The above headline, “Looking Forward to Go Back,” is modified and taken out of context from the last line of my recent telephone interview with Apostle of Solitude guitarist/vocalist Chuck Brown. Brown was talking about touring Europe, which is something he did as a member of The Gates of Slumber. But I think the phrase can be applied to Apostle of Solitude as a whole, what the band does, their sound and their execution. They look forward to go back.

The music on their sophomore offering, Last Sunrise — the follow-up to 2008’s stellar Sincerest Misery — is undeniably modern in structure, sound, feel and production, but there’s also no question that it is traditional doom, and linked to a lineage of bands that spans decades. But, with eyes geared toward the future, they’re not just rehashing old Sabbath or Trouble riffs and calling it a record. They’re bringing that sound, and us as listeners, forward with them.

Brown, who is joined in Apostle of Solitude by Justin Avery (guitar), Brent McClellan (bass) and Corey Webb (drums), recently took some time out for an in-depth telephone interview to discuss the careful processes behind making Last Sunrise, and the consideration that went into the details of the album. Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

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When it comes to the kind of emotive, traditional doom in which Indianapolis, Indiana, four-piece Apostle of Solitude traffic, an album like their 2008 full-length debut, Sincerest Misery, is a hard one to top. The record was a triumph of precisely what the title suggested, and each song carried a drama with it that was neither over-the-top nor silly, but felt remarkably human and real to the listener. The guitar and vocal work of Chuck Brown (ex-The Gates of Slumber) was essential to this process; his voice in particular heralding the doom of yore with an urgency not often heard in their genre.

So if Apostle of Solitude had anything post-Sincerest Misery, it was their work cut out for them. It is, therefore, all the more satisfying to say that Last Sunrise, the band’s label debut for Profound Lore, more than lives up to its predecessor on every level. From the massive, slow bleed that closes “December Drives Me to Tears” or the visceral emptiness that makes up the whole of “Letting Go of the Wheel” — a rare song that feels too short at nine minutes — Apostle of Solitude the nigh-impossible balance between progress and staying true to what’s already been established as their sound. Five of the nine non-bonus cuts on Last Sunrise are over the seven-minute mark, the closing trio of “Sister Cruel,” “Frontiers of Pain” (huge) and “Coldest Love” (ditto) hitting in succession following the aforementioned “December Drives Me to Tears.”

But it’s somehow cheap to talk about song lengths when even the shorter material, songs like “Hunter Sick Rapture” (a paltry 4:45), pack so much weight as well. Based around a traditionally NWOBHM galloping riff, the song is no less forlorn than its more spread out musical compatriots. If anything, the band sounds all the more desperate for the extra energy. The opening title track, “Last Sunrise (Requiem)” is little more than an intro, albeit one whose slow unfolding is even more of a setup for the album to come than the song itself. Perhaps Apostle of Solitude wanted to start Last Sunrise with the more straightforward, rocking material up front, because both “Acknowledging the Demon” and “Other Voices” are under four minutes. Brown and guitarist Justin Avery lead the charge, making “Acknowledging the Demon” an immediately memorable affair, but the rhythm section of drummer Corey Webb and Brent McClellan do an excellent job of grounding the songs, whether the atmosphere’s oppression is coming from the outward heaviness of a given track or its naked minimalism.

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In a stirring bit if newsly awesomeness, Indianapolis trad doomers Apostle of Solitude have finished work on their new record, Last Sunrise, due out in March on Profound Lore. If you’re not looking forward to it yet, you should be. I’ve already put up the tracklisting, but the even more important news is that the band has uploaded two songs from Last Sunrise already, one of which is right here:

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The song is called “December Drives Me to Tears,” and goodness gracious it’s doomy. Apostle of Solitude is perfect for a case of the winter bum-outs. The other new song can be heard on the band’s MySpace, and it’s called “Hunter Sick Rapture.” Also rules.

