The Sledge birthed from the ashes of Hjortene, ready to drop debut On the Verge Of Nothing

Releasing on June 15th, The Sledge's debut On the Verge Of Nothing is a kick-ass sonic ride through the psychedelic desert of soundscapes created by this new group, risen from the ashes of another band like the proverbial Phoenix of lore.  The Sledge are created from the rubble of what once was Danish fuzz-bomb band Hjortene.  They made a name for themselves opening for the likes of Valient Thorr, Truckfighters and Fu Manchu and developed a following in Scandinavia.  "We added Magnus on vocals and the new songs are way more tuned down, and slower and heavier, but of course you can hear where we come from musically," said the band.

On the Verge Of Nothing was recorded live in the studio over the course of just two days.  All of the basic tracks, guitar, bass, drums, were played live and done in one room live with no headphones and no stuido windows "to obscure the energy," the band explained.  It was just amplifiers and drums.  Afterward the band dubbed vocals and invited friends to contribute.  Lorenzo Woodrose (Baby Woodrose On Trial) "is all over the album.  He just came, hung out and delivered... a lot of percussion and harmony vocals."

Bo Morthren from stoner psych legends On Trial  did vocals for a blue, paired down track, and Lorenzo backed him up.  "It was like bringing On Trial together for a song again."

That track I feel certain is "Curtains" and is among my favorite tracks on the record.  It, jazzy closer "Flammehav" and lead single "179 Liars" are the standouts, and the hilarious "Like Shit" track, but honestly it's probably intended to be a 40-some second long lark.  The band is having us on.  But anyway.

From the Sabbathesque stomp of "Tantra I: War Wig" to the  Black Keys style blues number "Curtains," it's clear that The Sledge want to experiment with a variety of genres of rock on this record.  "We were not setting out to make a classic stoner album... and we think you can hear that."

"Death Drome Doline" actually reminded me of a lot of Primus' "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" and I

really dug Claus' heady bass and the bottom heavy guitar riffing on this one.  The bluesy "Curtains" follows.  The Hammond organ is a really nice addition here, it compliments the four piece without stepping on toes.  It's just noticeable enough, a deft touch.  And the jam at the 4:10 mark, oh man, I thought the song was going to carry on that way to conclusion a la "Paradise City" but it took another turn and surprised me.

"Running Down the Mountain" is a short and sweet jam that gets us on to the first single "179 Liars", a hellacious cut.  Fades in with that organ again, then bam, guitar, drum kicks in and we're off.  This is one of Magnus' strongest vocals.  He really stretches himself.  You can hear Lorenzo backing in places very nicely.  Palle's guitar solo has an awesome psychedelic effect thrown on it near the conclusion.

What can I say about the brief interlude rap "Like Shit" except to say maybe that it sounds "Like Shit" and I mean that in a good way.

The longest track with vocals is the bluesy rocker "Yet Untitled."  This is probably the most "stoner" moment on the album.  It's clearly owes a debt to the likes of Sabbath, Aerosmith, Zeppelin, even Deep Purple, but so too to some of the bands the members have been touring with such as Fu Manchu and Truckfighters.

Finally we come to the nine and half minute closing instrumental track, which is a jazzy, spacey, hot number.  I love the effects, and Claus' bass just rips at the beginning.  There's a sax solo, Kim beats the drums like hell throughout.  It's not until after the sax solo really that I took notice of Palle's six string acrobatics, with range from mellow and smooth to smoking hot.  I LOVE this cut.

All in all this is a terrific album I rate it a full on 90 out of 100.  It's a really great listen.

From The Sledge's Press Info: Anders Onsberg Hansen (Baby Woodrose, Spids Nogenhat) did the recordings in Copenhagen and for the mixing and mastering the band brought in some heavyweight champions in the rock business: Matt Bayles (Mastodon, The Sword, Isis) did the mixes in Seattle, and Dave Collins (Soundgarden, Fu Manchu, QOTSA, Black Sabbath, Metallica) did the mastering in Las Angeles.  "We wanted to take everything a step further, and did no compromises in choosing who to work with."  The Sledge will release their debut album On the Verge Of Nothing on 15th of June via German label Kozmik Artifactz on heavy gatefold LP.

Kozmik Artifactz Facebook page.




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Spurv produces a "wordless exploration of the enigma of existence" with transcendent second album

On June 1 Oslo, Norway's Spurv (Sparrow) will drop their latest long-player Myra (The Marshes) and I Talk To Planets was fortunate enough to spend some time with with this album this past month and let me tell you, it is nothing short of breathtaking.  The music is resplendent, it's moving, it's enchanting, it's haunting.  It is everything you would want out of an emotional post rock/metal album.

The album purports to be a "wordless exploration of the enigma of existence through intense and melodic instrumental music, noisy drones, (and) orchestral clusters..."  Myra, however, is not entirely wordless.  The final track, the English translation of which is "Everything Ends, Even at Night," begins with an excerpt from a speech given by seminal Continental philosopher Martin Heidegger of Germany.  In that excerpt Heidegger says, "Die Sterblichen sind die Menschen."  What that translates too is, "The mortals are the human beings."

