Leeches of Lore – Motel of Infinity (2015) / 95%

Room service is here and it's freaking delicious

One of the oddest bands in America but also one of the most interesting and talented is back with their fourth full length after a short hiatus and I couldn't be more pleased. They once again released a masterpiece and it's a shame that this band isn't widely acclaimed. The New Mexico trio led by Steve Hammond (guitar, vocals) has always been a peculiar beast and a superbly varied affair. They're an extraterrestrial being who's not afraid of experimenting and breaking the boundaries of music's apparent limitations. From fast paced and thrashy heavy metal to noise rock, drone (their Giant Sloth extended play) and Western, these guys can play anything while never being totally confused of confusing. They could be compared to Melvins, the godfathers of weirdness in terms of vision and and for their numerous genre jumping jacks. They also really love the Washington state band, Hammond covered some of their tracks on his solo releases and they got the help of longtime Melvins producer and guest musician Toshi Kasai (who also plays additional instruments on this record) to produce and record Motel of Infinity. This dude definitely gave them their best production yet

Starting with the first thing I've noticed: the cover art, I think it's a good representation of the spirit of Leeches of Lore, an old cheap motel with a view on a clear and beautiful sky. I think it's an analogy to the humble identity of the band while explaining their grand vision. I probably like it because it reminds me of the album Motel Capri by the popular Quebecois folk/rock band Les Cowboys Fringants. Anyhow, like the epic cover of their previous record, this more down to earth artistic approach fits the festive, at times summery album.

LoL (best acronym ever?) surprised us (me, at least) with a country EP in late July. I instantly shared it to my father who's a big Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings fan and he totally liked it. This shows that they're an authentic group of musicians who are as ecclectic as much as the United States is cosmopolitan. I wasn't sure of what to expect with this new full length as Frenzy, Ecstasy was some sort of transition effort (this doesn't mean that it's not a masterpiece, I gave it a 98% three years ago and this score is still adequate) after their first two lps which were generally much heavier or more metallic (listen to “I am the Raptor” from their self titled). Their third album was heavy but in a noise way and the spaghetti western side of the band was deeply explored. I think the western side of the band has been diluted for Motel, there's some sort of surf rock feel that is now more prevalent and while there's some metal moments like “Don't Open till Doomsday”, a track that reminded me of Faith No More's Angel Dust, it doesn't seem like a totally metal album, it's instead all over the place but in a cohesive way. It's a more controlled sort of craziness than your usual Mike Patton project.

The omnipresence of Noah Wolter's keyboards (rhodes, etc.) is giving a sort of The Doors/Deep Purple vibe but played in Area 51 since it's totally bonkers. There's no bass guitars so the rhythm section consists of the proficient and interesting drums of Andy Lutz and the keys. It's almost as strong as the Manzarek/Densmore duo! Their musicianship is impressive in its ability to navigate many styles without breaking a sweat, they're excellent musicians in complete control of their direction.

I like the fact they rerecorded “White Debbie” (found on Attack the Future), it's much shorter and feels like a more joyful and softer version. There's also “The Olm” originally on Hammond's experimental album Canclo and it's the only long track on there with its six minutes length, the track has this sort of drone/doom/ambient part before exploding into their bombastic style. Most songs on Motel are short bursts of creativity (many are around the two minutes mark) but they're so rich with details that the relatively brief duration of the album is inconsequential, I'll only press the repeat button since I doubt I'll get tired of it. While the songs are shorter overall than on Frenzy, Ecstasy, it's perhaps not as instantly memorable, it takes a lot of tie to dissect all the organs but it's truly rewarding.

Leeches of Lore is a persevering band but you need to make some effort in order to decipher all the artefacts they buried underneath their inventive blend of music. They're adventurous not only because they mix genres that are rarely or even never combined together (speed metal + western, anyone?). LoL has once again wrote a masterful album and took the lead for “best album of 2015” as far as I'm concerned.

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Tjolgtjar - Kjal Tjormejn (2012) / 87%

What is that? No idea.

I can't spell that name for shit, thank Satan for copy paste.

J.R. Preston is a busy man, when he's not releasing new albums with this one man band, he's doing it with Blood Cult, Enbilulugugal or plenty of other projects including a country one. Hailing from Illinois, the music has a obvious American Midwest feel and I really dig that.

