NOTE : The cover image you see is an internet-only cover.
On the CD itself, the album will have two different covers - one for each band, and the booklet will be reversible. See both covers:
www.hypnoticdirgerecords.com/news/release-news-sunmask-and-hypnotic-dirge-team-up-to-release-black-tremor-sea-witch-split-release
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Sunmask and Hypnotic Dirge present a split release from two of the best heavy instrumental bands out of Canada: The stoner folk doom of the prairies - Black Tremor, and the atmospheric nautical doom of the maritimes - Sea Witch.
Black Tremor are a three piece stoner folk doom band from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Bass, drum and violin roil across the flatlands in advance of the coming storm... Melancholic violin swirls above the grit of fuzzed out slide bass and the beating drums; glimpses of Dirty Three, Earth and Godspeed You Black Emperor shimmer in the heat lines on the grasslands horizon. Their debut release 'Impending' was self-released by the band last year to glowing reviews and the band has just completed their first Canadian tour this summer.
And on the other end of the country, the port of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia has spawned the dual leviathan of JL and SJ that is Sea Witch. Dark things pound and echo in the depths, the guitar howls on the shoals and the cymbals break against the rocky shore... Oppressive and atmospheric funeral doom with a nautical bent. The band has released three highly praised independent cassettes (including one on Sunmask) in the past year and are currently recording their next full length.
Allbum will be released on March 24, 2017.
Presented in a jewel case with reversible covers as well as a limited edition cassette through Sunmask.
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Sunmask et Hypnotic Dirge s'associent pour présenter un split album de deux des meilleurs groupes heavy instrumentaux du Canada: d'une part, Black Tremor, qui fait dans le folk doom stoner des Prairies, et d'autre part Sea Witch, dont le doom nautique et ambiant traduit les origines maritimes.
Black Tremor est un trio folk doom stoner originaire de Saskatoon, en Saskatchewan. La basse, la batterie et le violon troublent les plaines et annoncent la tempête... Des tourbillons de violons mélancoliques s'entremêlent à une slide basse granuleuse et pleine de fuzz, ainsi qu'à une batterie retentissante; on entraperçoit dans les lueurs de leur horizon musical les distantes influences de Dirty Three ou encore de Godspeed You Black Emperor. Le premier album de Black Tremor, 'Impending', avait été auto-financé et sorti en 2016, récoltant de bonne critiques, avant que le groupe ne complète une première tournée canadienne au cours de l'été de la même année.
À l'autre bout du pays, établi au port de Dartmouth, en Nouvelle-Écosse, on trouve le monstre marin à deux têtes qu'est Sea Witch, piloté par JL et SJ. De sombres choses se brassent dans les profondeurs, les guitares hurlent sur les hauts-fonds et les cymbales se brisent sur le rivage rocailleux... Un funeral doom à la fois oppressif et ambiant, avec une saveur nautique. Le groupe a sorti trois cassettes de manière indépendante (dont une via Sunmask) au cours de la dernière année et est présentement en train d'enregistrer son prochain album.
La sortie du split album est prévue le 24 mars 2017.
L'album sera disponible en version boîtier plastique standard avec une pochette réversible (une pour chaque artiste) et un nombre limité de cassettes chez Sunmask.
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On Black Tremor:
'Similar yet singular, gaining reverence for a rapture, forced rather than happened upon; conjured rather than readily given; spliced, destroyed and put back together again, all while calamity whispers unto itself that the break in the storm is the end of the beginning of the end. The blackening tremors below allude to the baser animism in us all; rattled, reckoned; the chasm is all that matters. We are all heavy in the light.'
- Weird Canada
'If Boston area narco-pop legends Morphine had a baby with Isis, the result would sound startlingly like Black Tremor. The echoes of several bands are found deep within Black Tremor’s massive sound, but in the end there really is nothing else that sounds even remotely like these guys.'
-Heavy Planet
On Sea Witch:
'Sea Witch’s shuddering bass might reduce your house to rubble. It’s so heavy it makes the oceans quiver and jellyfish explode. Cymbals crash like mighty waves against immovable rocks, while tremolo picking adds a sinister sparkle and tension to the sheer weight of the riffs. And the lack of words serves to emphasise the vast loneliness of the ocean and keep safe its dark secrets. Only the occasional glimpse of an accordion offers any hint of humanity amid the soggy wilderness.'
- Doom Metal Heaven
'From the macabre guitar lines, to the bass of sloth, to the opium addict drums, this one is proof the funeral doom niche has occasional goodness. They completely evoke their imagery of life as surrounded by the power of the oceans, with lurking beasts under the bow and thunder cracks afar. It would be interesting, though, to see what they sound like with some lonely wails, maybe a groan here or there, just for effect, but for not having any vocals at all, they still manage to overwhelm like an afflicted storm.'
- Deaf Sparrow
released March 24, 2017