Life has been a bit of a rollercoaster lately, and suitably so, I am about to tell you about two things that do not go together at all. However, I can say that the two enjoyed together provide a nice balance of sorts. Please enjoy this juxtaposition of heavy doom and a bright fruity ale and let us drink from the cup of heresy. This week’s offerings: Moor‘s Heavy Heart and Campanology Brewing’s Peach Ale.
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Few things carry as much anticipation and dread as the words “band reunites.” At this point, band reunions are less a question of “will it happen?” and more “when does it happen?”. These reunions tend to be preceded by a lot of PR, followed by album and tour announcements building that anticipation and dread. In the year of our Lord 2023 though, Khanate surprise released a new album, To Be Cruel. This is the first album since 2009 from the doom metal supergroup comprising OLD’s James Plotkin and Alan Dubin, Sunn O)))‘s Stephen O’Malley, and Blind Idiot God’s Tim Wyskida. No build up. No PR blitz. To Be Cruel is only available digitally at the moment, and both the tour and physical releases will come. For now though, this is four people getting together to make truly exciting minimalist doom music.
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We’re already coming close to the halfway point for 2023 and since I’ve had too much going on to actively seek out new music recently, I figure it’s time to highlight albums that have made some degree of impact on me over the past few months. Aside from one or two exceptions I don’t expect many of the albums here will join Enslaved and Dødheimsgard on my AOTY list; nevertheless, they deserve a shoutout, even if the wheel isn’t being reinvented.
I’ve made sure to select albums that haven’t been featured on the site yet (aside from popping up in our weekly playlist or mentioned on the AOTM podcast), so let’s dive in with a chronological look at what 2023 has had to offer so far.
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Thirty years is a long time, but this year marks exactly that for San Francisco’s Acid King. And, they’re still the lords of doom and the almighty riff even this far in. Zoroaster and Busse Woods stand as deeply seminal albums as well as stone cold classics. Beyond Vision is an excellent continuation of their legacy but also marks a chance to really hear its members stretch out and reach for the sky in ways we’ve never heard before. Buke recently had the chance to speak with Lori S. on the new album and how it came to be, they also discuss her extremely storied history and career, and so much more. Lori is absolutely a legend and should be protected at all costs. We now bring you this conversation in its entirety so grab your beverage of choice, a seat, and enjoy.
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Heavy metal is a genre of music that thrives on the elemental. Think of the cascading snow storms conjured by black metal guitars or the constant invocation of thunder when describing drums. The hometown of Acid King, San Fransisco, is known for two natural phenomena; earthquakes and fog. Sitting near the San Andreas fault line, a history of devastating earthquakes haunts the city’s history. The massive earthquake of 1906 destroyed the entire city while a 1989 earthquake delayed the Oakland Athletics trouncing their opponents and neighbors across the bay, the San Francisco Giants. The fog of San Francisco is such an ever present visual. The city’s fog envelopes the city in a way that it’s like being in a cloud. The city is so well known for its fog that it’s easy to associate something like the Carl Sandberg immortal poem to San Francisco, rather than to his home of Chicago. It’s a visual that inspired artists as diverse as writer Jack Kerouac and film director Guy Maddin. On their first album in eight years Beyond Vision, Acid King draw power from these two elemental forces. Beyond Vision hits with the power of an earthquake but wafts in and stays like that fog.
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Nine Circles 