Touring.
Recording.
Touring to record.
We practiced almost nightly, and never once showed up to practice with a completed song. We would turn the amps on, play a riff or a drum beat, and begin working on a song right there. Our deadlines were tour dates, centered around the time we booked to record in Oakland, California, and we were driven by the chemistry between us. Lyrics-mostly and thematically about the changes we saw coming in the world-were written on notebooks in our old converted prison van as we drove between cities, gazing out the windows at ever-morphing landscapes.
That was almost twenty years ago now.
When we look back on our first two albums, there’s a rough around the edges urgency in the music that we’ve learned inevitably becomes scarce. The two tours we did in the spring and fall of 2000 gave us four months of experience and a lifetime of memories. The sounds on these two albums are the sounds of four southern misfits snarling at the weight of the chips on our shoulders. The studio, Polymorph, is, sadly, no longer active, and the building that we recorded in now houses a couple of boutique shops. For two separate weeks in 2000, that building smelled like dirty clothes and unburned fuel from a carbureted van. Nothing in those boutiques can match the value we’ve personally applied to these albums, and those experiences, in the years since.
Don’t ever give up.
Stay pissed.
Infused with ‘80s UK post-punk (Death Cult, Killing Joke, Chameleons) and SoCal deathrock (T.S.O.L., Samhain), The Wraith was founded by vocalist Davey Bales, formerly of revered Virginia peace-punkers Lost Tribe, and guitarist Kaz Alvis shortly after they separately washed up in L.A. Their irresistibly distinctive sound – skeletal basslines and tribal beats propelling Alvis’ textured swathes beneath Bales’ poetic, anguished bark – immediately gained a following.
Convulsive, chaotic West Coast shows honed the songs that became The Wraith’s lauded 2017 EP, “Shadow Flag”. A couple of videos and line-up changes later – the band is now completed by Belgian drummer Jef Pauly and Brit bassist Paul Rogers –, their evocative songwriting and pure-punk authenticity earned the ear of producer Mat Mitchell (Puscifer, A Perfect Circle, Love and Rockets etc.).
“The Wraith is a flashback to many of the bands that inspired me to start making music,” said Mitchell. “Given the opportunity to work on an album with them, how could I turn it down?”
The Wraith’s 11-song debut album Gloom Ballet and accompanying videos will be released worldwide later this year.
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Southern Lord is proud to announce the first in a series of Caspar Brötzmann Massaker album reissues starting with the masterful debut The Tribe (originally released in 1988) and second album Black Axis (originally released in 1989) – remastered and presented as they were when originally released.
Born in 1962 in a post-war divided Germany, Caspar Brötzmann started out playing the piano, his main inspirations included, Hanns Eisler, singer Ernst Busch, his mother’s “Hausmusik” (German tradition where the family gathers to play their instruments together), and also by the roaring sounds of his father, virtuoso saxophonist giant Peter Brötzmann, aka “The Teutonic Axe“ – a key player in the European free jazz movement, Fluxus artist, and ideologically adamant communist.
Caspar lived in fear and awe of his strict father, and he took to the guitar knowing that Peter and his peers sneered at Americanised music, and especially electric guitars and the hard rock sounds that appealed to Caspar, the likes of Ritchie Blackmore, Jimmy Page, and Jimi Hendrix. The guitar became, Caspar says, “his shield against the unsettling world”. “It wasn’t about virtuosity” Caspar continues “rather the love of the instrument”.
Caspar didn’t have any formal training, but Hans Reichel – a family friend and an avant-garde guitarist who built his own instruments – showed him the ropes. Hans taught Caspar how to manipulate the workings and mechanics of the guitar. Caspar’s left-handed instrument is less of a nod to left-handed Hendrix and more of a technical improvement to Caspar’s own playing, allowing for a stronger low end, better access to the volume control, and the vibrato bar, all of which gives CBM’s music an unparalleled dynamic range.
Caspar Brötzmann Massaker’s music is resoundingly singular. Ultra heavy riffs and beats, ominous tribal chants and a raw physical force is conjured up by these three sinister and proud minds of their era. Their unhinged, unified stream of energy is captured on these remastered reissues and the results are thrilling.
