Jess and the Ancient Ones has been one of my newest favorite bands to reside my top tier. Ever since hearing them late 2014, Jess and the Ancient Ones blew my mind with their very own brand of psychedelic occult hard rock music. The band made their US debut opening for King Diamond’s North American tour so getting to see them live was something that I will never forget. As I waited patiently for follow up music from their Astral Sabbat EP, I hear news that JATAO guitarist/songwriter Thomas Corpse has put together a new collective band featuring Jess and the Ancient Ones members called The Exploding Eyes Orchestra.
With a lineup consisting of five out of seven Jess and the Ancient Ones members, the band’s debut album, simply titled “I”, will hit the streets on June 12th via Svart Records.
According to Thomas Corpse, the idea behind the new combo was to find an outlet for material which the prolific songwriter found incompatible with the Jess and the Ancient Ones concept. The album is culled from lengthy recording sessions held in Kuopio, Finland in the winter of 2013 and 2014, and these sessions also produced another album’s worth of excellent material, which will see the light of day on the next release, “II,” in the spring of 2016 via Svart Records.
The “I” track listing is as follows:
1. The Smoke
2. Crazy Heart
3. My Father The Wolf
4. Drawing Down The West
5. Two-Zero 13
6. Black Hound
7. Farewell to All-In-One
I cannot wait to hear this album and to all the JATAO fans out there, rest assured that Jess and the Ancient Ones is still very much alive and well! This doesn’t mean the end but the beginning of a new outlet of music from these masters of occult rock!
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