Now, Heidegger's principal work is Being and Time and I'm going to give a crash course in the German philosopher's work because what he did in his lifetime so informs what Spurv is trying to communicate with Myra that I think understanding his primary teachings lie at the crux of enjoying their music thoroughly. Heidegger's philosophy attempts to conjoin two main thoughts: 1) is the notion that all beings are found in the world (including the world itself), but the idea of Being had never been examined before; and 2) building upon the work of fellow kraut thinker Edmund Husserl who coined the phenomenological slogan "to the things themselves," Heidegger ran with that idea and came up with his notion of Dasein, or the being for whom Being is a question.  Heidegger thought that all experience is grounded in "care."  That became the premise for his "existential analytic" in Being and Time.  

Photo courtesy of Lars Opstad.

How does all this relate to Spurv's new album?  In the band's own words, "Ultimately Myra is about
life and death, about that which is and that which perishes. Art poeticizes and co-creates our understanding of life and death, of the world, existence, and the human being's place among animals, plants, twigs, moss, fungi and mud. And in a time when the boundless sovereignty of the human being, the inevitability of progress and eternal growth without decay is the myth that increasingly steers humans from all corners of the world, it is up to artists to show the porous fundament of the myth, the the world is immensely more unfathomable than it appears at both first and second looks, that nothing lasts forever, but that everything gets its end, also the night."

The album consist of eight tracks, one of which, opener "A Lift In Case" (perhaps something was lost in translation), is only about 43 seconds of prelude, mostly sounds of a babbling brook, building to the horn introduction of the next track, "And a New Forest Is Brought Forward."  The sounds are vivacious and spirited.

I really want to take note of Hans-Jakob Jeremiassen's bass work on the 8:26 long "From the Depths Under the Stone."  It cut across the other instruments and stood out to me.  The song, the third track on the album, is really a quite lovely piece that flows right into the following synthesizer driven fourth cut on the album, which may be my favorite, it's so relaxing and calming, such stillness in the middle of this album that wants you to take time out and think about life and death, this tune gives you the opportunity to do that before moving on into the more heady parts of the album.

"A Pale Light Sounds" was released ahead of the full album and this is the album's penultimate track, everyone is at the top of their game, such wonderful melody, excellent harmonies, the rise and falls of the music so beautifully executed.  This is perfect music to meditate upon the transcendent, ineffable qualities of life, and death.

Photo courtesy of Lars Opstad.

It's track six and seven that really captivate me, "From the Myrtle Temple" and "The Voice Of the Old Man Breaks."  The textures are just so beautiful and hauntingly sad.  There is some wonderful guitar work here, not the screeching solos and flamboyant riffing I'm so used to hearing in the genre, but some gentle strumming and picking.  The harmonies cannot be overlooked either.  "Ole-Henrik and Kari Ronnekleiv have come with invaluable contributions that fill out and bind together the album, while Tore Ylvisaker and Ole Aleksander Halstensgard from Ulver have filled in details that draw out harmonies that we did not know were to be found in our music," noted founding member Gustav Jorgen Pedersen.

My recognition of the harmonies and soft guitar work, however, doesn't mean there isn't any riffing going on on this record.  Take the final track "Everything Ends, Even at Night," for example, there is some serious riffing going on here.

Heidegger's speech is delivered over some light piano at the outset.  The piano picks up in intensity and is joined by a cacophony of sound, suddenly the drums slice through the wall of sound, then the guitar in a traditional crushing metal riff kicks in.  This track by far is the most metallic cut on the album, but even it is melodic, and filled with wonderful harmonies by the group, and the band's use of instruments you wouldn't typically find in a rock band persists even in this, their heaviest song.

Photo courtesy of Lars Opstad.

This is one of the most melodic, trippy, transcendent albums I've heard this year, and I loved every second of it.  As far as contemporary releases to date in 2018, I compare it to Weedpecker III, Trail's Spaces and to an extent, River Cult's Halcyon Daze, all great records.  I rate this album a 93 out of 100.

"The album was written in the years that have passed since Skarntyde (No Forevers 2016) and recorded in the first weeks of 2017. With Skarntyde we felt we had come as far as we could, almost on our own, and with Myra we have taken a huge step, if not forward, then deeper, towards what we want Spurv to be," relayed Pedersen.

Spurv was founded in 2011 and consists today of Gustav Jorgen Pedersen - guitar, Hans-Jakob Jeremiassen - bass, Herman Otterlei - guitar, Simon Ljung - drums, Eirik Orevik Aadland - guitar, and Simen Eifring - trombone.  Also contributing to the album are Ole-Henrik Moe - picoletto, violin, viola, cello, Kari Ronnekleiv - violin, Cathy Donnelly - cello, Tore Ylvisaker - synth, Ole Aleksander Halstengard - fx and synth.

Spurv on Bandcamp.

