Tuesday, October 9, 2012

BACK HOME?

As short as our journey up and down the northwest was, it was a great one. An inspiring, grueling, and transformative experience. Being back home seems strangely foreign. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm out of scratch, I'd be turning the ignition to the Elsewhere bus right this minute. That's okay, all the more incentive to gear up--more efficiently--for the next adventure. Until then, here's some visual evidence:

(photo: HB)

(screenshot: Allen Verelley)

















(screenshot: HB)

(photo: Al Case)

(photo: Al Case)

(photo: Allen Verelley)

(photo: HB)

(photo: HB)





































(photo: HB)

-HB.





























Wednesday, September 26, 2012

WILD HUNT NW APPEARANCES






































Funny to think that after all these years, the Hunt hasn't yet stepped on a stage beyond the Yay area. But in a week we will, finally. We're excited to be playing Nanotear's Fall into Darkness fest friday, Oct 5th in Portland, with Worm Ouroboros, Subrosa, and Aranya(a free show, too!). There will be 3 other NW appearances as well, flyers for each below:








Thursday, August 9, 2012

LAST MINUTE SHOW

Tomorrow night! We're back at Eli's with the most excellent EXHAUSTED PRAYER from LA. The flyer below still reads TBA, but now the other confirmed bands are our bros CATACOMB CREEPS (Santa Cruz) and OLD CROW. Whatever you already have planned for tomorrow night is completely meaningless. See you at Eli's!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

DECIBEL MAGAZINE "UPFRONT PROFILE"

Wild Hunt is in Decibel again, this time with an "upfront profile" in the September issue:

Saturday, July 7, 2012

AUGUST 21 SHOW

August 21st at the Oakland Metro, in the side room. This is an all-ages show.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

WILD HUNT IN DECIBEL MAG JULY ISSUE

Decibel magazine gives Before the Plane of Angles a 9/10:
  
And then, they featured us in their "Brewtal Truth" section as well, regarding H. Burkhart's beer museum in the grocery store where he and W. Lenz work. Good fun:
(If the Brewtal Truth article isn't big enough on the blog, just drag the image to your desktop and open it there and zoom) 
CHEERS!


Monday, May 28, 2012

GARMENTS

There are two WH t-shirts available here. Designed by us, printed by our friends at Team Printshop. These are very limited, and it's uncertain if there will be a 2nd batch, so snatch yours as quick as you can.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

LP MISHAP

Some of you might have noticed there was a pressing error with side C of our LP. Kemado has issued a statement on their website addressing the situation:

Wild Hunt Vinyl Update

To everyone that purchased the recently released Wild Hunt LP, Before The Plane Of Angles, we want to apologize for a production mix up. Unfortunately, Side C of the record is out of order – as it was intended, the running order should have been:
Side C
4. Unravel the Veil of Separation, Bask in the Serenity of Discord
5. Plane of Angles
Those songs were swapped on the current pressing, so you are actually listening to “Plane of Angles” first rather than last. We are working on a repressing of the record now, but it was important to the band and us that you know what song you are listening to. Apologies again for this screw up.
Sincerely,
Kemado Records


So, the re-pressings of side C should be done in a week or so. If you would like a corrected version sent to you free of charge, email Kemado via their website. 

JUNE 23RD SHOW

Our next show is with HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE and GRAYCEON, June 23rd at Elbo Room, San Fran. Purchase advance tickets online at www.brownpapertickets.com. This will be a blast, for sure!

Friday, May 18, 2012

SFBG MUSIC BLOG

Here's another nice little writeup (and goofy interview) from the SF Bay Guardian "Localized Apreesh" blog:

Localized Appreesh: Wild Hunt

 |


In the darkness, there is Wild Hunt.
PHOTO BY JAMES BURKHART
Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contactemilysavage@sfbg.com.
The essence of Oakland'sWild Hunt could summed up thusly: doomy, progressive metal that perches in the cerebral cortex during a waking nightmare. A ghoulish nightmare from which you don't necessary wish to wake. It's black magic behind fluttering eyelids.
Along with more traditional metal riffs, there are drawn-out, heavy breakdowns that lend easily to slow, deliberate head banging, blended with modern hypnotic ambiance that gives it that dream-like quality. It doesn't hurt that drummer-vocalist Harland Burkhart sounds like he's growling underwater. I've seen Enslaved noted as a point of reference here, and agree with that assessment.
So now you need to hear it, right? Well, you've chased it down and speared it. The quartet's debut album, Before the Plane of Angles, which was mixed by Laudanum's Salvador Raya and mastered by Justin Weis (Hammers of Misfortune, Ludicra), is out now on Kemado. And the album release show is this weekend at El Rio. 
I caught up with the Wild Hunt in that unsettling space between wake and sleep. Here's what Burkhart had to say:
Band name origin: "Wild Hunt" refers to the ancient European myth of a phantasmal cavalcade of dead folks seen madly flying through the sky, usually around Yuletide. There are a variety of different versions of the legend; some believe the Norse god Odin leads the pack, others believe King Arthur, others believe Ronald McDonald.
Band motto: You got fourteen cent?
Description of sound in 10 words or less: Heavy, melodic, dreamlike. At times jarring, at times tranquil.
Instrumentation: Two guitarists, one bassist, one drummer/vocalist.
Most recent release: Before the Plane of Angles (Kemado Records, 2012)

