Photo by Benedikt Eiden
BLACK SALVATION‘s Uncertainty Is Bliss is to today what The Stooges’ eponymous debut was to 1969. It’s what Led Zeppelin IV was to Fast Times At Ridgemont High. And it’s how Can’s Tago Mago continues to blaze minds after nearly fifty years on wax…..
Uncertainty Is Bliss, the debut full-length from German psychedelic, hard rock trio, BLACK SALVATION, is out TODAY via Relapse Records.
Stream the record in full at THIS LOCATION.
View the band’s video for “Breathing Hands” below.
BLACK SALVATION – featuring Uno Bruniusson formerly of In Solitude and Grave Pleasures and currently of Death Alley – challenges the listener to open wide the doors of perception and slowly drift away amongst their transcendental compositions and deeply hypnotic tales of magic and mysticism. Across eight tracks and over forty minutes, BLACK SALVATION exquisitely blends hard rock, doom, and psychedelia into an intoxicating synthesis of rock ‘n’ roll alchemy. Uncertainty Is Bliss is surely one of the most captivating rock debuts in years.
Uncertainty Is Bliss is available on CD, LP, and digital formats. Physical packages are available via Relapse.com HERE. The digital edition can be purchased at THIS LOCATION.
BLACK SALVATION is currently in the midst of a short European headlining tour. See all confirmed dates below.
BLACK SALVATION:
4/06/2018 Neues Schauspiel – Leipzig, DE
4/07/2018 Schlachthof – Eisenach, DE
4/08/2018 TBA – Cologne, DE
4/10/2018 Hafenklang – Hamburg, DE
4/11/2018 Lygtens Kro – Copenhagen, DK
4/12/2018 Zukunft am Ostkreuz – Berlin, DE
Exploding into a thousand shards of awesome at the unlikely nexus of heavy metal, post-punk, protest rock, krautrock, and traditional rhythm and blues, BLACK SALVATION is obviously not playing by conventional rules. Not in the way they approach their unique brand of psychedelic hard rock. Not in the DIY way they recorded new album, Uncertainty Is Bliss. And certainly not as composers and actors in the Max-Ophüls-Preis-nominated short-film Wald. While safe thinkers covet and cradle known tenets, BLACK SALVATION are blasting fantastic between unknown of inner and outer worlds of rockdom.
Formed in Leipzig in 2009 by Paul Schlesier, BLACK SALVATION‘s early years pivoted on jamming gritty dirges, Ã la Electric Wizard, and elongated, repetition-based space-outs. Over the next few years, the Germans, with bassist Birger Schwidop and drummer Christian Seitz in tow, honed their craft and assisted in the foundation of Into Endless Chaos (IEC), a DIY organization of Leipzig-based counter-culture musicians and artists. Confident in their heavy wander and galvanized by their IEC interactions, BLACK SALVATION released their debut album, In Deep Circles, without label support in 2014. Praised equally for its riff-based rockers (“Reveal The Night” and “Black Spell”) and lava lamp runs (“Silent Magic Spring” and “The Devil Sent Us An Angel”), In Deep Circles illustrated BLACK SALVATION were crafty, adventurous songwriters with designs on rocking stranger things the hard way.
For new album Uncertainty Is Bliss, Schlesier and Schwidop wrote together – drummer Seitz had already exited. Finding capable drummers was relatively easy, but getting the right fit, both musically and philosophically, proved to be a challenge. So, Schlesier and Schwidop kept BLACK SALVATION‘s newest odes to the uncharted simple but imaginative. The result was a puzzle of drums, overdubbed bass, fuzzy yet nimble guitar, and Schlesier’s baritone vocals. The glint of genius in the early versions of “In A Casket’s Ride,” “Leair,” “A Direction Is Futile,” and “Floating Torpid” was all too real, but BLACK SALVATION needed the right drummer – a skinsman with significant swing and a sizable attitude – to send them into the stratosphere. Enter Uno Bruniusson.
With Bruniusson behind the kit and the vibes at eleven, BLACK SALVATION wasted little time – a week, basically – before entering an unnamed rehearsal room (not a studio proper) to track Uncertainty Is Bliss. They had as long as they needed, but environmentally it wasn’t the best place to record a trans-genre, beyond-space masterpiece. For eight days, BLACK SALVATION fought the confines of the rehearsal room. But between high-end mics and a vintage, if temperamental eight-track Fostex tape machine, they emerged with a modern-day gem of psychedelic hard rock madness. The songs were eventually transferred to computer, where the finishing touches – overdubs and vocals – were constructed for mixing and mastering aces Martin “Konie” Ehrencrona (Tribulation, In Solitude) and Pieter Kloos (Sunn O))), The Devil’s Blood).
BLACK SALVATION’s Uncertainty Is Bliss is to today what The Stooges’ eponymous debut was to 1969. It’s what Led Zeppelin IV was to Fast Times At Ridgemont High. And it’s how Can’s Tago Mago continues to blaze minds after nearly fifty years on wax. Songs like “Getting Slowly Lost,” “Breathing Hands,” “Grey River,” and the short but filmic instrumental “The Eye That Breathes” – as well as the other four previously named songs – transcend today and yesterday. They’re tumultuous, pensive, rebellious, noisy, and perfectly imprecise hard rock tunes for otherworldly enjoyment.
So, the adage isn’t true. Bands do make hard rock like they used to. BLACK SALVATION‘s Uncertainty Is Bliss is psychedelic hard rock for all.
“This album won’t turn heads; it’ll spin ’em right off altogether.” — Decibel
“…a heady mixture of Siouxsie And The Banshees, X, and Echo And The Bunnymen. Uncertainty Is Bliss is loud and bombastic and is meant to be played on 11. — Ghost Cult
“This could’ve been the featured performance on a Swedish talk show in the early 1970s, as they played in front of a green screen having an acid flashback.” — Heavy Music HQ
“…an acid trip the likes of which you better make damn sure you’re a part of.” — Headbanger Reviews
“BLACK SALVATION are here to embody the sense of adventure and analog groove the best bands of the late ’60s and early ’70s were able to conjure in their prime. Uncertainty is Bliss is a loud and very certain statement that the current glut of stoner and retro bands are really going to have to up their game and their sincerity (not to mention their psychic communication with each other) if they hope to be able to achieve what BLACK SALVATION do on only their second album.” — Nine Circles
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