Tjholtgtar being pretty productive (four full lengths released in 2012 but some of it is old stuff), it's a bit hard to get into them (or him!) and this album is perhaps not the best starting point. Might I suggest Ikarikitomidun, Lord of the Forest The New Age, the instrumental fun of Psychedelic or the conceptual horror of Halloween? The album is one song, forty two minutes in length so it's certainly not for people with a deficit of attention. Even though all his stuff is weird, some of it can be quite easier to assimilate.
The whole deal is kind of raw but the guitars are very audible and you can discern the riffs pretty easily, really. The riffs and leads are solid (such as the awesome bluesy licks at around 6:00) and I like the production on them, it's kind of crisp and dirty but it can be melodic and clean when it needs to be. There's even some acoustic guitars here and there such as in the final minute of the album. It gives a sort of bluegrass feeling and I really like when metal integrates unconventional genres like country or neo folk (such as the excellent Austrian band Cadaverous Condition.)

I guess I'll say it's more lo-fi than raw. It's charming and the songwriting fits the production quite well. I wouldn't want to hear that sort of music with a crystal clear Nuclear Blast sound. Fuck off plastic black metal! I think the do it yourself approach is what makes this relevant. It proved that a sound can still be rich and intricate without the need of a fifty thousand bucks production and the help of Peter Tagtgren.

The black metal core includes many different influences such as rock & roll, blues, psychedelic, grunge, progressive, surf rock, punk, etc... But everything is included as a coherent deal, nothing feels forced. You're not telling yourself “ohhh, here's a psychedelic inspired section” and “cool, clean vocals!”. The progression of the album feels natural and the flow is totally fine, a primordial concept in a one song release.

Preston is using some cool buried and weird clean vocals (he's better than Fenriz!) alongside his high pitched black metal screeches. There's not a lot of vocals, the excellent songwriting is the core of the album but they're pleasant enough and accordingly buried. Lyrically, it's about esotericism, mysticism and some sort of mythology I really don't grasp but it's fun. It's some sort of Indian primitivism, it's fucked up and a good fit to the eclectic out there music.

Definitely adventurous, Toultgtjar breaks the boundaries of taste to create an album that will only appeal to the most courageous listeners. This sort of lo-fi black metal has already a small fan base, mix it with this cocktail of influences and you have something totally fringe.

Recommended only if you're cool enough and like risks.

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Review: Leeches of Lore - Frenzy, Ecstasy: Oh my! Spaghetti with meatballs! Eat that, cowboy! - 98%

Imagine for a moment we do find something interesting on Mars, hopefully it would be proof of the existence of life, maybe a settlement? Let's enter this hypothetical city, let's walk in the midst of its red sand streets, what do you see? A cantina? YES, let's have a drink shall we? The cantina is dark but inviting, Ennio Morricone is drinking a glass of Italian red wine at the bar, he's talking to a trashy cowboy with an accoustic guitar strapped to his back, the later seems pretty drunk and inclined to a fist fight, you ignore them and continue. In the pale light of the bar, a long hair stoner is playing a game of pool with a more clean cut metalhead, it's a rough game but at the same time, it's cohesive. The psychedelic scent coming from the stoner is making you dizzy, you don't know exactly why you like this place, but it's captivating, you try to move, but someone is grasping your leg, instinctively, you kick the danger in the face only to see that it was a dead drunk thrasher, he's now bleeding on the floor and the remaining people in the bar are looking at you suspiciously, you actually missed the show, damn you. Suddenly, there's a scream coming from the bathrooms, along with the metalheads, you investigate the scene. « Ah, it's simply our zombie, Jon Lord, he scared the waitress again, no worries» says the stoner. The stage is freshly empty, the air smells like tobacco and tequila mixed with German sausages, you're suddenly very confused and you decide to go outside to get some air. Unfortunately, the warm sun of mars is making you sweaty and sick, you fall on the sand, subjugated, but happy, you close your eyes.You hear that the Martian cowboys are fighting, lasers are burning on the walls, is it the siege of Cydonia ? You'll never know. You wake up in your bed, your headphones are on the floor but your jaw is surprisingly in place, but there's a sparkle in your eyes.

