Ohhms "Rot"

LP - $17.90 / CD - $8.00
STREET DATE: 3/31/23
CAT#: CRR165
LABEL: Church Road

Following a string of singles released by Church Road Records over 2022, UK post sludge headbangers ((OHHMS)) have announced the release of their 4th full-length album - entitled ‘Rot’. Due for release on March 31st, 2023, ‘Rot’ is eight tracks of uncompromising riff-filled and horror fuelled songs.

Each track takes its inspiration from the horror movies that have impacted the band's psyche since the release of their previous album, Close. From the lyrical drive to the rhythms and tempo changes on the drums, from the tone of the layered guitars to the dual vocal approach on several of the cuts, ‘Rot’ sees the group push forward into unexplored pastures.

TRACK LISTING:

  1. Tonight's Feature Presentation
  2. Let’s Scare Jessica To Death
  3. Eaten Alive
  4. Blood Feast
  5. Body Melt
  6. A Dark Song
  7. The Mephisto Waltz
  8. Sisters
  9. Swamp Thing

FOR FANS OF:
Baroness, Torche

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Elder "Innate Passage"

2xLP - $26.00 / CD - $10.40
STREET DATE: 3/31/22
CAT#: AS020
LABEL: Armageddon Shop

Innate Passage is the sixth Elder full-length. It finds the mostly-Berlin-based band in the post-pandemic era as veterans at the forefront of a league of progressive and heavy groups working in large part under their influence; a stately presence as reliably forward-thinking as they are unpredictable in sound. They are among the most important acts of their mostly-still-emerging generation. Genuine leaders in style and expressive intention. Innate Passage is further proof why.

In Spring 2020, Elder released their fifth album, Omens, and with it established a claim on their most prog leaning interpretation of sprawling heavy rock and roll. Two years later, Innate Passage builds on many similar concepts, but outdoes its predecessor on every level of performance, weight of its impact, interplay between founder Nick DiSalvo and Mike Risberg’s guitars and keys, the now-settled-in drumming of Georg Edert – who made his debut on Omens – and bassist Jack Donovan’s tonal warmth underscoring the shimmer of DiSalvo’s leads.

Says DiSalvo: “This record channels the surreal world we live in from a fantastical point of view, not super-literally, and how we as humans processed that; everyone on their own passage through time and space and whatever version of reality they chose for themselves. The phrase ‘Innate Passage’ appeared to me when writing the record. Passage and transition are necessary in the human condition and this process is intrinsic to us. All the growth and introspection we underwent in the past few years totally made this apparent to me more so than any other experiences in life so far.”

“Catastasis” begins Innate Passage with a pointedly bright perspective and the most complex vocal harmonies that Elder have ever produced. Alongside DiSalvo, Innate Passage features a guest singer for the first time in Behrang Alavi (Samavayo), who adds his voice to what’s already a career performance for DiSalvo as a singer; his voice is more confident, has more presence, and more reach than ever before. That is but one way in which Innate Passage steps boldly deeper into this new era for Elder.

Whether it’s a shredding lead in the culmination of “Endless Return” or the willfully patient, almost meandering, build into the crescendo and fade of “Merged in Dreams/Ne Plus Ultra,” Elder are poised as never before as they execute this material. In centerpiece “Coalescence,” they offer Opeth-worthy rhythmic intricacy and piano drama offset by crunching heavy guitar and twisting leads, and in “The Purpose,” they craft a wash of melody that is engrossing without sacrificing any clarity of the individual instruments that make it.

As the album ends with soft guitar in an answer to the intro of “Catastasis,” the sense of wholeness that comes through is one more aspect arguing for Elder as singularly crucial. Innate Passage is a culmination of everything they’ve done before, and that’s reason to celebrate, but more, it is that after more than 15 years, they’re still pushing forward to places where neither they nor anyone they’ve influenced have yet gone. – JJ Koczan, Sept. 2022.

