Song of the Day-Snail-"Building a Haunted House"

"Building a Haunted House" is taken off of the upcoming release "Feral" due out September 25, 2015 on Small Stone Records. This song seeps into your brain and leaves an appeasing trail of fuzzed-out mind-melding slime. For more information, please check out the following links: Facebook | Small Stone | Bandcamp

Album Review: Snail - Terminus

Stoner Rock band names are interesting and fun, wouldn’t you say? Most are clever, many are random, few represent any meaningful trait of the band they represent so won’t necessarily be an indication of what lies in wait when you drop the needle on a recently released tie-dye vinyl. But Snail, intentionally or not, is a name that could represent one of the many quality traits of this kick ass stoner band and their latest release “Terminus”, a trait in which this band is steady and constant, relentlessly bringing the power, seething through the long, slow fuse of stoner jams, super fuzzy riffs, powerful, immutable bass tones, and the inexorable staccato pulsations of the drums, leaving behind a trail of gooey bliss, an excrescence of fuzz and saliva. Snail bring it hard, they bring it heavy, they fuzz the crap out of it, and they never let up, never back down, never come up for air until the opponent has been vanquished. Okay, there’s no real opponent other than the end of the album, but the feeling throughout is a deep and groovy endurance test of tripping fuzz, enjoyable from the first note until the bell rings to end the 10th round.

Snail are in their second incarnation after succumbing to the dark, frightening, and cliched temptations that seem to always seduce rock bands with the individual prizes of sex and drugs, stealing the heart and soul of the whole, eventually leading to break-up and loss of impulse. But enough time fell victim to the slugtrail of Snail’s artistic driving forces that they were resurrected in 2008, stronger than before with a new bandmate among the lineup. Snail are comprised of singer Mark Johnson, bassist Matt Lynch, drummer Marty Dodson, and guitarist Eric Clausen. They very quickly released the much ballyhooed classic of stoner / fuzz rock, “Blood”, a standard of the genre that weighs in heavy with some of the meatiest rock songs to be found embedded in plastic, or encoded in the ether.

After “Blood”’s success Snail found no laurels to rest upon, instead finding new and heightened inspiration in what they wanted to infuse into their music, working diligently toward their latest release, 2012’s “Terminus”.

“Terminus” offers ten exquisite treasures of sound and art that begin with basic melody and structure, infused with the classic intonations of their favorite metal music, most notably the slow tempo stoner sounds that personify their very essence, but also including psychedelic turns and arc-welding sparks of guitar solo virtuosity, as well as all sorts of interesting snippets of pitch that presumably can’t be heard without an enclosed aural apparatus such as headphones or earbuds. Throughout it all is a virtuoso performance on vocals, delivering an adept and interesting inclusion to the mainstay instruments, always with an undercurrent of class, but often with interesting interludes of deviated deliverance. “Terminus” is mature in structure, telling tales of fantasy and adventure through both music and lyrics, never deviating from the essential strength of a song, but instead using a rock solid base as a launching point for all sorts of cool, interesting additions imbued within and throughout the music.

1. “Recursion” kicks off the album with the trademark slow, steady, deep, dark telling of fantasy and discovery. Vocals and guitar highlight the song, while bass and drums drive it through with aplomb and energy. Musical tidbits of interest are ensconced in the instrumental sections, something lying in wait for that tenth or twelfth time through where familiarity breeds delight in discovering what had not been so obvious on previous renditions.
2. “Galaxies’ Lament” picks up the pace both musically and lyrically, touching upon the essence of the universe with catchy lyrics and insistent guitar work, most notably a quick, raging solo that counteracts the methodical notes of the rhythm work from an adept bass and drum undercurrent.
3. “Matchbook” is a duet of sorts, a sing-song back and forth that accentuates a strong, insistent drum rendition throughout and fuzzed to the max guitars.
4. “Hippy Crack” is fast, insistent, with distorted riffs, quick staccato drums, interesting solo leading into an all out assault of screaming vocals, fading into a finale of quick simplicity. Fun, fast, furious, frenetic, and fantastic.
5. “Burn the Flesh” is a relentless harmony of haunting, slow power, a slow burn of stoner excellence utilizing a variety of  guitar emanations overlaying a long, trippy tale of disaster and woe.
6.”Love Theme From Snail” is a psychedelic guitar solo riff with a heavy stoner groove, a chorus of vocal harmony accentuating solo variations throughout.
7. “Ritual” is an insistent beat, slow, with background vocals in great tone, and using stoner guitar riffs when singing the chorus. It is trippy, moody, and ritualistic, just as its name suggests. Many and varied are the buried little interludes of musical deviations that accentuate the long, slow trek through the longest track on the album.
8. “Circles” relies heavily on the structure and strength of the bass and drumbeat throughout, while overlaying more psychotropic and melodic musical snippets in a trance-like state enhanced with low key vocals.
9. “Try to Make It” continues with the psychedelic bent of the latter half of the album, infusing many interesting sounds in, on, and around the rhythm instrumentation, interspersing moments of power guitar before falling back down the hole and into the ongoing trip.
10. “Terminus” closes out the trippy sounds of the album, riding on a single string before being led into the last of the power sections that is the coda for what has been an interesting and well played collection of original power rock paired with adept and intriguing interludes through ephemeral musings.






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Heavy Rotation-Snail-"Blood"

If you are unfamiliar with the band Snail, I suggest you get familiar with them as soon as possible. If you like the classic Stoner/Psychedelic/Doom sound, then this CD will be right up your alley.

