Today, November 1st, marks the release of the first official Nighted Throne recording, “Resplendent Host.” I’m very excited to share this project and it is the first of many. The next one will be quite a bit heavier. Thanks to everyone who has checked it out so far! Here’s a link to hear it:
If you’ve been following me and my work, you probably saw my announcement last week about Nighted Throne, my new imprint label under the Deathwish banner. Needless to say, I’m very excited about this new endeavor. I had been seeking some type of home for my myriad projects for a while now. Under the guidance of Deathwish, I’ll be able to release a multitude of musical projects, many of which have been long in the works. Some are death and black metal, some are electronic, some are ambient. I have 8 releases planned at the moment, including my first, Resplendent Host, due out November 1st. It’s important to note that this label is strictly for my own work and things I’m involved in, I won’t be taking submissions for outside releases.
Thanks to all who have checked out the first single. If you haven’t yet, you can do so here:
I just returned from Wear Your Wounds tours with Uniform, Author & Punisher and Xasthur. We had such an incredible time playing alongside these incredible musicians and for so many receptive people. Our next full length comes out on July 12 on Deathwish Inc. You can listen to two new songs on all the streaming services currently and on Friday, Apple Music will exclusively host our new video for “Shrinking Violet.” We’ve worked so hard on this record and we can’t wait for you to hear it. Preorder the record HERE.
Up next, we have a handful of shows with Torche, along the east coast. Check out dates below. A lot of other things in the works, thus the lack of updates here. I’ll be sharing more soon. Thanks for reading.
The ageless man exists outside of the universe. Photo by Brad Fickeisen.
photo by Teddie Taylor - https://www.teddietaylor.com/
Well, the Wear Your Wounds/Stomach Earth run was incredible. The shows with Heretoir were a lot of fun(they are GGGB = Great guys, great band) as was A Colossal Weekend in Copenhagen. But the truly mindblowing experience for me was Roadburn. Playing there with Wear Your Wounds was incredible. I love playing music with those guys and especially that music. We are an ever-changing entity together. Playing with Stomach Earth was utterly surreal. I am still feeling the after effects of that show. To perform that record in its entirety to a packed room of enthusiastic people was more than I could have ever asked for. It was one of those experiences I just couldn't believe was happening. We've done a lot of very fulfilling and exciting shows with The Red Chord over the years but I never thought I'd do much more with Stomach Earth other than making some recordings for myself and a small group of like-minded people. I am eternally indebted to everyone who made that possible and eternally grateful to the people there to share that experience, both in the audience and on stage/tour with me. Here's to diving deeper into that ever-darkening abyss. For those with me in that weird psychosphere, there is more to come.
I got back from Europe and almost immediately got involved in a 48 hour film project with a great team called Sparkle Motion Pictures. For those who don't know, the 48 Hour Film Project is a weekend of super fast film-making. Each team is given a randomly chosen genre and a line, a character and a prop that must all appear in the film. When the timer starts, the team has to conceptualize, write, shoot and edit the film in 48 hours. We got the genre, "silent film," which basically meant I had to write about 7 minutes of music in a few hours. I wrote a few themes with a general idea ahead of time, to which the team shot and edited the film around. Because of the time constraint and the fact that I was working remotely (and had other work going on) it was very challenging. Of course, if we had more time, I would have refined my work quite a bit, but that's the fun of this project. I love what the team did with the film and I tried to match their excellent work as best as I could. Check it out here:
Next up is Beyond the Sixth Seal. We tracked all the drums at Jonny Fay's studio in NH just before the tour. I'll be tracking guitars, vocals and bass with Greg over the coming weeks and mixing it. Check here for updates. There are a few other wonderful things lurking below the surface that will become known soon after. Keep moving forward, have a lovely day.
The second Unraveller record, Horror of Humanity, is finally complete. This one has been getting bumped for a long time now, due to other work. Listen to a brand new track here:
And check out the last record if you haven't yet:
I returned to the image of the whale shark for day 4 of this series. Day 3 had a sinister mood that painted this animal as something malevolent. But here, I chose to write something attempting to capture the wonder and awe one might experience coming upon this great being. Enjoy.
Day 3 is inspired by a picture of a whale shark Jake sent to the Wear Your Wounds group text when Converge was at an aquarium on tour. According to Wikipedia, the whale shark is "the largest living nonmammalian vertebrate." I am particularly inspired and amazed by the natural world and all of the incredible creatures in it. I chose a menacing atmosphere for this piece, taking a more fantastical approach as if the shark was some kind of mythical sea creature, but they're actually very docile fish. For Day 4, I'll be using this same image but creating an inverse piece to demonstrate the power music has to sway one's perspective.
