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VIDEO: Happy SABBATH Saturday, Full Concert ...

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I must admit, Ozzy sounds pretty good here. Enjoy this full concert video filmed on 7th May in Adelaide, Australia. It is not much to look at but the sound quality is decent.



Posted by Doctor Doom

Motherslug - "Motherslug" ...

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One of the coolest albums that passed by silently under my radar last year was the S/T debut EP of MOTHERSLUG. These Australians are newcomers on the scene but judging from this EP it won’t take them long till they become major players on the game.

Their tunes won’t earn the Nobel of originality but these guys (and girl) know exactly what Stoner/Doom is all about and just love doing it, giving less than a shit about originality. Think classic Stoner played heavier and in a more monolithic way. KYUSS, ACRIMONY and SLEEP would give you some clues.

If you have time to check only one track of this band then this should be “Space Man”: Trippy intro, fuzzed up bass, harsh vocals, heavy guitars, hard pounding drums but most of all giant-sized monolithic riffs man! That’s what MOTHERSLUG is all about.

Four songs feel like they end as soon as they start but they seem enough to turn you into an addict of their sound. Seriously catchy stuff…and I am just waiting for their next move.



Words: Dr. Doom Metal ( Dr Dooms Lair )

Motherslug | Facebook

Spiritual Beggars - "Earth Blues" ...

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After releasing some of the most influential records in the entire Stoner Rock genre, after reaching the top, after being loved by so many, Michael Amott’s own SPIRITUAL BEGGARS returned to practically zero with their previous record. I must admit I had given up hope for this band yet fate plays strange games some times.

So SPIRITUAL BEGGARS took the fall, and got on their feet pretty damn fast; this time stronger than ever. “Earth Blues” is their newest record and being a follower of the band since its very first steps allow me to say that it is one of their best. “Earth Blues” feels more…oh well, earthly. Simple, straight, hard and damn catchy.

Apollo’s voice may not have the unique tone of Spice or even J.B. Yet, the way this man sings, makes us believe we are dealing with the most Rawk release of the band. The band has fully adapted to his style and you know what the best part is? They didn’t even have to change!

Blues, Hard Rock, Stoner Rock no matter what he’s playing it feels like it comes from the heart, and there you’ ll find love and admiration for pure Rock. At the same time Amott doesn’t neglect to teach the world about guitar solos. Sick solos especially in the more bluesy parts.

No bullshit, “Earth Blues” contains some of the best material SPIRITUAL BEGGARS have written (yeah, there are some black spots too). I don’t know if this is early excitement (I doubt it) but I enjoyed “Earth Blues” more than both “On Fire” and “Demons”.

Most definitely one of your best options this year if you are a Stonerhead, Hard Rocker or just a guy who appreciates great Rock music. SPIRITUAL BEGGARS are back man!!!



Words: Dr. Doom Metal ( Dr Dooms Lair )

Spiritual Beggars | Official Website

Drowning in a Stream of Misery: Interview with OPHIS ...

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And once again our Latvian friend Evita Hofmane of P3lican webzine (P3lican Webzine) is coming to help us with spreading a Gospel of Doom! There will be a promising event in Riga – festival Antithesis III with Evoken, Ophis, Frailty and Evadne as a line-up; Evita did choose to support German giants of death doom with this soulful interview. Welcome Philipp Kruppa, master of Ophis....Aleks Evdokimov.

What do you think – somebody is really reading those interviews with bands before they go to the shows? And how about you? Do you read interviews with a bands before the gigs?
  
No, but I read them afterwards. It is interesting to read interviews with bands that you just saw live. I don’t know how your readers handle this. As long as they read it SOME time, I don’t bother that much, haha.

12 years of doom – it’s quite much or it’s just short intro?

I think it is somewhere in the middle. Surely it is not a short intro, because I can not imagine that this band will last 30 years or more. But then again, when we started, I couldn’t imagine that OPHIS would last 12 years either – and yet we did.

As one wise man once said – the lowest and the highest points are most important ones. Anything else is just in between. So, which were the highest and the lowest points for OPHIS so far?

Highest points so far were the release of „Withered Shades”, our second tour through Europe and the show at Madrid Is The Dark Festival. Lowest points were when we had to fire our last bass-player and each time I thought the band was finished, due to some internal or external bullcrap. At least, that’s my opinion, the other members may have different thoughts..

If you could distance from fact that quite a lot of music and lyrics are created by you, what do you think –what could have been your feelings and emotions while you were listening to OPHIS music?

I hope I would get the same feelings as when I listen to other great Doom bands: to be at one with yourself and all your misery, drowning deeply into the music and realise that pain lets you feel alive!

Creative people are different. How could you describe yourself as a creative personality?

I think that many people just spend hardly any time to reflect themselves and the importance of values. That’s the whole difference. That’s also the reason for them not being creative. I think anyone who can reflect himself and his culture and society in a certain amount can also be creative. But these people don’t, so they are also not creative, although they could be if they would not be too lazy to think. I try not to be like this. If I am successful in that, I can not judge.

You recorded OPHIS demo CD „Empty, Silent, Cold” all on your own, so tell me – in some kind of way it’s easier to do everything by yourself or not?

No, I don’t think it is easier. Of course, when you record a release all on your own, there is less potential for tensions or issues, but apart from that I find it much easier to record with a band, because you don’t have to work as hard and the responsibility is shared by everyone, instead of lying solely on your shoulders. It was good for me to work on OPHIS alone at first, but this necessity is over, and I prefer working as a band a lot more.



OPHIS have recently released 2 CD compilation „Effigies of Desolation” on Cyclone Empire Records. Can you tell us a little bit more about that stuff?

Cyclone Empire Records originally wanted to re-release our debut album „Stream of Misery”, with some bonustracks added. We discussed the idea for a while and then decided instead of doing just a mere re-release, let’s make it a compilation of our early releases. So we not only added some unreleased recordings from our archives but also our sold out first EP „Nostrae Mortis Signaculum”. This is also the reason why we gave it a new name and exclusive artwork with an extensive digi-package. We wanted to make it a high-value release, and I think it turned out satisfying. At first we were unsure if anyone would care at all about it, but the first reviews just came in, and the ratings are still as good as they were back then. So obviously, both records stood the first test of time. And thus, re-issuing them seems vindicated to us.

I have never been to Doom Shall Rise fest and to be honest it’s pretty hard to imagine festival where only doom metal bands are playing. So, please, can you give me some notion how it was this year for you guys and for audience as well? Doom has risen now?

Yes, Doom has risen, it was the last Doom Shall Rise Festival ever. It was a very big honour to play this festival as co-headliners. A festival with only Doom bands is maybe not as tiring and slow as you might think. They had a lot of different bands there, many of them playing doomy rock, or Stoner / Sludge stuff, so it was very mixed stylistically. Generally speaking I like Doom festivals very much, also Dutch Doom Day or Doom Over London..

How doomed is life in Germany – both literally and metaphorically?

Germany was soothed by wealth in the 60s and many people still think it will stay this way. But society is going downhill pretty fast, the social decline is very visible. The working conditions here are currently as bad as never before since the second world war. Also education suffered significantly in the last 15 years. The worst thing is: the financial crisis is over, the economy is making huge profits again – but the normal people still earn much less and jobs are getting more rare every day. So there is a huge drift between the social layers, and it keeps growing. There is money coming in, but it goes only to the rich ones. In Hamburg, every fifth child is considered being „poor”. Unfortunately, this also means that extremist parties and organisations gained more following in recent years too. Not a good development. And currently, I do not see an end to this. The problem is: if you want to emigrate – where to? All western european countries suffer from these problems as well.

What doom is for you? Not so much as a metal style, but if we speak per destiny? (Of course, at some point it just comes together, that’s why we are doing this intie with you.)

Doom means the inevitability of bad things. And they are inevitable, right?Mankind is bound to suffer, it is their destiny. They created it themselves. Doom Metal deals about that fact, so as you said, they come together at one point.

What’s your favourite quote about nihilism?

I have to be disappointing: I have no favourite quote about nihilism. I don’t even care for the philosophical definition of the term. To me, nihilism means that nothing in life has a determined higher purpose. We are just here, and every sense we add to life is just our own, and it is just fictional, because you determine the value it has. Things as good or bad do not exist, those are terms made and defined by society, but in the end, everyone defines it for themselves. Money for instance is the highest principle for almost every person on the planet. But it has no real value, it is just paper that people chose to give a value. It is all just a fictional thing.

This is one of my faves: „Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. Where is there a place for you to be? No place... Nothing outside you can give you any place... In yourself right now is all the place you've got.” – Flannery O’Connor.  Do you like this? Any comments?

Pretty good summary of the word. I agree. Especially with the last sentence.

What does death mean for you? Is this an end or it’s just a new beginning? And if you could choose, which version you would prefer more?

I am very sure that death is the end, and nothing else. The reason why people believe in afterlife or reincarnation is – in my opinion – that they are so afraid of death and of having lived their lives in a wrong way, that they cling to the thought they’d get another chance. Many people know unconciously that their lives are empty, dull and void of importance. With believing in an afterlife, they get the chance to „fix that later”, i.e. after death. And they cannot imagine to not exist anymore, because they take themselves way too important. That’s why they believe they will exist forever in some way. I don’t think so at all, and I consider it as a weakness.

How high is suicide rate in Germany? And what about depression? How many people are suffering from that kind of problems? Just your personal opinion, no precise statistics needed, but you can add some if you wish!

I heard the suicide rate in Germany is average, but in my awareness it is pretty low. I only know very few people who commited suicide. But I think nevertheless depression is VERY common in Germany. You see that in the dullness and the common rudeness here in this country. Many people are grumpy, fatalistic, pessimistic and very unkind here, which is in my opinion a sign of not being happy with your life. But people here choose to silence those emotions with alcohol, mindless parties and empty, easy-going plastic-culture events that prevent them from having real feelings and from thinking. Bread and games!

