Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Brooklyn kings of atmospheric doom, A Storm of Light, are gearing up for a short stint of U.S. tour dates next week that include performances with experimental metal/noise exhibitionists Today Is The Day and reunited stoner metallers Sleep before heading to Europe for a month’s worth of shows in October. Said guitarist/vocalist John Graham of the upcoming shows: “The next couple of months are going to be a lot of fun for us. We’re lucky enough to share the stage with the legendary Sleep, brutalists Today Is the Day, and then embark on our fourth European tour. Awesome!”

A Storm of Light U.S./Euro Tour Dates 2010

08/31/10 32st St Pub – Pittsburgh, PA w/ Today Is The Day
09/01/10 Ottobar – Baltimore, MD w/ Today Is The Day
09/03/10 Santos Party House – New York, NY w/ Today Is The Day
09/04/10 AS220 – Providence, RI w/ Today Is The Day
09/07/10 Starlight Ballroom – Philadelphia, PA w/ Sleep
09/08/10 Brooklyn Masonic Temple – Brooklyn, NY w/ Sleep, Lichens
10/01/10 Brudenell Social Club – Leeds, UK
10/02/10 Whelans – Dublin, Irelandw/ Stand Up Guy
10/03/10 The Spring And Airbrake – Belfast, Ireland w/ Stand Up Guy
10/04/10 Captain’s Rest – Glasgow, Scotland
10/05/10 The Croft – Bristol, UK
10/06/10 The Underworld – London, UK w/ Sedula, Sons Of Alpha Centauri
10/07/10 Nouveau Casino – Paris, France
10/08/10 Simplon – Groningen, Netherlands
10/09/10 013 – Tilburg, Netherlands
10/10/10 Juha West Matinee Show – Stuttgart, Germany
10/12/10 Rhiz – Vienna, Austria
10/13/10 Kset – Zagreb, Croatia
10/14/10 Randall – Bratislava, Slovakia
10/16/10 Firlej – Wroclaw, Poland
10/17/10 Powiekszenie – Warsaw, Poland
10/20/10 Nabaklab – Riga, Latvia
10/21/10 Nosturi – Helsinki, Finland
10/23/10 Garage – Oslo, Norway
10/24/10 Debaser – Stockholm, Sweden
10/25/10 Loppen – Copenhagen, Denmark
10/26/10 Hafenklang – Hamburg, Germany
10/27/10 Feierwerk – Munich, Germany
10/28/10 Spazio – Turin, Italy
10/29/10 Urban – Perugia, Italy
10/30/10 Init Club – Rome, Italy

A Storm of Light — guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Josh Graham (Neurosis visuals, Blood And Time, Battle Of Mice), bassist/vocalist Domenic Seita (formerly of Tombs and Asea) and guitarist/keyboardist Joel Hamilton (Book Of Knots, Battle Of Mice) — released their second full-length, entitled Forgive Us Our Trespasses via Neurot last October.

Genre: Stoner. Sludge
Label: Independent

Man, I thought this band ruled before I even hit play! When you’ve got a name like King Gnat, you’ve gotta be… oh wait… fucking dyslexia. Well, KING GIANT is good too. I guess… Naw, I kid the guys! I was actually super excited since I was in the mood for some hyper sluggish, THC infused metal!

The vocalist kind of reminds me of that bit of infamous footage of Scott Stapp (the ballbag from Creed… yeah, I barely remember them too), drunk off his ass and belting booze soaked nothings into the microphone… except, when your voice is naturally gruff and you’re the front man of a sludgy, stoner metal group, that shit totally kills! Southern Darkness has the sexy, abrasive feel of a steel wool condom! This shit is thick too. And I mean THICK! Chugs that are a wall a mile and a half wide of freshly laid tar, still steaming and accompanied by riffs that could bound that same wall, but in slow-mo. Soaring like a portly albatross (geez, the analigies are kinda off tonight, aren’t they?) and building a nest of hemp, discarded square bottles and crushed cans.

The pace is consistent, the style runs from plain stonerific to southern fried and it hit’s the spot if you’re itchin’ for something to listen to while you’re waiting for those twenty six pizzas you order to show up.

