Vancouver quartet Bison B.C.'s third album Dark Ages has a brightness to it, from the cover's flaming serpents and the band's orange logo to the instrumentation across these seven songs and 46 minutes -- great double guitar leads, the unexpected gently twanging interlude, cathartic and anthemic vocal chops, etc. It's celebratory even when it's dirty or seemingly apocalyptic. A side-effect of the band's relative youth? Or maybe it's mixing up their sludge storm with vibrant shout-along punk and torn-denim thrash. See, for example, the up-swinging riffs and group chants in "Two-Day Booze," a song that approximates a climb toward a good buzz, a few drinks before the inevitable crash. TGIF.
Dark Ages is out 4/13 via Metal Blade. You can pre-order it now. It follows 2008's Quiet Earth, in case you're keeping track. You can hear the 8-minute opener "Stressed Elephant at ExploreMusic. The guys are on that aforementioned tour with High On Fire, Priestess, and Black Cobra. (You might've caught the warm-up at SXSW.) Check out that last date, when Mastodon, Baroness, and some others get involved.
04/01 - Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
04/02 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
04/03 - Columbus, OH @ Skully's Music Diner
04/05 - Morgantown, WV @ 123 Pleasant Street
04/06 - Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
04/07 - Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East
04/08 - Milford, CT @ Daniel Street
04/09 - New York City, NY @ Gramercy Theater
04/10 - Baltimore, MD @ Sonar
04/11 - Washington DC @ Black Cat
04/13 - Charlotte, NC @ Tremont Music Hall
04/14 - Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
04/15 - New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
04/16 - Houston, TX @ Walters On Washington
04/17 - Austin TX @ Emo's
04/18 - Dallas, TX @ The Loft
04/20 - Boulder, CO @ Fox Theater
04/22 - Tempe AZ @ The Clubhouse
04/23 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theater
04/24 - Costa Mesa, CA @ Detroit Bar
04/25 - San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
04/27 - Fresno, CA @ Audies Olympic/Club Fred
04/28 - Santa Cruz, CA @ Blue Lagoon
04/30 - Boise, ID @ Neurolux Inc
05/01 - Spokane, WA @ The Boulevard
05/02 - Bellingham, WA @ The Nightclub
05/04 - Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
05/05 - Portland, OR @ Dante's
05/07 - Eureka, CA @ Nocturnum
05/08 - Oakland, CA @ The Fox Theater #
# w/High On Fire, Mastodon, Priestess, Baroness, Between The Buried And Me, Valient Thorr, Black Cobra
