[Album of the day] Howling Giant / Sergeant Thunderhoof - Masamune & Muramasa
Nashville, TN (HG) | Bath, UK (ST) // 2020
[Genres] stoner rock, heavy psych, prog rock
[Themes] Two blacksmiths of Japanese legend competing to make the best samurai sword.
[FFO] concept albums, samurai media
[Thoughts] I wanted to talk about an underrated release from one of my favorite artists, Howling Giant. They're a stoner rock trio out of Nashville* whom I encountered for the first time when they opened for space rock powerhouse King Buffalo, and later saw them again alongside Elder and Ruby the Hatchet.** Their early stuff is simple riff paradise, and recent releases have seen the band doubling down on the space rock of it all.*** Sergeant Thunderhoof is a great band that I know considerably less about, but my thoughts are that if you like one, you'll like the other.
I bought this split on vinyl because it was half the price of the others at the merch stand and I'm a cheap bastard. And fortunately so, because I love what Howling Giant and Sergeant Thunderhoof achieved together. The concept behind this concept album is one of my favorites; I'd talk more about the legend itself, but I thought you'd rather read the description below to hear what the artists have to say.****
This split is Chapter 2 in a series of splits put out by Ripple Music, a stoner rock record label. These "Turned to Stone" splits are great, I've listened to all nine so far.***** They're a great way to explore some of the selects of the underground stoner scene.
Finally, the album artwork of Masamune & Muramasa is intricate and compelling, especially up close on the vinyl sleeve. This album's cover was done by Sara-Jane Swettenham, based in Bath, who has done other Sergeant Thunderhoof album covers in a similarly distinctive style. It seems she used to sell prints of her work, but her Etsy storepage doesn't appear active so I will link to her Instagram as well.
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* You can tell by the mustaches. Keep on keeping on, Nashville.
** That later show I came specifically to see Howling Giant, though of course I knew the other bands. Everyone put on an excellent show. Ruby the Hatchet in particular was fun to watch; I'd jump at the chance to catch their high-energy heavy psych in the future.
*** I'd highly recommend Black Hole Space Wizard Part I and Part II, and am also partial to their debut EP. I'm also well aware that saying "I prefer their first album" makes me a chode, no need to point it out.
**** Wikipedia link with more info for the intellectually curious.
***** I prefer 1-4, your mileage may vary. They're all good; recent ones have been more desert rock, and earlier one are more psych/prog. Turned to Stone Chapter III features Merlin, a great band best known for their album Christ Killer, a re-telling of Nick Cave's Gladiator II in stoner doom format. Christ Killer is one of my all-time favorites, and Merlin is a band that reinforces what I said in my last post: KCMO is fucking cool.
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[From the band/label]
Chapter two of Ripple's new Turned to Stone series presents the story of two legendary Japanese sword smiths, Muramasa and Masamune, as told in interconnected musical movements by spacefaring psych-metal warriors Howling Giant and their equally cosmic riff-wielding British contemporaries Sergeant Thunderhoof.
In the two pieces, Muramasa and Masamune have a contest to determine whose sword smithery is superior, each crafting a blade of masterful quality and facing off by the edge of the river.
Instead of the typical approach with two bands contributing stand-alone sides of a record, Howling Giant and Sergeant Thunderhoof wanted to write an album that was thematically cohesive. Each side features a 20-minute song assembled via sharing of melodic ideas between the two bands during the writing process, and telling the story from the perspective of one of the sword smiths.
The result is a single piece of ambitious songcraft created by two riff-prog legends leaving another impressive mark on the heavy rock landscape.
