Tag Archives: Portland

Graves at Sea – The Curse That Is (2016)

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The Curse That Is

Graves at Sea – The Curse That Is (Relapse Records, 01 April 2016)

 

After forming nearly fifteen years ago, taking some time off and then reforming with a number of line-up changes over the years, and recording a spattering of demos and EPs and singles and splits during all that time, TOMORROW (Friday, April 1st) the crushing doom entity that is Graves at Sea will finally drop its debut full-length record on an unsuspecting world. A preview copy of The Curse That Is showed up in my email inbox earlier this month, while I was away on vacation. I was pretty excited to check it out, so as soon as I found myself with a spare 75+ minutes to sit and listen to it, I made sure to seize the opportunity. Which happened to be on the plane ride back home. Honestly, the irony inherent in that situation — listening to a band called that while watching the flight attendants demonstrate the use of flotation devices and various other safety features — didn’t dawn on me at all until sometime later.

Anyway, like I said, the album comes out tomorrow, so I’d like to tell you a little more about it. And then, about a week and a half from now, the band will be heading across the country to take a trip up the east coast — their first time doing so in quite a few years — with Atlanta’s Order of the Owl (who, you may recall, put on a hell of a show themselves, as I had discussed here a couple of years ago). So once you reach the end of this article, keep on scrolling to the comments section, where I’ll include a list of dates and cities these two groups will be visiting.

 

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Agalloch – The Serpent & the Sphere (2014)

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Agalloch – The Serpent & the Sphere (Profound Lore Records, 13 May 2014)

 

So tomorrow is the day when we’ll be making the trek west to Ohio, because Agalloch‘s tour will be hitting Cleveland. (Read all the details of that tour right here. I’ve been pretty excited about this for a while — I may only have discovered the band within the past few years, but quickly I found their style of vast, atmosphere-infused black/folk metal to be right up my alley. I enjoyed all the songs I’d heard (on Pandora or wherever) from their earlier albums like The Mantle and Ashes Against the Grain, so I thought I had a general idea of what this band was about, and I thought I knew basically what to expect from the upcoming show.

But no, honestly I don’t think anything could have prepared me for what happened when — partly out of curiosity, partly to get familiar with some of their newer stuff — I headed over to the Agalloch Bandcamp page and hit PLAY on their recently-released album The Serpent & the Sphere. I found myself instantly blown away by what I was hearing, a reaction that continued throughout the next fifty-nine minutes or so, through the conclusion of all nine tracks. I decided right then, even though this year isn’t even halfway over yet, that I find it unlikely I’ll hear anything better than this in 2014.

I hadn’t even really planned on writing this, but this was just one of those rare occasions where something caught my attention and spoke to me so much, I felt like I had to make sure other people knew about this record too.

 

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Tours Galore: Agalloch Hitting the Road Throughout North America

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The Agalloch “Serpens in Cvlmination” Tour Begins its Trek Across North America

 

Last month, Portlandian atmospheric black/doom/folk band Agalloch released The Serpent & the Sphere, their fifth full-length over the past fifteen years (and the second on Profound Lore). In support of this new album, the band is heading out all across North America — starting tomorrow night (Wednesday, 18 June 2014) and running for about three weeks. On various dates of the tour, they will be joined by Obsidian Tongue, Vex, Jex Thoth, Thrones, and — for one lucky city — Musk Ox, the folk trio led by guitarist Nathanaël Larochette, who wrote and performed several interludes on The Serpent & the Sphere.

Personally, I’ll be making the trip out to Cleveland for the show this coming Saturday, and really excited since it’ll be my first time seeing Agalloch. See below for the full list of dates…

 

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In Case You Missed It: Greed & Rapacity – Loki Bound

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Greed & Rapacity – Loki Bound (9 April 2012, Milam Records)

 
Good afternoon, Readers! Time for another album review. It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these things; I hope I remember how…

 
With its roots in Australian soil, but being a collaborative effort between members (who are also involved with various other projects, including Azoth, Bleakwood, and Ironwood) living in both Sydney (NSW, AU) and Portland (OR, US) Greed & Rapacity have the goal of “channeling and venting the worst of human nature in sonic form” — not surprising, considering they have deadly sins as namesakes.

Following a demo in 2010, this spring the band’s debut EP Loki Bound was released on cassette by Milam Records (although it’s also available as a digital download, so don’t worry if you never bothered to get a new tape player after the batteries leaked and corroded your Walkman’s innards fifteen or twenty years ago).

The album was named for the god of chaos in Norse mythology, who was bound by the other deities for his mischievous crimes, and had a serpent suspended above him, from which venom would occasionally drip onto the captive, causing him to writhe in pain and agony.

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Contest Alert: Win a Stonecreep Prize Pack

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Hey there, readers. Real quick, I wanted to bring this to your attention: in a joint effort between Blistering.com and Clawhammer PR, for the next few days you can have the opportunity to win a prize package from Portlandian death-thrashers Stonecreep!

This giveaway will include a digipack of the 2011 re-release (via Old-School Metal Records) of their 2009 album The Deathmarch Crushes On, a CD copy of the 2007 demo EP We Bleed Disaster, a t-shirt, sticker, and beer koozie. All you need to do is click right here, and fill in the relevant personal information. Be sure to submit your entry soon, because the contest will close on Friday (1 June)!

Oh, and while we’re on the subject, the band will soon be heading out across the U.S. in support of the Deathmarch album’s recent re-release, on what they’re calling the Storm of the Deathmarch U.S. Tour 2012. So far there have been sixteen confirmed dates over the course of three weeks between June and July (including a stop in Pittsburgh). See below for the full details…

 

Update 12 June: the contest may have ended but the Deathmarch tour is still, umm, deathmarching soon! I’ve learned of a few adjustments to the tour schedule, which has been updated accordingly, below, along with an explanatory statement from the band…

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