You have been on tours with other doom bands before. Can you tell me, please, how differs atmosphere in the tour bus where are only gloomy persons inside if we compare with one where - for example – thrashers or blackers are?

Well, since I never toured with thrashers or blackers, I cannot compare the atmosphere in their tourbusses with ours... All I can say is, that in tourbusses with Doomers, the atmosphere is probably not as dark and depressive as you may think. And the reason for this is simple: in an artistic way, all doomers have a lot in common, and therefor we understand each other and get along. We all suffered our bit in life, and we reflected it. Doom is quite mature music. So the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed. Doomers are often (not always of course) a bit more self-confident about their music than blackers, so we don’t have to start stupid competitions of „who is the most evil in this bus”, haha. But: there is not that much partying going on too.. probably we are too introverted, haha.

Can you give us some good musical recomendations? Maybe, smth from Germany what’s really worth to hear? And, btw, do you know what kind of music Angela Merkele prefers most?

Doom bands from Germany that are worth to listen to: DUST, AHAB, BST, BLACK SHAPE OF NEXUS, O.68, SWAMP CORPSE (well, at least if they finally managed to release something, haha). Angela Merkel only loves to listen to the sound of money rolling in while gasmask-wearing leather slaves whip her ass. That’s music to her ears.

What do you think – how we’ll listen to the music after, let’s say, 25 years? Only digitally? Is there any future for cassettes, vinyls etc.?

Right now, vinyl is very popular as an anti-trend towards digital music. I think it will last for some more years, but in 25 years, it will probably be gone. It is the older generation that still sticks to  vinyl and tapes. The younger ones will not re-discover it. When the older generation is gone, so will be the vinyl. Sad future.



What do you know about Latvia? Have you ever been here?

Never been there before, so that’s the reason why I am looking VERY much forward to this show! To be honest, I don’t know much about Latvia. Unfortunately, the former east-states are mostly unknown here in west Europe. Many people and media don’t pay much attention to them, which is very sad. That is why you don’t get that many information. But I will see for myself!

Three things we must now about your fellow band Evoken?

1: they kick ass, especially live. 2. Their vocalist is among the best ones in Doom 3. They post waaaay to much stuff on Facebook, haha.

Your favourite songs from those bands repertoire you are going to play with?

My favourite EVOKEN- songs are „Tending The Dire Hatred”, „Orogeny” and „Antithesis of Light”. I hope they will play them on the tour. If not, I will bug them every night until they do so, haha. I am not that familiar with EVADNEs repertoire yet, but that will change after the tour!

Maybe you have some questions what you would like to ask to our latvian bands you are going to play with here in Riga this June?

Sure, I’d like to know more of the local Metal scene – what genres are popular, and which attitude towards Metal do you generally have? I assume you are more into the real feeling than the overfed masses in the west?

Here’s answer of Edmunds from Frailty:
-Latvian Metal scene is not as developed as in Western and Northern Europe, not even close. Each band works in its own particular genre, so there is no traditions of, for example, Latvian Black Metal or Latvian Death Metal. Among the Latvian auditory the most popular are the most extreme genres of Metal like Death, Black and Doom Metal, although other styles are popular (mainly Folk and Thrash), too. We have strong post-metal/hc scene, however it is regarded as somewhat inferior by the oldschool metalheads. I cannot answer about the so called "real" feeling of Metal, but I guess, that it is thought to be in sympathy for more oldschool approach to this music. The modern things like metalcore and now immensly popular djent music has no real hold in our community, and it is enjoyed mainly by adolescent listeners, and no really strong bands have emerged in these genres.  In concerts, people still prefer an oldschool looking band with long-haired masculine musicians dressed in black or army clothing and playing some evil sounding riffs accompanied by intense drumming, not skinny boys jumping around and making wierd rythms on their 7 or 8 string monstrosities and calling those atrocities Metal! I hope it stays so for years to come and maybe someday we will reach the level of our foreign friends, who have been doing it for decades. The heritage of USSR oppression is still strong and the acceptance of the Western values and attitudes torwards the Rock and Metal music is still in its early phase.

Can you tell me about the happiest day in your doomed life?

I could, but maybe people under 18 read this, so I can not tell you, haha.

What is the main dictum you have learned during these years about life and music as two inseparable things?

I have learned that FOR ME music is the only art-form that that can reflect every aspect of human life. People may strongly disagree, but this is what I learned for me. Music is the catalyst of existence. Without music I would have killed myself long ago, I kid you not.

Have you seen one of our promo videos with Ophis music? Do you enjoy it? Get thrilled? So, I hope, you are coming, guys?

Yes, we have seen them, and we laughed a lot. It was very funny and original. No one ever did that before. We should use them as intro-tapes to our shows, haha. Thank you very much for them! We are thrilled about Riga, alright!



Ophis | Facebook
Ophis | Official Website
Latvian version of interview is here: P3lican Webzine


High Priest of Saturn - "High Priest of Saturn" ...

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To be acutely blunt and straightforward, in the today’s day, if there is one genre that is extremely overstuffed and wrought with unoriginality, it is stoner metal, and more specifically stoner/doom. Bands with their recycled Sabbathian riffs and Electric Wizard type drawn out song structures have made this a genre of who can come up with the best tribute to the aforesaid bands rather than delving into something new or expanding the boundaries of the genre and its sound in any way and have in the process made the regular stoner sound an extremely monotonous one where each bands sound like the next.

Amidst this platitudinous and trivial contention of who can sound the heaviest or who can come up with the catchiest chorus, arises a power trio by the name of High Priest Of Saturn all the way from Norway. One instantaneously clubs black metal with the country of Norway, but they have quite a budding doom metal scene as well with bands like Sahg and Black Lodge having gained international recognition, and more recently Devil with its retro take on doom metal has gained them quite a few admirers.

Some of you may be aware of the band, consisting of Merethe Heggset who is the driving force of the band taking on the dual duties of vocalist and bassist, Andreas Hagen handling the drums and one half of the axework with Martin Sivertsen taking care of the other half and guest musician Ole Kristian Malmedal running has ethereal fingers over the organ. The band which released its self titled debut demo back in 2011, has come up with their first album, also self titled in early 2013. The new albums along with minor touches on the two tracks present on the demo, contains two new songs as well, which together stretch a tinge more than forty minutes. Though the average track length is rather high the inoffensive attitude and warm recording make for a very relaxing, almost ethereal experience.

While most bands fight trivial contests of who can be the loudest or who an immerse themselves the most in fuzz, High Priest Of Saturn have come up with a very laid back style of heavy stoner psychedelic metal. The music that the band play can be described as a portal between the past and the present with one foot firmly rooted in the 60’s psychedelia and 70’s Sabbath, with the other foot planted in the modern day stoner territories with its love for being drenched in fuzz, and still not being derivative in the least. Think Windhand minus the excessive fuzz molded with Spacefog without the aggression wrought together to create a swirling, mixing out of body experience into the atramentous passages only illuminated by torches lit by trips into the psychedelia infused expanses into the unknown. After you wrap your head around this imagine a continuous undercurrent of the organ throughout the release, taking the backstage instead of being the center of attention like in bands like Stonehenge and you have the primordial sound of a power trio collectively known as High Priest Of Saturn.

The band focuses not on a particular riff but instead focus on creating an experience where the focus of the listener is not drawn to any particular facet but instead to the natural progression of each track with its twists and turns. Though mostly trudging along with a slow speed it in an album where one moment you are in the midst of sleepy jam only to be broken by the copious bass of Merethe, and though there are jams dotted throughout the release the band does show a proclivity towards more structured songs. Though this release is mostly instrumental, enveloped in a smoke with mystical purging qualities, High Priest of Saturn is a part of the new wave of doom bands where the leading member is a female and to call her voice angelic or like that of a siren would be gross understatement. It is her performance on the bass as well on the mic that bind the band together which such malleability so as to create an extremely fluid release and it is her flexibility during the vocals that thrust the band to higher grounds of greatness. At times crooning, at times soft spoken, almost ethereal and at times singing at a powerful lower register, she has come up with a performance that has set the bar very high for both current as well as future ladies of doom. It’s not all about Merethe. Though she does add an air of mystery around the band and is the bands most distinguishing feature, it also the axework of Andreas and Martin who without following of trends have set out to create a path of their own with their dreamy guitars and lengthy solos that transport the listener into a soothingly whimsical world of musical therapy. I often wonder why bands that play heavy psychedelic rock never use the influences laid down by the grandmasters of the genre, Pink Floyd, but here the band put that question to rest and play solos reminiscent of the great band including one on the track ‘Crawling King Snake’ which sound like something Floyd would have played during their ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ days.

 All this held together by the organ played by the magic fingers of session member Kristian has by alchemy created this unique experience and has had got this band functioning in a territory where not many seemed to have dared to explore. This is as original, and as different as different can get in the modern day of stoner. It is a genuine, frank, straight forward and heartfelt release without the pretentiousness and without the over reliance of paths already well set and is an impeccable debut that is an absolute must have for all fans of the genre.  8/10

Written by : Vaibhav Jain

Bandcamp - HERE
Facebook - HERE


Church Of Misery - "Thy Kingdom Scum" ...

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I think it would be fair to say that the whole serial killer angle that some doom bands follow got old many years ago and slowly turned into a well-used cliche. However there is one band that can still get away with it and that is one of the bands that started it all - Church of Misery. It has been 12 years since the bands debut onslaught of murderous doom 'Master of Brutality' was unleashed and this album displays that the band have no intention of mellowing out gracefully. 'Thy Kingdom Scum' is one of their heaviest albums overall but it also has the best production the band has ever had so far. This album sounds huge but it is the performance of its members that really steal the show on this album.

