(written by Islander)
As we sometimes do, we’re going off most of our well-beaten paths with the song and video we’re about to premiere. No shrieking or guttural growling this time, but only singing. No blast-beats or brutality, but only the blues. But lest you think we’ve completely lost our way, these blues are very heavy — just as promised by the title of the album that includes the song — and very devilish too.
The name of the song is “Occult 5“, and it’s the latest single to be disclosed by the Denver band Malkasian from their new album Heavy Blues, which will be out on October 22nd.
The band have explained that the title Heavy Blues reflects more than simply the weight of the music:
“Heavy Blues” is the feeling. The genre is a second order issue…. “Heavy Blues” is more despondent and apathetic. Yearning to feel something when you haven’t been able to feel at all.
This record attempts to honor the essence of the blues while embracing grit, chaos, and indifference to conventions like the heavy alternative scene. It was made because it had to be, “just because….” Tropes about “being born under the blood red moon” and other cliches won’t cut it. The words and feelings are for here and now…. This blues is more overtly dark, lamenting, melancholy, insouciant, frustrated and affected.
“Occult 5” is definitely a blues song, and it’s also definitely heavy — as well as occult (just like the name promises) — and it will get heads and bodies moving.
A harmonica wails and warps, and so does the lead guitar as the two trade off and intertwine. But down below a humongous bass groans while the drums methodically slug and crack. The music is simultaneously soulful, sultry, swampy, slugging, and diabolical — and that’s just the start.
The band pick up the pace (and start slugging harder, while also getting woozier) just in time for Sean Malkasian to start singing, in high-flown wailing tones that match the moods of the music. The harmonica deliriously screams; the uber-thick bass vibrantly undulates; the drums kick up the pulse; and then the band slow down again, and things then get very trippy.
The vocals are still tremendous, but the harmonica feels like the sonic equivalent of strong psychedelics, and the squalling, screaming, and swirling lead-guitar seems to feel jubilant about that, like the devil come to the crossroads trailing sulfur and fire. Yet the song then seems to collapse in darkness — with just one final taste of the song’s most ecstatic riff to come.
The arresting video is very well-made for this kind of music, which is to say it’s a trip, though it also helps visualize what Malkasian‘s live shows are like. Check it out:
MALKASIAN is:
Sean Malkasian – guitars and vocals
Jordan Bettner – drums
Sam Rucker – bass
Dave Rosenberg – harmonica
Heavy Blues will be released on LP vinyl and digital formats, and it comes recommended for fans of Queens of the Stone Age, Pride and Glory, and Clutch. At Bandcamp you can also now check out three more songs from the album.
PRE-ORDER:
https://malkasian.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-blues
FOLLOW:
https://www.facebook.com/malkasianmusic/
https://www.instagram.com/malkasianmuses/
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