Birmingham may be the birthplace of metal, but here at Supersonic we love our heavy brethren from further afield too. Enter Buñuel, Thou, and Old Man Gloom.
Oxbow’s Eugene S. Robinson fronts Buñuel, alongside the Italian trio of guitarist Xabier Iriondo (Afterhours), the bass of Andrea Lombardini (The Framers), and the drums of Francesco Valente (Snare Drum Exorcism). Buñuel’s newest release Killers Like Us is out now via Profound Lore. The third part of a trilogy that started with A Resting Place for Strangers, and then The Easy Way Out, it’s an amalgam of angular rhythms, drum salvos, blitzkrieging guitars and vocals that sound more like threats than promises. Named after the Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel, the first filmmaker to make good on what happens when straight razors meet eyeballs.
“The easiest categorizations, noise rock and post-punk, fail to capture the full experience. Instead, Killers Like Us is a blitz of untamed, unchecked testosterone.”
– Boolin Tunes
Winging in from Baton Rouge, Lousiana are Thou. Though oftentimes misread as “post rock” or “hipster doom”, they share a more spiritual kinship with 90s proto grunge bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, or Soundgarden. Collaborations with Emma Ruth Rundel and The Body have bolstered their extensive release catalogue, which comprises five full length albums, seven EPs and enough material spread out over splits to make up another four or five full lengths.
“Thou are a very good metal band…the weight and heft of powerful sludge, the atmospheres of post-metal and the scratchy, atonal undercurrent of noise rock”
– The Quietus
Old Man Gloom are also joining the party from Santa Fe, New Mexico. The experimental super-group of Aaron Turner (Sumac/Isis), Nate Newton (Converge), drummer Santos Montano are now joined by Stephen Brodsky (Cave In, Converge) taking the place of late former bandmate Caleb Scofield. Through monolithic sonic tapestries sewn throughout, both of the latest releases Seminar VIII: Light of Meaning and Seminar IX: Darkness of Being (both out now on Profound Lore) serve as a moving tribute to Scofield. Old Man Gloom have incorporated material that Scofield had laid down previously to their earth crumbling riffs, post-hardcore brutality, sprawling noise transmissions, experimental ambient sonic-subdivisions and epic impenetrable melancholy.
Buñuel, Thou and Old Man Gloom play the Saturday of Supersonic 2022. Get your tickets for our 16th edition here.
