Ripple Music is psyched to announce the release of Black Abyss, the debut long-player from San Francisco Bay rockers, The Watchers.

Formed in 2016, the band gathers together an impressive cast of seasoned players featuring vocalist Tim Narducci and bass player Cornbread (SpiralArms, White Witch Canyon), Orchid drummer Carter Kennedy and guitarist Jeremy Von Eppic (Black Gates, The Venting Machine).

As a veritable out-and-out super group of musicians’ musicians, The Watchers delivered Black Abyss during an extensive tour schedule last year in support of Sabbath Highway, their debut EP released in 2016. Mixed by Max Norman (Ozzy Osborne, Ian Hunter, Vendetta) the album is everything you’d expect and more from a band well-versed in the enigmatic ways of heavy rock, packing an onslaught of massive riffs and twists that take the listener through a heady and heavy musical trip.

What’s more, fans on both sides of the Atlantic will also be able to catch the band live as they take to the road once again to play dates across the US, along with key shows at SXSW this March, DesertFest London in May, and Maryland Doom Fest in June.

Black Abyss will get an official release on 9th March via Ripple Music but in the meantime, you can stream and share their brand-new song ‘Black Abyss’ below

Pre-order now at Ripple Music – www.ripplemusic.bigcartel.com/products

Live:

2/17 – Black Abyss Listening Party @ Sonic Room Studio – Livermore, CA
3/9 – Five Star Bar – Los Angeles, CA
3/10 – Palo Verde – Tempe, AZ
3/11 – Rock House – El Paso, TX
3/12 – Desert Flower Art Lounge – Big Springs, TX
3/14 – Spider House/Stoner Jam 18 – Austin, TX
3/15 – Texas Mist/Stoner Daze – Austin, TX
3/16 – Valhalla/Ripple Showcase – Austin, TX
3/17 – Limelight/Ripple Fest – San Antonio, TX
3/18 – Burt’s Tiki Lounge – Albuquerque, NM
3/19 – Bunkhouse – Las Vegas, NV
3/31 – Club Fox – Redwood City, CA (Black Abyss Record Release Show)
5/5 – DesertFest/Club Black Heart – Londo (UK)
6/23 – Maryland Doom Fest/Cafe 611 – Frederick, MD

Few bands have earned the distinction of composing “the soundtrack for the Apocalypse”, but according to Maximum Volume Music Oakland’s stoner metal quartet Blackwulf have done just that… and convincingly so. The sold-out successes of 2015’s Oblivion Cycle on Ripple Music and 2014’s Mind Traveller on Wickerman Records even prompted metal luminary Lars Ulrich to pick up copies of the albums and publicly name check the band.

Combining vintage ’70s head banging riffs with doom cloaked soundscapes and vintage heavy metal and hard rock, Blackwulf is bracing for even greater heights of heaviness with their upcoming Ripple Music follow-up, Sinister Sides. The eight-song album comes complete with gatefold and coloured vinyl, and finds The ’Wulf ambitiously venturing further afield, deep into vintage rock, sonic jams and dark breakdowns, all the while keeping one matted paw within their established heavy riff-orientated approach.

The band – unchanged from its original line-up since 2012 – features singer Alex Cunningham, guitarist Pete Holmes, bassist Scott Peterson, and drummer Dave Pankenier. However, something classic is almost made new again for joining Balckwulf on Sinister Sides as a very special guest is lead guitarist and Bedemon/Pentagram co-founder Geof O’Keefe. O’Keefe’s discovery and subsequent affinity for the band led Blackwulf to invite him to play guitar (and even a gong) on their new record… and play he most certainly did. Bringing his trademark doom vibrato and signature heaviness, O’Keefe features on three tracks from the album; ‘Dead to the World’, ‘Sinister Sides’ and a blistering cover of the Cream classic ‘Sunshine of Your Love’. Additionally, O’Keefe will also be storming the stage alongside the band at the official Ripple Music showcase at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin this March, where Blackwulf plan to officially unveil Sinister Sides. Taking to the road with gigs across the US and jumping across the pond to the UK for a short run anchored by an appearance at Desertfest London in May 2018, Sinister Sides is released worldwide on 23rd February 2018 on Ripple Music.

