Justin's Top Ten List.

I'm snowed in here in Michigan, but I'm lucky enough to have power and I've spent these last few cabin fevered days working through the past year's releases and deciding which ones really made an impression on me. I set a goal of ten for this list and after a bit of bargaining with myself, settled on the ten releases that I kept going back to this past year.

There are some obvious choices on my list. Some albums, some artists, you just expect to see. But I hope a few albums that might have gotten past you in 2013 will be brought to your attention now. To help get you reacquainted I've thrown in a song for you to sample, lest you forgot how awesome some of these albums are.

And here it is ladies and gentlemen, straight from the Polar Vortex, my Top Ten List.

10. The Sun & Sail Club- Mannequin = Gang Justice

9.  Mojo Waves- Lo! and Behold = Great White

8. Gozu- The Fury of a Patient Man = Bald Bull

7. Stone Magnum- From Time... To Eternity = Lonely God

6. Blood Ceremony- The Eldritch Dark = Witchwood

5. Beast in the Field- The Sacred Above, The Sacred Below = Wakan Tanka

4. Horisont- Time Warriors = Writing on the Wall

3. Age of Taurus-  Desperate Souls of Tortured Time = A Rush of Power

2. The Freeks- Full On = Secret Pathway

1. Monster Magnet- The Last Patrol = Mindless Ones

SPACE ROCK!!!!!

UPDATE!! Temples Festival line-up announcement.

Following the announcement that the mighty Neurosis are to be headlining the Saturday event, the fine folks at Temples Festival have recently announced more bands added to the line up for their first festival of heavy music to be held in the city of Bristol, UK in May 2014.

If you love heavy music in all its morphing and splintering genres then just one glance at the line up so far is sure to get your mouth watering. Doom, Conan, Moss, Blood Ceremony, Winterfylleth; with this level of bands added to the bill and another 30 more artists to be announced in October, Temples is sure going to shake Bristol, if not the whole of the UK, into tiny little pieces.

Tickets are on sale now.


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EP Review: The End by Mount Salem

     Mount Salem is a doom/occult outfit from The Windy City. They recently released their debut album. I've listened to said album and it is good. Here's a break down of the album, with my usual track by track descritpions.

     Good Times starts with a spoken word sample of Charles Manson rambling on about the push pull of modern life before he's trampled by a Golem of heavy doom. The song walks tall, an organ lurking in its shadow, and the attack is heralded by the vocal power of Emily Kopplin. Lucid  is Heart's Magic Man if Ann Wilson was singing her love song to the devil. Full Moon starts with mellow guitaring and conjures a coven gently swaying before a wicker man aflame. But three minutes in  the whole thing topples down and the intensity picks up, Cody Davidson's drums call forth the heavy riffs and the banshee vocals take it from there. Mescaline is an instrumental with shimmering guitars, yearning organ, and perfectly placed explosions of the heavy we all hold so dear.The album ends with The End a tune that starts with the organ up front before the keys are joined by gee-tar strings and the two dance madly while the drums and bass do what they can to keep 'em in line.

     By the end of this album you can tell the band really means it. Their album does not lack heart and blackened soul. There will be Blood Ceremony comparisons. But Mount Salem swapped the fluting of their Canadian peers for a a heavy doom sound befitting the city of big shoulders, hog butcher for the world. They're touring now. Show 'em some love live or online.

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Album Review - Blood Ceremony: Living with the Ancients

If a modern take on William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was ever written, Blood Ceremony’s Living with the Ancients could easily be its soundtrack. On their latest Rise Above Records release, the Toronto band creates a macabre blend of folk, doom and psychedelia that sounds like it could have been made by the mischievous fairies, elves and other supernatural creatures that inhabit the play’s forest. Of course the primary reasons for such a comparison are the haunting vocals and rustic flute playing of Alia O’Brien. The songs have a mystical aura that conjures up images of Puck, the devilish, Pan-like sprite from the story who had the legs, cloven hooves and horns of a goat.