The vocals are as un-human as they have always been. Vocalist Hideki Fukasawa is well.....over the top, no other way to describe the insane, chaotic way the lyrics are presented here and they are a perfect match for the violent guitar, drum and bass work that is disturbing, even during the more mellow moments, not that there is much of that. Stylistically, Church of Misery haven't really changed much since their humble beginnings. Despite line-up changes, the band still have a purposeful clear direction and they obviously have no intention of messing with it at this stage of the game. Over the years they have glorified the likes of The Night Stalker, John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy but this time around, it is crazies like Dennis Rader and Gary Heidnik that get the COM treatment. Whether you see this subject matter as bad taste or not, it is at the very least entertaining lyrically speaking, and this album has their best lyrics to date but don't expect to understand any of it without the help of a lyric sheet. The vocals here are indistinguishable, psychotic ramblings and for the most part are as unpleasant as the people they are writing about.

First two tracks on the album set the mood and style for the rest of the album. 'Thy Kingdom Scum' opens with B.T.K which is a track about Dennis Rader. With brooding intensity, the band deliver a hellish roller-coaster of a tune that doesn't offer any surprises but at the same time, gives a fan of the band everything they could possibly want from a Church of Misery song. The following tracks 'Lambs to the Slaughter (Ian Brady / Myra Hindley)' and 'Brother Bishop (Gary Heidnik)' contain some of most grim, bleak and violent doom metal ever produced. The riffing is nasty and sabbathian, the bass work can only be described as sinister but there are grooves here to die for. One thing I read in another review (sorry, can't remember where) asked the question, "why has this band been given the "stoner-doom" tag and that is a valid question. This is pure doom and while it has more grooves that the average band, the stoner tag doesn't fit the sonic intensity this band unleash for almost 50 minutes on this release.

The odd tune out is a cover of the Quatermass track 'One Blind Mice' but in typical Church of Misery style, they make the tune their own. In-fact, anyone not knowing anything about the early 70's UK prog band would never know this song is indeed a cover-version. This song comes in at number 5 out of 7 in the playing order and what makes this album as strong as it is, unlike some other COM albums, 'Thy Kingdom Scum' seems to get better the longer it plays. The last track on the album 'Düsseldorf Monster (Peter Kürten)' is close to 13 minutes of the strongest doom metal you will ever hear from the band. This album doesn't get stuck in "repeat-mode" like some of their albums do either. There are timely tempo-changes and it has a flow about it that the band has struggled to find with past efforts.

Church of Misery seem to go from strength to strength. 'Thy Kingdom Scum' is Church Of Misery's most consistently satisfying album released to date.....9.5/10.

Words: Ed Barnard ( Thanks to Shione Cooper for typing it all out for me. )

Official Facebook
Official Website

INTERVIEW: DOOM METAL FRONT - WE ARE DOOM FREAKS ...

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Everyone knows about German web-zine Doom Metal Front which authors made unbelievable thing - after few years of on-line publications they've reached a status of real paper magazine! Those who already read 10th issue of Doom Metal Front of course have noted professional approach of Sven and Florian, so I just couldn't pass up the chance to publish here this interview writen by Daniel Thalheim. Welcome to the worlds of doom freaks!


The question regarding the first gig is being answered by Florian with a shocked "Jesus!" - However, Sven does remember immediately that he went to see MANOS in a youth club in Spremberg around 1991 or 1992: "This was at times of La Bum, die Fette - their first Fun Grind release. Possible that I've seen a brass band live before that." All of a sudden, Florian remembers: "I experienced the first gig relatively late as far as I can recall. That was the farewell tour of FEAR FACTORY in 2001 in the AJZ, Chemnitz."

Well, you have to start somewhere. Of course, I was interested in the very first self-bought album of the Doom heads. In Florian's case that would be ROXETTE's successful album Joyride (1990), followed by GREEN DAY's Dooky. Sven is going back a bit further and tells me that his first LPs had been fairytales of the BROTHERS GRIMM. Thinking about it in a Doom perspective, he still finds it matching. "During GDR times, my first pirate tape was by DIE ÄRZTE." Songs like "Die fette Elke" were played on school trips. The first original self-bought LP was from a market in Poland, where you could by licensed copies of important Metal albums. "So it was either MEGADETH's Rust In Peace or - Wait! - OBITUARY with Cause Of Death and NAPALM DEATH's The Peel Sessions." Sven was being drawn to Doom by BOLT THROWER's and ASPHYX' heavy tunes. Lost in thought, he says to my recorder: "I chose the slow numbers especially, because I always took more interest in the sluggish tracks." The guys in his area were usually wearing KREATOR and SODOM shirts and were more into Trash or Death Metal. After he saw a guy with a CATHEDRAL logo, he became curious. In a Metal shop "I heard my first CATHEDRAL album, Forest Of Equilibrium, which just blew me away." With sparkly eyes he states how incredibly slow their music was. In 1992, ANATHEMA's Serenades was added.

 I'm amazed that he found the debut of PARADISE LOST too rumbling, however he bought their Gothic album (1991) on vinyl. A lot is based on a Rock Hard special about Death Metal that had been released in 1992. "They had a double page on Slow Death with bands like PARADISE LOST.", Sven is digging in his memories for his development towards Doom. At that time, he didn't speak of Doom, didn't even know about it. Probably still a reason why some people only come up with MY DYING BRIDE when they are being asked to name a Doom band. Sven thinks that everybody is referring to something different when talking about Doom and that there have always been bands, which played Rock and Metal slow. "Take TROUBLE as an example," Sven is stating, "Until some point in the 90s they were being related to White Metal. Only later they were put into Doom." Immediately, Florian is mentioning the song "Black Sabbath", which in his eyes is the milestone and blueprint of Doom itself: "BLACK SABBATH never saw themselves as being a Doom band. With the dark atmosphere they were spreading with their early songs, you can count Ozzy, Tony and Co. as pioneers of the later genre." One thing Sven is certain of: "Doomers are referring to the self titled song." In his eyes, this is also the most Doom-ish song there will ever be. "Still gives me goose flesh!"

The question after the influence of SAINT VITUS and COUNT RAVEN on the musical socialization was not being answered, cos this becomes really clear after a good think. I tried CONFESSOR, a band that wrote a very different history. Sven is laughing out loud and says: "They did neither have anything to do with Doom nor with Grind. I heard of them through the Gods Of Grind compilation of Earache. Also their music was a confused Rhythm carpet with unnerving vocals. Only after the singer had died did they release a genius Epic Doom album five or six years ago." My thought that Doom bands need an awful lot of time between their album releases is being nipped in the bud by Florian: "I beg to differ. There are a lot of bands releasing on a regular basis." - "Typical bands like SAINT VITUS or rather their members are also doing other stuff. We are the Doom freaks, who collect everything from those guys, not themselves! They are all old Punk Rockers.", Sven is pondering on. Florian adds that they had a break for almost a quarter of a century and I was informed that the guitarist David Chandler simply had to work and also had another band - DEBRIS INC. Scott WINO Weinrich was being busy with his own projects and homeless before founding SPIRIT CARAVAN.


 Florian adds, "that the musicians aren't really thinking about sounding like belonging to a genre. It's just about fun. However, the more recent and modern Doom bands are releasing more regularly own albums, tracks on compilations and Inch singles." I wanted to know if the two guys are seeing themselves as a memory for the Doom scene with their site and the paper. "Probably a bit much, right?", comes the reply from Florian. "We're just having fun with what we are doing. The point is to collect and present events and to have people to get to know new things, they would not notice otherwise." - "The paper is being made by fans for fans!", adds Sven.
The first PDF issue of DOOM METAL FRONT was published in 2009 and a first try to leave something in a written form. Sven remembers: "I wrote in the editorial: ‹Print the magazine and read it on the toilet!›" - Florian: "It reaches back even further. At the start we only had the blog. Actually everything started in winter 2004 without even thinking about publishing a paper."

Sven had the idea to do something about Doom, because he couldn't find bundled information on the topic anywhere at that time. "Also there haven't been any nicely printed tickets with the band names at the underground gigs. It was my thought to archive the experiences in form of a blog, to have some pictures from my cheap digicam in the Internet and to have other people joining in." Also, the pictures are helping his memory, because he's a eye-minded person. Furthermore, both guys felt committed to the Independent and DIY idea, whereas the information aspect came first. The thought that some people might collect the magazine and open it again after five or ten years to re-read the articles would be an honor to Sven. "All we wish would be to leave something meaningful to the Doom posterity." For Florian it would be enough to be a part of something like a file in the archive. - Sven laughs: "As mentioned before, it's more like a memory help for me. The paper sums up what we have seen and thought."

How was the step done from Internet to print? Both are explaining to me that the big challenge is to integrate all incoming information into a set workflow that is being dictated by print appointments and deadlines. Such a project would not be working anymore without clear structures and planning. A premise for a working project is the distribution of tasks, because the intensive hobby has become a real amount of work in the evenings and nights, after their working day. "We need to cover the printing costs in the first place.", says Sven, "It's even a curios idea to believe one could live from Doom or get rich at all. - With the current team arrangement it isn't possible to do more than two publications per year and stay true to your own demand for quality." It is a financial question in the first place, because the production costs are mainly being prepaid from their own pockets. I started to realize: Sven and Florian have set clear and realistic objectives for themselves. When asking about the changes in perception of DOOM METAL FRONT from record labels and bands, Sven explains: "When we started printing, we realized that clicks don't mean anything, which is the main problem of the Internet. Nowadays people only browse, like things or dislike. It's different with the print and our target audience. You are actually holding something in your hands, you see the intention and work behind the product. In a time of regression in physical articles, it's both weird and awesome to be taken seriously and the work is being delivered to the audience directly." - "But this is normal as well", Florian is stating, "Everybody can do something in the Internet. Only through the existing product something is changing in the perception of people. Our paper is not low-budget stuff but well-produced." The homepage will remain in place to offer actual scene news: "The detailed and profound stories are in the magazine."

