Late Night Doom: Blood Farmers, “Headless Eyes”
1:28AM
Same logo, new decade. New York City-based doom outfit Blood Farmers‘ last new-ish release was a reissue of their demo Permanent Brain Damage that came out through Japan’s Leaf Hound Records in 2004. The tracks for that were recorded circa 1991. Their only full-length to date was 1995’s Blood Farmers, which came out on Hellhound Records (reissued by Leaf Hound in 2008), but tonight the trio of bassist/vocalist Eli Brown, guitarist Dave Szulkin (also The Disease Concept) and drummer Tad Leger (also Lucertola) have unveiled their latest work, “Headless Eyes,” and made available their first studio recording in 18 years.
I’ll give you a second to think about where you were in 1995.
“Headless Eyes” comes from Blood Farmers‘ forthcoming sophomore outing of the same name, and while I don’t have a release date handy for the album Headless Eyes, I’ve been fortunate enough to catch Blood Farmers live a couple times now — at Days of the Doomed II last year, at Stoner Hands of Doom XI in 2011, and at Roadburn that same year — I can attest that the band brings a suitably plodding, horror-obsessed atmosphere to the song that’s done justice by the studio version. One big difference is the use of sampling to go along with Brown‘s lyrics, and of course the clips come from the 1971 movie, Headless Eyes, in which a deranged artist loses an eye while robbing somebody and becomes a serial killer who — spoiler alert — gouges out ladies’ eyes with a spoon.
In the song, the samples at several points coincide directly with Brown‘s vocals, and that gives a cool, almost echoing effect to go along with the lumbering riff and rhythm. Just before the eight minute mark, Leger counts in a faster solo section reminiscent of the churning break in Sabbath‘s “Sweet Leaf,” and they put it to some good use. Not to be missed.
More on the album as I hear it. In the meantime, doom on this:
Wow play out live with Ogre & Elder