Best part about life as a Bay Area band: 
Being situated in such a hotbed of creative activity.
Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: Paying rent.
First album purchased: For me, possibly Oingo Boingo, Only a Lad.
Most recent album purchased/downloaded: Allseits, Hel.
Favorite local eatery and dish: Southie has become my lunchtime destination. That dang fried rock shrimp sandwich has changed my life, tell you what.
Wild Hunt 
With Giant Squid, Black Queen
Sat/19, 10pm, $8
El Rio
3158 Mission, SF
(415) 282-3325 

www.elriosf.com

Saturday, May 5, 2012

ALBUM OF THE WEEK ON MSN'S METAL BLOG


Here's a nice review of "Before the Plane..." written by Adrien Begrand.

Album of the Week:

Wild Hunt, Before the Plane of Angles (Kemado)

When Ludicra split up a year ago the metal world lost one of the Bay Area’s most inventive bands, one that might have been rooted in one particular subgenre – in their case, black metal – but in reality displayed an openness to other influences that lent their music a unique quality that stood out far apart from anything else in metal. Such bands are rare, so it was no surprise that the news of Ludicra’s demise was greeted with great disappointment from those who had followed the band over the previous decade. When a defiantly, daringly original band splits, who knows when someone in their local scene pick up where they left off?

Wild Hunt might hail from grittier, blue-collar Oakland instead of Ludicra’s San Francisco, and the their music might differ considerably from each other, but there’s no mistaking both bands are cut from the same cloth. Like Ludicra, and even Norwegian innovators EnslavedWild Hunt doesn’t care one iota about genre restrictions. The foursome of guitarists Greg Brace and Drew Cook, bassist West Lenz, and drummer/vocalist Harland Burkhart take bits and pieces from black metal, progressive metal, traditional heavy metal, doom, and even ambient music on their debut album and create something that’s not only unlike anything in American metal right now, but for all its eclecticism is startlingly cohesive.

What’s so remarkable about Before the Plane of Angles is its sense of restraint. The compositions, especially the two 16-minute tracks that bookend the album, “Eidetic Parallax” and “Plane of Angles”, meander, yet it’s never the kind of labyrinthine arrangement that has you wishing you had a riff map to follow along. Instead, the songs flow so gracefully that it’s simply easy to take in, suite-like songs shifting from movement to movement so seemingly naturally that the shifts from style to style hardly feel like a surprise. Granted, the album isn’t without its more immediate moments as well, and two of the middle three tracks on the album showcase Wild Hunt at their most accessible. The opening riff of “Panorama” bears a strong resemblance to the icy guitar sounds of Enslaved’sRuun album before dissolving into an ambient piece reminiscent of Tangerine Dream. “Window to the Nether” shifts from mid-tempo black metal grooves to the muscular American crunch of Mastodon and early Baroness,Burkhart providing haunting chanted vocals, the song becoming more and more blackened the longer it goes on.

Time and again Wild Hunt pulls the rug out from under the listener on this album, yet they do so in a way that’s not jarring, which is where that black metal influence comes in to play. The band’s musical influences are all over the map, but similar to Ludicra, their feet are firmly planted in black metal. That sound is always there in some way, shape, or form, and while the band uses black metal more as a springboard toward exploring new sounds, the black metal element keeps the music grounded. As a result the compositions never once fly off the handle, a great example being “Plane of Angles”, which retains that influence while at the same time taking the music further and further outside the realm of the “cvlt” towards something a lot more progressive and unpredictable. Before the Plane of Angles is a rarity in American metal, a daring, confident debut that instantly creates a one of a kind identity for the band, one that’s set to establish Wild Hunt as the next underground favorite in Bay Area metal. Ludicra’s title is theirs for the taking.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

THEY'RE HERE...

Holy crap! Could it be?? Yes indeedy, the gatefold 2xLP's of "Before the Plane of Angles" are here. Grab one of your own while supplies last, at Kemado.com. Or, if you make it to our release show May 19th at El Rio SF, we'll have some on hand there too. 

