Gosh, you know, with four singles released over the better part of the past year, it’s starting to seem an awful lot like Swarm of Flies are heading toward a full-length release. Crazy I know for what started as a social-distancing-era remote project, guitarist Ken Wohlrob (whose brother apparently lives down the road from me, because really, everyone in the universe has ties to Morris County, New Jersey, it’s just a question of whether or not they admit it) of End of Hope and Eternal Black reaching out to New York and seemingly beyond in order to conjure various incarnations of atmospheric heavy and other dirgey sounds. To wit, amid slide guitar from Pat Harrington of Geezer adding an almost Yawning Man-style effect of overarching melody, “Writhe” has a kind of Om-ish meditative aspect with Matt McAlpin‘s vocals and still manages to culminate in abrasive fashion at its peak before the drums tom out.

I missed the release of “Wendigo” in January, but you can stream all four of the Swarm of Flies songs to-date at the bottom of this post. Tell me if you don’t think that’s an album in the works.

Dig:

Pandemic-project Swarm of Flies joined by members of Geezer, Matte Black, and Raw Milk on new single “Writhe.” Song available via streaming services and Bandcamp on March 30, 2021.

SWARM OF FLIES — a new collaborative musical project created by Ken Wohlrob of New York City’s Eternal Black and End of Hope — will be releasing its fourth single, “Writhe,” on March 30, 2021. The song features Matt McAlpin of Matte Black and Dead Satellites on vocals, Pat Harrington of Geezer on slide guitar, and Adam Dausch of Raw Milk on drums. “Writhe” will be available on the project’s Bandcamp page (swarmofflies.bandcamp.com) and also available on streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music.

As with the three previous Swarm of Flies tracks – “Mine All Along,” “The Jaunt,” and “Wendigo” – “Writhe” is a collaboration between all the musicians involved. Wohlrob sent initial track layers to McAlpin, Harrington, Dausch, and frequent collaborator Davis Schlachter (End of Hope, Reign of Zaius), who then responded back with their own contributions.

According to Wohlrob, “Originally, Matt was going to play guitar, but he decided to sing instead and sent back those cool, moody vocal layers.” McAlpin’s contributions helped to take the track in a new, unexpected direction. “That is the fun of Swarm of Flies,” Wohlrob says, “Suddenly the song had this distinct Pink Floyd vibe, which made me think, ‘This needs slide guitar.’ Pat from Geezer is one of my favorite guitarists and a hell of a slide player. He put so much emotion in those ghostly lines.”

“Writhe” was mixed and mastered by Kol Marshall (“Mine All Along,” “Wendigo”) of Suburban Elvis Studios, who along with his production partner Joe Kelly, has also produced albums for Eternal Black and End of Hope. In addition, Marshall has a long list of production credits including King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Ministry, Usurper, and Absu.

“WRITHE” TRACK CREDITS
– Ken Wohlrob (Eternal Black, End of Hope): guitar, Moog, dub fx, producer
– Matt McAlpin (Matte Black, Dead Satellites): vocals
– Pat Harrington (Geezer): slide guitar
– Davis Schlachter (End of Hope, Reign of Zaius): bass, keyboards
– Adam Dausch (Raw Milk, Metropolly): drums
– Kol Marshall (Suburban Elvis Studios): mixing, mastering

About SWARM OF FLIES:
SWARM OF FLIES is a collaborative musical group created by Ken Wohlrob of New York City’s Eternal Black and End of Hope. The project’s goal is to continue to release new music during the coronavirus pandemic while the members’ other bands are on hiatus. More than just a stopgap, SWARM OF FLIES main focus is creating original music, rather than cover songs, and getting it out into the world as quickly as possible. Instead of crafting an album, Swarm of Flies will release new tracks as they are created. Each song will feature a different lineup of musicians from the heavy music/punk rock community. As of this writing, members of Eternal Black, Rollins Band, Shadow Witch, Fire Party, End of Hope, Witch Taint, Pigface, St. Bastard, Foetus, Reign of Zaius, Thunderbird Divine, Clamfight, Geezer, Matte Black, Dead Satellites, and Raw Milk have joined the project.

https://swarmofflies.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/swarmoffliesband

Swarm of Flies, “Writhe”

Swarm of Flies, “Wendigo”

Swarm of Flies, “The Jaunt”

Swarm of Flies, “Mine All Along”

If the vibe of the second Swarm of Flies single strikes you as having a different vibe from the first, that’s at least in part because it’s also got something of a different lineup. While project-spearhead/guitarist Ken Wohlrob and bassist Davis Schlachter make a return — they’re bandmates in End of Hope; Wohlrob also fronts Eternal Black, Schlachter doubles (triples?) in Reign of Zaius — they’re joined by a Philadelphia contingent of Thunderbird Divine‘s Erik Caplan and Clamfight‘s Andy Martin.

