Back in 2015, Toronto’s Pale Mare formed out of the ashes of thrash knuckleheads Fatality, metal miscreants Midnight Malice and Motorhead teat-slurpers, The Rough Boys with the mandate of playing thick riffs loudly, aggressively and mired in tasty, rib-crushing tones. Their self-titled EP from 2017 was not only a year-end favourite of my Throw Me a Frickin’ Bone column, but it also caught the ear of other press and band folk, C.O.C.’s Pepper Keenan and Metal Hammer amongst them.
Tomorrow – April 3rd for those of you who have lost all concept of time and when days begin and end – witnesses the release of the band’s label debut, an EP entitled II (not to be confused with the countless other second releases by bands also titled II) via Seeing Red Records in the U.S. and Ancient Temple Recordings north of the presently closed border. Today, we present an exclusive stream of II and all its meaty, early-Baroness-meets-rippin’-High on Fire groovy glory. When we asked guitarist/vocalist Eytan Gordon for a bit of background on the EP, here’s what he had to say:
“Pale Mare II is a cool collection of tunes. It’s kind of a snapshot in time of a band that keeps evolving and exploring new sounds. When we demoed these tunes, they just kind of fit together in this perfect way that created a journey of crushing power, so we decided it made sense to release them as such. We recorded at this barn outside the city where we’d go and spend a few days at a time tracking. The control room was located on the side of the barn, so if you were tracking you would just be in this massive barn alone making huge sounds which was super-badass. The sounds we captured were huge, and after having Andrew Schnieder mix them, and Brad Boatright master them, the final product was absolutely menacing. And with lyrics about demons bringing end times, tales of Viking conquest or existential void gazers manipulating arcane machinery to see through to the other side… everything about these tunes is heavy as fuck.”
Check out the barn rocking, end time bringing, Viking conquest-ing, other-side teasing enormity of II right here. Contact and ordering info below:
Also, keep an eye out for rescheduled tour dates for these:
