11 IS ONE LOUDER: Kenoma bassist Doug McGinnnis talks us through his Top 5 post metal, doom albums

Eleven years in the making, Dayton, Ohio atmospheric post metal collective KENOMA recently released their highly anticipated debut full length record entitled, “The Tides Will Prevail” via Translation Loss. Having flown under the radar following their contribution to the 2006 critically acclaimed split release with Mouth Of The Architect, “The Tides Will Prevail “could be considered something of a rebirth for the band.  This extended gestation period has produced an absorbing set of finely honed post-metal behemoths.  Kenoma are firmly focused on the metal side of the post-metal equation and for the most part of “The Tides Will Prevail” manages to create huge, enveloping sound constructions reliant on intricate interlocking guitar parts rather than a phalanx of effects pedals.

With their style of sludge-induced atmospheric instrumentals, Kenoma have etched their way into creating climatic and expansive journeys, pushing them to the forefront of their ever dilating genre. Kenoma create landscapes you want to explore and get lost in. The subtle nuances of their valleys are mesmerizing and their peaks are crafted with boiling points overflowing with beauty. As for the 11 year gap between releases, it is a journey that would eventually lead to the creation of their brilliant new album and today we have invited bassist Doug McGinnis to talk us through his top 5 post metal, doom records. So prepare to worship at the altar of volume, as we take our weekly trip into the extreme and turn the volume all the way up to 11.  Why do we go to 11,  because “It’s one louder, isn’t it?”

1). Neurosis: “Through Silver In Blood”

This album was not my first introduction to Neurosis, but it had the biggest impact on me and my writing style. “Through Silver In Blood”is one of the heaviest and most complex albums I have ever heard. The siren like screams and the destructive riffs paired with the textured soundscapes made for one of the most influential albums to date. It’s hard to deny an album, or a band, that single handedly create a whole sub-genre of bands struggling to grasp Neurosis’s immense vision. This is still one of my favorite Neurosis albums and probably always will be.  

2). His Hero Is Gone: “Fifteen Counts Of Arson”

His Hero Is Gone: “Fifteen Counts Of Arson” was one of the first albums my group of friends all came together around. When it came out none of us had heard a mix of styles quite like these guys put together. It was a ferocious album that went from grinding you into the dirt with their crust punk stylings to smashing you over the head with their oppressive doom style riffs. This album had it all and could effortlessly flow from one style to the next without batting an eye. This record will make you want to buck the system and burn it to the ground.

3). Tarentel: “The Order Of Things”

This is one of my favorite albums of all time. “The Order Of Things” evokes emotions and feelings with each changing note. The pairing of the organic sounding instrumentation and the soundscapes makes for an immersive listening experience. I still get lost in these songs and find myself reflecting on the past, present, and future every time I spin this record. This album is highly recommended and will provide a very lush listening experience.  

4). Grief: “Come To Grief”

This album is one of my favorite doom records ever recorded. The weight that this album carries is immense. It had an influence own my writing style even before I started Kenoma, when I was still in Rune.  The down tempo riffs on this album are unmatched by any of its predecessors. I would not be surprised if this album hasn’t led to a significant decline in the human population.  No one can match the level of doom unleashed on the world as this album has produced. Doom On and Drop Out… 

5). Red Sparowes: “At The Soundless Dawn”

“At The Soundless Dawn” grips the listener right from the beginning and doesn’t let go until the album is done. This is my favorite Red Sparowes release and has had a large impact on Kenoma’s approach to song writing. This engaging release commands the attention of the listener and takes them on a ride through beautifully crafted textures and sweeping riffs. The dynamics are on point and it is full of emotive highs and lows. Get ready for a ride when listening to this album. 

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Hawkbill - "Self Titled"

By: Grim Trashcan

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released:23/03/2017

Label: Independent

Track by track these rusted broke-down tractor boys weave a landscape that is reminiscent of the groovier parts of Grief or perhaps an even more slowed down and swampy take on some Weedeater.   With a natural emphasis on groove and natural timing and feel, this album moves like a sloth with a spliff in its mouth.

“Self Titled” DD track listing:

1). Blackened

2). Fever

3). Hate

4). Snakes

5). Knives

The Review:

A simple internet search on "Manchester, KYdemographics" reveals the catalyst in order to produce such a suffocated and frustrated brand of Southern sludge from the gloom merchants that go by Hawkbill. According to the County's facebook page; under sightseeing- one of the main attractions next to the Baptist Church is the Clay County Correctional Facility. Charming, wouldn't you agree? Become a pill-billy, praise Jesus or do what these fine young Southern Gentlemen did- channel your frustration and despair into a trance-inducing, hypnotic groove anti-hymnal for the dejected. 

Track by track these rusted broke-down tractor boys weave a landscape that is reminiscent of the groovier parts of Grief or perhaps an even more slowed down and swampy take on some Weedeater, with a natural emphasis on groove and natural timing and feel. I've always been a proponent that if it's from the South, it moves like a sloth with a spliff in its mouth. With track titles such as "Blackened", "Hate", "Snakes" and my personal favorite "Knives"...this stoned sloth has been left out in the rain for a week and ran into some train-hopping crust kids and is babbling incoherently about the vicious nature of a Clay County existence. The abstract, albeit psychotic metaphor of that last sentence may be an indicator of where this band's first self-recorded and produced effort puts you after a listen or two. 

Inspired guitar work, precise and tactful rhythms carried upon the rhinoceros that lives in the low-end via bass are drizzled and poured all over by psychotic and tortured howls that drip and melt all over the aural landscape. Imagine a stack of pancakes, made of solid hash and then pour a heroic dose level of some kind of maple syrup mind-fuck mushroom concoction that some mountain wizard bartered for with some ammunition a few years ago and that's what you're getting into with this Hawkbillendeavor. No...ManchesterI will not be stopping by to see your highlighted social media suggestions anytime soon. I'd rather admire what social quagmires and abject level poverty have produced from your denizens from a safe viewing and especially listening distance. Hat's off to Hawkbill. Grim Trashcan definitely approved!!!

“Hawkbill” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

REVIEW: Witchapter - "Spellcaster" (EP)

By: Stephen Murray

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 04/07/2017

Label: Black Bow Records

“Spellcaster” CD//DD track listing:

1). Veiled Aggressor

2). Through Smoke and Sulfur

3). Everywhere I Look I See My Grave

The Review:

There is a Riff. It’s of the swampy kind that jacks directly into what remains functional of your richly barbecued, southern fried central nervous system. It appears about three minutes into the record’s opening song, ‘Veiled Aggressor,’ but you’d be doing it a disservice to skip ahead. The angry hardcore hammering of the first minutes leads into it perfectly, and is more than a vehicle to get you there; it’s a foot stomper of its own. Little wonder that this was the track used to signal Witchapter’s arrival.

The band’s debut release is the latest thing on Black Bow Records menu. So fresh, in fact, their first official outing was only a couple of weeks ago when they opened for Italy’s blackened warlocks Hierophant in a rather badly attended basement beneath a bar on the Margatecoast. Having played their three extant songs (choosing a set order that took ‘Veiled Aggressor’ from the top and dropped it in to close) which clock in a little over the 20 minute mark all told, I couldn’t help but wonder in what order these songs were written.

The second track (by EP reckoning, not live), ‘Through Smoke and Sulphur,’ continues to bring us more bile from the bayou. The opening bass shakes the eardrum like having a cheetah purr in your ear (to check that for yourself, hunt down Chris Watson’s field recordings), the guitar quiet but clear much further up the stave before it cuts loose with a riff and tone like Son House setting about a 40 foot pipe organ plumbed into a saw mill.

But it’s the third and final track that seems at odds. It fills a space roughly that of the other two combined and moves away from swamplands to somewhere more sombre. A wind ravaged moor, perhaps. Live, comparisons with Grief were made, but listening to the record that’s not quite right. As a rule of thumb I would say it leans more in that direction: sombre, pulsating melody that falls off the pentatonic path and deep growling. But unlike the other songs here it fails to distinguish itself amongst the merry rabble of competent doom now happening.