Doom is filling a small gap in the huge Metal scene, which Sven sees as the main malady: "Mainstream people think us to be a subscene or niche, but funnily enough always present. Often I'm doing an interview with a musician important in the Doom scene and run around in circles all excited, but everybody is just asking: ‹Who are you talking about?!›" Luckily Doomers are down-to-earth people you can have normal conversations with - without backstage barriers. - "Backstage at Doom gigs?" Florian is laughing. Sven: "Yeah right! That is non-existing." The gigs are usually taking place at underground locations, rather small venues. You can notice that the musicians are playing for the fun and not for fame. "These people are living for it. They go to work and rampage in their spare time. Therefore it's admirable that this is resulting in genius music." Sven feels comfortable in the Doom scene as it's "more personal and honest". He doesn't see himself as pure Metalhead anymore. - "With Doom it's not important to be a groupie, other things count more." Fortunately, it's all without the fries fork and the Hobbit rituals, which are normal at common Metal gigs.

I want to know: "How do you bang your head to Doom?" - "Well, just slower!", says Sven and shakes his mane in slow-mo, "What a question!" - "Sometimes it's a bit quicker!", Florian answers back. I'm being told that at Doom gigs the bands are coming out from the audience to go on-stage. The band going off-stage will stand in the audience to support the one that's playing. "It's all a big family, the musicians respect each other.", says Florian. - Somehow this reminds me of the good old Blues scene, which didn't have any competitive thinking. "This is the thing I love so much about Doom", concludes Sven, "I have found my family and my heart's rhythm again." Slowly but surely I start to understand the whole Doom thing. However Florian is explaining it to me once more: "I know that from my old band, where it was always said that we want to play harder, quicker and more complicated than all the others. It's different with Doom. It's all rather relaxed, and the musicians are helping each other. Everything is interconnected, so many Doom fans are playing music themselves or arrange concerts. One of the reasons is that the scene itself is quite old and never turned mainstream. You'll hardly find people younger than 20, if even. Doomers left their fast times behind. It's more about feeling music."
I start to realise that Doom is more than sitting in your dark secluded room far away from life's reality and feeling sorry for yourself helped by depressive music. Sven says: "Death and Black Metal heads, Punks, Hardcore freaks or the odd Power Metal fan meet each other at Doom gigs. It is a meeting place of people who are bored of their original scene and just want to listen to good music." There's a certain age when a person starts to feel embarrassed to like certain kinds of music. - "When growing older, you are abandoning that fact. Today I have no problem with admitting that I was listening to MILLI VANILLI earlier in my life. After you have left behind all the extreme phases, you can admit that you just like music."

WORDS & PICS BY DANIEL THALHEIM.

Doom Metal Front
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Black Sabbath - "13" ...

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It has been a staggering 35 years between Black Sabbath albums with Ozzy Osbourne on vocals. That in itself is an amazing fact and given the fact that riff master Tony Iommi has major health problems and it is a miracle Ozzy Osbourne is even healthy enough to stand, let alone record and perform, 13 is an extraordinary release. Also keep in mind that since the late 70's Black Sabbath has been written off as dinosaurs and critics have been saying consistently that they are "well past their prime." Well here we are, 35 years since the last album with Ozzy'Never Say Die' and not only are they doing it but they are doing it surprisingly well. Given the circumstances surrounding this album, 13 may just be the bands greatest accomplishment yet. Not only have they recorded an album this late in their careers, it is a very good one. I wont go into the Bill Ward debacle. I think most Sabbath fans know Bill Ward can't really do it anymore. Hell, I saw the band in 1999 and old Bill looked like he was going to keel and die back then so it is no surprise he didn't make the recording sessions for this monster of an album.

Being a long-time fan (40 years this year), it is all too easy and predictable to want to compare this with the likes of Volume 4, Master of Reality and Sabotage which is regarded by most fans as the last highpoint of the Sabbath-Ozzy era. But the truth is, there is no need for such side-by-side comparisons, 13 stands up on its own. The result is surprisingly sabbathy given the generic nature of Osbourne's past solo efforts and the Devil You Know album which for the most part sounded like a Dio solo record for a lot of die-hard fans. In other words, this is a proto-doom album, the kind of music that Black Sabbath invented and made famous. We all know the riffing magic that resides in Tony Iommi but some of the riffs on this album beg the question, how does he do it? The riffs are one thing but at the end of the day, it is the songwriting mastery that makes this album such a gripping affair.

The production of Rubin is as usual a talking point. The sound is old-school and modern at the same time without sounded too much like either. It doesn't sound overly digital but it doesn't sound analog and dated either. The guitar tone of Iommi kills but it is not the Master of Reality tone that some might be expecting but damn, it is heavy. As well as being a showcase for Iommi's stellar riffing and amazing leads, the vocals of Osbourne are incredible given the fact that he blew his voice to pieces decades ago. He has to sing in a lower register now but that gives these songs a sinister edge and that makes this album that little bit more of a foreboding adventure. Geezer is Geezer delivering groovy bass lines that rumble along while remaining highly melodic. If there is a weak point, (and it is not really) it is the drumming of Brad Wilks which offers none of the jazzy swing that Bill Ward possessed. The drumming seems quiet compared the rest of the band but it is not offensively out-of-place but it does seem a bit too simple at times given the fact that Iommi and Butler are playing their asses off.

If Sabotage is their most aggressive album, 13 would have to rank a close second even though most of the album is pretty slow, even by Black Sabbath standards. The songs are mostly long, 5 out of the 8 songs on the standard release of the album are all over 7 minutes and that may prove a problem for some but for me, the flow of the tracks makes these tracks seem much shorter than what they actually are. There is an urgency to the way the songs are constructed which makes these epic tunes a pure breeze to sit through. There is also no filler and if anything, the album actually gets even stronger as it plays. The last two tracks 'Damaged Soul' and 'Dear Father' are a one-two punch in the guts that should make the average metal-head droll in delight. 'Dear Father' ends with a thunderclap a-la the opening of their debut album from 1970 which is a great touch and a hair-raising way to end the album but lets go back to where the album begins....

'End of the Beginning' kicks off the album and begs the question "Is this the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?" This track which is bursting with some of the fattest chords Iommi has ever recorded has spine-chilling atmosphere, sinister riffing and exciting tempo changes the likes of which haven't been heard since albums like 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' were recorded. Criticisms can be put forward that this track and the following 'God Is Dead' are a little too generic and they are predictable but it is also the kind of stylistic approach that Black Sabbath does best so it is hard to nitpick on that level. The same can be said for the third track 'Loner' which by Black Sabbath standards is by-the-numbers material but three tracks in and it is impossible to not have the hairs stand on end at how "classic sabbath" this really is. There has been a lot of talk about the band returning to their roots for this album and they have done just that but rather cleverly have avoided sounded like any one era. You can hear traces of all the early Black Sabbath albums here, whether it be the "would you like to see the pope on a end of a rope" lyrical approach you can hear on 'Dear Father' or 'Zeitgeist' which echoes Black Sabbath ballads like 'Planet Caravan' and 'Solitude.'

'Zeitgeist' is the psychedelic breather on the album with trippy vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion and jazzy guitar work. That is followed by 'Age of Reason' which is the albums most prog-laden and adventurous piece. Sounding halfway between a Volume 4 track and a Sabbath Bloody Sabbath track, 'Age of Reason' is 13's most musically ambitious and rewarding track and frankly, it is a masterpiece. The song clearly goes through five very different sections, constantly building in atmosphere at every turn. 'Live Forever' features one of the albums best vocal takes, clearly Osbourne is on a roll here, sounding very much at the top of his game. He probably hasn't sounded this good since the 'Diary of a Madman' album. The tune itself though, along with 'Loner' is one of the albums more ordinary, predictable, generic moments. That brings the album to the final one-two punch that is 'Damaged Soul' and 'Dear Father' which brings the album to a spine-chilling dramatic, foreboding closure.

My only real gripe is the production which seems a little dry at times but after a couple of spins of the disc, that is soon forgotten. The deluxe edition features bonus tracks that I have only heard once so I won't review those except to say they are bonus tracks for a reason - they just are not as good as anything on the standard release. Without a doubt, this album is way beyond anything I was and many others was expecting. The band sounds as potent as ever and have produced the best traditional heavy metal album released in many years. If they do retire any day soon, they can lay the band to rest knowing Black Sabbath ended the bands career in the finest way possible given the circumstances behind its production. Could it have been better? Well of course, at times its predictable (but in a good way) and the production doesn't do the album any favors but it certainly doesn't hurt the album that much either. With 3 guys gracefully heading towards 70 years of age, this album is amazingly satisfying and proves once again that they can still match it with any other metal act in the scene today......8.5/10.

Words: Ed Barnard ( Typed Up By Shione C, Posted By Doctor Doom.)

Black Sabbath.Com

NEWS: ALUNAH Announce New Bassist ...

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ALUNAH are proud to introduce Dan Burchmore as their new bass player, replacing Gaz who recently departed amicably to concentrate on his other band General. Dan hails from Rugby in Warwickshire and has spent the last 7 years playing gigs and touring with various bands up and down the country.

Dan says: “I’ve been a fan of Alunah’s work for a while, so it’s an honour to be part of  the band, playing with some great musicians and all round great people. Really looking forward to what the future holds and making some heavy sounds!”



Vocalist Soph commented: “We had a few jam sessions with some potential bassists, all great players but we either had no spark or they couldn’t commit to our schedule. So, we put an ad out and received an amazing response, thanks in large to the amount of people on our social network sites spreading the word. One email stood out to us, and we arranged a jam with Dan. We instantly all hit it off, he’s got a great attitude, is an awesome, tight player with a fat sound, plenty of groove and has added something extra to our existing songs. We can’t wait to get on stage with him and introduce him to everyone“.

Alunah | Official Website

Pumping Aluminum & Doom: A Interview With Booze Lords ...

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Fat land of picturesque Portland gave birth to another underground doom act. Indeed duet of Inebrion and Drunkus Crom play a bizarre and raw mix of stoner doom with pushy thrash elements, their sound and vocals are strongly marked with heavy booze stench, and they tunes are full of ugly alcoholic energy! Comrade Inebrion is awakening from his slumber, he is here to shed a light onto uneasy life of Booze Lords!