"Snail formed in 1992 consisting of singer Mark Johnson (The Crucified, Blessing the Hogs), bassist Matt Lynch (Plugusher) and drummer Marty Dodson.


After recording and shopping their first demo they were offered a 4-album deal by Big Deal Records in 1993. That year they recorded their Self-Titled album with help from producer Jonathan Burnside (Melvins, Nirvana, Steelpole Bathtub) at Razor's Edge Studio (the birthplace of Sleep's Holy Mountain) in San Francisco, CA. The album was well received by critics and garnered much praise from magazines such as Magnet, Alternative Press and BAM.


Snail's second release was a 5-song EP called "All Channels Are Open." The EP was recorded on a lowly 4-track in the hopes of capturing Snail's dynamic low-fi sound.


Subsequent to the release of the EP, Snail sadly succombed to the "sex, drugs, and Rock n Roll" lifestyle and eroded to the point of breaking up. The worst part was that they had a complete second album recorded on 4track and was ready to bring it into the studio."

Which leads us to this scenario, the original band went back into the studio along with new band member (guitarist Eric Clausen) and recorded that long lost second album called "Blood". The album was ultimately released on Meteor City Records in 2009 amid some pretty remarkable reviews.

"Snail wanted to create an album which, while staying true to their original stoner-rock/doom sound, would also showcase the unique pairing of Pink Floyd/My Bloody Valentine-esque vocals and melody with punishing sludge metal influences. The result is a hypnotic mix of roaring classic metal, doom, sludge, stoner and psychedelic dubbed "psychedoomic" by lead guitarist Eric Clausen."

What others are saying:

"Wow! First Black Pyramid and now Snail, What a year for releases from Meteorcity! Snail had hung up their boots called it quits, After recording a Self-titled release in 1993 and soon after an Ep titled "All Channels Open "the band fell to the wastelands of Rock n Roll, sex, drugs and evil women (Damn them:-).Over a decade later Snail's new and Unforgiving sound now reigns supreme picking up where they left off and no doubt releasing a dream once thought never to be, to be...


Snail's Blood recording from get go crushes everything in its path! Like a pest or a disease that eats everything in its way. Mental Models is simply Crushing , low down tuned phased out bass line intro which leads into a Goatsnake / Mass styled chord progression , the vocals by Mark are simply killer, delivered with so much heart. You know this record means the world to these guys and yes the dream is now reality.

Cleanliness, another stand out track, is perfect grunge rock but with a heavy stoner edge, that kind of 90's sound we all grew up to dig! Big dual guitars flowing speaker to speaker, rim shot drumming and Marks echoing lyrics, persisting and insisting to "Get High" the lead after the build up is fucking awesome! Short but sweet, perfect 90's heavy grunge riffs, the way the good old carefree days were.

Blood, is something that just consumes you, not one track on this record is a filler, it's heavy, untamed straight to the point heavy ass Fuzzy Groove rock, hook after hook ! How I never heard these guys back in the early 90's is beyond me! Never since the "Alice in Chains" album "Dirt" have I ever been so consumed and buzzed! Snail have managed to bring all there now," old school "influences to the table and produced a record that is so unique and well crafted you'd think there is no way this record could have been shelved and put to rest back in the mid 90's.

Snail have produced something special, production on Blood is absolutely perfect and captured to its finest detail, from the, sustain on the fuzz boxes, every drum hit, every bass note played and every lyric sang. Fans of Valis, Goatsnake and all the grunge era will smash the shit out of this record! Thank you Snail and thank you Meteorcity for delivering yet another killer new release that will no doubt stand the test of time for many years to come \m/" (PlanetFuzz)

Tracklist:

01.Mental Models
02.Sleep
03.Underwater
04.Committed
05.Via/Penny Dreadful
06.Relief
07.Blood
08.Cleanliness
09.Screen
10.Not for Me
11.Blacklight



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Snail Returns, Announces New Album

Snail, the original stoner/sludge band featuring ex-Blessing the Hogs guitarist Mark Johnson, bassist Matt Lynch, guitarist Eric Clausen and drummer Marty Dodson have reunited and are completing overdubs for their new album. The basic album tracks were recorded at Mysterious Mammal Studios in Southern California over a long weekend in late May, with the remaining overdubs being recorded in Seattle. The band expects to have the album completed and mixed within a month.

Snail, formed in 1992 and consisting of singer Mark Johnson (The Crucified, Blessing the Hogs), bassist Matt Lynch (Plugusher) and drummer Marty Dodson, is considered one of the "founding fathers" of stoner rock. After recording and shopping their first demo they were offered a four-album deal by Big Deal Records in 1993. That year they recorded their self-titled album with help from producer Jonathan Burnside (Melvins, Nirvana, Steelpole Bathtub). The album was well received by critics and garnered much praise from magazines such as Magnet, Alternative Press and BAM. Snail`s second release was a five-song EP called All Channels Are Open. The EP was recorded on a lowly four-track in the hopes of capturing Snail`s dynamic lo-fi presence. Subsequent to the release of the EP, Snail sadly succumbed to the "sex, drugs, and rock `n roll" lifestyle and eroded to the point of breaking up. The worst part was that they had a complete second album recorded on four-track and was ready to bring it into the studio.


Snail`s upcoming album consists of most of the "lost" second album as well as a few new tunes. The band has taken a decidedly heavier and darker turn with the new album; incorporating more elements of doom and metal to compliment their fuzz-drenched psychedelic compositions.


www.myspace.com/Snailexhumed