Between the folks over at Seventh Rule Recordings, who contacted me, saying “I’m pretty stoked on this release as I feel it compliments the Batillus release, but damn it’s also got a Goth feel to it,” and the band’s vocalist Lenny Smith who describes Atriarch as “a living entity comprised of four parts, offering catharsis through sonic ritual where there is no god, there is no devil; there is an all encompassing force that connects all living things,” you can get a decent feel for what this Portland quintet is all about.
However, because I always feel the need to be a wise ass, when asked, I described them as a band that based their sound on the free-form noise and satanic soliloquy between the backend of “Don’t Burn the Witch” and the “At War With Satan” preview on Venom’s Black Metal. Throw in a shit load of tar thick sludge, pitch black doom and an entire room of Thou fans slicing at their wrists with rusty straight razors and you’ve got their debut album, Forever the End.
Atriarch is comprised of members from Graves At Sea, Trees, Final Conflict, and Get Hustle and Forever the End was tracked in Portland with the help of William Holloway, then mixed and mastered by Greg Wilkinson (Ludicra, Asunder, Saviors) at Earhammer Studios in Oakland, CA. The album doesn’t actually come out until August 23rd, but the good’uns at Seventh Rule have provided the Deciblog with an exclusive stream of an album that’s destined to have even the perkiest of weather girls chewing on their tongues, cutting their flesh and worshipping Satan.
Alright, here’s another chance to win big. A lot of people go through life and they never win anything. Losers. Some babies are stillborn. The ultimate losers. Here is an opportunity to be better than that, by winning a copy of Catapult The Smoke’s new album – Born In Fire. And we’ve got five copies, so there are FIVE chances to win. I’d take those odds like a Brett Michaels promise.
“When Stoner And Doom Collide!” is probably the coolest tagline since Freddy VS Jason: “The Slicer…The Dicer…And This Time They’re Not Any Nicer!” And it turns out that both taglines apply to this Swedish power trio’s second album.
Thing is, it always bothers me when we import great stoner and doom from Scandinavia because I don’t even think they have very good weed over there. Certainly not comparable to my California Heavy Buddha Kush. So how they bang out these bangers is beyond me, and I naturally don’t trust it. But I can’t deny tracks like “Always Favour My Side.” I mean, they’re definitely smoking something.
If you’d like to hear the rest of Born In Fire, fucking win the album by answering this query: What band preceded Catapult The Smoke? You can email your answers to: catapultthesmoke@decibelmagazine.com. Dude, you’re already on the internet…
Tour diaries suck. Here’s one from the future from Great Falls bassist/Decibel tell-it-like-it-isser Shane Mehling (not pictured, thank god). They will cover Sponge songs on request, but only from Rotting Pinata or Wax Ecstatic. Shudder before the insightfulness.
Great Falls Future Tour Diary
Wed, Aug. 3 – Baltimore, MD
Fly in late and get picked up by our friend Cole, guitarist/singer for Passage Between. We’re already stoked to be touring with them and first thing when we get in the car he starts playing the radio, which is something we’re all super into. We end up crashing right away to the sound of gunfire.
Thurs, Aug. 4 – Baltimore, MD @ Golden West Cafe
We wake up disoriented being on the other coast and the morning coming at us three hours early. But we shake it off and get pumped for our first show with Drugs of Faith and Full of Hell. All the bands are great and we play okay, but drink too much and our drummer starts a fight with the sound guy halfway through. Still a pretty good show. We party afterwards and all stay at different people’s houses, for sex.
Fri, Aug. 5 – Annandale, VA @ The Cellar Door
Our first drive is a little longer than we expect, but we spend a bunch of time dissecting the pros and cons of the debt ceiling and the practicality of a balanced budget amendment. Also a farting contest. We finally make it to the club to meet Gradius and hook back up with Drugs of Faith, who won’t look us in the eye. Something about us taking all the money from the door the night before. We ignore them and play to three people who think it’s a wine bar.
Sat, Aug. 6 – Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter
We hear Fixtures was amazing, but miss them to have beers at a strip club operated out of a guy’s kitchen.
Sun, Aug. 7 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
We’re super happy to play Decibel and Relapse’s hometown, but all our friends call at the last minute and cancel. We’re disappointed, but then relieved when our drummer gets in a fight with the sound guy before we’ve even completely loaded in and Jaime Getz says we’ll never play Pennsylvania again. We hear Gods and Queens and the Catalyst are really good and vow revenge.
Mon, Aug. 8 – New York City @ Lit Lounge
Super excited to play with Fashion Week. We show up to an abandoned building and a homeless guy riding in a shopping cart says the place has been closed since the ’80s.
Tues, Aug. 9 – Syracuse, NY @ Badlands.
On the way up the van breaks down and instead of fixing it, we pose in front of the engine, drink Pabst, give metal horns and show off our back patches. We call Engineer to ask if anyone in the band is a car engineer. They ask us to never contact them again.
Wed, Aug. 10 – New Brunswick, NJ @ The Cuckoo’s Nest.
We find a mechanic who says he can fix the problem cheaply. Everything seems set to go until we start doing our classic Sopranos bit. I have to ask my parents to wire us money and we miss the show.
Thurs, Aug. 11 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Acheron
We spend most of the day trying to find the shooting range from the Biohazard video for “How It Is.” We end up somewhere pretty close, but Xaddax call to tell us the show ended hours ago.
Fri, Aug. 12 – Cambridge, MA @ O’Brien’s Pub
Really excited to play with Radiation Blackbody, but our drummer phones the sound guy at his house and calls him a cunt so we have to cancel. Not even sure how he got the number.
Sun, Aug. 14 – Albany, NY @ Valentines
We play with Whiskey Is the Devil, who ask us why we don’t have shoes or shirts on and Sharpie all over our faces. We get in a huge brawl and head back to Baltimore.
Mon, Aug. 15 – Baltimore
We catch our flight and start busking in the aisles for spare change. We’re escorted off the plane in Houston.
[Embedding was disabled for the Biohazard video. This one's better anyway.]
