7" Available for order now!

We spent an incredible weekend on the road with Lechuguillas and Bridesmaid, and celebrated the release our our split 7" with Bridesmaid on Friday in Columbus. Much thanks to all involved, especially Louis @ the Stone Tavern in Kent, Aaron Vilk in Athens and Bridesmaid Bob/Carabar Ron in Columbus.

With that said, the 7" is now for sale!


The split was pressed in a run of 500, with 100 colored vinyl (gold-ish, green-ish w/ black swirl) and 400 black vinyl. The colored copies are available only through Bastard Sloth, and can be found here: http://bastardsloth.blogspot.com/
We will have copies of the black vinyl at all upcoming shows, and you can email us at splitterofsuns@gmail.com directly if you are interested in distro pricing.

DVD of the last Mopery show

Thanks to Gonzo Chicago for putting this collection together from the last Mopery show on 8.28.10. This was one of the best things we've ever been a part of, and we're very excited to be included in this dvd project.

You can buy them at Reckless Records for $6, or check out the Gonzo Chicago blog here.

This what Miles Raymer at the Reader has to say about the dvd:

"For the couple of years it existed, the Mopery was an oasis of unkempt, wild-eyed, art-damaged DIY punkitude in rapidly yuppifying Logan Square. A vast and scruffy loft hidden above a nondescript neighborhood grocery store, it hosted a handful of tent-dwelling residents and an impressively packed schedule of visiting musical acts, many of them on the punk/noise/sludge axis.

Despite the sometimes aggressive amount of weirdness on display (see the aforementioned people living in tents), the Mopery was pretty widely beloved, and the venue's final show last August brought out a crowd that filled pretty much every square foot of it, extended down the lengthy flight of stairs leading up to it, and spilled out onto the street. The air was a dense miasma of sweat and smoke, compounded by the considerable background humidity of a late-summer Chicago night, and though I was only there for a little while I walked out completely drenched.

The event featured 13 Mopery favorites providing the soundtrack to the loft's sendoff, including Loose Dudes, Paper Mice, and Mark Solotroff. One attendee, Victor Spatafora, brought along what the blog Gonzo Chicago refers to as "a completely ridiculous" high-def video camera to document the action. Spatafora has recently put out a DVD of his footage for anyone looking to relive (or piece together memories of) that night.

Copies of the DVD are available at Reckless for six dollars, or through Gonzo Chicago for a suggested donation of five (e-mail hotmetaldobermans@gmail.com)."

Upcoming Shows

3.24- Stone Tavern, Kent OH w/ Lechuguillas
3.25- Carabar, Columbus OH w/Bridesmaid, Lechuguillas and Stormbrewer. 7" release show.
3.26- The E.R., Athens OH w/Bridesmaid, Lechuguillas, Nyodene D and Hollows

Stay tuned for a couple excellent Chicago shows in April and May.

Dead Dragon Mountain

Dead Dragon Mountain is a recording project of Anthony Dunn and Jacob Essak. We do this project as an opportunity to explore the use of free improvisation, chance and spontaneity in the studio. This February we did a series of recordings that are now compiled as the album Huddled Masses Under a Burning Sky.

The album was conceived, written, recorded and mixed during the month of February at the Slaughterhouse (aka Super Double Happy Panda Pro Audio Recordings). For a short period of time, we are offering a free download of the mp3 files for the entire album.

Download here.

Brainwashed reviews II

Thanks to Brainwashed for another nice review.

Link here.

A limited cassette release of an even more limited CD-R, Chicago's Sun Splitter, in the span of around 30 minutes, condense all of what I consider to be the best moments of the past 40 years of metal. With elements of drone, doom, industrial, and even classic rock, it all comes together as a perfectly conceived release.

Land of Decay

Admittedly, I've never been a huge metal person. I find bands and albums that I enjoy, but it's not a scene I ever really immersed myself in, largely because whenever I did, I got burnt out rather quickly. It's also one where I find elements I love (big, heavy riffs, melodic solos) with ones I'm not so fond of (growled vocals, "shredding"). It's almost like this trio knew what I liked and tailored the album for my tastes.

For example, "Cairn of Old Eyes" opens with taut, rhythmic riffs over a stiff machine beat, but with changing sounds and structures, it has the complexity of prog rock without the unnecessary pretense. Along with this there’s more than a healthy dose of drawn out guitar tones and whispered, mantra like vocals. Closer "Carrion Eater" is cut from the same cloth, opening with similar vocals and a warm guitar tone, but focuses more on the melody, even with the big riffs.

"Northern Blood Tithe" has some of the dual rhythm guitar/drum machine combo sound that has garnered many comparisons to early Godflesh, but there’s just as much Sabbath to be heard. The melodic elements reminded me of mid-period Thin Lizzy, but that’s pretty much my only go-to touchstone for the '70s rock genre. As a whole it's slower, more spacious, with vocals so buried and processed they sound like an additional instrument more than anything else.

It follows the same template as "Earth Burner," in that both are more doomy and repetitious, but in a carefully measured way. The repetition in both serve to build tension, with "Earth Burner" slowly adding changes in to keep the track dynamic, but without interrupting the deliberate drone structure.

With a style that is reminiscent of many, but sounds like none, Sun Splitter has created one of the best metal albums without adhering to any specific conventions. There's melody, there's monolithic guitar riffs, there's dark, bleak ambience, and so much more that comes together so perfectly that I can't help but love this tape.