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Doors: 730PM // Show: 830PM$32
About this event
Scorched Tundra XII Day One:
MONOLORD
It is undeniable that we live in uncertain and troubled times, a period of which this pandemic we’re struggling through is but the latest and perhaps most evident aspect. Life is increasingly complicated and burdens seem to get harder and harder to carry with each passing year, so the need to seek solace and to take refuge in things that you know you can count on becomes more and more urgent. Well, dear friend, put down those burdens for a little while, because Monolord have got your back.
Ever since 2013, when the dormant power of the Monolord became too much for a simple boogie rock band called Marulk – featuring a certain Thomas V Jäger and Esben Willems respectively on guitars/vocals and drums already – to contain, that this Swedish trio’s almost endearingly relentless dedication to The Riff has been something you can count on, almost as sure as the sun that rises every morning above your head. Thomas and Esben joined bassist Mika Häkki, and ever since then they have been compelled by the power of the riff, with no time for any frills like line-up changes or inane experimentations just for the sake of it. Theirs is a higher calling, a purer statement of intentions. After all, their band name is “a paraphrase of an unspeakable name of an unspeakable entity that not even we dare to mention,” as Esben explains. And if you don’t like that description, Thomas has another suggestion: “make one up, and it is true!”
Do not think, however, that just by having a well defined sound and by making the riff their raison d’être, that you have them all figured out by default. A Monolord song might feel like a bridge troll that grabs you by the shoulders and just shakes you until it’s done, but that troll has a great record collection and knows how to move and groove. The four records the band put from 2014 to 2019, while clearly belonging to the same canon, all have their own distinct personality and vibe, and all echo their own nuance. Thomas cites Entombed (above all), Slayer, Type O Negative, The Hellacopters, Goatsnake and a bunch more as stuff he hears in his songwriting, while Esben admits struggling with compiling lists of influences that end up being 9000 names from AC/DC to Zeal & Ardour. Monolord walk all over the making-the-same-record-over-and-over pitfall with the same carefree ease with which they, well, fire out chunky, fuzzy riffs that somehow never sound like the last one. Or the next one.
They’ve done albums in between diaper changes with all their studio gear moved to a living room because of a newborn baby in the band, so doing it in the middle of a pandemic seems strangely par for the course. “All pieces of this chaotic puzzle feel connected in an ongoing development of the band,” Esben says, and in the end they manage to create order out of that chaos with every perfectly put together song that gives off a different vibe to their records, and never has that been more evident than with their new album, Your Time To Shine. A product of the band’s new rehearsal space/studio, it was created among litres of coffee, cinnamon buns and good bad jokes, and you can probably hear all that in the songs. A titanium strong 39 exact minutes occupied by five tight but also spacious songs, it’s a wild ride straight from the soaring, fist-raising opener The Weary and its insanely catchy melodies. You go from that to the stop/start switch between sweetness and abrasiveness of To Each Their Own, to the dense and pulsating chug of I’ll Be Damned, to the mind-expanding title-track, whose final section even brings back some of the spaced-out chill of their boogie rock beginnings. Everything culminates in the truly epic The Siren Of Yersinia, whose lonesome call you can hear in each feedback-ridden note and in each pained, buried vocal line.
It is yet another turn for Monolord – while staying very clearly on Riff Street as they always have, they are now arriving at a darker corner of that street. “To me, an honest representation of how I feel about the current state of humanity,” Esben offers, while Thomas leaves a very curious appraisal in the air: “To me it does not feel heavier. It feels more complete.” As with all the best albums, Your Time To Shine will end up meaning a lot of things to a lot of people. So maybe just keep in mind Thomas’ wise summing up: that “it sounds like Monolord, only better.”
As they always have, Monolord deliver. You can count on Monolord. And all signs point to this safe and happy place in any riff worshipper’s existence to be here for us for a long time still. When prompted for future Monolord plans, Esben couldn’t be clearer, or more reassuring: “More Monolord!”
https://monolord.bandcamp.com/
EARTHLESS
There’s an ancient Japanese legend in which a horde of demons, ghosts and other terrifying ghouls descend upon the sleeping villages once a year. Known as Hyakki Yagyō, or the “Night Parade of One Hundred Demons,” one version of the tale states that anyone who witnesses this otherworldly procession will die instantly—or be carried off by the creatures of the night. As a result, the villagers hide in their homes, lest they become victims of these supernatural invaders.