And this is where questions of writing order come in. Is the close of this EP indicative of what’s to come from Witchapter, or was it simply born of an early doomfluenced jam and it is really the hellish swamp metal that will define their future? I am looking forward to finding out.

“Spellcaster” is available here

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook

“11 is one louder”: Crawl guitarist Eric Crowe picks his top 5 sludge albums

Atlanta, Georgia's Crawl play glorious molten Southern swamp metal and while it doesn't break new ground (it's not fucking supposed to!), it's sure to drive people to break open a beer and smile gleamingly and nod in approval.  Music at times doesn't need to be complex or challenging to be brilliant, Crawl produce barbecue music for bloodshot eyed slackers, music to blare out the speakers of your pickup truck on your way to buy more beer.

The world needs music like there’s, so we’re stoked that Eric Crowe, guitarist/vocalist with Crawl agreed to share his thoughts on his Top 5 sludge album, in this weeks edition of “11 is one Louder”, where bands choose their favourite albums from the genre of music their know for.

Check out Eric’s selection below.

Neurosis - “Through Silver in Blood” (1996)

Above and beyond any release, there is and will always be this. At first, I could not get into this album at all. I was totally missing the point and fullness it had. One day a dear friend of mine suggested that I listen to it when I am in a funk, but I have to listen from beginning to end without stop. So I did, and everything clicked and became a necessity and like a drug. I didn’t see them till like 2000 for the “Times of Grace” tours, but they had me hooked to my very core and experienced that “religious experience” a lot of people talk about when seeing them. The darkness and the primal, the sheer power and cold distance of this album completely changed the way I thought about music, changed the way I created music, especially for Crawl. I couldn’t look or listen to music in the same way I did before. A new level was reached; I neither would nor could ever go back again. Still a heavy influence musically, band aesthetics and vision.

Grief - “Come to Grief” (1994)

“Come to Grief” was another album that was hard to listen to at first, mainly cause my focus of music at the time was Grindcore and Harsh Noise. When I first listened to it, I was literally cracking up because it was so ridiculously slow. But once the giggling stopped, this album became one that carried me through some dark times. The riffs, the power of absolute sludge compelled me. From beginning to end, this is still one of my all time favorite albums from Grief. I love almost all of their discography, but this one will always reign supreme and still has a huge impact on my life and writing.

Buzzov*en - “Sore” (1994)

When it comes to all time favorites within the genre for Crawl, “Sore” has absolutely played a heavy role in the music and mentality. The complete abrasiveness, attitude, drive and filth that this album covers, it changes people. The samples and discomfort only added to the appeal. It’s Kirks guitar and off sounding solo work (that actually really work and add to the albums dissonance) that still influences me on our more “Southern Sludge” songs.

Melvins - “The Maggot” (1999)

With so many of their albums being a great influence, it’s really hard to pick one, but “The Maggot” is definitely one that I fall back on. “Bullhead”, “Lysol” and “Houdini” are all a close second. It’s the heaviness and trancelike state of “See How Pretty, See How Smart” that make me want to be motivated and quit, all at the same time. With a long history and a prolific nature, are added reasons why they mean and continue to influence me.

Leechmilk - “Discography” (2000 – 2001)

Though defunct for many years and having a recent re-release of “Starvation of Locust” on Divine Mother Recordings, Leechmilk has continued to be both, a constant go-to and influence. I cannot deny the power and aggression in any of their albums. I had the honor to play with these guys many, many times in the late 90s and haven’t stopped listening since. They brought a much needed element to the Atlantascene in those days and have even continued to gain ground even on international bases. Angry, sludgy riffs with heavy crusty punk attitude; volatile vocals that still resonate through the offerings of Sons of Tonatiuh. I’ll always be a fan-boy for this band, and Dan knows it and laughs at me, but whatever.

You can stream and buy Crawl’s music here

Band info:  bandcamp || facebook