Thursday, April 26, 2012

WILD HUNT ON NOISE CREEP

Harland lists 5 "obscure" bands to check out on noisecreep.com:


Wild Hunt is a mystical, blackened metal band from Oakland. If you're a fan of groups like Ludicra, Hammers of Misfortune and Weakling, you might already be familiar with them, since they run in some of the same circles. Wild Hunt's vocals are handed by drummer Harland Burkhart who possesses a creepy, almost drugged-like singing voice.

The quartet is gearing up for the release of Before the Plane of Angles, their debut album. Wild Hunt recently debuted one of the album's tracks, "Window to the Nether," at this link.

When his publicist told us that Burkhart was a huge fan of cultish metal, Noisecreep asked if we could get him to send us a list of five groups that he's been listening to lately. Check out his picks and be ready to be turned onto some crazy stuff!

Ved Buens Ende
"Maybe not that obscure anymore, but this pick is still definitely an oddball one. This is an example of the weirdness that sprung out of the Norwegian black metal scene in the mid-'90s when, for some, wearing corpsepaint and screaming about Satan was starting to run its course. This is heavy music straight from the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."





Truppensturm
"This is war metal at its finest. These Teutons have honed in on a sound so chaotic and relentless, you might find yourself transported to a bombed out trench in World War II."




Loincloth
"Here's an insanely talented instrumental band from Virginia. Pen Rollings (ex-Breadwinner, the first band to be labeled "math rock") used to be in this group, and 2 of the 3 current members are from the technical doom band Confessor. So, you could probably guess what you're gonna get here---total head-scratching polyrhythmic odd-meter madness. The crazy thing is that it's actually enjoyable to listen to! Complexity without pretentiousness."



Circle
"I put these guys in here because metal is definitely a part of their sound, but I doubt metal-archives.com would list them. Still, I say Circle's Katapult album is an essential piece of music for metalheads looking for something off the beaten path. The song "Saturnus Reality" makes me think of Frank Zappa teaming up with Dødheimsgard, or something."




Misery's Omen
"This is an Australian group with members of Stargazer, Cauldron Black Ram, Mournful Congregation, etc. They feature some phenomenal bass playing from Damon Good, and some truly beautiful black/doom melodies throughout. At times the go kind of jazzy (sounds terrible, right?), and other times they get subtly humorous. They are one of my favorite black-ish metal bands."


"PANORAMA" FEATURED ON AD HOC BLOG:

Kim Kelly of adhoc.fm writes: 
Oakland, California is a tough town, known for its gritty DIY punk & metal scene and status as San Francisco's leaner, meaner twin sibling. It's not exactly a bastion of calm, but you wouldn't know it listening to the newly surfaced but already buzzworthy Wild Hunt. Their first record, Before the Plane of Angles, is slated for a May 1st release via Kemado Records, and the band's profile has already been buoyed by an enthusiastic endorsement from Agalloch/Worm Ouroboros drummer Aesop Dekker. Their progressive, expansive take on modern black metal is reminiscent of latter-day Enslaved in its willingness to embrace the sublime alongside the savage; they incorporate swaths of ambient music, field recordings, and a traditional heavy metal sensibility to create something quite unique, and wonderfully absorbing. Check out "Panorama" below.


http://soundcloud.com/adhocfm/wild-hunt-panorama

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

INVISIBLE ORANGES PREVIEW

InvisibleOranges.com premiered "Window to the Nether" today:

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2012/04/io-exclusive-track-stream-wild-hunts-window-to-the-nether/

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

MEAT/MEAD/METAL REVIEW

Nice review by Brian Krasman of meatmeadmetal:


Wild Hunt blend black, trad, prog metal on excellent ‘Before the Plane of Angles’