Living up to the title of their newest record, Against the Grain have proven themselves to be true road warriors. Blazing a trail across the US with their brand of gear-shifting, balls-to-the-wall rock, incorporating all things heavy they practically defy categorization, seamlessly blurring the lines of punk, rock, doom and thrash.

After playing fifty shows in 2009 across their home state of Michigan, their self-titled debut (released that same year) garnered a serious local fan base. Introduced to touring life by Hellmouth and The Meatmen, with their intense live show nailed and energized fan base following in support close behind, Against The Grain quickly transformed into a fully-functioning road act.

Playing seventy-five dates in 2011, they followed their debut with 2012’s Motor City Speed Rock and a further hundred fifty dates in support. Their efforts caught the attention of Self-Destructo Records, who in 2013 released their third full-length Surrounded By Snakes to such acclaim that they rereleased it soon afterward on 10” vinyl. Maintaining a DIY tour ethic, the band has since built a national fan base while quenching their thirst for fast and heavy rock and roll, right across the land. With a combined total of seven hundred and fifty dates under their belts since their formation in 2011, the band has toured alongside an impressive assemblage of notable acts that include Nashville Pussy, Valient Thorr, Bongzilla, Atomic Bitchwax, Mos Generator, Anvil, Night Demon, Church of Misery, The Hookers, Beast in the Field, Lo-Pan and many more.

Against The Grain’s heavily anticipated forth full-length, Road Warriors, was released in the summer of 2015 and pushed them even further into the electrifying realms of rock, metal and punk world. But it’s their soon-to-be released album Cheated Death that’s going to truly push them over the edge. Released this February on the California-based record label Ripple Music – widely regarded as one of the world’s leading record labels for Heavy Rock, Stoner, Doom and Heavy Psych – you can rest assured that the mad men of Michigan are going to blaze a trial across the US, the world and your mind in 2018.

Cheated Death is released worldwide on 9th February 2018 on Ripple Music.

Hailing from the city of Bjelovar in Croatia, Them Moose Rush are a progressive rock band unlike any other. Working in a genre often fuelled by pomp and circumstance the Eastern European trio have always done things for themselves, and in doing so, done it all inimitably. From directing their own music videos to producing their own photographs, the band even has a penchant for hiding cyphers in songs via Morse codes on keyboards and palindrome/semordnilap messages. And away from the devil in the detail, they simply rock harder and faster than anyone else.

Combining vintage vibes which play dutifully with the blues and heavy rock, their approach to song writing and production bursts with innovation. Much like 2013’s To Future Miss Sunshine, their second full-length album Don’t Pick Your Noise pushes riff after chaotic riff in an attempt to challenge listeners’ perceptions of what a rock and roll trio is truly capable of. Following their debut the band released two EPs that quickly helped establish them as live fixtures on the European festival and tour circuit, performing at Europavox (France), Eurosonic (Holland), INmusic (Croatia) and Krach Am Bach (Germany), alongside international bands such as The Black Keys, Arcade Fire, Pixies, Colour Haze, The Vintage Caravan and Mars Red Sky.

From lead singer Nikola Runjavec’s devastating vocal range, spanning a sonic spectrum that takes in Geddy Lee, Robert Plant and Jack White, to bass player Branimir Kuruc and drummer Vedran Marinko Komlen’s tight ship of a rhythm section, Don’t Pick Your Noise is a progressive, space-fuelled majesty of electric alt-rock and Machina melody.

Don’t Pick Your Noise by Them Moose Rush is released worldwide on 9th March 2018 on TMR Records with a vinyl version released through Dostava Zvuka. Stream and share the video for new track ‘Radio Violence’ below: