Rwake: It Was Beautiful But Now It’s Sour – new video & Rest – full album stream

 

Warning: The following 12 minute short film features slow motion close-ups of actual pig fetuses being annihilated by a variety of implements!

 

 

“[Explained himself vocalist C.T.:] Casper [Haugegaard, Danish horror aficionado] came to us about a year ago with this idea. He said he had “certain” subject matter he knew he had to film and that it would fit to our music perfectly. He probably knew no other band in its right mind who would agree to this footage and believe me the original test shootings he sent were way sicker. This fits RWAKE perfectly and we are honored to have such an artist like this think of us in the way that it inspires him to make such a beautifully, disturbing short film accompanied to our music.”

‘It Was Beautiful But Now It’s Sour’ is one of six critically acclaimed tunes off RWAKE's latest recording ‘Rest’. Follow the band's example and fit ‘Rest’ into your busy schedules  (“'cause in Arkansas that’s all you have… time”) and  listen to the album here (BandCamp) or via player available to you below. While at it, read Ned Raggett's review here (AllMusic). ‘Rest’, “a perpetually evolving, deeply emotional set of missives heralding the end of times”, can be bought here (Relapse Records) or through here (RWAKE store):

 

RWAKE: Rest

 

Originally called “Wake”, the southern sludge metal group (often caught sympathizing with doom and progressive metal) formed in 1996 in Little Rock, Arkansas:

“RWAKE started out as a four brothers jamming to kill time, ‘cause in Arkansas that’s all you have… time. And in time those brothers were joined by other brothers (and a sister) and recorded some tracks in '97.”

Their first proper demo entitled ‘Xenoglossalgia: Absence Due To Projection’ was released in 1999, the same year RWAKE recorded a full-length album which, “for reasons buried by the sands of time”, was never released. Three years later Relapse Records issued ‘Hell Is A Door To The Sun’, “less a record than an hour-long summoning of personal demons and primal fury” as explained by the band. The album was re-released in 2011 and can be streamed, as well as purchased, in full here (BandCamp) or below:

“[The record] ultimately resembles a promising but still rather rough sketch of the superior design eventually rendered for the band's subsequent effort. Hence, it’s not recommended as a first-time taste of RWAKE, but it’s still likely to appease devotees who were converted by their later efforts,” [commented Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic – more here:]

 

RWAKE: Hell Is A Door To The Sun

 

In 2004, RWAKE entered Volume Studios with producer Sanford Parker to record the album ‘If You Walk Before You Crawl You Crawl Before You Die’, released by At A Loss Records:

“And for all these ready comparisons to other bands [CROWBAR, EYEHATEGOD, ISIS, NEUROSIS, MASTODON…], the fact is RWAKE's testing ground is vast enough to let their creativity roam nearly without boundaries, discovering untapped wonders all their own in the process. The closing, two-part title track (two minutes of acoustic beauty followed by nine of bludgeoning ferocity) exemplifies this freedom, and along with the remaining material on hand, makes for a very impressive release,” [commended the record Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic – more here]

In 2006, the group signed with Relapse Records and shortly after revisited Volume Studios “to lay that material to tape”; as a result, 2007's ‘Voices Of Omens’ would hit the listener “below the bible-belt with thick, tar-black riffing, vicious male and female howls and leads so sweet you’d think they’re from Georgia”. Understand by visiting RWAKE's BandCamp page here for full album stream (also available below):

“But what truly separates RWAKE from most all of their like-minded contemporaries, is their self-effacing obsession with trailer-trash culture (generally realized via amusing snatches of TV and movie dialog), and a unique talent for weaving positively sublime melodies into their otherwise punishing musical bulk - like gold stitching onto a two-ton rhino's pelt! That and the downright flashiest, shred-guitar solos to be found anywhere within their aesthetic milieu, which are delivered with unashamed heroics by the cryptically named Gravy [guitarist] (that’s right, his handle is Gravy),” [continued to cheer – and rightly so – Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic – read more here:]

 

RWAKE: Voices Of Omens

 

RWAKE features: C.T. – vocals, Gravy – guitarist, Kiffin – guitar, Reid Raley – bass, Jeff Morgan – drums and B. – synthesizer and vocals