Profound Lore had this to say about Last Sunrise:

Last Sunrise is a surging work of traditionally played hard hitting doom metal in the familiar vein of such bands as Solitude Aeturnus, Candlemass, St. Vitus, and The Obsessed (whose track “Streetside” the band cover on the North American version of Last Sunrise), you know, the usual legendary suspects.  It’s an album that touches upon the realistic modern-day themes which confront our emotions through trials of grief, loss, and ultimately, inevitable despair. The musical journey of Last Sunrise is an adventurous one and by the time the surging album closer “Coldest Love” (which we attest will be one of the best doom metal tracks you’ll hear all year, a track quite reminiscent of the power that bands like Warning unleashed with their Watching from a Distance album) falls upon the listener, the tale of the doomed lovers unravels as the inevitable end triumphs in pure doom metal glory.

As over the course of this decade San Francisco has become a hotbed of neo-artsy metal, it’s not surprising that the aughts should end with a release like the Profound Lore debut from the trio Worm Ouroboros. It’s been called chamber metal because of its classical influences and operatic vocals, but over these nine mostly extended tracks there are a wide variety of styles and sounds, mostly mellow in execution, but periodically picking up into a post-doom heaviness that’s notable in its grace and flow.

Profound Lore followers will recognize bassist/vocalist Lorraine Rath (also responsible for the album artwork) from Amber Asylum, and joined in Worm Ouroboros by guitarist/vocalist Jessica Way and drummer Justin Green (both World Eater), Rath shines in both her principle roles. Perhaps it’s because of the relative minimalism of what’s happening on the record, but with a song like “Goldeneye,” her bass and Way’s guitar offset each other with a jazzy perfection, feedback toward the end acting as a subdued alarm, while Green adds cymbal accents. This is a chemistry that plays out for most of Worm Ouroboros, across material more straightforward like “Falling Moon” or more ambient like “Brittle Heart.”

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One of the main reasons I don’t at all regret signing up for the Profound Lore newsletter is they send over killer label updates like the below about Indianapolis doomers Apostle of Solitude’s new album. If you didn’t catch last year’s Sincerest Misery on Eyes Like Snow, consider it highly recommended. Here’s what Profound Lore has to say about the follow-up:

We�re awaiting the final master to the new album from the new gods of US doom metal, namely Apostle of Solitude. Last Sunrise is a doom metal masterpiece that comes across as the heaviest and most emotionally driven material that Apostle of Solitude have crafted. In what easily surpasses the band�s previous work (and we know how good that is), Last Sunrise is a soul stirring doom metal opus that is a soundtrack to the emotional and tragic circumstances that we get confronted with during these harsh times of need and desperation.

Tracklisting to Last Sunrise goes as follows:
1. Last Sunrise (Requiem)
2. Acknowledging the Demon
3. Other Voices
4. Letting Go of the Wheel
5. Hunter Sick Rapture
6. December Drives Me to Tears
7. Sister Cruel
8. Frontiers of Pain
9. Coldest Love

Our version (Eyes Like Snow are releasing this in Europe) will include three exclusive hidden bonus tracks as well (these were recorded by The Gates of Slumber/current Nachtmystium live drummer Bob Fouts). Them being �Streetside� (The Obsessed), �Mary and Child� (Born Against), and �Astro Zombies� (The Misfits).

Returning after a four year absence and finding their name now synonymous with the top echelon of this decade’s doom innovators, the Eugene, Oregon trio YOB have released a new album in the form of The Great Cessation (Profound Lore) that only further solidifies the position and notoriety gained while they were defunct. Would have been something if they came back and sucked, next to impossible as that would be.