In March 2017, Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, sunn O)))) and Jade Devitt began to make music with one another again, having previously played together in the nineties with Engine Kid. Starting with the formula of extreme dynamics that they had perfected in the years previous as Engine Kid, the pair have added their more-than-twenty-years of musical experience and taken the music in a entirely new and different direction. Chance encounters and serendipitous moments solidified the final line up of THIS WHITE LIGHT with the addition of Bryan Herweg (Pelican) and Jen Wood (formerly of Tattle Tale and collaborator with the Postal Service. )
This White Light explore the contrast of darkness & light. Their music is delicate when called for, powerful when necessary. Their first recordings are here on this 3 song demo cassette release. Recorded by Gabe Vanbenshoten and mastered by Brad Boatright.
Southern Lord is excited to bring forth the debut album by Los Angeles-based rock trio, The Primals, founded by current and former members of Darkest Hour, The Explosion, Dead To Fall, and more. The band’s first full-length, All Love Is True Love, will see release on September 7th.
The Primals is comprised of vocalist/guitarist John Henry (vocalist for Darkest Hour), bassist Chad Fjerstad (formerly of Dead To Fall), and drummer Andrew Black (formerly of The Explosion, and Title Tracks). The band’s fuzzy execution is equal slabs ripping guitar heaviness and infectious pop sensibility. Concocted by a seasoned group of thrashers with a historical backbone in the D.C. punk community. The disintegrated spirit of grunge rises from the ashes, revitalized in a new light.
All Love Is True Love, The Primals’ debut album, features ten infectious tracks produced by John Reis (Rocket From The Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes) and completed with cover art by Laura K. Giron. Fans of Wand, Ty Segall, Nirvana, and The Pixies are especially recommended to tune in.
Axis of Despair features former and present members of such bands as Nasum, Coldworker, Infanticide, Volturyon, Livet som insats, Nervgift and Overtorture. To be exact: The band was formed by former Coldworker members Anders Jakobson (drums), Oskar Pålsson (bass) and Joel Fornbrant (vocals) in the end of 2013. About half a year later the line up was completed by Livet som insats member Kristofer Jankarls playing the guitar. The band continued to work on songs until the late spring of 2015 when the first 12 tracks were recorded to be released on two, sort of, conjoined 7″ EP’s. “Contempt For Man” is the swedish grind super-groups first full-length album. It is a pulverizing bull dozer of intense grind-core.
JESUS PIECE has left craters in their path over recent years, quickly developing a reputation as one of the heaviest, most uncompromising acts both on record and on the stage. With the brutalizing grooves of Y2K-era metallic hardcore greats like Disembodied, Deadguy, and Buried Alive at the core, the band incorporates elements of noise, ominous tones, and haunting atmospheres into their dynamic songwriting. With eleven new tracks packed into a debilitating thirty-two-minute attack, Only Self was recorded in Chicago at Bricktop Recording Studio with Andy Nelson (Weekend Nachos, Like Rats, Lord Mantis) mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Integrity, Nails, Obituary), and completed with artwork by Dom Pabon.
SCREAM was formed in 1981 by vocalist Peter Stahl, his brother Franz Stahl on guitar, Skeeter Thompson on bass, and Kent Stax on drums. The next few years would see the addition of second guitarist Robert Lee Davidson. Following three LPs through Dischord Records — Still Screaming (1983), This Side Up (1985), and Banging The Drum (1986) — SCREAM’s No More Censorship was released via reggae label RAS Records in August 1988. A seminal album of the 1980s DC punk sound, the album was the first to feature drummer Dave Grohl, who replaced Stax for the album, and stayed with the band until they disbanded in 1990. This was the first album the now world famous musician ever played on.
Since disbanding, several incarnations of SCREAM have reunited/resurfaced for random tours and recordings since. Members of the band went on to form countless other influential acts, including Nirvana, The Foo Fighters, Wool, Queens Of The Stone Age, Goatsnake, The Suspects, and others.
Southern Lord is proud to be chosen to reissue SCREAM’s everlasting No More Censorship album. The band found the original multi-track tapes and Southern Lord had them baked/prepped for a remix at Grohls’ 606 Studio. The new mix sounds vital and intense; the entire packaging, layout, and design is completely different from the original, with the inclusion of photos, lyrics, poetry, and other personal writings from the band during that era, collected in an extensive booklet.