Overall: Recommended HIGHly for fans of microwavable burritos, 3 a.m. trips to 7-11 (or the Piggly-Wiggly), shiny things and throwing shit off the overpass to see what sounds it makes…

9/10

King Giant On MySpace

Genres: Doom, Stoner
Label: Black Market Activities, Metal Blade

This is a strange CD. I bought it just because of the name of the band and the cover art. I was kind of expecting some shitty deathcore, but it didn’t matter because of the bitchkickin’ art.
So I open it up to find the booklet opens up into a poster of the cover art. This made me happy.
Then I put the CD into the CD player and… was happy. It’s a fucked up blend of doom and stoner with some elements of black metal in it, mostly in the vocals, which are screamed rather than sung. The songs have a punk rock immediacy to them, they’re fast and short, but somehow still have a doomy atmosphere.
Like I said, it’s a strange CD. Awesome shit, too. If you’re a fan of Rwake, Trident, and experimentation with music, check out The Abominable Iron Sloth.
7 out of 10.

The Abombinable Iron Sloth on MySpace.

Recently, Gazelle Amber Valentine of Jucifer answered a few questions of mine:

Since you guys have been founded as a band, you’ve been on tour with pretty much no real breaks from what I understand. Is this kind of how you planned on working as a band?

From the beginning everything we did was always structured towards playing more shows in more places. So getting rid of home ties as soon as we could made sense for us. We never wanted to do anything else as much as we wanted to play music, so we always worked to do it as much as possible.

We were around for a few years before we hit the road full time, although we always got out as much as we could… but it gets easier to stay booked on the road once you’ve been touring for awhile! We’ve lived completely in our tour vehicle for a decade now.

How many vehicles have you killed while on the road? Any amazing vehicular deaths you can remember?

We’ve never killed any that didn’t get brought back to life, one way or another. We’ve been careful and we’ve been lucky! We have had some crazy breakdowns though. Especially the ones since we’ve lived in our vehicle… because when your house breaks down, and you need it to get to your next show, it’s the scariest shit ever.

You’re pioneers in the sludge/doom duo style of band. Does it piss you off at all to see others doing what you’ve been doing?

Only when they do it without crediting us as an influence — and we know we’ve been one, because they played their first shows opening for us, or their duo formed after they saw us a bunch of times, or their three or four piece band opened for us and later became a two piece using a bunch of amps (!). Or when people talk to us about new bands as if we’d been influenced by them. Or when people heap praises on new bands for doing “innovative” things that we did years before.

As an underground band it’s understandable that lots of people don’t know our history. But to be in that kind of a band where you know you’re not gonna ever make money, and you’re fine with that, but what you expect to earn is just reputation, credit for what you’ve accomplished — and then to not be given that credit — really sucks. And sucks more when that credit isn’t given by bands that spawned on your ideas, bands that came about specifically because you exist.

It’s interesting because I have no animosity at all for certain bands that might share surface traits with us… because those certain bands aren’t ripping us off, just doing their own thing in a similar context. But some of the bands cropping up in our wake seem to have almost nothing of their own to add.

Personally I could never bite on somebody else’s ideas that hard, but I guess I’m the exception. It’s weird to me that anyone would wanna miss the opportunity to be creative and instead, jumps on something somebody else is already doing. Especially copying a band like us… shit, if you’re gonna be unoriginal, why not do a style that’s more lucrative! LOL

Genre: Doom, Drone, Sludge, Stoner
Label: Nomadic Fortress

So fucking wow. Not even done the first SONG and I’m thinking I know what this monster is going to get rated.
Then it gets even better.
Slow and heavy riffs that pay as much homage to Black Sabbath and Sunn O))) as to The Clash or The Sex Pistols (in spirit, not style), this is some seriously wicked awesome doomed out sludge. Something to smoke to, that’s for damn sure, and I think I’m going to try sleeping to it. It’s kind of relaxing in a violent sort of way.
Favorite song is definitely “Contempt”, with “Work Will Make Us Free” and “Hiroshima” following close behind.
After hearing hearing Throned in Blood I feel sorry for other doom and sludge bands. They’re going to have to step up their game to keep up with Amber and Edgar now. And fuck this is going to rule live. Earplugs might actually be an option for me if they make it to Edmonton again. But probably not because hearing aids are cool.
Just remember folks, April 6, 2010 this nuclear bomb of doom will drop on us. Grab it while it’s hot hot hot.
9.5 out of 10