Japanese shoegaze/metal vets Coaltar of the Deepers return with new version of their 1994 debut
Japanese metal/shoegaze veterans Coaltar of the Deepers (who Hazing Over fka Shin Guard recently covered and namdropped as an influence on their new EP Pestilence) resurfaced in 2018 with the four-song Rabbit EP — their first new music in over a decade — and now they have released Revenge of the Visitors, a re-imagining of their classic 1994 debut LP The Visitors From Deepspace and their first full-length release in 14 years. Some background on the new release via their label Needlejuice Records:
Coaltar of the Deepers is one of the most versatile bands of Japan’s shoegazer scene, effortlessly weaving disparate genres into tapestries of psychedelic brilliance. Revenge of the Visitors, their first official release outside of Japan via Needlejuice Records, is a complete re-envisioning of their 1994 debut album. Guitarist, vocalist and songwriter NARASAKI reunites with four original members of the band to update these songs for the 21st century, strengthening their bravura spectacle. Coaltar of the Deepers have always strived to make music that sounds as alien as their silver-helmeted alien guises: sludgy, foreboding metal gives way to surf rock, malevolent growls harmonize with heavenly pop vocals, and hardcore drumwork conjures storms in mellow seas of reverbed guitars. Revenge of the Visitors is a perfect introduction to a legendary band, encapsulating both their humble beginnings and soaring heights.
Whether or not you’re already familiar with the 1994 album, this new record is worth checking out; as the label’s description says, it’s a complete re-envisioning that serves as a perfect introduction to the band. If you don’t know the original album, it opens with guttural death metal cover of The Cure‘s “Killing An Arab” (retitled “Killing Another” and featuring different lyrics on the new version) before going into a strikingly unique blend of shoegaze, power pop, dream pop, alternative rock, sludge metal, and more. It’s tempting to compare them to fellow Japanese band Boris, because the ingredients are so similar (and because Boris have covered them too), but the end result is a lot different. Visitors ends up sounding like a cross between Redd Kross, Swervedriver, and Mortician, ranging from pop at its brightest to metal at its most brutal (and working in a “Crazy Train” homage), and the new version really breathes new life into these songs. It feels like an album that should’ve birthed a heavy shoegaze hit in the ’90s (like The Smashing Pumpkins, Hum, Failure, and Deftones all did), and the new recordings sound as fresh as today’s heavy shoegaze revival bands like Nothing and Greet Death. (The new version also ups the amount of death metal.) Stream the new version for yourself below.
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28 Essential Songs from the Shoegaze / Heavy Crossover
My Bloody Valentine – “You Made Me Realise” (1988)
Swervedriver – “Rave Down” (1990)
Way before "metal-gaze" was a thing, MBV's UK neighbors and Creation Records labelmates Swervedriver were getting metal cred. "Rave Down," the title track of their 1990 sophomore EP (which also ended up on their 1991 debut album Raise) was made single of the week by a heavy metal magazine, which prompted guitarist Jimmy Hartridge to say "Maybe we're the start of an indie-metal cross-over" in a 1990 Melody Maker interview. If only he knew just how on point that comment would end up being.
It's not hard to see why a metal mag might've liked "Rave Down." That crushing riff in the middle of the song owed as much to sludge metal as the more pillowy parts owed to shoegaze. MBV could add some weight into their songs when they wanted to, but "Rave Down" really toed that shoegaze/metal line in 1990 as much as Hum's breakthrough hit "Stars" would five years later. Swervedriver not only ended up opening for Hum years later, they also did US tours in the early days with Soundgarden (1992) and The Smashing Pumpkins (1993). With monster riffs like "Rave Down" in their arsenal, it's no wonder the grunge-loving US crowds latched onto them.
Catherine Wheel – “Kill Rhythm” (1993)
The Smashing Pumpkins – “Rocket” (1993)
Starflyer 59 – “A House Wife Love Song” (1995)
Quicksand – “Delusional” (1995)
Failure – “Saturday Savior” (1996)
LA's Failure started out as more of straight-up grunge/alt-rock band, but they slowly inched their way towards shoegaze and space rock, and it all culminated in 1996's Fantastic Planet, their third album and final new release until their mid 2010s reunion. There are a lot of songs on Fantastic Planet that perfectly navigate the shoegaze/space/grunge/punk/metal divide ("Stuck On You," "Another Space Song," "Leo," "Sergeant Politeness," to name four), but it's opening track "Saturday Savior" that really epitomizes what the heavy shoegaze sound is today. It's as catchy and anthemic as anything on alt-rock radio in the mid '90s, but it's cloaked in atmosphere and moves at a glacial pace. It's the perfect way to kick off the album that became their masterpiece.
Unfortunately, said masterpiece wasn't received as well as it deserved to be, and Failure broke up just a year later. Like Hum, the album became hugely influential over the years, and with the band's eventual reunion came the long overdue recognition of Fantastic Planet as one of the true classic records of '90s alternative.
Deftones – “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” (1997)
Hum – “Isle of the Cheetah” (1998)
Hum's 1995 hit "Stars" is the band's most historically significant song, a super catchy fusion of post-hardcore and shoegaze that managed to get this type of music on the radio, but its one hit wonder status has done a disservice to the rest of Hum's music in the mainstream public eye, so I chose something else for this list. Plus, as fantastic as 1995's You'd Prefer an Astronaut is, its followup Downward Is Heavenward is really the album where Hum pushed their sound to the limits and raised the bar for what heavy, spacey, shoegazy rock could be. It's a crime that the album was viewed as anything but a creative and artistic leap from its predecessor.
It's hard to pick just one song, but the nearly-seven-minute opener "Isle of the Cheetah" is a great place to start. It immediately introduces Downward Is Heavenward as a more ambitious album than You'd Prefer an Astronaut, with jangly acoustic guitars, gentle piano lines, thick layers of sludge, prog riffage, and Matt Talbott's angelic vocals all swirling together to create the song's towering wall of sound. "Stars" was digestible enough to become a fluke hit, but the world wasn't ready for something as immersive as this.
Far – “Bury White” (1998)
Castor – “Stay Lo” (1999)
Cave In – “Big Riff” (2000)
Shiner – “The Egg” (2001)
Centaur – “The Same Place” (2002)
Hopesfall – “Escape Pod for Intangibles” (ft. Matt Talbott) (2002)
Boris – “Farewell” (2005)
Jesu – “Silver” (2006)
Title Fight – “Head In the Ceiling Fan” (2012)
Cloakroom – “Bending” (2013)
Paramore – “Future” (2013)
Nothing – “Hymn to the Pillory” (2014)
Lantlôs – “Azure Chimes” (2014)
Superheaven – “I’ve Been Bored” (2015)
Holy Fawn – “Dark Stone” (2018)
Torche – “Admission” (2019)
Alcest – “Sapphire” (2019)
Greet Death – “You’re Gonna Hate What You’ve Done” (2019)
Hum – “Cloud City” (2020)
Listen and/or subscribe to our playlist of all 28 songs (with MBV’s “Feed Me With Your Kiss” replacing “You Made Me Realise” because the latter isn’t on Spotify):