It’s Martin to whom the vocal duties fall on “The Jaunt,” and he weaves a tale of sci-fi paranoia and conspiracy that’s only suited to whatever clever name history will someday give what we’re now calling “this moment” that we’re living through. It’s a spoken word piece, and the music behind is correspondingly atmospheric, which itself is a departure from the prior “Mine All Along” (posted here), but if the end-goal of Swarm of Flies is to create an album’s worth of collaborations, the Wohlrob and Schlachter serve a vital function in tying it all together.

But really, what’s a guy gotta do to get an invite to do a track, huh? Is it ‘sit here and be jealous?’ Because that I can do.

Here’s info and audio:

Pandemic-project Swarm of Flies releases second single, “The Jaunt,” featuring members of Eternal Black, Clamfight, Thunderbird Divine, Reign of Zaius, and End of Hope.

A few words from Ken Wohlrob (Eternal Black, End of Hope):

Swarm of Flies is a collaborative musical project made up of musicians from well-established underground bands. The goal is to continue to release new music during the coronavirus pandemic. Our second single, “The Jaunt,” is now available as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp (swarmofflies.bandcamp.com) and is also available via online streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music.

The Song

As always, the S.O.F. lineup changes with each track. “The Jaunt,” features Andy Martin from Clamfight on vocals, Erik Caplan from Thunderbird Divine on guitar, drones, and harmonica, Davis Schlachter from Reign of Zaius and End of Hope on bass, synthesizer, and piano, and myself on guitar, Moog, and programming. This song is a strange one and the journey it went through from a somewhat minimalist dirge into a sort of space-rock epic speaks to the collaborative process. Erik is a flurry of creative ideas and threw so many layers at me that the challenge became finding the sonic bandwidth to make all the parts fit. The piano part added by Davis became an important counterpoint to all the electronic noise and his bassline anchors the whole thing in the Bad Seeds tradition. Andy had the idea for a spoken word part early on, but when we finally heard what he cooked up, we were stunned. It sets this dark tone and then builds to a great revelation. We handed it over to our good friend Joe Kelly, of Suburban Elvis Studios, to mix and master it, as well as add some additional percussion. It is a headphones song. You’ll keep hearing different layers every time you listen to it.

Comments from Erik:

“‘The Jaunt’ initially arrived as a sort of a puzzle challenge from Ken. The song is in an awkward key, and it’s in a janky time signature. It’s gloomy and moody. Once I figured out the progression, I had to figure out where I fit into the equation. This isn’t a song for guitar shredding, and it’s not a rocker or a doom jam. So I did a little Doors surf guitar and added some drone manipulations. I think the end result is simultaneously trippy, intense and organic.”

Comments from Andy:

“Lyrically, ‘The Jaunt’ was born of a collision between astrological alignments of Neolithic monuments, the Space Race during the Cold War, and the Repo Man soundtrack. The world we currently exist in is one that’s both isolated and unintentionally intimate. People are cut off from each other yet we can broadcast every moment of our lives to the those in our social circles. That made it easy to imagine being isolated from someone while having intimate access to their last moments.”

Who?

Here is a list of musicians who have participated in the Swarm of Flies project so far:
Andy Martin from Clamfight
Erik Caplan from Thunderbird Divine
Davis Schlachter from Reign of Zaius, Clothesline, and End of Hope
Earl Walker Lundy from Shadow Witch
David Richman from Witch Taint, St. Bastard, and End of Hope
Joe Kelly and Kol Marshall from Suburban Elvis Studios
And myself (if you don’t know who I am) from Eternal Black and End of Hope

https://swarmofflies.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/swarmoffliesband

Swarm of Flies, “The Jaunt”

Swarm of Flies, “Mine All Along”

If idle hands are the devil’s workshop, then I guess we’re casting Eternal Black‘s Ken Wohlrob out of paradise — such as it is — this week. The guitarist/vocalist from the Brooklynite doom trio — also of the more hardcore-driven End of Hope is working toward assembling a rotating cast of misfits and ne’er-do-wells that includes familiar faces from the Northeastern Corridor like Erik Caplan from Philly’s Thunderbird Divine and Earl Walker Lundy from Shadow Witch, among a host of others that is still growing.

The project is called, somewhat self-effacingly, Swarm of Flies, and along with Davis Zaius and fellow End of Hope member David Richman, as well of course as Wohlrob himself at the helm of the riffs, the drive here is obviously to collaborate with others in a way that, during “normal” times, probably wouldn’t happen just for the sheer logistics of getting people in the same room, but that now seems all the more possible precisely because there’s no alternative.

Swarm of Flies‘ first single, which boasts Lundy‘s vocal contribution, is called “Mine All Along.” I don’t know what the longterm plan is, whether these singles will eventually add up to an album or what, but It’s a cool idea manifest in at least one killer tune so far, so well worth sharing as far as I’m concerned. You’ll find “Mine All Along” at the bottom of this post, and Wohlrob offers the particulars on Swarm of Flies below.

Dive in:

Members of Eternal Black, Shadow Witch, End of Hope, Witch Taint, St. Bastard, Reign of Zaius, Thunderbird Divine, and Clamfight join forces as Swarm of Flies to release new music during the coronavirus pandemic. The first single, “Mine All Along,” is available now.

A few words from Ken Wohlrob (Eternal Black, End of Hope):

What?

Swarm of Flies is a new collaborative musical group. The goal is to continue to release new music during the coronavirus pandemic while our other bands are on hiatus. So far, the group includes members of Eternal Black, Shadow Witch, End of Hope, Witch Taint, St. Bastard, Reign of Zaius, Thunderbird Divine, and Clamfight. Our first single, “Mine All Along,” is now available as a name-your-price download on our Bandcamp page (swarmofflies.bandcamp.com) and is also available via online streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music. We will release each new song as it is ready. Every song will feature different musicians or new members who have joined the fold.

Why?

As the world ground to a halt, I didn’t want to stop making music. Even though my other bands were sidelined temporarily, I still wanted to find a way to release new music. The more I thought about it, the more I saw it as an opportunity to change the whole damn approach. Not only the type of music I made, but how it was created -— play different styles, play different guitars, hell, play different instruments. And why not get some friends involved, including people I admired from bands that I was lucky enough to share a bill with at one time or another? Once we started sending files back and forth and everyone kept adding their own layers, it got really interesting. I think people who know us will be surprised by what they hear.

Who?

Here is who has jumped on board so far:
Earl Walker Lundy from Shadow Witch
David Richman from Witch Taint, St. Bastard, and End of Hope
Davis Schlachter from Reign of Zaius, Clothesline, and End of Hope
Erik Caplan from Thunderbird Divine
Andy Martin from Clamfight
Joe Kelly and Kol Marshall of Suburban Elvis Studios will be mixing and mastering
And myself (if you don’t know who I am) from Eternal Black and End of Hope

The Song

The first single, “Mine All Along,” features Earl Walker Lundy on vocals, Davis Schlachter on bass and keyboards, Dave Richman on drums, and myself on guitar. The sound is more akin to Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. I think Earl’s vocal performance is spectacular. For my money, he’s one of the most dynamic frontmen in heavy music and he’s got so much soul in his voice. Dave Richman is a rock. He anchors any band he plays in. Songs rise to a whole new level once he’s added his parts. Davis is the utility player. He can play so many different instruments and so many different styles. But his sense of what works for a song is always spot on.

What’s Next?

The next single, “The Jaunt,” will feature Andy Martin (Clamfight) on vocals, Erik Caplan (Thunderbird Divine) on vocals, guitars, drone noises, and other strange contraptions, Davis Schlachter on bass and keyboards, and myself on guitar, Moog, and programming. It’s out there. Way out there.

More music soon…

https://swarmofflies.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/swarmoffliesband

Swarm of Flies, “Mine All Along”