Chicago Doom/Sludge eclectics I KLATUS will release Nagual Sun October 13 on digital and analog (cassette) formats. The highly anticipated follow-up to 2012’s Kether is the band’s third full-length album (and fifth release overall). An official video for album track “Sorcerer’s Gaze” is available at this location.
The overall sound of Nagual Sun maintains the gritty roots for which I KLATUS is known, while at the same time launches the group into new and more fully fleshed-out dimensions of weirdness. Tom Denney is the primary soothsayer behind I KLATUS. Denney, whose background is steeped in the visual arts, has provided artwork and monsters for a laundry list of signed metal acts in the community (KYLESA, BLACK COBRA, SAMOTHRACE, CANNIBAL CORPSE, CEPHALIC CARNAGE and RWAKE just to name a few). His guitar squalls hard against the shores of this stoner metal effort, but also manages to rise above the storm in melodic hymns. Denney trades growling vocals with bass player, John E. Bomher, Jr. (BURY THE MACHINES, YAKUZA), who keeps things grinding nicely, while also providing some sweeter tones when they let songs open up and sweep across more ethereal planes.
Bomher doubles as the band’s producer with his extensive experience in the studio; his work on the album sets this release head and shoulders above their previous efforts in terms of production quality. The drums are championed by Chris Wozniak (LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR, EARTHEN GRAVE, SERPENT CROWN) who metes out doom in guttural timing. Wozniak just pounds and pounds, hitting that sonic-pocket, which gives the stoner/doom genre its feeling of lift and expansiveness. Some noises and textures by former member, Robert Bauwens, are also tucked into the nooks and crannies of these tracks. Last by not least, special thanks goes to author Ryan Sean O’Reilly for his contributions to the press release.
Track Listing:
Side A
Beneath the Waves
Serpent Cults
Sorcerer’s Gaze
Moment of Devastation
Side B
The Alivist
Jaws of the Shark
Father John Thomas (The Penitent)
Final Communion
I Klatus is the brainchild of Tom Denney, now a 10-year Angeleno. The band was formed in Chicago back in 2005 with Chris Wozniak (Lair of the Minotaur, Earthen Grave, Serpent Crown) and they recorded the first demo Borningroom with the “man behind the metal” in Chicago, Sanford Parker.
In 2008, joined by producer/engineer John E. Bomher (Bury the Machines, Yakuza) on bass, vox and various noise machines the band released their first full-length Surveillance & Worship. Followed up by the epic LP vinyl Kether in 2012, which featured various guest musicians from all over the American metal scene (Leon del Muerte from Phobia, Bruce Lamont from Yakuza, Tariq Ali from Couldron R.I.P.)
The newest incarnation for Nagual Sun still features key members Denney, Bomher and Wozniak with the addition of Robert Bauwens having collaborated and written drum parts for much of the material on Nagual Sun as well as providing the trademark ethereal noise that weaves all throughout I Klatus signature sludgy sound.
All of their full length records have been recorded and mixed by Bomher at Horse-Drawn Productions and the newest album proves to be their heaviest sounding release yet.