I’m thinking that it’s a kind of sad mistake but not all of our readers even heard about Booze Lords. Where are you from comrades? What are your main goals in that dirty mortal world?

A sad mistake indeed, but with so many bands out there, and with us only arriving on the scene, it will be a long time until we are known. But then again, we didn’t create Booze Lords for attention of fame, we are realists, this kind of music is not for the masses. Can you imagine if drunken doom punk was the standard to which all people based their music tastes? Our society just wouldn’t function, it is better this way. We are from the metropolis of Portland, Oregon, where Pabst flows like water and the clouds never part; basically, we’re a bunch of pasty inebriates. As far as goals…we don’t really have any, we just want to record a lot of albums, drink thousands of beers, grow infirm, feeble and then die. Can you picture a more glorious life than that?

True to say, I can! But don’t you think that drinking thousands of beers may stop you from recording a lot of albums?

We’ll, once you’ve worked up a tolerance…

Man, how much did you drink before you understand that you can play heavy rock? What was a main drink which did lead you to the state of Booze Lords?

Well, it’s an interesting story actually. Earlier this year, I had never played an instrument in my life. I was at a party, the stereo was blasting Black Flag, Saint Vitus, Dark Throne and Motorhead then I drank a bunch of Pabst and passed out. I had a vision that night. A man, who looked suspiciously like Lemmy Kilmister and Dave Chandler combined into one human, visited me in this dream, and let me tell you, he was an ugly son of a bitch. Anyway, he told me to create a band called Drunk Lords but I thought that named sounded like garbage, so after a brief argument in which I yanked on this guys frizzy grey hair, he relented. Thus Booze Lords was created. And…uuuh…suddenly, I could play all these instruments….

It looks like a sort of divine intervention!

It must have been! You know, some guys sell their soul to the devil for their talent, others people practice their asses off. Me, I got wasted and had a calling. I prefer my way, it’s a lot quicker and I get to keep my soul.

Well, I see that you move pretty fast: you just did gather a year ago and already have full-length. It has both strong and weak sides, I would like to ask you tell about them, is it ok for you?

Well, we are only a couple guys and we don’t play live. So it’s a lot easier to just hang out, get plastered and write a bunch of songs. In fact, we have two more albums worth of material, just waiting to be released. Without the whole live aspect, we can just focus on recording, which I like better anyway. This way, we can spare any audience we might have from the drunken spectacle that a Booze Lords show would be. As for the albums quality, we record everything in my home studio, its far from a professional set up. There are things that annoy me about the records quality, some timing issues in the drums, and what not. But I don’t really care much; my favorite bands are the type that record raw albums anyway. I like hearing mistakes; in this age of auto tuning and over produced garbage, it tells me that someone is actually behind the instruments.

But I read that you even visited a studio to record your first full-length, what did drive you to such compromise act then it seems pretty easy to hang in garage and combine drinking with record-sessions?

Like I said above, we recorded in my own studio aptly named: Morose Studios. Most of the time I was guzzling beers and laying down tracks by myself, but when I was finished, Drunkus Crom came into the studio and laid down all the vocals. When we did the gang vocals, we had a few other guys from some local bands come in and it became more of a party. After all, you’ve gotta have a few when doing gang vocals.

Yes… Now I see my mistake - you did mastering at Sage Audio. Are you ambitious person? I’m meaning are you ready to do the best you can to gain recognition on world doom scene? What are you ready to do for that prize?

Yes, we had our album mastered at Sage Audio, and honestly they do a great job. Before this project I would just master projects myself. But for Legion of the Tankard, I wanted to have it professionally done. In fact the mastering on this project cost us the most money overall, but it was totally worth it. As for ambition, I’m not really pushing for fame or glory; I just want to produce good music and my philosophy for that is to create honest music. I think there is a bit of a deficit in that these days. One of the bands that fit the bill is Ice Dragon, and perhaps I aspire to have the respect they have.

In Booze Lords you combine both stoner and thrash elements, what does attract you to such rough and strange mix? Does it reflect your state when you’re drunken?

We were really going for a band that’s fun to listen to, that you can crank up at a party, which has a variety of tempos. I think we were successful in that. As for the attraction of genre mixing, I guess as an avid listener of the 80’s doom bands like Pentagram, Saint Vitus and Candlemass I loved the sound of the doomy riffs, but wanted the speed and punkyness of Motorhead. When I get drunk, I become a sophisticated gentleman and listen to classical music, have philosophical conversations and read passages from heavy, leather bound tomes….

Do you have a perfect vision of Booze Lords sound?

Well, one day it will be accompanied by a 100 piece orchestra, and we’ll be playing in big concert halls and record lame albums with overlong songs and have a melodramatic documentary made about our personnel problems…wait, Metallica already did that. In that case, our perfect vision would be heavier guitars, doomier passages, a better production and more puns for song titles. Basically what we’re doing now, just better.

Do you plan to continue working over new songs or is this project only a chance to relax and glorify Green Snake from the Bottle? Well, is it project or is it real active band?

I do a lot of work in a lot of different bands. All my bands are basically side projects. I’ve been working with a few other guys with the Space God Ritual debut, and another record for Krack Sabbat, and Apostles of Grief… and, well I’ll stop name dropping. But the point is, all these bands are active, we just don’t do the live thing because it’s less productive. Legion of the Tankard is Booze Lords first record, and as I mentioned earlier, there are two more to come. I just need the time, and the beer money to complete them.

I see that some of your other bands play doom stuff too, it’s a right time and space to share few words about them!

I guess I can’t really focus on one thing at a time. I’m a recording junky, it’s my favorite thing to do, I can spend hours laying down tracks. For some people, they hate recording and prefer the live thing, I’m the complete opposite. So all these aforementioned bands are just more outlets for me I guess. But all you readers out there, check ‘em out if you have the time.

Time to time I could say that your full-length is a good soundtrack for my awakening… What do you usually do waking up at most terrible mornings? How do you endure hangover? Hah, well, and what do you do if you awake still drunken and need to go to work?

Well it is good to hear that our album is good for something. Well, when I have a hangover, I listen to Dying Inside off the Born to Late album, drink a few brews on the toilette and hate myself. A greasy breakfast always helps too. I’m an Australian, our kind have this whole hangover thing down to a science. As for work, I live within walking distance and have very few responsibilities. So I get by with a hangover just fine.

Hah, it’s funny to hear because just a week ago I saw a crew of Australian battle ship at shore. Well, I need to say they look like tough guys yet lasses of that crew were deadly brutal as well…  Do you have any “drinking” traditions in Portland? You’re from Portland, right?

Yea, they can be real ball breakers…anyway. Not too many drinking traditions over here, just the occasional bonfire and guzzling of PBR. Though yearly we have the Ceremony of Sludge festival, which is always a good time and in which many cans are crushed.

What were most insane things which you did during your sessions?

Recording is mostly just business and most of the time it’s just me sitting in a chair getting a computer screen tan (not very glamorous). But during our release parties, there’s the usual vomiting, pants soiling and passing out. I guess the worse thing I’ve done whilst drunk, was punch a guy in the face (he was literally asking for it), he fell, twisted his ankle and was on crutches during his next show.

Ha-ha, okay, man, that was enough fun and promising so let us finish this interview on that point. Thanks for your time – have a nice weekend with hot women and cold beer.

Thanks for the interview! Have vodka for me.

Interview By Aleks E

Booze Lords| Facebook
Booze Lords | Bandcamp


Agonizing Intrinsic Northwestern Doom: Interview With BONEWORM ...

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That was an interesting evening, I’ve sent to Ed an interview with Booze Lords three hours ago, and look who’s coming here… Tim of Boneworm tells a story of psychedelic magic tricks wrapped in distorted tunes of doom; Portland is a very, very strange place indeed! Maybe there are bones of gods of doom hidden under Oregon’s mountains? Go and ask Uta Plotin from Witch Mountain! But read this interview before you go, it’s worth of your time my comrade in doom!

Salute Tim! How are you man? What’s new can you tell us about Boneworm?

[Tim]:  I am doing excellent, thanks for asking.  As for Boneworm, we are pretty new as a band.  We have been playing some local shows, and working on new material, and generally just having a fucking blast.

Boneworm plays “psychedelic doom” and I see no reason to dispute this statement. Guitarist of Hollies (Gram Nash) told that those who play psychedelic stuff try to recreate an LSD-session without using drugs in itself. What is about you? I never did taste that stuff, so I’m not able to do any proper conclusion but admit that you sound hypnotic, crushing and bloody throbbing.

[Tim]:  The term psychedelic doom to me just means doom with some psychedelic elements.  Other writers have used this term to describe Boneworm, and it sounds like a good description to me.  Psychedelic can mean different things in music, there is the psyche rock movement, The Black Angels come to mind, as well as heavier bands like Dead Meadow, both I consider psychedelic.  To me in music, psychedelic means incorporating elements, in particular, sound samples and effects, that are for lack of a better term, strange, different from what you would typically think of with a guitar and bass plugged straight in to an amp or played acoustically.  I think use of delay and reverb in particular, but also musically breaking away from all the instruments in alignment, playing in lock step, and also experimentation outside of the typical “rules” of music.  I am reminded of one of my favorite Pink Floyd recordings, the Live in Montreux 1971, during the middle of Cymbaline, Roger Waters is playing back these foot step samples at a live show, in fucking 1971!  Pushing the boundaries of what people normally do sonically, particularly with swirling sounds, is what psychedelic is to me.  It is kinda of funny though, somewhat like the old supreme court ruling on porn, I know it when I hear it!

Also Gram was telling that playing such music is an effort to open a mind crossing all borders. What kind of effect your own music inflict upon you?

