South Wales stoner/doom/sludge outfit Spider Kitten announce new full-length album »A Pound For The Peacebringer« and stream the title track
Cardiff, UK based stoner/doom/sludge outfit Spider Kitten has announced their new full-length album, »A Pound For The Peacebringer«, which will be released on September 1st, 2023 via APF Records.
Listen to the title track »A Pound For The Peacebringer« below!
Tracklist:
01. A Pound For The Peacebringer
02. Safe To Drown
03. Bellwether
04. God’s Song
05. Fluid Druid (Float On)
Courtesy of APF Records:
The ever mercurial musical entity that is Spider Kitten began some two decades ago at a South Wales art college, when founders Chi Lameo and ptew began creating dark ambient soundscapes. Chi’s obsession with Earth’s Dylan Carlson soon found guitar drones a large part of their sound.
Ever searching for new sonic possibilities, the duo expanded to a four piece backed by a drum machine for their debut album »Ineffable« in 2007. The real breakthrough came in 2010 with the addition of Chris West (ex-Taint, current-Made Of Teeth) on drums. Chris and Chi found they had fearsome synergy and would go on to write the bulk of the band’s songs together.
Over the next few years Spider Kitten would go on to make huge strides in terms of sound and experimentation, as well as garnering critical acclaim for the likes of 2013’s Cougar Club and their stunning debut for Undergroove Records, Behold Mountain; »Hail Sea, Venerate Sky, Bow Before Tree« in 2014, a trilogy of Viking epics inspired by Chris’ Danish heritage.
Perhaps the peak (until now) of the band’s recorded output came with 2016’s Ark Of Octofelis«, a nihilistic and acid drenched, prog rock concept album that scored many a 5 star review.
Shortly after this frontman Chi’s mental health issues forced Spider Kitten into live hiatus, their last show being 2016’s Desertfest in Camden. But far from being deterred the band split off into a noise rock, no wave side project dubbed Kitten Youth to release some EPs as catharsis. Revitalised by the recruitment of Steve-o Jones (ex-The Witches Drum, current-Made Of Teeth) on bass, and Gareth Day (ex-Hogslayer, current-Obey Cobra) on guitar, the band set to recording 2018’s wonderfully bleak »Concise And Sinister« which embraced Chi and Chris’ love of country music, albeit through a sludge metal lens.
After a few more years in the wilderness of breakdowns and health issues, the band reconvened for 2021’s grunge passion project Major Label Debut, this time with Steve-o on drums and Chris on bass.
As of 2022 Spider Kitten had 30 official releases, each one recorded and mixed by Chi himself. Genres range from doom and sludge to country, ambient and even classical. Lyrically Chi uses a playful humour to convey tales from the darker side of the human psyche: murder, suicide, mental illness, addiction, no topic is so bleak that it can’t be handled with a wry smile.
In 2023, after working on an album that obsessed him to the point of madness, Chi finally finished mixing it and sent a copy to APF Records. Turns out they’re crazy enough to release it…
New Spider Kitten. »A Pound For The Peacebringer«. Landing on APF Records 1st September 2023.
Bio Words: Mark Hunt-Bryden
Buy it from: APF Records | Bandcamp
Recorded at Mountain Music Studios & Kitten HQ, South Wales.
Mixed and produced by Chi Lameo.
Mastered by Charlie Francis for Synergy Mastering.
Art by Gareth Day.
Layout and design by Dominic Mayer.
Spider Kitten is:
Chi Lameo – Vocals, Guitars, Keys
Chris West – Drums, Vocals, Guitars
Steveo Jones – Bass, Guitars
Gareth Day – Guitars, Vocals
Guitar on »Safe To Drown« by Luke Oram.
Guitar on »A Pound For The Peacebringer«; guitar and bass on »God’s Song« by Rob Davies.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well