Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Future of War

I finally got around to the seemingly Herculean task of getting my arse down to Kinko's to make the covers for the first Column of Heaven release, Ecstatically Embracing all that we Habitually Suppress.

These are the places you can get this release:

wait a few weeks for a shitty rip from the Bridge Nine board (i'll upload it sometime before the end of the summer anyway)

Canadians go here

Americans go here

Europeans go here

Torontonians go to Hits and Misses

Rest of the Worlds go to whichever one of the above you want to send your money to.

I'll be hitting up the post office in a few days to mail all these fuckers out, so don't worry about it too much for another 7-14 days (other than local people who can go to Hits and Misses, a local shop for local people)


After Slaughter Strike predictably broke up, both Eric and myself wanted to return to something a little more primitive (no pun intended) and get something out quickly.

This is the result of that goal, three practices, six songs and absolutely zero suprises guaranteed.

When we were talking about starting this band the original idea was a loose "Like Blockade but with more noise and less hardcore; more weird shit." This release definitely isn't "less hardcore; more weird shit", at least not to my ears. The future may be different, but we'll see what that looks like when we get there i guess.

The noise to music ratio is about the same as on the Blockade/ Unearthly Trance split LP.

I'm often asked in interviews what keeps me motivated in keeping my involvement going "after-all-these-years", lyrically this release vaguely takes a stab at answering that: That i'm following a tradition (Altars); that bad feelings don't ever go away (Binge/ Purge); that culture is power (the cunningly titled Knowledge. Culture. Power.); that sometimes i can hear every sound in the universe all at once (A Sea of Blood in a Universe of Infinite Flaming Darkness); that it's a way of keeping track of themes in my life (Scarred); that it's something positive in my life (The Future of War).

There is a very small tongue in cheek part in Shawn Wilson's excellent book Research is Ceremony where he quips that he thinks graduate students should be ritually scarred upon completion of their thesis. A lot of the lyrical inspiration on the tape comes from this idea.

We're recording again in a few weeks for a split 7" with Holy Terror pin up boys Rot in Hell.

Reading; see above photo

Listening; Macabre Eternal on repeat non-stop for two days in a row now. Oh, and that Whitehorse/ The Body split 7"

22 comments:

These Seans said...

dude, the disclaimer about the fact that this won't be available for another week or two should definitely have been posted before the purchase links.

I got real mad for a second at 20 bucks website.

JG said...

attention Euros/Eurines: the preemptive answer to "when can I order the Column of Heaven tape from you?" is "as soon as you see the post on the blog with ordering details" (which should in theory be first week in June)

Ryan Page said...

Fuck it. It looks like I'm going to have to pick up a walkman if this is becoming your format of choice. I'm really excited to hear this.

Survivalist said...

it's worth saying again that you can get good quality ultra cheap tape decks all over the place now. I see them in Goodwill priced around $10 constantly.

My current deck came from my neighbours front yard on garbage day

I'll put it online for download eventually. I personally hate CDs (let alone CDRs) and we felt it too presumptuous to go straight to vinyl. Plus given the guerilla style nature of the recording it fits the format.

Ryan Page said...

I just realized my comment sounded like I was complaining. It was more of a "well, here's a new task for the day" type of thing. Tone is hard to communicate on the internet, sorry about that.

I will be buying this for the packaging/art/music experience. I think for something short like this it seems to fit, and the recording sounds somewhat early 90s (in a good way) so it makes sense as a format.

I actually broke down when a label asked me, and am releasing something on casette as well (how's that for hypocrisy?).

Survivalist said...

it's cool, Column of Heaven is doing a free Scion ep and touring with Mogwai and Moonblood next week

Ryan Page said...

Just make sure you get sponsored by Monster and give one of those Scion after show interviews that seem to work so well for everyone....

Have you all decided on whether this will be a band that does live shows, and if so, are they all local?

breadman said...

"Holy Terror pin up boys Rot in Hell."
hahaha what a disappointedly nice group of chaps we are too!!
to quote Clint from Organised crime records "I thought you guys would be really miserable but your funny and nice"

Nihbraxalizt said...

Oh, wow, there's a Whitehorse/The Body-Split? I have to get this ASAP and the COH-tape, too.
Do you like Moonblood or do you think it's ridiculous how they have become one of those bands you need to like to prove a certain 'underground commitment' (at least in Germany that seems to be the case) (or both)?

Survivalist said...

Nihbrah, i was merely failing to think of an NSBM band that people would know; i decided aganst Goatmoon. Should've written that we're touring with Graveland and uh (sees a copy of Blood Book in front of him) Kids of Widney High.

and yes Ryan, we'll be playing live though it won't be much of a focus, i drunkenly commited to playing a show in september, which means writing more songs and learning to sing again.

Breadfan, kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates right?

Survivalist said...

oh, and to posters on the Anarchy and Freedom board, or whatever it's called, the NSBM reference is sarcasm, we're not touring with any NSBM bands, we're too red.

JG said...

So the REAL question here is - did you involuntarily burst out laughing when Eric Cutler goes "FOR FUCK'S SAKE" like some kind of undead DAve Mustaine as well?

Survivalist said...

i started yelling it at the dog and getting her all wound up as soon as i heard that part

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to hearing the new stuff! Forgive my ignorance, but what's the origin of the symbols on that COH image? Also, who drew it?

Survivalist said...

The reaper is by Steve Burlton, and after yesterday afternoon i can say that he's a tattooist with a very gentle hand (though my leg isn't happy with me today)

The symbol is the second in an on going work that i'm doing

Anonymous said...

Macabre Eternal is real good, I certainly didn't expect it to be even better than The Tomb Within.

00100 said...

I missed the league of Gentlemen comment the first time around, hah.

zombivish said...

picked up the last copy from Hist & Misses last night. Listened to it a few times through when making dinner last night- solid stuff.
Re the imagery:
The Burlton reaper is great. What's the source of the cover though?

Survivalist said...

She's Shri Devi/ Palden Lhamo, one of eight defenders of dharma in the Vajrayana Buddhism.

Here's a brief overview: http://philosattva.wordpress.com/tag/sikkim/

zombivish said...

cheers. It looked familiar (i grew up in a Hindi household) but slightly off. I thought it might be from Thailand.

Halifax Collect said...

Is this still available from Hits & Misses?
Not a fan of CDR's but I'd pick it up at a show if you didn't have any tapes. It's better than not having any music. My situation right now doesn't allow for tape deck purchase but soon it might. Hopefully the tapes will be around then.

Survivalist said...

sold out from Hits and Misses, no plans to make a CDR (no one cares about them), though you can download it from the other post here and make one for yourself if you so desire