Reviews for Dragonwizardsleeve...

The Soda Shop

At first glance, it’s hard not to notice the band name. You may be tempted to assume that this is yet another band that takes themselves too seriously, but then you miss the glaringly obvious irony of the band name. The overusage of certain words in band names plagues music, and it’s refreshing to see a band take this approach. As you dig deeper, you will find that the band is actually the brain child and solo project of the legendary Darryl Shepard (Milligram, Roadsaw, etc.) which peaked my interest all the more.

This a drone/ambient doom album and is an interesting change of pace from the standard Small Stone releases. As with all drone music, this is a slow journey and not a mad dash to the finish line. With this in mind, Blackwolfgoat‘s debut album on the mighty becomes a lot easier to digest and more enjoyable.

With the opener, “Risk and Return”, the album starts off on a mellow note. The track begins with a repetative riff, but your patience is rewarded as the song continues on and gradually builds in complexity and tempo. Towards the end of the song, it starts to slowly fade into the next. This is one of those tracks that the beauty of it is evident after you listen to it in its entirety.

Next you have “Death of a Lifer” that starts the album’s journey into drone sound that will define most of the rest of the album while still maintaining the ambiance of “Risk and Return”. Like “Risk and Return”, this track gradually builds elements to create a full atmosphere of sound.

The next two songs, “Tinnitus the Night” and “The Goat” dig deeper into drone doom with “The Goat” reminding me heavily of Sunn O))).

Breaking from the drone sound of the previous 3 tracks, “Aspirin Forever” is essentially a noise track with some percussion that was missing from the album. After a short 2:46, the track then gives way to the final and perhaps my favorite track of the album.

“Hotel Anhedonia” is the final and longest track on the album clocking in at 10:21. This track is more or less what one would expect from Mr. Shepard. The track is a gentle, blues-influenced classic rock track that reminds me of The Eagles. This track makes for the other slice of bread on this very unique sandwich.

If you’re into drone music, open-minded about your music, or you’re looking to dabble into something a bit different, Dragonwizardsleeve would not be a bad place to start. The album is due to be released on October 12, 2010.

- Cheesesoda

Hellbound.CA

My first reaction when asked to review Blackwolfgoat was “Dayum, that’s a stupid band name. Are they cousins of Manbearpig, or something?” But despite the awkward moniker, Small Stone Records saw enough of something to sign these guys. The current home of such stoner legends as Acid King, Los Natas and the venerable Sons of OTIS knows a thing or two about heavy rock… But does Blackwolfgoat?

Opening track “Risk and Return” is a long, repetitive riff with a relaxed, mellow vibe. The song goes nowhere fast—or even slow, for that matter. Instead, it drags on for nearly 7 minutes. Sounds like the producer was so bored that he got up to play Duck Hunt near the end—and left the mic on in the booth.

“Death of a Lifer” is more of the same. Droning guitar riff? Check. Electronic beeps and boops? Check. Tempo changes, vocals, percussion? Blackwolfgoat don’t need none of those things! To their credit, fourth track “The Goat” does sound kinda like OTIS—at the end of their live set, when they put down their instruments and let the feedback ring out. (The sound guy usually cuts off the power before they hit nine minutes, though.)

Suffice to say that this album is a long, difficult slog, even though it only has six tracks. I’m glad I didn’t bother burning the digital promo to disc, as it would be a waste of a perfectly good CD-R. Al Gore has nothing to worry about here.

RATING: 2 (and that’s only because Small Stone re-released Acid King’s The Early Years earlier this year)

- Gruesome Greg

The Obelisk

Being an entirely solo instrumental guitar venture, it’s clear right off the bat that Blackwolfgoat is never going to be for everyone, never going to be the band you put on to get the party going, not the drive fast, blast-it-out-your-window-on-an-open-highway American chronicle. Darryl Shepard, previously of notable Boston outfits like Milligram and Hackman (both also on Small Stone), helms and comprises Blackwolfgoat, and on his full-length debut, Dragonwizardsleeve, he reminds that loops, drones and noise aren’t necessarily relegated as tools only for hipster art students or freakout psychedelics. Somehow, this drone rocks.