TRACK LISTING:

  1. Catastasis
  2. Endless Return
  3. Coalescence
  4. Merged In Dreams - Ne Plus Ultra
  5. The Purpose

FOR FANS OF:
Sleep, Windhand, Pallbearer

END / Cult Leader "Gather & Mourn"

12"EP - $14.00 / CDEP - $7.00 / CASSETTE - $7.00
12"EP UPC: 791689665542
INDIE 12"EP UPC: 196925263382
CDEP UPC: 196925272032
CASSETTE UPC: 196925330930
CD/CASSETTE STREET DATE: 9/9/22
12"EP STREET DATE: 1/27/23
CAT#:CCA180 / DW241
LABEL: Closed Casket Activities / Deathwish Inc.

What happens when two of underground music’s most undeniable and unpredictable forces of nature collide? Well, the union of END & Cult Leader resulted in the 2022 split EP, Gather & Mourn [Closed Casket Activities & Deathwish Inc.].

This four track-collection finds each of these each of luminaries firing at full blast with the kind of heavy music that simultaneously repulses as it enraptures, fusing grind, hardcore, and death metal with an ominous intensity befitting of a world on fire.

The project itself represents the strength of the underground community, marking an important joint release between arbiters of integrity Closed Casket Activities and Deathwish Inc. Converge guitarist and producer Kurt Ballou [Code Orange, High On Fire, KVELERTAK] notably mixed Cult Leader’s two tracks, while GRAMMY® Award-nominated super producer and END guitarist Will Putney recorded, mixed, and mastered END in addition to mastering Cult Leader. Deathwish Inc. founder and Converge frontman Jacob Bannon also personally created the artwork and layout.

Both heads of this vicious sonic hydra have built an unshakable foundation, leaving fans and press in awe. Among widespread acclaim from Brooklyn Vegan, Invisible Oranges, and more, END’s 2020 full-length, Splinters from an Ever-Changing Face, earned a rare “5-out-of-5” star review from KERRANG! followed by “4-out-of-5” from Metal Hammer.

However, END roar back with their first release since 2020 now. With an unimpeachable pedigree, the group consists of Will Putney (Graphic Nature Audio, Fit For An Autopsy) [guitar], Brendan Murphy (Counterparts) [vocals], Gregory Thomas (Ex-Misery Signales) [guitar], Jay Pepito (Reign Supreme, Ex-Blacklisted) [bass], and Billy Rymer [Drums] (ex-Dillinger Escape Plan). Drawing on the chemistry between these seasoned musicians, their first single from the split, “Eden Will Drown,” steamrolls forward at full speed fueled by bludgeoning rhythms, smart bomb-precise guitars, and a foreboding roar.

Meanwhile, Cult Leader continues to fixate listeners with a different breed of darkness. Gather & Mourn picks up where they left on 2018’s A Patient Man. The latter landed highly coveted year-end spots on Consequence’s top 25 Metal and Hard Rock Albums (#19), Revolver’s Best Albums (#11) and more; it also generated millions of streams, highlighted by “to:Achlys” and “I am Healed.” Cult Leader unleash their first new music in four years now with the single “Ataraxis.” Clocking in at just under two minutes, it hinges on guttural growls, pummeling percussion, and chaotic guitars, speaking to the band’s mastery of cataclysmic intensity.

Gather & Mourn heralds a next era of heavy music, translating the pulse of the underground into an unshakable sonic storm.

TRACK LISTING:

  1. Eden Will Drown (END)
  2. The Host Will Soon Decay (END)
  3. Ataraxis (Cult Leader)
  4. Long Shadows (Cult Leader)

MARKETING POINTS:

  • END features current/former members of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Counterparts, Fit For An Autopsy, Misery Signals and Reign Supreme
  • END on tour all summer
  • Artwork by J. Bannon
  • Mastered by Will Putney

FOR FANS OF:
Trap Them, Full Of Hell, Converge

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