Thursday, May 31, 2012

WILD HUNT IN DECIBEL MAG JULY ISSUE

Decibel magazine gives Before the Plane of Angles a 9/10:
  
And then, they featured us in their "Brewtal Truth" section as well, regarding H. Burkhart's beer museum in the grocery store where he and W. Lenz work. Good fun:
(If the Brewtal Truth article isn't big enough on the blog, just drag the image to your desktop and open it there and zoom) 
CHEERS!


Monday, May 28, 2012

GARMENTS

There are two WH t-shirts available here. Designed by us, printed by our friends at Team Printshop. These are very limited, and it's uncertain if there will be a 2nd batch, so snatch yours as quick as you can.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

LP MISHAP

Some of you might have noticed there was a pressing error with side C of our LP. Kemado has issued a statement on their website addressing the situation:

Wild Hunt Vinyl Update

To everyone that purchased the recently released Wild Hunt LP, Before The Plane Of Angles, we want to apologize for a production mix up. Unfortunately, Side C of the record is out of order – as it was intended, the running order should have been:
Side C
4. Unravel the Veil of Separation, Bask in the Serenity of Discord
5. Plane of Angles
Those songs were swapped on the current pressing, so you are actually listening to “Plane of Angles” first rather than last. We are working on a repressing of the record now, but it was important to the band and us that you know what song you are listening to. Apologies again for this screw up.
Sincerely,
Kemado Records


So, the re-pressings of side C should be done in a week or so. If you would like a corrected version sent to you free of charge, email Kemado via their website. 

JUNE 23RD SHOW

Our next show is with HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE and GRAYCEON, June 23rd at Elbo Room, San Fran. Purchase advance tickets online at www.brownpapertickets.com. This will be a blast, for sure!

Friday, May 18, 2012

SFBG MUSIC BLOG

Here's another nice little writeup (and goofy interview) from the SF Bay Guardian "Localized Apreesh" blog:

Localized Appreesh: Wild Hunt

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In the darkness, there is Wild Hunt.
PHOTO BY JAMES BURKHART
Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contactemilysavage@sfbg.com.
The essence of Oakland'sWild Hunt could summed up thusly: doomy, progressive metal that perches in the cerebral cortex during a waking nightmare. A ghoulish nightmare from which you don't necessary wish to wake. It's black magic behind fluttering eyelids.
Along with more traditional metal riffs, there are drawn-out, heavy breakdowns that lend easily to slow, deliberate head banging, blended with modern hypnotic ambiance that gives it that dream-like quality. It doesn't hurt that drummer-vocalist Harland Burkhart sounds like he's growling underwater. I've seen Enslaved noted as a point of reference here, and agree with that assessment.
So now you need to hear it, right? Well, you've chased it down and speared it. The quartet's debut album, Before the Plane of Angles, which was mixed by Laudanum's Salvador Raya and mastered by Justin Weis (Hammers of Misfortune, Ludicra), is out now on Kemado. And the album release show is this weekend at El Rio. 
I caught up with the Wild Hunt in that unsettling space between wake and sleep. Here's what Burkhart had to say:
Band name origin: "Wild Hunt" refers to the ancient European myth of a phantasmal cavalcade of dead folks seen madly flying through the sky, usually around Yuletide. There are a variety of different versions of the legend; some believe the Norse god Odin leads the pack, others believe King Arthur, others believe Ronald McDonald.
Band motto: You got fourteen cent?
Description of sound in 10 words or less: Heavy, melodic, dreamlike. At times jarring, at times tranquil.
Instrumentation: Two guitarists, one bassist, one drummer/vocalist.
Most recent release: Before the Plane of Angles (Kemado Records, 2012)

Best part about life as a Bay Area band: 
Being situated in such a hotbed of creative activity.
Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: Paying rent.
First album purchased: For me, possibly Oingo Boingo, Only a Lad.
Most recent album purchased/downloaded: Allseits, Hel.
Favorite local eatery and dish: Southie has become my lunchtime destination. That dang fried rock shrimp sandwich has changed my life, tell you what.
Wild Hunt 
With Giant Squid, Black Queen
Sat/19, 10pm, $8
El Rio
3158 Mission, SF
(415) 282-3325 

www.elriosf.com

Saturday, May 5, 2012

ALBUM OF THE WEEK ON MSN'S METAL BLOG


Here's a nice review of "Before the Plane..." written by Adrien Begrand.

Album of the Week:

Wild Hunt, Before the Plane of Angles (Kemado)

When Ludicra split up a year ago the metal world lost one of the Bay Area’s most inventive bands, one that might have been rooted in one particular subgenre – in their case, black metal – but in reality displayed an openness to other influences that lent their music a unique quality that stood out far apart from anything else in metal. Such bands are rare, so it was no surprise that the news of Ludicra’s demise was greeted with great disappointment from those who had followed the band over the previous decade. When a defiantly, daringly original band splits, who knows when someone in their local scene pick up where they left off?

Wild Hunt might hail from grittier, blue-collar Oakland instead of Ludicra’s San Francisco, and the their music might differ considerably from each other, but there’s no mistaking both bands are cut from the same cloth. Like Ludicra, and even Norwegian innovators EnslavedWild Hunt doesn’t care one iota about genre restrictions. The foursome of guitarists Greg Brace and Drew Cook, bassist West Lenz, and drummer/vocalist Harland Burkhart take bits and pieces from black metal, progressive metal, traditional heavy metal, doom, and even ambient music on their debut album and create something that’s not only unlike anything in American metal right now, but for all its eclecticism is startlingly cohesive.

What’s so remarkable about Before the Plane of Angles is its sense of restraint. The compositions, especially the two 16-minute tracks that bookend the album, “Eidetic Parallax” and “Plane of Angles”, meander, yet it’s never the kind of labyrinthine arrangement that has you wishing you had a riff map to follow along. Instead, the songs flow so gracefully that it’s simply easy to take in, suite-like songs shifting from movement to movement so seemingly naturally that the shifts from style to style hardly feel like a surprise. Granted, the album isn’t without its more immediate moments as well, and two of the middle three tracks on the album showcase Wild Hunt at their most accessible. The opening riff of “Panorama” bears a strong resemblance to the icy guitar sounds of Enslaved’sRuun album before dissolving into an ambient piece reminiscent of Tangerine Dream. “Window to the Nether” shifts from mid-tempo black metal grooves to the muscular American crunch of Mastodon and early Baroness,Burkhart providing haunting chanted vocals, the song becoming more and more blackened the longer it goes on.

Time and again Wild Hunt pulls the rug out from under the listener on this album, yet they do so in a way that’s not jarring, which is where that black metal influence comes in to play. The band’s musical influences are all over the map, but similar to Ludicra, their feet are firmly planted in black metal. That sound is always there in some way, shape, or form, and while the band uses black metal more as a springboard toward exploring new sounds, the black metal element keeps the music grounded. As a result the compositions never once fly off the handle, a great example being “Plane of Angles”, which retains that influence while at the same time taking the music further and further outside the realm of the “cvlt” towards something a lot more progressive and unpredictable. Before the Plane of Angles is a rarity in American metal, a daring, confident debut that instantly creates a one of a kind identity for the band, one that’s set to establish Wild Hunt as the next underground favorite in Bay Area metal. Ludicra’s title is theirs for the taking.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

THEY'RE HERE...

Holy crap! Could it be?? Yes indeedy, the gatefold 2xLP's of "Before the Plane of Angles" are here. Grab one of your own while supplies last, at Kemado.com. Or, if you make it to our release show May 19th at El Rio SF, we'll have some on hand there too.