• “Quasar” set to a picture of the housing album cover.
“Excellent Trance Rock from Australia”
From their double album “Passage To Agartha” released in September, 2017.
The teasing 30 seconds intro grabbed me instantly and from thereon the piece relentlessly pummeled its way into my chest and brain for the whole 11 minutes duration, the riffage all at once dense, ferociously heavy and yet subtly melodic, hypnotically pulling me in deeper and deeper the longer it goes.
Surprisingly, all of this intensely excellent racket is made by just two of them, brothers Ben Matthews (drums) and Toby Matthews (guitars), who’ve been playing together as Hotel Wrecking City Traders since 2006.
As the press-release puts it:
In existence for over 10 years and based in Melbourne, Australia, HWCT have been releasing music and touring the world, carving out their own special blend of psychedelic space rock. Thundering walls of guitars and tonal ferocity meet acid-soaked hypno-drones and riff after crushing riff.
This, their 5th full length record and first double album is comprised of 6 mammoth tracks further pushing the sonic boundaries of previous releases with the addition of added instrumentation. Recorded over 3 days in June and December of 2016 at Cellar Sessions Studios, Melbourne with Max Ducker.
As the sound of HWCT has evolved over the course of the past 4 albums, countless EP’s and split releases with the likes of UK’s Hey Colossus. The expansiveness of the sound is evident from the opening driving riffs of ‘Quasar’ throughout the winding passage of sounds all the way to the closing lysergic drones of ‘Oroshi’.
Themes of journey, distance and space are boldly exhibited throughout the record and are abundant in the 15- minute-long title track. Dense walls of bottom end guitar and bone crushing monolithic drums hit like waves of molten volcanic lava washing over a baron scorched wasteland.
Expansive riffs, cosmic repeato-drone, driving motorik beats, gargantuan slow burning waves of fuzz and mountains of rich tone. This is the ‘Passage to Agartha’.
Heard on Pete Jackson’s November 2017 show on Dandelion Radio.
Get it at Bandcamp.
the last great record 