...new sonic tomes are forged. Things are still long, clocking in at about 15'--though we've got one that might only be about 4'. So yeah, still with the extremes...and that's cool. I'm fascinated: I listen to "Width of a Circle" by Bowie and he says an awful lot in 8'. Fuck he says more in 4' than most folks do. Can we justify needing your ears for 7+ minutes than he does? Obviously it's not a one to one correlation and I think I might put myself under unnecessary stress to imagine we have similar musical goals to David Bowie but... damn, these songs are long.

And yet as we chip away we know in our heart of hearts that not a moment is wasted. I originally hypothesized that as our last album was the "light" one, this will almost certainly be the "dark" one. Having posited that about 8 months ago, I haven't necessarily kept it in mind but damn if that's not how it's shaping up. Very dark in matter and tune and just heavy, heavy, heavy. Metal riffage is taking the fore and damn if it's not satisfying--gargantuan sides of tyrannosaurus flesh pummeled by redwood trunks this is! Resurrecting some spectres of Death, Morbid Angel, good-era Metallica, also bolstered by the re-animations of Big Business, High on Fire, our mates in Lesbian, and Mastodon (*cough, cough*). Still, of course, beset on all sides by halos and balladeering, this time really owing something (from the guitar standpoint at least) to Mr. Neil Young's Crazy Horse. Lotsa stark, echo-plexed, tear-stained chord stabs and falsetto vox.

Can't wait to share it with you all. More to come...

-A