Song of the Day-Casino Warrior-"Centaur"

"Centaur" is taken from the upcoming self-titled EP release due out September 16, 2015. As the band's website promptly states, "all songs are about mythical beasts". I can dig it! For more information, please check out the following links:
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Sunday Sludge: Mollusk

Ever the Johnny-come-lately, eh? It's cliched by now, but it's still embarrassing when something slips through the cracks and only earns your praises after months have passed. When it's the following year, all I can do is hang my head and offer a most pathetic apology. If I comb the desert, mouths go dry. When I scan the swamps, I tend to get stuck. Shit happens, so discovering old new music feels like collateral damage.

I thought I was augmenting my catalog when I ordered a few Crowbar and Cathedral albums last week. Turns out people are far more generous than I could expect, as I split open the mail to find a buyer's bonus in the form of every track Cincinnati's Mollusk ever produced. Three releases in various formats, all sandwiched between Electric Wizard and a pile of stickers. It'll be a while until I complain of being bored.

In under two years, Mollusk have sharpened their meld of ambient, post-metal sludge. Something inside these guys is slowly working its way out. Something unpretty, something massive, something painful. Their 2011 demo offered frantic, jarring retribution peppered with droning interludes. At times, the hum was nearly industrialized, spitting fire and throwing chaotic blades through ambient clouds. Despite being dragged behind a weathered carriage, the movements amid the structures were complex, structurally nebulous progressions. The atmospheres were ominous until the calm was broken in quite primitive ways.

2013's Colony of Machines EP is all these things, yes. The oceanic expanse is more isolated and more meticulously explored, smoothing out the grind and discovering a melody among the melancholy. Shifting Decay staggers with sludgy spite, chomping on uneven terrain to leave listeners nervous via rhythmic uncertainty. The vocal here is distant, not as overtly resistant as previous work. But the vast, lonesome passages shift into torrential hoofed scurries. It'd ring nostaliga, perhaps, but the elements somehow stay parallel with one another and the band's strides are immediately evident.

Hollowed introduces a triptych of celebrated despair, barely breathing at the somber center of nothingness. The cracks deepen, descending slabs find their crashes, and left behind are massive Earth cavities. The interlude-ish title track is pensive and echoed, cavernous but more free than preceding tracks. The trembling plucks craft a balanced reprieve, gently soothsaying without revealing too much. To close on Denisova isn't just massive, it's mature. Things get lower, more dense, and the swirling storm gradually collects adjacent sounds to grow exponentially. The song uses painful reflection to build on itself. The rhythmic shifts never tire, and nine minutes hardly seems like enough time to deliver so much.

Mollusk have steadily introduced more substance, thicker and stickier with more dramatic movements. Drawing things out creates more breathing room, but the numbing buzz is as deafening as ever. Each release is a more exhaustive effort than the last, and the beautiful, destructive amalgam of previous themes is gorgeously unsettling. There's a process here: pick up the pieces, glue them back in place, and cradle the mended whole as it's again thrown from a steep seaside balcony. As each successive track morphs into a larger version of its own being, we wonder if the band will do the same.

For fans of: Rwake, The Atlas Moth, Neurosis
Pair with: Rampant Imperial IPA, New Belgium Brewing

Facebook | Colony of Machines | Split w/Stormbrewer | 2011 Demo

New Band To Burn One To (Morning Buzz): VALLEY OF THE SUN

VALLEY OF THE SUN is today's "NEW BAND TO BURN ONE TO" Morning Buzz...

Bio:

There is a smoldering hotbed of Rock and Roll in the most unlikely of places; Ohio. Some time ago, the Devil came to sew his seed throughout the state leaving every city with it’s own High Priests of Hellish Riffs. The congregation of Cincinnati’s Church of Rock and Roll is watched over by Valley of the Sun, and a well tended flock they are. Riff after righteous riff is thrown from the pulpit with the fury of fire and brimstone, so come out to the Rock and Roll Revival , bring your offering and prepare to be anointed!

"Back in November of 2010 I wrote up a feature on a band called Valley of the Sun from Cincinnati, Ohio. Since that time the band has garnered some serious recognition around the world. The band was most recently chosen as an opening band for select dates on Sweden's Truckfighters first ever U.S. tour.

The band has recently released a new EP "The Sayings of the Seers" on their Bandcamp site. This is one of the most fierce releases I have heard in a while."

"I will first off start out by saying that I believe this to be at the top of my list of best releases of the year even though it is only an EP. Valley of the Sun seemlessly blends blistering stoner grooves, stellar musicianship, and high energy low and high dynamics to their amazing sound. Oh, and did I mention that Ryan Ferrier may quite possibly be the best vocalist I've heard since Miles Kennedy and Chris Cornell. From the unmatched soaring vocal harmonies of opener "Hearts Aflame" , the epicness of  "Mariner's Tales" to the steam rolling groove of "Deep Light Burns", Cincinnati's Valley of the Sun is a well-polished band that is ready to be singed into your brain. "

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Desert Rock From Cincinnati-Valley Of The Sun

You wouldn't exactly think of Cincinnati as a place to find Desert Rock, but Valley of the Sun has accumulated a legion of fans begging for the Kyuss-influenced band by playing to near capacity crowds around the many local bars and venues as well as garnering a spot on the upcoming November 14th show with Priestess and Naam at the Mad Hatter in Covington, KY.

Citing influences ranging from the aforementioned Kyuss to Black Flag, the band manages to combine a nice blend of typical Stoner Rock grooves with a little bit of a punk mentality and a nice retro classic rock feel. The band has made their most recent EP "Two Thousand Ten" available for free download on their Bandcamp page.

What others are saying:

"The Ohio four-piece use: amps, drums, and rock and roll, to create five tracks of fast-growl stoner-boogie. A love of British psychedelia and desert rock results in a stoner-metal sound that Blue Cheer and Sabbath first pioneered, and a genre that thousands of bands have attempted to perfect ever since. On first listen, it is an easy to dismiss this EP, as it does absolutely nothing new. However, as the octaves bleed and the fuzz starts to drain through the amps, a short slab of 70’s guitar-thunder unfolds. ‘Centaur Rodeo’ is an elemental blast of old-school rock escapism, earning every grunt and howl. Drummer Aaron Boyer keeps things moving admirably, throwing in all sorts of berserker fills, as Casey Beagle and Ryan Ferrier take care of the riffs. Considering that the Cincinnati retro-rockers only got together in June, they have already secured shows with Priestess and Naam. Valley of the Sun stride through this EP with swagger and assurance."-Chybucca Sounds

"Ohio doesn’t churn out to many bad bands these days and the next one is no exception. The band is Valley of the Sun and they’re from Cincinnati. The midwest, as many know, is usually cloudy and almost gloomy this time of the year, Valley of the Sun lights it up. There isn’t a gloomy thing about their heavy stoner rock. I can hear influences such as Dozer, Truckfighters and Deep Purple. Very cool stuff indeed. There’s 5 songs on this just released EP."-The Soda Shop


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