[Tim]:  When we get a song together, and we are nailing it as a band, I get that shiver up the spin, this is awesome, musicgasm.  The recorded material usually burns me out by the time the finished product is ready.  We spent so much time writing, rehearsing, recording, mixing, and mastering the songs, that by the time they were finished, I needed a break from the recordings.  Not the songs mind you, as we have been regularly performing the material from the ST album, but from the recordings themselves.  I guess the effect our music has on me just depends on how I am feeling at the time I am listening to it, my frame of reference.  Obviously the recording is a fixed point in time, a sound photograph if you will, it is the listener that changes over time.  I have had experiences were seeing a band or hearing a band has opened my mind to elements of music that before have really turned me off.  But people change over time, and a band’s music can sometimes open up a listeners mind and change their perspective.  I can’t say that is what Boneworm is setting out to do, but if we can open up something new musically in listeners’ minds, then that would be a great achievement.

How would you describe main and most important elements of Boneworm?

[Tim]:  For me, one of the most important elements is playing slow and minimal.  Every band I have been in, I have always felt the music get rushed and filled with lots of playing.  I have always ended up accepting the tempo being faster, mostly because I don’t want to be always telling people to play slower.  It gets old when you are wanting your band to do something different than the way it comes out naturally, and having to constantly harp on that.  With Boneworm, Chaz would start playing even slower than I intended, and that was great for me.  So many bands that claim to be doom don’t play slow and minimalist, and I think that is what sets true doom apart from the bands that are hopping on the doom bandwagon and calling what they do doom, because there does seem to be a resurgence in Portland anyway in doom, the least loved of all the metal sub genres.  If your playing blazing riffs all the time, every song, your not a doom band.  The other elements are organic playing and sounds.  We reject click tracks, and we try to capture our live sound on record.  We also play loud, not for the sake of being loud, but because it sounds right.  You can’t make it sound right without real speakers moving the air, preferably driven by a quality tube amp!

By the way often first information which we receive about musical album is coming from it’s art-work, and an art-work of your Boneworm self-titled Ep just daze me! How did you come to such elegant solution with such simple yet intriguing graphics?

[Tim]  Chaz is a graphic designer by trade, and we are lucky enough that he somehow musters the energy and enthusiasm to handle our artwork as well.  He does great work.

[Chaz] Thanks for the art compliment.  We’ve been getting mixed reviews on the cover.  It was just a way to keep it simple yet be memorable and convey something bigger like “this wizard looks creepy”. 

Oh, hello Chaz! :-) It’s a normal fact that art-works of many metal and rock bands bear some old clichés and therefore they work not so effective as they could, but I would like to ask you about your favorite doom or psychedelic covers – will you name some?

[Tim]:  I tend to like hand drawn and painted art work on album covers.  Intricate design that just look cool come to mind.  While not doom per say, Jon Baizley’s art work for Baroness is really great.  Baroness’s Red Album is so cool.  I also like the artwork from Earth’s Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light.  Actual doom bands, Conan Monnos is a really cool cover.  Howl’s bloodline album, Thorun’s Chorus of Giants, Major Kong’s Orogenesis, White Orange’s self titled has a cover I like a lot.  I agree that there is a lot of cliche in doom metal covers, but like with music, taste in visual art is subjective.  Suum cuique. 

Your Ep is a self-released and I see how skillfully and wittily it is decorated, for example that list with an old-school picture of “a score of men began pumping bullets at the space-bug”. That’s so fresh and cool, so I have to ask you about whole idea of album’s booklet!

[Chaz]  Cool.  Thanks again for the compliment.  The lyrics sheets were a last minute thing I through together.  I’m always searching for artwork for inspiration when making posters for upcoming gigs.  The lyric sheet pics are just some items I found along the way.


A structure of Boneworm’s songs look simple from a first glance, yet this simplicity is effective, what kind of ways to development do you see for the band? Are you going to safe a core of your music the same or do you want to look beyond horizon of psychedelic doom genre?

[Tim]:  Oh, we are all over the map in that we aren’t trying to stick to a formula or a narrow focus.  We write music organically, and sometimes some songs come out sounding like, say psychedelic doom.  Other songs have elements of sludge.  Still others are more traditional doom.  We don’t worry much about what labels will be attached to a song as we write them, it is more whether we all three like what we have come up with.  We will always be a doom band primarily, but some of the newer stuff mixes in other elements that you don’t hear on the self titled.  Our latest song I am at a loss for words as to what to call it, beyond fucking awesome.  I can’t wait for people to hear the new stuff.  We are a hard band to pin down as there are not many bands that are doing what we do, at least locally.  Sure, we share some elements during various passages with other bands, but we mix things together in a way that I feel is unique.  Even when reviews have compared us to other bands, I go listen to those bands again, listening for similarities, and often I find myself thinking, “well sure, that is similar to this passage(or song) here, but nothing like this passage (or song) right after.”  I don’t know where that leaves Boneworm.  It isn’t the safe path of writing pop music that doesn’t challenge the listener but has a wide audience.

I’ve found it onto your bandcamp profile, very clever… It’s said that you not only play guitars “but shoulder the burden of knowing exactly how everyone going to die”, Dave does play bass and he is like “a lich or a Roman emperor, only seems to be growing more powerful with age”. And Chaz, your drummer, he “hangs out with your Camaro-driving uncle”. Therefore I need to ask about the weekend they drove to Reno!

[Tim]:  Chaz will be happy to detail the weekend in Reno.  As for your death, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

[Chaz]  It all started when I was at Al’s Used Magic Shop and Hot Dogs over there on Main.  Trading-in what was left of my old act after the night before’s terrible accident.  Teresa, my part-time assistant and full-time girlfriend, was not supposed to arrive at the club until 7:30pm.  She was early and ruined my illusion of making-out with Francene. “How much you give me for all this here, Al?”.....You know what?  Let’s just say Reno is not the same now as it was back then.  We’ll leave it at that.

Tim, I know another band from Portland… Indeed most of our readers know about it too, it’s Witch Mountain, and Uta told me about your local underground scene admitting that it’s very perspective. Do you agree with that statement? And what is a background of such phenomena? Do fresh oceanic air and beautiful landscapes create a feeling of good music in a sensitive people there in Oregon?

[Tim]:  Uta certainly has her finger on the pulse of the music scene here in town, I would not dispute her assertions.  The music scene in Portland is gigantic and thriving.  There are more bands in town than you would think possible.  It is difficult to find an available practice space that is not completely full, let alone one that is decent.  I pay a lot of attention to what is going on in music in Portland, and even I am surprised sometimes when I discover awesome local bands that are right under my nose, somehow escaping my detection.  Living in Portland we are very lucky to have a diverse and thriving music scene, including a sizable metal scene. Portland itself does tend to attract a certain type of person, people that enjoy easy access to the outdoors, the dark woods, the waterfalls, the mountain peaks, as well as movies, art, food, and breweries that Portland has to offer.  Yet Portland does not feel like a big city.   While less true today than it was 12 years ago when I moved here, Portland is still a place where you can live relatively cheaply and that allows people to pursue their art full time.  On the other side, you can have a 9-5 job and not spend 3-4 hours commuting like in other larger cities, so it affords working folk time to pursue their passions.  That being said most of the music that gets attention in Portland is indie and folk focused, but there is so much more than that here. 
Portland also is a special place in America.  Possibly one of the most politically liberal cities you could find.  Many younger people have moved here from elsewhere to find that place where they fit in, where rednecks don’t throw full beer cans at you when you ride your bike, were fluoridation and a sales tax are like poison, and local food and recycling are the norm.  The Portlandia TV shows pokes fun and exaggerates, but many of those skits I find funny because they are based on reality. You put all these things together, and you get the kind of people here that want what Portland has to offer.  The breadth and depth just grows out of the numbers, the conditions are right for bringing people here that want to make music. Thank you for taking an interest in Boneworm.

Interview By Aleks E

Boneworm | Bandcamp
Boneworm | Facebook

Future is Shrouded in Dark Wilderness: Five Questions with DOOMMANTIA Founder and Doom Guru Ed Barnard ...

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Hi Ed. I know it is very hard for you to do any typing and writing so I really appreciate your time and effort for this interview. For people who don't know this. I have known Ed since 1986 and I have never known anyone so passionate about heavy metal and doom metal in particular. Ed was the first guy I ever met who was heavily into bands like Saint Vitus which back in 1986 was unusual to say the least. It was the thrash, death and black metal boom after-all so Ed was really going against the grain of what was popular back then.

You have probably been asked this a million times but did you think doom metal would ever get to the stage it is now?

Ed: In a word...no. When I first started seeking out slower than slow metal bands, no one I knew liked the stuff. Even Metallica was considered too slow for a lot of metal-heads in 86/87 so bands like Saint Vitus were the complete opposite of what most metal fans wanted to hear at the time. I did think it would be only a matter of time and the doom metal scene would eventually find a dedicated audience but back in the 80's I was a alone in my appreciation for the doom metal scene. It still amazes me now to hear from so many doom metal bands and fans of the genre. However it is no surprise to see it is still being grossly ignored by the mainstream metal media. Doom metal will always be one of heavy metal's underdogs but I kind of like it that way.

What are the biggest changes to the doom metal scene you have seen happen in your close to 30 years of supporting doom metal?

Ed: The biggest changes came from the crazy amount of sub-genres. The sub-genres are almost like scenes within scenes. You have everyone from funeral doom fans to occult doom fans to stoner rockers to ambient music fans all following and supporting the doom metal scene in one way or another. It is quite a diverse scene considering doom metal is such a unique niche in music. The other biggie is of course, the internet which changed everything within the course of just a few years. You next favorite band or album is just a click away now when back in the old days, it required a lot of searching around in record shops, a lot of reading underground metal fanzines and a lot of tape-trading. That was your only hope of discovering anything new. Otherwise you had to stick with your Metallica, Slayer, Exodus records etc..... I love the internet. Doom metal wouldn't be where it is today without it and of course it gave me a outlet to explore my passion even further.