April 18th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
I walk my dog every day, and while fighting to control a feisty, 8-month-old pup made out of muscle can be so much fun (right down to the forearm bruises), it can be a little mundane once she calms down and starts walking like a normal animal. See, we take the same route every day because the options are limited in our neighborhood and because there’s enough hill to get in a good workout. For both of us. But seeing the same stuff and doing the same thing every day can be monotonous, so I choose wisely my musical selections for our journeys.
Grindcore or punk doesn’t work because it’s too fast and doesn’t last long enough. Something post-metal doesn’t really do the trick because it just makes me gaze into the distance, and a walk is not a good setting for that. Black metal just puts a scowl on my face, and I don’t need people thinking I’m some sort of criminal (the weird metal shirts and half-arm of tattoos already get me cautious looks). Instead, I need something with a little variety, an album that’ll keep my head in the game and let my brain work along with my (aching) muscles.
That’s where Wild Hunt enter the fray. They do all kinds of things I like a lot — prog rock! trad metal! doom! black metal! – and they mix it all together really nicely in a way where you’re less aware of the twists and turns and more conscious of how well all the elements work together to achieve a greater whole. Their music on their debut full-length “Before the Plane of Angles” (Kemado) is exciting and varied, complex and digestible, and it has kept the juices flowing on those walks because I’m thinking far less about how I take the same trip every day and more about how this record keeps revealing itself to me in a different manner every time I listen. It’s such a great record, and it’s so hard to believe that a band this good, this flexible are just now issuing their debut. I can only imagine how the next platter’s going to sound. I have a hard enough time properly summarizing this one.
Wild Hunt, who formed in 2004, call Oakland, Calif., home, so yeah, we’re talking another Bay Area barnstormer. But these guys are one of the most ambitious, exciting bands to come out of that area in a long time, which is saying something considering the amount of talent in that region. This band — vocalist/drummer Harland Burkhart, guitarists Greg Brace and Drew Cook, bassist West Lenz — play around with epic-length songs, which works to their advantage since they’re adept at playing so many styles of metal and, as noted, blending them together. Oh, a quick note of interest is that Burkhart, Brace, and Cook also play in the Dimesland (Vendlus), another group that isn’t your run-of-the-mill metal band. I know all these details just tossed out there about Wild Hunt might make you think “Before the Plane of Angles” could be something that’ll take you a while to digest, but it really isn’t. At least for me, the appeal of the record and their sound was instantaneous, and the more I heard the album, the more excited I got about it.

The record is book-ended by a pair of 16-minute songs, both of them equally expansive and awesome. “Eidetic Parallax” opens the album and goes from spacious prog rock, to black metal panic and shrieks from Burkhart, space-bound melodies, trance-inducing flushes of atmosphere, and adventurous riffing before the whole thing fades away. “Plane of Angles” is the closer, and it’s built in much the same way, with all of the things they do well revisited — but not repeated — but it also gets a bit of acoustic wonder, some power metal-fireworks, the band harmonizing vocally underneath the firestorm, and eventually a tricky, dream-like loop that carries the album off into oblivion. These two cuts are worth the price of admission alone, but they’re only part of the story.
In between those epic pillars are three more songs that serve to prove the band’s incredible dexterity. “Panorama” is one of the heaviest tracks on the album, with more black doom magic, some classic metal guitar work, throaty singing and growling, and a long, cosmic ambient passage that stretches over the song’s last three minutes. “Window to the Nether” is pushy and catchy, showing they have a knack for writing something a little more accessible, and the cleanly delivered vocals remind a bit of Baroness. “Unravel the Veil” is the shortest cut here, a wooshing, hazy instrumental built on Moog fog and light instrumentation, letting you get a breather before the monstrous finale.
Wild Hunt’s debut long-player is one of the more exciting initial offerings to come my way this year, and I’m still having a lot of fun working with it. The band combines all the things I like best about metal and in a way that suggests they feel the same way about these things. They’re not here riding on some trend or cashing in on a sound. They seem to be putting all of their influences together in a fluid, thunderous way, and “Before the Plane of Angles” certainly keeps things interesting every time out. That’ll make walking a lot more enjoyable for the foreseeable future.


Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Saturday, March 31, 2012

MAY 19TH RECORD RELEASE SHOW FLYER

Here's the flyer for our May 19th record release show, where we'll have double gatefold vinyl of "Before the Plane of Angles" for sale. If you can't wait, you can pre-order your copy here.
Also, we've just confirmed another show with Christy Cather's band LADY OF THE LAKE and Stevie Floyd's TAURUS, April 22nd at the Elbo Room (647 Valencia st., SF). The weird part is that this is going to be an early show, starting at 4pm or so. Hopefully we'll be able to wake up early enough to make load-in on time. Flyer coming soon.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

TWO SHOWS YOU SHOULD PREPARE FOR

Two Alcoholocaust presentations NOT to be slept upon: No flyers yet for either, but hey, ain't nothing wrong with a premature warning. Our record release show is indeed happening May 19th at El Rio (3158 Mission St. SF) with Seattle's BLACK QUEEN (though originally from SF) and the great GIANT SQUID, who will be headlining. Then, June 23rd we will be joining up with GRAYCEON and HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE at the Elbo Room (647 Valencia St. SF). Fantastisch! Basically, if you don't attend at least one of these shows, you'll end up looking like this poor LA trick pictured above.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Sunday, March 11, 2012

UNUS MUNDUS



Wild Hunt's debut album, "Before the Plane of Angles" is scheduled for release May 1st, 2012 on Kemado Records. Nearly five years in the making, finally realized in double vinyl form, brimful of astral concentrates. There are plans in the works for a release show on May 19th at El Rio in SF. More details soon.