Portland, Oregon outsider collective, Eolian Empire, has spat forth the details for the label’s thirtieth unruly release, in the form of (We’ve Got) FIENDS IN LOW PLACES: Heavy Vibes Internationale, as VICE Magazine’s music portal, Noisey, dispatches the opening track from the mess.
This special collection marks a new low for the Eolian horde, since the entire roster to date has yielded only Portland-centric audio carnage, while FIENDS IN LOW PLACES features a glut of output from the Eolian clan’s caustic cronies from around the globe; a gnarled calling card, with more than fifty minutes of champions of the international heavy underground in North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Fifteen bands bash away on fifteen stark, aggressive, noise-laden tunes worked over with smarts and wicked humor on this compilation of exclusive tracks, an eclectic and electric collection of heavy, noisy, weird, outsider, and underground music from around the world. THROAT (Finland),ARABROT (Norway), HEALTH PROBLEMS (USA), MoE (Finland), THE GREAT SABATINI(Canada), DEAD (Australia), BASTARD OF THE SKIES (England), HOMBRE MALO (Norway),SAME-SEX DICTATOR(USA), TEEPH (USA), CYBERNE (Japan), TIMEKILLER (Japan), ELEPHANT RIFLE (USA), BATPISS (Australia), and MEADOWS (England) take you on a wild trip through twisted noise rock, bludgeoning sludge, psychotic metal, blackened hardcore, and damaged punk, each act’s warped worldview in full effect. Taken together, FIENDS paint an ugly, multidimensional portrait of the darkness lurking wherever you may go.
The opening ripper from FIENDS IN LOW PLACES has been uncaged early and is now playing at Noisey. “I Am Gobshite” is the work of English act, MEADOWS, the jam a riotous, noise-drenched shredder; and a perfect introduction to the comp.
FIENDS IN LOW PLACES is the sequel and companion compilation to Eolian’s (We’ve Gotta) KEEP OUR HEADS: Heavy Vibes from Portland, Oregon, which featured twenty-six heavy Portland bands. Like on KEEP OUR HEADS, the “fiends” on FIENDS IN LOW PLACES were drawn from friends playing off-the-wall heavy music in overlapping scenes, scenes this time spread throughout the world. Interrelated through shows, tours, and friends, these bands have passed each other in the night for years, slowly worming their way through the underground via interconnected tunnels deep below the mainstream, an independent global network of heaviness beholden to no one. Comforting or discomforting, FIENDS IN LOW PLACES at least affirms that the Eolian heads are not the only ones this fucked up, and in an age when many are looking back with nostalgia for the lost and forgotten weirdo bands of yesteryear, it’s good to know we can find pigfucking goodness all around the world right now and no doubt for years to come. So find your “fiends” and support the lost underground oftomorrow, today.
FIENDS IN LOW PLACES is available for will see cassette and digital release on February 3rd, 2015. Preorders for the cassette are live HERE and the digital HERE. The full lowdown on the comp’s roster can be found HERE.
An in-depth interview with the Eolian Empire and the madness which ensues within their lair is in the December/January issue of Zero Tolerance Magazine, issue #62, available HERE.