How appropriate then that the album begins with “The Great God Pan”, a song about a ritualistic séance to resurrect the mysterious pagan figure. The track features a combination of driving doom riffs and supernatural lyrical flourishes before O’Brien’s organ takes center stage and then she and her band mates, guitarist Sean Kennedy, bassist Lucas Gadke and drummer Andrew Haust, go on an extended retro-style jam that lasts for nearly five minutes. This gives way to “Coven Tree”, where we first hear the aforementioned flute. The song has a very 60’s vibe to it, sounding kind of like a fresh take on The Mamas and The Papas. In fact O’Brien’s vocals often remind me a lot of the legendary Cass Elliot from that band. This one keeps the creepy mysticism alive with lyrics about a gathering of witches.

“The Hermit” is a beautiful, folk-rock transition piece that sees the band strumming and grooving around a whimsical flute solo by O’Brien. And then Blood Ceremony gets down and dirty, losing the flute in favor of the weightier organ as they unleash the Sabbath inspired dirge, “My Demon Brother”, definitely one of the heavier tracks on Living with the Ancients. The flute resurfaces amidst the catchy, up-tempo groove that starts off “Morning of the Magicians”. Here, O’Brien’s vocals take on an ethereal quality, particularly during the mid-song breakdown that features another of the singer’s stunning flute solos intertwined with some intricate acoustic guitar plucking by Kennedy. The two are eventually rejoined by the rhythm section of Gadke and Haust and the band picks right back up with the up-tempo groove that started this masterpiece…perfection.

“Oliver Haddo” is a straight forward, riff-driven doom number about a character from the 1908 novel The Magician that is apparently based on Aleister Crowley. Around six minutes into the song, O’Brien and Kennedy enter into an impressive jam session that recalls prog-metal giants Mastodon, if they had replaced one of their guitars with an organ. “Night of Augury” is a definite throwback to the 60’s as it features more of O’Brien’s organ grinding as well as what is perhaps her strongest vocal performance on the album. “The Witch’s Dance” is another brief interlude that features the flute with an acoustic guitar accompaniment and ultimately leads us to Blood Ceremony’s final act, “Daughter of the Sun”. On this one, the band seems to have saved their best for last, incorporating all of the elements that make Living with the Ancients such a fantastic listen, into an epic ten minute finale. The song shifts from hard driving riffs through fantastical sweeps of flute and guitar into organ laced jams and back again, all while maintaining the eerie vibe that permeates the entire record.

On Living with the Ancients, Blood Ceremony have created a vibe…a strange sense of supernatural evil that never quite leaves you as you listen to it. The greatest albums do this…they create a feeling or some sense of emotion that courses through them from one song to the next. The difference here is that it isn’t just the subject matter that lends to the album’s atmosphere…it’s the band’s choice of instruments. The flute has long been associated with devilish spirits like the Greek god Pan and Shakespeare’s Puck. So here’s my recommendation to you. Turn down the lights…fire up the candles and incense…and join in this Blood Ceremony. Who knows…maybe the séance will work and the ancient satyr himself will appear right there in your living room.

Track Listing:

01 The Great God Pan
02 Coven Tree
03 The Hermit
04 My Demon Brother
05 Morning of the Magicians
06 Oliver Haddo
07 Night of Augury
08 The Witch's Dance
09 Daughter of the Sun

Band Members:

Alia O'Brien - Vocals, Flute, Organ
Sean Kennedy - Guitars
Lucas Gadke - Bass
Andrew Haust - Drums

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Album Of The Day-Blood Ceremony-"Self-Titled" (2008)

The Album Of The Day is the new self-titled release by Blood Ceremony.



Review:

"Sure, there are a mess of bands out there that are brilliantly effective at channeling the '70's, but not that many have had as strong an impact as Sweden's Witchcraft. Their debut did more than just ape vintage Pentagram – it sounded like it was actually recorded at the start of that decade and was a long lost gem from another era.

For better or worse, numerous like-minded bands have spawned in their wake. The latest is Canada's Blood Ceremony, who goes so far as to label its music as “witch rock.” Sure, the band probably means they're occult influenced, but given the vintage feel of Blood Ceremony and Witchcraft's catalog, it's hard not to draw comparisons.