I started this piece with this image in mind - a photo I took a few summers ago on an island off the coast of Marblehead, MA. But the piece quickly moved away from what I initially thought it should sound like. I don't really feel that the piece captures the feel of the image in its finished state. Sometimes it's ok to stray far from your initial idea to experiment. This image of a window acted more like a door or a portal to some other ideas floating around in my brain.
I've begun a new series of scoring exercises. I'll be writing pieces of music inspired by still and moving images as a means to stimulate creative gears in my brain. Partially an exercise in the discipline of writing based on an existing idea, partially an enjoyable thing I want to do. Day 1 is a piece inspired by the incredible work of Dáire Lynch. This painting is called "Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light" and was inspired by the Earth song of the same name. Now that his painting has inspired a piece of music, the circle is complete. Of course, a circle has infinite points, so should someone create something inspired by this piece, it could continue...
Dáire is a very prolific and talented artist and you can see a lot more of his work here:
Thanks for listening.
I threw a little demo together using Room Sound's Kurt Ballou Signature Series Drums sample library. This library is super flexible and has a ton of great options. I had a lot of fun programming these parts but I didn't have to do anything to these drum sounds. I tweaked a few things for the mix but all the kits sound great right out of the gate. This is the Heavy Metal kit in use. I recorded this track at my home studio but the drum samples were all created at Kurt's God City Studio. Take a listen:
It's been a while since I've posted something here. 2017 has been a much busier year than I anticipated. We had an amazing time in Europe back in April playing a lot of great festivals and shows. Some with Chelsea Wolfe and Jonathan Hulten, some on our own. We got to play a live set at the Maida Vale studio for a BBC Radio 1 show(which you can listen to HERE) and Dunedevil was released.
Now we're finally playing closer to home with Chrome Over Brass. Rob Noyes will be joining us at Once Somerville. It's tough to get all of these guys in a room together because of all of our schedules, so make sure to come check it out if you're interested. Tickets are available at Deathwish Inc.
Our first show with Wear Your Wounds was a great experience. We got to play in a cabin to a small group of people. Thanks to everyone who came out for this and to Steve Brodsky for joining us. His set was an excellent balance of his own work and some nice covers. Plus, the man's got a set of pipes. Here's a little footage from our set taken by my good friend, Katie Weeks.
A bit of Wear Your Wounds from our show last Saturday. We had a great time. Video by @kbackattack
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We leave for our European tour tomorrow. I haven't been to Europe since 2009 during The Red Chord's last tour over there. I'm looking forward to the delicious coffee. Here are the dates. Hope to see some of you there!
04/21 Pratteln, CH – Z7 (w/ Crippled Black Phoenix)
04/22 Tilburg, NL – Roadburn Festival
04/23 Karlsruhe, DE – Dude Fest
04/24 Zurich, CH – Bogen F (w/ Chelsea Wolfe)
04/25 Nurnberg, DE – Z-Bau
04/26 Prague, CZ – Futurm (w/ Chelsea Wolfe)
04/27 Berlin, DE – Berghain (w/ Chelsea Wolfe)
04/28 Hannover, DE – Mephisto
04/29 Koln, DE – MTC
04/30 London, UK – Desertfest
This Thursday, March 15th, a short I did some sound design for is screening at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge as a part of the Boston Underground Film Festival. Guts is a great dark and interesting piece of work by Carrie Drzik of Reindeer City. It will be part of the Disordered States selection of shorts starting at 5:15pm. The festival starts on Wednesday and runs each day until Sunday. You can grab individual tickets or passes for the whole fest. Here's the link for Disordered States. I'll be participating in a short Q & A after. A lot of interesting looking films are playing, come check it out.
I've been really busy lately, rehearsing both the Wear Your Wounds and Nightkin set lists these last few weeks. Next month, I'll be flying to Detroit on the 14th for Berserker with Nightkin then flying out the morning after to play our first show with Wear Your Wounds on the 15th. Joining us for the show will be the hugely talented Stephen Brodsky, who will be playing a solo set. Camp Cedar Mill in Rowley, MA is the place. It's part of a new series of performances at the YMCA-owned lodge - Concerts At the Camp. It's a small, log cabin-style lodge in the woods, which makes for a great, intimate show atmosphere. We made a bit of noise in there about a month back to get a feel for it and it sounds great. All proceeds from the show will be donated to the camp scholarship program for families in need.