The band who gave us Catharsis and then-swansong The Unreal Never Lived now features bassist Aaron Reiseberg, drummer Travis Foster, and of course, vocalist, guitarist and main songwriter, Mike Scheidt, who in the wake of YOB found himself in a legal shitstorm with follow-up project Middian getting sued by a band of a similar name who don’t deserve the small publicity a specific mention might give them. That lawsuit effectively ended the band, but not before Scheidt changed the name of the project to their lone album title, Age Eternal, and bassist Will Lindsey joined Wolves in the Throne Room. In the meantime, Foster got in touch and, well… here we are.

As someone who’s interviewed Scheidt three or four times now (and only this time confirmed that he does prefer the all-caps version of the band name), I can honestly say that his consistent down-to-earth tone and open willingness to discuss his creative process in times good and bad is refreshing and, each time, makes for an interesting feature. For anyone who’s a sucker for print, the following Q&A appears (somewhat abridged) in two parts over two separate issues of New Jersey’s The Aquarian Weekly. If you’d rather just read it now, it’s after the jump.

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When Eugene, Oregon, trio Yob broke up after releasing their second Metal Blade album, The Unreal Never Lived, in 2005, it was devastating to the doom community at large. One of the truly original bands in their generation, with memorable riffs, ponderously slow rhythms and the unique wails and screams of vocalist/guitarist/principal songwriter Mike Scheidt, it was more than a shame to see them go — particularly after that album, which might have been their heaviest yet. For anyone who?s ever heard 2003?s Catharsis, that?s saying something.

The events that transpired in the wake of Yob?s demise are well documented; the formation and signing to Metal Blade of Scheidt?s new band, Middian, whose album, Age Eternal, took on a new direction from Yob only to be stifled by a lawsuit from a Milwaukee local band with a trademark on the name, though they spelled it with a single ?d,? as in, ?Damn, that?s a shitty thing for one band to do to another.? Unceremoniously dismissed by their label, Middian became Age Eternal and now has a questionable future, but in the meantime, Scheidt?s reformation of Yob last year with drummer Travis Foster and new bassist Aaron Reiseberg, their signing to hotshot Canadian indie Profound Lore and now the triumphant release of their returning opus, The Great Cessation — well, I don?t think it could have been planned any better. They even got a new logo courtesy of northwestern mainstay Aaron Edge (guitar in Himsa, Iamthethorn; drums in Tad Doyle?s Brothers of the Sonic Cloth). All is as it should be, or so it would seem.

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To be honest, it’s not the first time that’s happened. Behold! The good news:

Doom metal giants Yob have posted ?Burning the Altar? on their MySpace page. ?Burning the Altar? is the lead track on the band’s fifth studio album, The Great Cessation. The album, produced by Sanford Parker (The Gates of Slumber, Minsk), will be released this July on Profound Lore Records in both CD and vinyl formats.

The full track listing for The Great Cessation:

Burning the Altar
The Lie that is Sin
Silence of Heaven
Breathing from the Shallows
The Great Cessation

Actually, the honest answer to that question is that although it arrived some time beforehand, the album got lost in the shuffle when my former place of employment shit the bed. That plus the fact that the artwork makes the record look like generic European black metal (or worse, US black metal trying to sound European) meant it stayed in the pile longer than it otherwise might have. I should have known better. Usually even if I don’t like it, the stuff on Profound Lore is at least interesting.

Not a review, just a simple recommendation from one friend to another: these Dutch Satanic witch rockers get down with some serious early ’70s occult imagery in the context of post-disco prog. When they talk about “wolfsbane,” “eye of newt,” and “devil’s root” in “The Heavens Cry Out,” I sense no irony. This is what they do and they’re way into it. And even if the music doesn’t get you off, the liner notes are full of “hail and “thee” and “verily,” so entertainment abounds one way or another.

The overall vibe of the record is more horror-based than any of the actual music, and if Come, Reap is retro, it’s retro of a period rarely touched in underground rock. And of course you can sample some tracks over at their MySpace page. This may just be a five-song EP, but it’s already got me looking forward to The Devil’s Blood’s set at Roadburn. I hear tell they do it up all ritual-like and covered in blood. Hell yeah.