Sacrificio

self titled ep
written/recorded by avery stanken
cover art by anthony bachelier

pitfall

Tuesday - Mesh

Spelljammer
The Ancient of Days

“We like things on a grand scale,” says Spelljammer bassist/vocalist Niklas Olsson. That’s a bit of an understatement considering the Stockholm, Sweden trio’s penchant for massive, slow-burning sludge riffs intercut with dramatic melodic interludes. There’s the pummeling heft of detuned guitars rumbling across the rugged expanse of unwieldy drums counterbalanced with moments of Master of Reality-era Sabbath’s introspective acoustic breaks and Pink Floyd’s Meddle-era psychedelia. These extreme shifts in dynamic give the band’s third album a sense of epic depth unlike most of Spelljammer’s peers. 

“The vastness of everything is something that I seem to think about a lot,” Olsson says, “and I guess that shows in the lyrics.” Some of The Ancient of Days’ words were inspired by the epic poem Aniara by Swedish author and Nobel laureate Harry Martinson in which a spaceship leaving an uninhabitable Earth is hurtled off course, sending its thousands of passengers on a steady course in the wrong direction and there is nothing they can do about it. They will all slowly die as the ship continues from the solar system, forever into nothingness. This type of apocalyptic woe permeates throughout the 5-song, 40-minute album in perfect bond with the vastness of the music. 

The Ancient of Days is not just the band’s third release, but in many ways, a rebirth. It’s Spelljammer’s first recording as a trio — with Olsson taking over bass duties and new drummer Jonatan Rimsbo battering the skins — and the culmination of a progressive move toward a heavier, doom-laden sound, away from the desert rock leanings of their 2010 debut Inches From the Sun. Vol II saw the band spreading out into darker territories. After writing sessions fell apart in 2013 for a followup to Vol II (reissued in early 2015 by RidingEasy Records) Olsson and guitarist Robert Sorling scrapped nearly everything following the departure of half of the band. The two began to build from the ground up as a duo with new ideas that resulted in the invigorated The Ancient of Days. It’s the band’s most focused and deliberate in both its complexities and simplicities.  

“Having recorded the previous two albums in a more patchwork kind of way,” Olsson says, “we were very set on going into one studio and doing the entire thing.” In so doing, they banged it all out over a weekend in January 2015 at Ingrid Studio in Stockholm, engineered and, to some degree, produced by Christoffer Zakrisson. Here, syrupy guitars ooze from the speakers, the drums sound like they’re perched atop a giant barge and howling vocals float throughout the proceedings. The Ancient of Days very effectively embodies the boundless, otherworldly essence of its inspiration. 

The Ancient of Days will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on September 29, 2015 via RidingEasy Records. 


Spelljammer - Borlung

hey lil tay
you uglay
don't care what they say
your O.F. so ghey

hey lil tay
let's do it my way
let's see some boo-tay
and i ain't gonna pay

you see, life is long
right is right
and wrong is wrong
and someday you'll thank me
for singing this song

hey lil tay
they came but will they stay
they wank but will they pay
otay, otay

you see, life is long
right is right
and wrong is wrong
and you'll thank me someday
for my lil tay song

right is right (right is right)
and wrong is wrong (wrong is wrong)
hey lil tay
this here is your song

right is right (right is right)
and wrong is wrong (wrong is wrong)
hey lil tay
this here is your song

Hey Lil Tay

Fracture Ouverte-Sortie de route

Project Pitchfork - View From A Throne (Re-Recorded, Remastered)

"Sodomie et Violence" by The Marquis was born from the depths of frustration and internalized anger. The self in conflict. Mostly written while on tour in Europe in 2018, the album also draws on new experiences/inspirations and features many samples recorded from a phone while on the road.

In this EP: 3 Originals mix by The marquis and 3 remixes by Black_Egg, MELANIA. & Paul Mørk.
credits
releases January 1, 2019

Written and produced by The Marquis.

Mastered by NIUMEN MASTERING.

Cigarette

Unreleased from 2018 now on bandcamp
https://crystallinestricture.bandcamp.com/track/victim-of-policy

Victim

Perfectly Red

The Brvtalist is pleased to premiere  Reka's remix for “You Pt. 12” by SDH.  Their suggestive synth-pop songs sprinkled with EBM and techno are fertile ground for DJs all over the world to get the perfect sexy dance song everyone is waiting for in a party in a late night club. SDH and Reka met in Berlin in 2019 when SDH were touring supporting their self-titled album (Avant! Records, 2018) and the connection was instantaneous.

The song ‘You Pt.12’ originally appeared on Against Strong Thinking EP (Avant! Records, 2020), SDH’s follow-up to their first record, and it’s probably one of the songs the bests sums up their sound and style: somber, sexual, obtuse and mysterious. 

Enjoy Bandcamp Friday and pick up the release now: https://semioticsdepartmentofheteronyms.bandcamp.com/track/you-pt-12-reka-remix

@semioticsdepartment
@rebeca

Project Pitchfork - View From A Throne (Re-Recorded, Remastered)

Photonflux