Posted in Whathaveyou on May 20th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Last we heard from Indianapolis’ Apostle of Solitude was in Nov. 2020, and at that point, their fifth long-player was announced for release this Spring. But even then, the actual trajectory was somewhat vague, so having confirmation now that they’re currently in the studio — Russian Recording in Bloomington, IN — with bass and drums done, guitars in progress and vocals to follow gives a better sense of the timeline for when the thing actually shows up. Let’s figure if they’re recording this week or on weekends, they have a master by the July 4 holiday. That’s an optimistic estimate on my part, and pure speculation, but without knowing how long/when they’re in the studio, it seems like a reasonable estimate allowing for the inevitable back and forth of mixing, finalizing the recording, artwork and so on.
Three months promo is standard, HOWEVER, this is 2021, and the entire universe wants to print vinyl and there isn’t nearly enough infrastructure to do so — anyone want to open a plant with me? — so there are delays there. Five months from May puts us in October at the earliest. Apostle of Solitude‘s 2018 LP, From Gold to Ash (review here), came out in February of that year. It might honestly be Feb. 2022 before this one shows up.
Whenever it happens — and hey, Apostle Dudes, anytime you want to send me a master early, that’s certainly cool on my end — the four-piece’s fifth record will only be welcome when it shows up. In the meantime, bassist Mike Naish just put out a record with the more deathly-doom outfit Shroud of Vulture through Wise Blood Records and Transylvanian Recordings. It’s called Upon a Throne of Jackals and is delightfully brutal.
Apostle of Solitude offered the below mini-update from the studio on social media:
We have been so focused on tracking album # 5 that we forgot to post about it. We are once again working with Russian Recording for Cruz Del Sur Music in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana. Mike and Corey are are done tracking bass and drums…Chuck and Steve are busy tracking guitars. Vocals are up next…
APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE is: Corey Webb – drums Chuck Brown – guitars, vocals Steve Janiak – guitars, vocals Mike Naish – bass
Here’s the deal — last week or somewhere thereabouts, someone on Twitter was bitching about rock music being dead and blah blah the usual good music doesn’t come to me in the ways it did when I was 12 and therefore I think it’s irrelevant. The usual. Gimme Metal was mentioned as an outlet delivering good heavy to those who care enough to invest the minimal effort of clicking ‘listen.’ Dude was all “well if they played Trouble I’d listen” and Gimme rightly responded with a list of DJs who might be on board for such a thing. I was one of them.
Brought into the conversation I said hell yes I’d play Trouble. And as it happens I’ve gone ahead to play them twice, at the start of the show, and then follow it up with a bunch of other killer doom, old, newer and newer still, before circling back on the mother of them all, Black Fucking Sabbath, because when my name is brought into a random Twitter conversation and a challenge is issued, you bet your ass I’m going overboard. So pretty much the first hour of the show is doomed as all get-out. Trouble even through The Quill, who I thought were a good match for Dehumanizer-era Sabbath with that track from their new record.
Sometimes you gotta step up. Or something. I don’t know. I was just happen to have something to talk about in the voice breaks other than my kid or “thanks for listening.”
By the way, thanks for listening and/or reading. As always, I hope you enjoy.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 04.16.21
Trouble
The Tempter
Psalm 9
Trouble
R.I.P.
Trouble
Saint Vitus
Burial at Sea
Saint Vitus
Place of Skulls
Last Hit
With Vision
VT
The Gates of Slumber
The Awakening (Interpolating the Wrath of the Undead)
…The Awakening
Apostle of Solitude
Grey Farewell
From Gold to Ash
The Obsessed
Neatz Brigade
The Church Within
Black Sabbath
After All (The Dead)
Dehumanizer
The Quill
Evil Omen
Earthrise
VT
Boss Keloid
Gentle Clovis
Family the Smiling Thrush
Hippie Death Cult
Hornet Party
Circle of Days
NOÊTA
Elm
Elm
Kosmodemonic
Morai
Liminal Light
Hellish Form
Shadows with Teeth
Remains
VT
Darsombra
Call the Doctor (Sun Side)
Call the Doctor / Nightgarden
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is April 30 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 19th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
More background than details in the below, but take it to heart one way or the other that there will be a new Apostle of Solitude record out next year. The Indianapolis doomers join an increasingly crowded field of those with post-2020 plans, but you’ll note there’s no real mention of concrete touring notions or anything like that. We don’t even have a name for a record or confirmation that it’s done/mixed/mastered, so there’s a ways to go one assumes before things like cover art and songs start showing up.
