so this is a treat. The songs were written a few years back and the band has been performing them live. It is good to get them down in the studio and have a permanent way for fans to hear them.

The album starts with “Never New,” a fast, brutal screamer that puts Lemmy in your mind. A minute and a half later is “Rheumatism,” which sounds like single as it is catchy hard rock with a singable chorus. Then track three (“War Nicht Genug”) shifts gears to a sort of melodic stadium tune before the next one, “Nothing Left to Say,” delivers a punch like Pantera. It is a bit of a roller coaster, but it all makes sense in your head when these songs roll out in order – even the punk songs, and the unlikely titular instrumental that closes the album. You have to hear it to believe.

The current touring lineup includes early members Eric Schmidt on guitar and Harden Harrison on drums. Ricky Pearson (The Buck Pets) is handling the bass and Daniel Barron (The Swingin’ Dicks) tells us the stories on vocals. The band does not have any upcoming dates listed on their website right now, but if you can catch them on the road, you will definitely have a good time. Meanwhile, check out Blue Days Black Nights. It is a great weekend banger.

Deadland Ritual at Aftershock 2019

November 1, 2019April 14, 2022 Wayne EdwardsAftershock, Deadland Ritual, Discovery Park, Franky Perez, Geezer Butler, Matt Sorum, Sacramento, Steve Stevens

Heavy rock fans gather every October in Sacramento at Discovery Park for a late season festival that, for many fans, marks the end of the festival year. This year’s lineup had the usual big draws like Tool, Slipknot, Rob Zombie, and Marilyn Manson, and interesting bands you don’t see all the time like The Hu and Babymetal. For me though, the band I most wanted to see was Deadland Ritual.

Deadland Ritual has been flying under the radar for the year or two it has been in existence and is known primarily for its bass player, the heavy metal icon Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath. The band’s singer is Franky Perez (Apocalyptica), Steve Stevens (long time Billy Idol collaborator) is on guitar, and the drummer is Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver). They do not play live very often, especially in the US, and so it was a significant event when they showed up in Sacramento for the Aftershock festival. The band played on the third stage at Aftershock, which was set up in the far corner of Discovery Park. There was less room around the third stage (naturally) than the two main stages, and when the crowd filed in they ended up tightly packed together. Nobody seemed to mind the crush and, judging by the chatter, most people seemed to be there to see Geezer.

Their live set was a barrage of familiarity and innovation. It started off with a Black Sabbath cover, “Symptom of the Universe.” That was a smart move, picking a song to draw the fans in, and it really worked because the crowd fell immediately in line singing and nodding along. They move on to alternate between Deadland Ritual tunes and covers of Black Sabbath songs, with the occasional Billy Idol (“Rebel Yell”) or Velvet Revolver (“Slither”) title included as well. There are only two officially released Deadland Ritual songs, “Down In Flames” and “Broken and Bruised,” which they played, and they also included a couple of new songs I had never heard before.

Steve Stevens put on a blistering performance and was perfectly at home with the classic Black Sabbath material. I had never seen Franky Perez live before and I was blown over by his voice and stage presence – he injected a high level of energy into the performance. His sound is ideal for this kind of music as it both powerful and melodic. Geezer Butler and Matt Sorum were comfortable and methodical, very much being themselves and letting the music flow in heavy metal perfection.

Deadland Ritual performed at a few dates in Europe this summer and at Aftershock, but that was about it. According to their website, the do not have any upcoming dates scheduled, but they do plan to be out on some dates next year. If you see them pop up anywhere near you, jump on the chance to see them because there is no telling when they might be back.

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Month: November 2019