That's the emotions and thoughts I got when I first heard this album, and no, I'm not taking drugs, not often anyway. I simply don't have the words to describe this masterpiece, I think they simply don't exist yet. Maybe the rover Curiosity will find them for me because this band is totally out of this world. Let's come back to our planet, let's pretend the dudes from Leeches of Lore are still living in their native New Mexico and hanging out in a similar bar. Frenzy, Ecstasy is the third album from this very strange, original and powered by kryptonite trio. If you took the time to read my short story ahead, you got an approximative understanding of this band. With influences ranging from country, flamenco, spaghetti western, noise, indie, experimental, avant garde, progressive and psychedelic, well name a genre, it's probably there. All this within a solid core of speed/thrash/heavy metal. Leeches of Lore are the most original and ground breaking unit I ever heard. Encompassing so many things I like without randomness and confusedness, it's a very well balanced record and at only 37 minutes, you have no time to get tipsy, you barely have the time to understand everything, you need a second, a third, a fourth listens, and you'll still oblivious to the intricate songwriting. The name of the first song sets the bar quite high for some funny silliness, it's named "Afghanistan Banana Stand", but let's not decline the invitation, this is not a humoristic band, this is a modern version of Rush if they got lost in the Mexican desert, met the guys of Sleep, smoked weed for a couple of years while watching old westerns on a black and white television. All this on a porch full of dwelling geckos. 

The band consists of 3 extremely talented musicians, Steve Hammond handling the vocals & guitars, Andy Lutz on the drums and Noah Wulters playing the organ, bass and piano. Three musicians in a perfect chemistry, creating a penetrating sonic orgasm which is grasping your living heart in its invisible allure. The keyboards, just like 80s Rush, are quite prevalent in their sound, but it's not modern sympho pseudo snoozefest metal, they are played on old school rhodes piano, hence you should expect a very natural sound, just listen to the parts on "Reverse, Cowgirl". It's dense, captivating and it has the shadow of 70s progressive rock to look upon. After this cool song, we have a slow dirge full of Morricone influences, the trumpets are blazing their glorious despair upon us, mere listeners. These influences can be found in the best and longest track on the album, the second song "L'evoluzione dei Microbi", an eight minutes magnum opus of incredible variety. The begining is quite slow, it's an emotional reminder of a Leone movie. It's slowly building a crescendo culminating with some epic doomy metallic riffs, fast paced drums and soaring clean vocals and it ends with an experimental and noisy conclusion. Quite a ride, it's a good summary of the album in fact. 

There's also some real thrashy moments, like "Savory Marshmallow" with cool high harsh vocals, heavy riffs and epic vocal lines. But overall, what's dominating this album is the country and spaghetti western influence mixed with their already awesome metal sound, hell, the trumpets are credited to Pancho and Nefty, an obvious reference to the classic song "Pancho & Lefty" of Townes Van Zandt, a folk and country legend. Really, I don't think I heard a similar band, they're doing what they want with no contraints , being an independant band is probably a plus for them. Unfortunately, they're going on a hiatus, one of the member is going to Mexico for a while, I can't hardly see how they can be more influenced by this culture than on this record witout losing the other metallic and rock influences, but we'll see. I'll wait patiently for a new release and my expectations are quite high after this masterpiece.

I don't think I can continue praising this album, like their 2 previous releases, Attack the Future and Leeches of Lore, it's really strange but mesmering music with a knack for visual odysseys. Their album art is a good proof of this, take a look at the very poetic cover of Frenzy, Ecstasy , it's not capturing the sound like the two previous albums though (their second album could easily be a NES game artwork), but it's describing a very beatiful content with many surprises. This band like Voivod is for a vivid generation of weird listeners, there's no boundaries to their music.

The spaghetti is metal, already full of butter, add these tasty Italian meatball sauce, this western seasoning and let it melt in your mouth. This is Leeches of Lore, welcome to Mars, enjoy your stay. Soak your face in their magical tomato sauce and ride your horse till there's no more bad thoughts in your mind..



Tony's notes : the mp3 album is available for 6 bucks on their bandcamp. Help them buy some more spaghetti sauce.


http://leechesoflore.bandcamp.com/