Such is the inspiration for the latest album from Earthless. “My son is really into mythical creatures and old folk stories about monsters and ghosts,” bassist Mike Eginton explains. “We came across the ‘Night Parade of One Hundred Demons’ in a book of traditional Japanese ghost stories. I like the idea of people hiding and being able to hear the madness but not see it. It’s the fear of the unknown.”
Whereas 2018’s Black Heaven featured shorter songs and vocals from guitarist Isaiah Mitchell on much of the album—an unprecedented move for the San Diego power trio—their latest is a return to the epic instrumentals Earthless made their unmistakable name on. Night Parade Of One Hundred Demons is comprised of two monster songs—the 41-minute, two-part title track and the 20-minute “Death To The Red Sun.”
“Originally, we were trying to figure out how to condense the title track so it would fit onto one side of an LP,” drummer Mario Rubalcaba explains. “But the more we kept playing, the more we kept finding different places to go with it. We eventually just decided to let it breathe and go long.”
The scenario that allowed for this kind of exploration was a stark contrast to that of Black Heaven. At that point, Mitchell was living in the Bay Area, which made it difficult for the band to get together and work on the type of long instrumental pieces they’re known for. But in March 2020, the guitarist moved back to San Diego. More specifically, he moved back the night the pandemic lockdown kicked in. Bad timing, perhaps—or maybe perfect timing.
“With Isaiah here, we were able to get together once or twice a week to work on these jams,” Rubalcaba says. “We got back to our original songwriting process of just playing and building off each other little by little. And we actually had the time to do that, which was creatively inspiring.”
Plus, they were all on the same page about not wanting to do another record with vocals. “In a way, I think this album was a reaction to our last record,” Eginton says. “Black Heaven was outside our comfort zone. I think it was a good record, but it was challenging to write songs in a more traditional verse-chorus-verse format. This one was more enjoyable. I’m sure we’ll do more vocal tracks in the future, but for the time being I see that album as a one-off.”
Given the record’s inspiration, it should come as no surprise that Night Parade Of One Hundred Demons strikes a more sinister tone than the rest of the band’s catalogue. “It definitely has a darker, almost evil kind of vibe compared to stuff we’ve done in the past,” Rubalcaba says. “There’s more paranoia and noise, and some of Isaiah’s whammy-bar stuff kind of reminds me of these Jeff Hanneman moments in Reign In Blood, where it just seems like everything is going to hell. It’s pretty fun.”
Night Parade Of One Hundred Demons was recorded in San Diego with Rubalcaba’s childhood friend Ben Moore, who’s worked with everyone from Diamanda Galas and Burt Bacharach to Ceremony and Hot Snakes. When Eginton wasn’t tracking his bass parts, he worked on the album’s incredible sleeve art. “He really dedicated himself to the project,” Rubalcaba says. “He’d be drawing in the studio with, like, a coal-miner’s lamp on his head while we were doing overdubs. He really knocked it out of the park.”
“I basically wanted to draw my interpretation of the folk story,” Eginton explains. “I started researching the different Yōkai—the demons—and really got into it. It was really cool reading about where they came from and what their interactions with humans were. Then I tried to create what I imagined the event might look like. I didn’t get a hundred in there, but I got quite a few.”
All told, Night Parade Of One Hundred Demons isn’t just a return to the band’s traditional format—it’s a return to their very beginnings. “This album actually has the very first Earthless riff in it,” Eginton reveals. “We just recorded it 20 years after we wrote it. But we’re really happy with how this record came out. We feel it might be our finest to date.”
https://earthless.bandcamp.com/
DORTHIA COTTRELL
Hailing from Richmond, VA, Dorthia Cottrell has been the front woman of doom metal outfit Windhand for over a decade, but she began her musical journey in the tidewaters of small town Virginia. Growing up in a musical family, she began singing and playing guitar alongside her father, brother and grandmother at get togethers at a young age, cutting her teeth on classic country and folk. She released her debut self titled album in 2015, fusing her love of swampy sliding guitars over heavy hearted folk-country and the haunted melodic doom that Windhand became known for. Now 7 years later she is set to release her sophomore album, Death Folk Country on Relapse Records in the winter of 2022. Scorched Tundra XII marks Dorthea’s live debut in Chicago as a solo-performer.
https://forcefieldrecords.bandcamp.com/album/s-t
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Empty Bottle, 1035 N Western Ave, Chicago, United States
Tickets
USD 32