Eagle Twin making early bid for Album of the Year

In the beginning was the scream... and it was good.  The duo that comprise Eagle Twin, Gentry Densley (guitar and vocals) and Tyler Smith (drums), have been making music together since 2009 under that moniker and The Thundering Heard: Songs of Hoof and Horn is their third long-playing offering, the first being 2009's retelling of the creation myth via crow iconography The Unkindness Of Crows and the second 2012's conversion of the avian characters to the serpentine, The Feather Tipped The Serpent's Scale.  The third album see's the band move the tale further along the food chain, dealing with herd animals of the mid-western United States, such as prong-horned antelope, the mighty elk, the buffalo, etc.

The story so far, on the debut album Densley spins the tale of the Crows, borrowing bits from several sources, including Upton Sinclair, Japanese Haikus, Mormon hymnals, Native American myths, and heavily from poet Ted Hughes who penned the Crow and is husband to Sylvia Plath.  On The Unkindness Of Crows  the birds waged a war on the sun and were burned, they fell to earth blackened and writhing and took the form of snakes.  During the course of the second album the snakes balled themselves up and sprouted horns and became herd animals.  That's where we come in on The Thundering Heard: Songs Of Hoof and Horn.  Okay, you're all caught up.

Drums and Tuvan throat singing grab the listener by the balls upon the needle first dropping on the opening track, "Quanah Un Rama."  This tune means business. Densley possess a growling, guttural vocal delivery, and considering the towering mythological subject matter, and it's distinct manliness by nature with its hunting overtones, it suits.  The guitar riffs are aggressive and match, nay, exceed Densley vocal's.   And Smith's drumming is just so complimentary.  He goes unnoticed in much of this review, I have noted upon rereading it, but it's because of his skill, not because of a lack of talent.

(Editor's Note:  An interesting aside,  I attempted to track down the meaning of "Quanah Un Rama" and found that Quanah Parker was the last Comanche Chief, named chief by the U.S. government not by tribal council, and that his first name was given to him by his mother when he was a child and he kept it to honor her as an adult and it meant "stinky one.")

"Elk Wolfv Hymn" starts in a much more peaceful manner compared to the previous tune, more on the psychedelic side of Eagle Twin's palette of sound.  It builds in intensity as Densley tells tale of wolves tracking down and encircling a great stag as crows look on and keep watch.  I love his story telling, and his vocals, Lemmy would be proud.

 Side Two.  "Heavy Hoof" was the lead single for this record and with good reason.  "The heavy hoof clips, the heavy hoof clops.  The heavy hoofs dance on your grave."  The guitar is just so menacing here, with a such a sludgy low end, and considering there really is no bass, its all the more impressive.  The soloing on "Heavy Hoof" is just the most exciting on the record, and on a record of this caliber, that is really saying something.  This track just KILLS!

"Antlers of Lighting (Hooves of Thunder)" closes out the album, as a mighty storm stirs up and lightning strikes the great stag's rack of antlers.  This track features soaring, searing guitar riffs, matching the electrified lyrics, "white veins of lightning."  Indeed.  Some of Tyler Smith's best drum work on the album comes in this song near the end of the lyrics in my opinion, right before the soloing starts to escalate into a white-hot burn. 

"I live I die I bleed."

This circle of life seems complete, but where will Eagle Twin go next?

What a thrill ride in 41:32.  Flip this sucker back over and play it again. This is a true candidate for Album of the Year even at this early stage in the game.  It's a little odd in subject matter, but I think that's a bonus.  I'm not in a habit of giving out perfect scores for records, but damned if this isn't two already this year, 100/100.  Get this album.  You'll be glad you did.

And, if you would like a primer on where to start with Eagle Twin's back catalog, here's the 411.  On the debut, I recommend the 15-minute epic "Crow Hymn," "Carry on, Carrion King" and the album's denouement, "And it came to pass that birds fell to earth as black snakes."  If you can find it, there is the split disc with Pombargira that includes the pulsating "I Come From a Long Line Of Dead Men."  Track two also comes from Eagle Twin, the jazzy "Blackfoot Messiah / River Girl Song."  It's worth checking out as well.  Jams to groove to off the second full length release include the counter-point to the debut's mid-point, the aptly titled "Snake Hymn" this time which checks in at over 12 minutes in length.  Also, the repetitive "Horn Snake Horns / It Came to Pass the Snakes Became Mighty Antlers."  The second half of the split, which consists of the final two minutes, is purely instrumental jam and some of my favorite riffs on the record.

It's taken Eagle Twin 10 years to advance the story line this far and the mind boggles at where philosophically the tale may be heading next.  But in the meantime, we have Thundering Heard: Songs of Hoof and Horn to tide us over.  It is destined for a number of those end of the year Best of Lists in my opinion.  The record has already worked it's way into high rotation here in my collection since the hard copy arrived last week.  Sadly, I'm a late-comer to Eagle Twin, only discovering them with this release.

From the band's web site:
Eagle Twin is two beasts, operating in a spectrum of duality.  Eagle Twin is finesse and power.  Eagle Twin combines the power of the riff with the freeness of jazz.  Eagle Twin is the serpent and the crow.  Eagle Twin is Gentry Densley and Tyler Smith.

Eagle Twin's Home.
Eagle Twin on Bandcamp.