And yet while Blood Ceremony does share some of the same Pentagram- and Roky Erikson -isms, they're strong enough to be taken on their own (provided you aren't familiar with Jex Thoth, that is). Blood Ceremony, as it's been said on this website, sounds like Jethro Tull had Tony Iommi joined the band back in 1968 - bluesy doom accented by flute and with a generous amount of folksy psychedelics. What also sets Blood Ceremony apart from their retro-minded contemporaries are the vocals, courtesy of Alia O'Brien (who's also the flutist). She brings a faint Jefferson Airplane vibe, which heightens the Wyrd Folk aspect of the album. The songs are fairly consistent throughout, but it's the last track, “Hymn to Pan,” where the band really shines.

Overall, I found this to be an impressive debut. It's not particularly heavy – not surprising, given that their focused exclusively on the late 60s/early 70s – and their fascination with “The Black Arts” may seem silly and trite to some, but it is an effectively atmospheric album." (John Pegoraro, StonerRock.com)

Track Listing:

01. Master Of Confusion
02. I'm Coming With You
03. Into The Coven
04. A Wine Of Wizardry
05. Rare Lord
06. Return To Forever
07. Hop Toad
08. Children Of The Future
09. Hymn To Pan

Listen

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Blood Ceremony Set to Release Debut Album

Canadian doom-psyche band Blood Ceremony has completed work on its debut album. The self-titled Blood Ceremony will drop on September 30 in North America via London, England based independent label Rise Above Records.

Born out of an obsession with ‘70s occult rock, Blood Ceremony bears witness to the heavy bands of yesteryear, fusing psychedelic rock and folk with an early ‘70s downer feel. Blood Ceremony strives to achieve a distinctive presence through their music; the desired effect is “the creation of an utterly heavy and doomed-out vibe.” Songs built upon the foundations of medieval heavy blues-rock riffs are characterized by psychedelic ‘60s-style organ work, as well as mystical fluting (a la the manic piping of Jethro Tull), the end result creating a profound sense of musical other-worldliness. Blood Ceremony keeps it simple and heavy; its songs are tempered with strong, brooding melodies that could readily appeal to fans of Black Sabbath and Black Mountain alike.


Recorded at Toronto’s Halla Music and mixed by the legendary Billy Anderson (High on Fire, Neurosis, Melvins), Blood Ceremony’s debut album looks backwards for forward inspiration, resurrecting the spirit of groups such as Coven, Affinity, and Black Widow. Add to the mix some vintage Pentagram, and you have the essential ingredients for the band’s sound. Although the tag of “heavy metal” may be a stretch, there is a sense of heaviness and funereal gloom in Blood Ceremony’s music, as well as a lyrical obsession with eldritch themes, that aligns them with much of traditional doom. Invoking the mischievous “Pipes of Pan,” Blood Ceremony songs are distinguished by singer Alia O’Brien’s energetic jazz-flute solos – accenting an instrument long-associated with a list of devilish mythic characters.


Since forming in the winter of 2006, Blood Ceremony has regularly played the club circuit in Toronto and Montreal, gaining a devoted fan base in each city. The band has performed at Pop Montreal 2007 and at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York. In their short time as a group, Blood Ceremony has also made an effort to play non-conventional shows, performing before bizarre film-projections, in wooded areas and in venues more in tune with the atmosphere of weird nocturnal rituals. The band`s name was adopted from the 1972 Spanish-horror film, Ceremonia Sangrienta.


The final track listing for Blood Ceremony is as follows:


1.) Master of Confusion
2.) I’m Coming With You
3.) Into the Coven
4.) A Wine of Wizardry
5.) The Rare Lord
6.) Return to Forever
7.) Hop Toad
8.) Children of the Future
9.) Hymn to Pan


Blood Ceremony features Sean Kennedy (guitars), Alia O`Brien (vocals, flute, organ), Chris Landon (bass) and Andrew Haust (drums).


Updated Blood Ceremony news and tour information will be made available via the Blood Ceremony online domain, www.myspace.com/bloodceremony, and the Rise Above Records website, www.riseaboverecords.com.