Please note: Tickets are online only and no tickets will be sold at the door.
Tickets: https://www.showclix.com/event/concerts-at-the-camp
YMCA Camp Cedar Mill “Concerts at the Camp” Series presents an evening with:
Wear Your Wounds and Stephen Brodsky (Cave In, Mutoid Man, etc).
Saturday April 15th, 2017
Camp Cedar Mill, Rowley Massachusetts
Doors at 7:00 PM, show at 7:30 PM
And I've already told you about Berserker 2017, but I'm really fired up for that show as well. We're playing the same day as Eyehategod, Negative Approach, OFF! and a lot more great bands. I wish I could somehow stay for the next day to watch Gwar, The Obsessed, Brain Tentacles, Child Bite, etc and still make it home in time for the WYW show. It should be a fun weekend in Detroit and Massachusetts! Hope to see some of you at either place!
Here's a thing I enjoyed doing. The 31st issue of New Noise Magazine will include a flexi of the unreleased Wear Your Wounds song, Arthritic Heart. Chris Maggio and myself contributed to this piece by Jake Bannon. Jake also designed the cover as well; a mixed media collaboration between him and photographer Reid Haithcock. This track won't be on the full length coming on April 7th, it's only available here. More info at New Noise!
Excited to finally announce that Nightkin is playing Berserker IV! We are really fired up about this one - this lineup is nuts! Gwar, The Obsessed, Brain Tentacles, Negative Approach, Eyehategod, etc. If you're in the Detroit area, get to this. Quite a few bands I'll be really excited to watch. It's real weird in there! You can get limited advance weekend passes HERE.
Right after Berserker, I'll be flying home for a few days of rehearsals for 10 day run in Europe with Wear Your Wounds. We'll be playing some of the fests I mentioned as well as a few shows with the amazing Chelsea Wolfe and one with Crippled Black Phoenix. I'm looking forward to playing these songs live for many different reasons. It will be the first time in years that I've played music that isn't rooted in death metal. These songs are heavy, but not quite the same heavy as other bands I've played in. Heavy more in the Marty McFly sense. And even though I've known the guys in the Wear Your Wounds live band for years, this will be the first time we play music together. A new dynamic of ideas and styles. Especially refreshing after having spent quite a bit of time writing alone. We have some cool stuff planned. Come check it out if you're in one of these places at these particular times:
04/21Pratteln, CH – Z7 (w/ Crippled Black Phoenix)
04/22 Tilburg, NL – Roadburn Festival
04/23 Karlsruhe, DE – Dude Fest
04/24 Zurich, CH – Bogen F (w/ Chelsea Wolfe)
04/25 Nurnberg, DE – Z-Bau
04/26 Prague, CZ – Futurm (w/ Chelsea Wolfe)
04/27 Berlin, DE – Berghain (w/ Chelsea Wolfe)
04/28 Hannover, DE – Mephisto
04/29 Koln, DE – MTC
04/30 London, UK – Desertfest
If you haven't heard the song released yet, you can check it out HERE. It's also on all the streaming services.
Happy New Year, friends. I hope your holidays were relaxing and rejuvenating.
There is a lot planned for 2017, including Wear Your Wounds in Europe. We've been added to Dude Fest in Karlsruhe, Germany on April 23rd. The lineup is awesome, and I am especially excited to see Ahab. I've been a fan of them since I first heard The Oath a little over ten years ago.
Wear Your Wounds will be out April 7th and AP included it in their Most Anticipated Hardcore Releases of 2017. It's not a hardcore record but still very great of them to include it. I haven't been very good at explaining how it sounds when I've been asked but you'll be able to hear music from it very soon.
I'll have other announcements next week for other projects. 2017 will be fairly busy with old and new endeavors.
Wear Your Wounds will be playing Desertfest London next year alongside some incredible bands. Candlemass! See you next year, London!
A little news from The Red Chord for the first time in a while. Our song, Hour of Rats, is in the new expansion to Rock Band 4, called Rock Band Rivals. You play through a Rockudrama mode, which includes interviews from bands discussing your progress along the way. Guy, Greg and myself went down to the Harmonix studio to record some fun and absurd interviews for it. We had a great time and now we can all say we're in a video game! Check out more info at the site: http://www.rockband4.com/