As important as music is to people like us, it pales in comparison to poor health and homelessness. I know you feel awkward about talking about this and most people should know what happened by now but can you tell the readers how you ended up in the terrible situation you are sadly in now?

Ed: Well for a start, I do hate talking about it. The donation drive that has been running for months to help me has NEVER has anything to do with me. It was started by friends who felt like someone had to do something because basically no one was supporting me - not family, not the government, not anyone. I couldn't even get help from my local community. The amount of support shown by some people in the metal community has been heart-warming though and there is a good chance I would be dead now if it wasn't for the support I have got from friends and readers of Doommantia.Com. Without going into too many details, I had a heart-attack which left me without work which then led to me and my family (at the time) being evicted from the apartment we were living in. Efforts to make our landlord understand the dire circumstances fell on deaf ears and we were basically forced onto the streets, literally. Moving forward a little now - through the help of friends we manage to find somewhere else to live but that time was short-lived after a second heart attack and then a divorce from my wife. This then left me with court ordered child support payments pending.

Now while I was dealing with that extra expense which was more per month than what I actually earned each month, the medical bills started to roll in. Within 3 months, I was over $50,000 in debt. Then I started to feel sick again, the illness continue to intensify which ended up with being diagnosed with Eisenmenger Syndrome which restricts blood flow to the vessels in the lungs. This in turn means there is not enough oxygen going to the organs and tissues. The doctors say it is unlikely I am going to live anymore than another 5 years. More medical bills, more hospital stays and I was left fired from my job which forced me into a homeless existence. I have slept in cars, tents, hotel rooms paid for by friends and homeless shelters and that is where I still currently sleep. I spend days hanging around hospital grounds because I am so fearful of dropping dead at any moment, I figure I might as well be near the emergency room plus the free wi-fi internet they offer helps me stay in touch with people. Personal debt has now ballooned out to almost $100,000 with a monthly medical prescription bill of over $1,000. Obviously I have no money so I very rarely get those prescriptions filled which means I am basically living on a knife's edge healthwise. Like my dear departed father used to say all the time, "one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel." That is basically my life as it stands today.

The worst thing at the moment is the side-effects of my illness. I have hand tremors that make it really hard to type anything, so much so that any articles for the website have to be typed out by someone else now and that breaks my heart to be honest with you.

Has this experience changed your view of the world and society in general?

Ed: Oh for sure. It has totally changed everything. I always thought the world was a fucked-up, mostly foreboding place but it sure as hell seems much worse now. Most people do want to help people like me but their hands are tied due to the broken healthcare system and their own personal debt problems. Strangely the most support and love has come from total strangers which was a disturbing wake-up call for me personally. Several large donations from readers of Doommantia has been the only thing that has made a real difference but with monthly medical expenses at $1,000 or more, that money never lasts long. I appreciate any donation that comes my way, no matter how small and one thing I have learned is how far money can go if you have no choice. It is not uncommon for me to get through a week on $10 and I would have never thought that was possible years ago. The world for the most part is a cold, heartless place but there are some truly wonderful people out there. If only the whole world was like that. The main gripe I have about the world and the US in particular is how fucked you really are when you have no money. Everybody knows money is king but I don't think many people have a clue what is really like to have none of it. Most people, no matter how poor still have 3 meals a day and electricity powering their homes and medicine when they need it. To me living without any of those things is a whole other world that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy.

What can people do to help?

Ed: Donate. I had to bring everything back to dollars but that is everything to me right now. Everyday I have to chase the next dollar, the next meal and most importantly, the pills and treatments I need. I sometimes get by on sample packs from the hospital but they do that out of kindness and not out of any legal requirement to do so so that could end at any moment. I really just want the meds I need, food, somewhere to live that doesn't involved sharing a room with a bunch of other homeless people and money to take care of my 2 kids who are the innocent victims in all this. Those 2 kids now have a homeless, dying father who can't support them and that breaks my heart more than anything.

Donations can be made via the Paypal button in the sidebar.

Interview By Tony C

VIDEO: CANDLEMASS: Pro-Shot Footage Of SWEDEN ROCK FESTIVAL Performance ...

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Professionally filmed video footage of Swedish doom metal veterans CANDLEMASS performing their classic song "Solitude" at this year's edition of the Sweden Rock Festival— which is being held June 5-8 in Sölvesborg, Sweden — can be seen below.

CANDLEMASS played its first show with singer Mats Levén on June 5, 2012 at Debaser Slussen in Stockholm, Sweden.

Levén is a former member of YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, THERION and TREAT, who also plays with CANDLEMASS bassist/mainman Leif Edling in KRUX.

Also joining the group for CANDLEMASS' recent live performances was keyboard player Per Wiberg (OPETH, SPIRITUAL BEGGARS).

CANDLEMASS in June 2012 parted ways singer Robert Lowe. The band stated at the time that this was "a very difficult decision" to make and had "mainly to do with the quality of the live performances."

Lowe— who is still a member of SOLITUDE AETERNUS— joined CANDLEMASS in January 2007 and sang on the band's last three studio albums: "King Of The Grey Islands" (2007), "Death Magic Doom" (2009) and "Psalms For The Dead" (2012).

CANDLEMASS released its 11th and final album, "Psalms For The Dead", on June 8, 2012 via Napalm Records. A limited-edition seven-inch vinyl single contaning two album tracks —"Dancing In The Temple Of The Mad Queen Bee" and "The Killing Of The Sun"— preceded the full-length effort on April 13, 2012.


NEWS: New Castero Track - "He Must Rule" ...

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Castero is 4 piece Stoner Rock band from Ireland. Their second album "Revolutions" will be released in the Summer of 2013. The album will consist of 7 brand new tracks and the first to feature Richie Don & David Doyle. Previously Castero has toured with Bands like Diamond Head, Portrait, Trench Hell, Age of Taurus & O/D Saxon plus many more.

Now they represent a brand new song – “He Must Rule”!!!




Official Website
Facebook

Boneworm – S/T ...

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Portland, Oregon: a geographic reference that is able to make doomsters’ veins vibrate for appreciation as well as for expectation. Definitely a fertile womb for heavy, raw and slow music drenched with a special, very American flavour exhaled by ancestral blues roots, plus probably something else, a sense of place, the “Cascadian” spirit. Boneworm, a new trio from that part of the world, do call their music as belonging to the lively craddle of “Cascadian doom”.  Boneworm is Dave Becker on bass and vocals, Tim Burke on guitars and Chaz Rocker on drums. The band emerged sometimes last year and independently released their self-titled debut album in October 2012.  Boneworm’s debut album comprises Sickness, Crater and The Call, three long suites summing up to almost 42  minutes. The light, almost childish, cartoon-like cover art with the wizard evoking the Boneworm logo by casting a spell with his magic wand is tricky and totally misleading.  Also, don’t expect that these 42 minutes will fly away easily, no way: these minutes will be extended, dragged away by the barebone raw heaviness of Boneworm’s music. It may not be casual that these guys adopted the name of the worms which bore into the bones of whale carcasses.

So Boneworm’s tunes won’t flow like fresh water but they will weigh over and erode your soul like gruesome stormy weather, the abrasive heaviness of glaciers, lack of light, isolation and, if we add what the band mention as elements of  their background, grim industrial suburbs. These are ingredients for depressive black metal.  But Boneworm managed to mould these sources of inspiration with their musical background and passions into an original, hydrid style of doom-sludge metal. Their originality does not reside much into the style and the type of riffs, as Boneworm do recall Sabbathian and Melvins very much, to start with. A good part of their originality resides, for me at least, in the use they make of silence. There is basically no feedback, no wall of sound behind the painfully slow, blues-drenched notes emitted from the guitars or spitted or shouted out by bassist singer Dave (occasionally backed up by his mates). Riffs (guitar solos), slow-paced drumming and singing are dosed like droplets slowly falling from a drip-feed to a sick body. Each note, sound, shout will take their (slow) time to vibrate and somehow echo in the uneasy silence, which is not the scary silence of a house haunted by ghosts but the silence of loneliness and poverty.


The sound is treated in a way that sound is not “crystalline” and there are not many effects of echoing evoking, say, open spaces. No, this is barebone, minimalistic doom in an existential cage, and captured right from the cage, apparently with not much subsequent reworking. Boneworm want you to suffer with them, and in order to convey their pain they employed blues.  Blues is adding tons of groove to Boneworm’s ballads, which turn to melancholic and desolate bluesy funeral doom ballads instead of suicidal depressive lithanies, even if the lyrics are devoid of hope. The singing style is hopelessly angry shouting more affine to hardcore and noise than to other metal genres.
But, in spite of the minimalistic structures and features of their ballads, Boneworm guys also experiment wth psychedelia by means of their own raw way of playing during their overly dilated times. Well, the band’s particular way of unfolding slow heaviness can surely induce some hypnotic, “psychedelic” effects. However I was distincly reminded of early Pink Floyd more by the vocal parts (e.g., in ballad Sickness) than by the occasionally reverbered guitar sounds. And I found this feature, too, quite curious and original. So, yes, we have another doom band from Portland, Oregon!  And after listening to them and, yes, being surprised by them and duly crushed flat by their “trve” heaviness right from their debut album, one may realize that, yes, there are tons of bands playing doom but there is still space for approaching music with a different and original attitude in spite of being deeply rooted into “traditional” sources.

Doomsters! Don’t miss Boneworm’s debut via Bandcamp, in case you don’t have it yet, and, as usual, be generous with your donation in order to support the underground scene.
As stated by the Boneworm guys in their cool and instructive interview with Aleks (HERE), fostered by the success during their live exhibitions, they are writing stuff for a new album that, I’m sure, will bring you more lo-fi, blues-infused groovy yet hopeless, crushing pain and suffering! 

Words: Marilena Moroni

Boneworm | Facebook
Boneworm | Bandcamp

NEWS: BLOODY HAMMERS COMPLETE NEW ALBUM, ANNOUNCE FIRST TOUR DATES ...