Understand that’s a relative statement, but as Dragonwizardsleeve’s opening cut, “Risk and Return,” slowly fades itself out, one comes to understand in listening to it that the track does have structure, a gradual build, more like something off a King Crimson solo album than ambient drone. “Death of a Lifer” brings in distortion and a Neurosis Given to the Rising-type feel (the track I’m thinking of is “Origin”), but never seems settled on itself, even as the same riff cycles through the track with noises added on top of it. There’s an urgency here; a kind of hectic and unsettled feeling. The guitars (Shepard provides a couple) feel on-edge and are huge sonically where on any number of other ambient albums an understated minimalism seems to be the goal. Hearing the cabinet speakers rumble at the end of the track, that’s clearly not the goal for Blackwolfgoat.

The pun-titled “Tinnitus the Night” follows and keeps much the same atmosphere as “Death of a Lifer,” albeit with a somewhat busier execution. It is another distortion build that distorts even unto itself, and though the song is among the shorter on Dragonwizardsleeve at 4:18, it carries an atmosphere much heavier than its runtime. Notable that it fades on both ends, in and out, so that it seems to creep up on you as you listen. Blackwolfgoat is a sneaky project in that it injects complexity into these songs without seeming to do so, but some of the material itself also sneaks up on you.

If there’s any point on Dragonwizardsleeve at which I miss vocals or any other instrumental accoutrements, it’s “The Goat.” I’d love to hear it with a loose, single, rattling drum behind it and some tortured Khanate-style screams. It’s as close to “riffing” as Shepard comes in Blackwolfgoat, and it seems like it wants to teeter on the side of blackened doom more than drone or instrumental noise. Fuck it’s heavy, and true to the album’s form, it only gets more so as time goes on. At just under nine minutes, it’s a beast, and as Shepard adds a cutting layer of high-toned lead notes to complement the droning riff, I can’t call “The Goat” anything but the highlight of Dragonwizardsleeve. If even part of his mission was to somehow comment on the “kvlt” worship of acts like SunnO))), “The Goat” is where that happens. It is bleak and beautiful in equal proportion.

There’s some tapping percussion and cable noise on “Aspirin Forever” that doesn’t last long, which is fortunate, and closer “Hotel Anhedonia” is brighter in atmosphere, as Shepard offers a genuine, extended lead over a cycling riff, sounding like a smoky Hendrix jam recorded late at night. Funny how the opening and closing pieces of Dragonwizardsleeve are so different from the meat of the album, “Risk and Return” being more technically nuanced and “Hotel Anhedonia” being suggestive if not outright exploratory of the blues, but I guess when you’re the whole band you get to take your music in whatever direction you want and arrange it in the order you want. Maybe that’s what sent Shepard off to do Blackwolfgoat in the first place.

That, of course, is speculation. While Blackwolfgoat’s Small Stone debut is challenging, its lonely heaviness manages to cross the divide between desolate black metal, doom, drone and even some classic heavy psych at the end. This leads me to believe the album’s limited appeal – being solo, instrumental guitar – is offset by the sonic diversity and that those who don’t ordinarily get down with this kind of indulgence might be doing right by checking in on what Dragonwizardsleeve has to offer. Again, it isn’t going to be for everyone, but as a first outing, Shepard seems to have a remarkable vision in place of what he wants this band to be, and he carries it across with confidence and clarity throughout these six songs, which have just enough in them to keep the easily bored occupied and the willingly entranced under their spell for the duration.

- H.P. Taskmaster

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1. Risk and Return
2. Death of a Lifer
3. Tinnitus the Night
4. The Goat
5. Aspirin Forever
6. Hotel Anhedonia