Chicago dark-n’-crusty sludge/doomsters The Atlas Moth, a really good band I’ve slowly gotten hip to over the past couple of years, are releasing a digital-only covers EP this fall that promises to be pretty darn sweet. Titled The One Amongst the Weed Fields, it contains darkened renditions of “California Dreamin’” (The Mamas & The Papas), “Fearless” (Pink Floyd), “Golden” (Failure), and “Five to One” (The Doors). That Failure cover is currently streaming over at Stereogum, so you should definitely check that out, but the one I’m most excited to hear is “Fearless.” Long-time readers of this site should know I’m a huge Floyd freak, and I’ve always thought “Fearless” was ripe for a metal re-interpretation.

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Reign in Blonde’s Elise reminded me of my love of heavy space rock pioneers Failure with a post this morning about the vinyl re-release of their album Fantastic Planet. Never heard of Failure? If you’re a fan of Jupiter-era Cave In and, by extension, the whole Caspian/Constants/Junius axis of spaced-out heavy rock, then you definitely owe Failure a listen at the very least. And if you also dig the Quicksand/Helmet/[early]Deftones axis of heavy pseudo post-hardcore, this’ll be right up your alley.

Does the re-release of Fantastic Planet mean Failure will reunite? Who knows, but it’s certainly a possibility. Ken Andrews is doing quite fine for himself as a successful producer and mixer, so if a Failure reunion happens it’ll presumably be for the fun of it… which is a good thing.

Magnified is actually the Failure album with which I’m most familiar. I dig the title track, which Cave In actually covered at some point.

-VN