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Transylvania County, NC - June 9th 2013 - American doomsters BLOODY HAMMERS have completed work on their forthcoming album Spiritual Relics, to be released worldwide on Oct 1st.

"We didn't have any live shows booked when our current self-titled album was released," said Anders Manga, Bloody Hammers' vocalist/bassist and songwriter. "It was much more successful than anticipated, but we didn't have much to do at the time, so we went back in the studio while waiting for tour dates to be confirmed. We're very pleased with the result and look forward to getting it out to the fans. The album is packed with more heavy fuzzed out eeriness and horror, as well as some chilled-out creepy southern gothic pieces. It will be released just in time for Halloween, and our performance at Phil Anselmo's Housecore Horror Film Fest in Austin, TX."

Bloody Hammers are also playing the following live shows with Ancient VVisdom in August:

8/6 - Atlanta, GA - @ Purgatory/Masquerade
8/7 - Nashville, TN - @ Exit In
8/8 - Richmond, VA - @ Strange Matter
8/9 - Baltimore, MD - @ Side Bar
8/10 - New York, NY - @ SAINT VITUS BAR

Blood Hammers | Facebook

NEWS: BLACK SABBATH: 'God Is Dead?' Video Released ...

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"God Is Dead?", the brand new video from BLACK SABBATH, can be seen below. The song is the debut single from "13", the first BLACK SABBATH record in 35 years to feature singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler all playing together.

The "God Is Dead?" clip was directed by controversial filmmaker and social activist Peter Joseph, who is best known for his counter-culture/social revolution film series under the banner title of "Zeitgeist", meaning the "general intellectual, moral and cultural climate of an era."

What was deemed more of a "short film" than a music video, the work had its world premiere screening at the band's June 6 album release in Hollywood's Harmony Gold Preview Center. Comprised of symbology extracted from his documentary trilogy, coupled with layers of imposed archival imagery of the band, marking their history in a unique abstraction, the "God is Dead?" official music video is a sign of the times.

In an interview, Joseph stated about his collaboration with BLACK SABBATH: "After an initial hesitancy in the direction proposed using just existing footage from my films, I quickly realized it was to be an extremely interesting and original expression. The gesture of the song 'God is Dead?', with its subtle reflection on the often dark world we inhabit and questioning of how such a world can be if there was a god, resonated with me."

He continued: "It was expressed at the start that my work had been an influence on the song to begin with, so that was very inspiring to hear.

"I grew up listening to early BLACK SABBATH and am a big fan of the core message. Songs such as 'War Pigs' and the anti-war, pro-unity gesture found in those early albums are very much in line with my values. I was honored to help."

A musician as well as a filmmaker and outspoken social critic, Joseph has run the gamut of socially conscious expressions, including founding the global sustainability advocacy group The Zeitgeist Movement, along with being the founder/curator of the annual Zeitgeist Media Arts Festival, which holds its annual event each year in Hollywood for socially conscious art. He hosts an online satire web series called "Culture in Decline" and is in production of a new feature film series called "InterReflections".

"13" is due out June 11 on Vertigo/Republic. This marks BLACK SABBATH's return to Vertigo, their original label, and the group's first studio album together since 1978's "Never Say Die!"

Osbourne went on the BBC in England to discuss "God Is Dead?" and the inspiration behind the track. Ozzy explained, "I was in somebody's office and there was a magazine on a table and it just said, 'God Is Dead', and I suddenly thought about 9/11 and all these terrorist things and religion and how many people have died in the name of religion. When you think about the tragedy that's happened throughout time, it just came in my head. You'd think by now that their God would have stopped people dying in the name of, so I just starting thinking that people must be thinking, 'Where is God? God is dead' and it just hit me."

Ozzy added that the question mark at the end of the title is his way of showing that he's not sure about the answer himself, saying, "At the end of the thing, there's still a bit of hope because there I sing that I don't believe that God is dead. It's just a question of when you see so many dreadful people killing each other with bombs, and blowing the tube trains up and the World Trade Center."

The drum tracks on the album were laid down by RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE sticksman Brad Wilk following original drummer Bill Ward's decision to bow out of the reunion.

Ozzy told an Australian radio station that "13" is "mind-blowing," adding, "It's better than my wildest dreams; it's so good."

SABBATH kicked off its world tour in support of "13" on April 20 in Auckland.


Get Yer Doom On - Buy - Download - Doom On ...

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This compilation was put together to raise money to benefit Ed Barnard of Doommantia.com. He suffered a heart attack and due to huge medical bills, he is now homeless. 39 bands from all around the world have contributed over 4 hours of music. Killer artwork was donated by Coby Ellison. A $7 donation gets you these tracks but you can donate more if you have the means to do so. Lets help get Ed back on his feet and keep Doommantia alive!

Bandcamp  | Download

VOLUME TWO - COMING SOON



LESBIAN - "Forestelevision" ...

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Ready for some girl on girl action? Sorry to disappoint, you horndogs! This Lesbian is composed of bearded lumberjack-looking rockers from the Pacific Northwest. One look at them will puncture your dreams of hardcore Sapphic bliss pretty quickly.

Ready for a massive journey through a world of eclectic heavy metal touching on everything from doom to post-metal to prog to even King Diamond/Mercyful Fate type headbanging? Then you might be more satisfied with this hairy Lesbian. "Forestelevision" is one giant track from these dudes, so pack a lunch if you're ready to take this trip. Albums composed of one huge track are no longer so rare, but they are always awkward, no matter what their musical content. They are hard to break up into little chunks and enjoy, but equally hard to listen to all the way through. Diving into something like "Forestelevision" requires a lot of effort, which is hard to find in these days of five nanosecond attention spans.

It is to Lesbian's credit that this record is entertaining and fascinating to listen to. I'm not going to describe all its labyrinthine twists and turns in depth, but I love the way this starts with soaring, heavy prog metal like flourishes and twists that morph into heavy, doomy post-metal explorations. There are plenty of peaks and valleys, but I will say none of the mellower or more subdued "valleys" lasts so long that you start to nod off. The metal content is never far away. In fact, to reinforce Lesbian's metal roots, the last third of "Forestelevision" prominently features amazing King Diamond-like falsetto shrieks over a chugging thrash riff, with screaming solos liberally applied thereto. It's amazing how well this works and though I suspect some will accuse Lesbian of being smirking hipsters for including it, I think it's a sincere tip of the hat to their influences. Just imagine a massive trainwreck involving Opeth, Neurosis, King Diamond and Wolves In the Throne Room and you might have a faint idea of what "Forestelevision" is.

It's enough to make me don checkered flannel and head into the woods...

Words: Dr. Mality ( Wormwood Chronicles )

Lesbian | Bandcamp

Heads-up: Khorne - Demo ...

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Two tracks may be enough and not enough at the same time. Enough for catching and appreciating the potentials of a band and not enough for enjoying said band adequately.  This is what happens with the doom band Khorne, an unusual band.

Why unusual? Well, because Khorne is from Pakistan! If you go and check Metal Archives for Pakistani metal bands you’ll discover that, in spite of what one may think about those central Asian countries/societies that seem so far from our musical background, there actually is some truly careful attention and interest towards heavy music. Pakistan does have an unexpectedly rich heavy music scene and Khorne are part of it.  Khorne are a quartet from Karachi who play a blend of  heavy, Sabbathian doom metal merged with doses of death and essential hints of black metal. They play so bleak and especially so “trve” that it seems as if they had been exposed to and absorbed heavy gloomy doomy tunes since ages. These four guys, i.e. Farhan Rathore on vocals, Corpse on lead/rhythm guitars, Daniyal Buksh Soomro on bass and Omair Soomro on drums, emerged during early 2013, when they posted their two demo tracks via Bandcamp. Only two tracks, the almost 5 minute-long Resurrection and the 5:30 minutes-long Pandemonium, ways of depicting the guys’ pessimism, their “landscapes of misery and depression”, and possibly also a few provoking ideas about how to interact with religion. At any latitude Doom seems to be an adequate vehicle for such feelings and dark moods.

Also the band’s very name, Khorne says much: in the war game Warhammer, Khorne is the name of the God of War, Chaos and Hatred. So no wonder that Satan is provocatively evoked in Resurrection and what follows is Pandemonium! Debut track Resurrection is drenched with an almost epic feeling via the plodding, slow and almost martial rhythm leading the song and especially the melancholic guitar solos closing the track with their laments. The death metal-styled raspy and deeply growled vocals are, on the contrary, fierce and unearthly, and are able to evoke atmospheres recalling  bands like Mournful Congregation and Asphyx. Pandemonium was the second track with which the quartet fed their big army of fans after the first bite of Ressurrection. This track has a different cover art, shows an even nastier face of the band and, I would say, a heavier, darker and less redolent version of doom.

Pandemonium is a monster track, distilled war doom. It is slightly more dynamic than Resurrection, guitars are more downtuned and thundering, there’s less space for melancholy in favor of pure evil also conveyed by Farhan’s hellish blackened vocals (what a singer!). A vein of Sabbathian and Electric Wizard-esque doom imparts some groove as well as some sort of ritualistic, occult mood to this nasty doom-death ballad which is maybe closer to disEmbowelment’s and would benefit of a longer duration. Many people have already welcomed Khorne jumping into the international doom scene. If you missed this powerful dose of new, Eastern doom, go and visit Khorne on Bandcamp and get these two tracks for free download!

After meeting Khorne you’ll have to think about Pakistan not only in terms of cricket but also for great Sabbathian and nasty doooooom …. Khorne’s two-track demo is too short, and you definitely end up wanting more of their raw, nasty heaviness.  But, doomsters, your thirst of new, boundless gloom and doom will be quenched soon, as next month, July, will see Khrone eventually, and proudly, unleashing a proper release, their debut 5-song EP!

Words: Marilena Moroni

Khorne | Facebook
Khorne | Bandcamp
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