But if you needed something today to be stoked about, this should qualify, and if it doesn’t, the band’s 2018 LP, From Gold to Ash (review here), is streaming at the bottom of the post, and once you revisit that, you’ll be stoked anyway, so there you go.
That record, incidentally, has been on my phone since I first heard it. I change shit on my phone all the time depending on what I need to be hearing in a given week. Very few albums last there for anything close to a stretch. It’s one more sign among many that it was a special record that I remain basically unwilling to part with it even as I look forward to what they’ve got coming next.
From the PR wire:
Apostle of Solitude – Spring 2021!
Formed in 2004 by vocalist-guitarist Chuck Brown (The Gates of Slumber) with heavy hitter Corey Webb on drums, Apostle of Solitude released their debut ‘Sincerest Misery’(via Eyes Like Snow) in 2008 and the follow-up ‘Last Sunrise’ in 2010 (via Profound Lore as well as Eyes Like Snow) before adding vocalist-guitarist Steve Janiak (Devil to Pay) in 2011 and then Mike Naish (Shroud of Vulture, Astral Mass) in 2015. The band released their epic third album ‘Of Woe and Wounds’ for Cruz Del Sur Music in 2014, followed by multiple tours across the US and triumphant 2016 European tour.
Apostle of Solitude’s most recent album, 2018’s “From Gold To Ash”, was widely heralded by fans and critics alike as both the band’s best work to date, and a defining moment in American doom metal. Largely defined by the heartfelt and emotive dual vocals of Brown and Janiak, ‘From Gold To Ash’ covers a wide spectrum of heavy, from raging instrumentals to introspective guitar duos, monolithic doom riffs and reflective, melodic heartache. In support of that album, the band embarked on a southern US tour (with labelmates Pale Divine), their second European tour (including the Hammer of Doom festival at the revered Posthalle Wurzburg in Germany, and headlining the Doom Over Vienna festival in Austria), a special performance at the Maryland Doom festival, and a handful of Midwest US dates.
While 2020 saw a worldwide pandemic that dramatically altered many aspects of life around the globe, the band waited, and then implemented appropriate safety measures in order to continue writing their next album. This, the band’s fifth full length (and yet to be titled) album, is set to be released spring of 2021, again on Italy’s Cruz Del Sur Music, and available on CD, vinyl LP, and digital formats. As a nod to the tradition set by the band’s prior works, the album is set to be recorded at Russian Recording in Bloomington, IN with studio mastermind Mike Bridavsky behind the board. Following the release of the album, and once the world is safe to do so, Apostle of Solitude plans to tour again domestically and abroad in support of the new album.
APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE is: Corey Webb – drums Chuck Brown – guitars, vocals Steve Janiak – guitars, vocals Mike Naish – bass
Well, okay. Last time Apostle of Solitude posted a video — about a month and a half ago, if that — it was for the track “Grey Farewell” (posted here) from 2018’s From Gold to Ash (review here), and I guess because I was feeling all clever and I like reading into things what may or may not actually be there, I said it was the band’s way of saying goodbye to that album while beginning to undertake the process of putting together their next one, which is set to be recorded this Fall.
So obviously there would be another video after that, right? There would almost have to be.
The two clips are also basically opposites. “Grey Farewell” was a quarantine video, with the four members of Apostle of Solitude recording their individual parts at home during the COVID-19 lockdown — which, make no fucking mistake, should still be going on every bit as intensely as it was in April — whereas “My Heart is Leaving Here” is live footage. Obviously archival, it pulls scenes not only from the band’s home turn at Black Circle Brewing in Indianapolis, but from their last European tour, which included stops in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and indeed, more Germany. Germany loves its doom. We already knew that.
Am I bummed that I said they were done with From Gold to Ash and then along comes “My Heart is Leaving Here” just a couple weeks later? Shit no. I’m happy to have an excuse today to listen to Apostle of Solitude and one more chance to tell you to hear that album if you didn’t yet and that you should be looking forward to the next one half as much as I am, which is a great deal to be certain. Like a lot. I don’t want to say an unhealthy amount, but yeah.
Enjoy the video, and I mean that as an imperative:
Apostle of Solitude, “My Heart is Leaving Here” official video
Apostle of Solitude’s music video for “My Heart is Leaving Here” from the album “From Gold to Ash” available from Cruz Del Sur Music. https://www.cruzdelsurmusic.com
Filmed by Jason Rich Additional footage by Melissa Watt Edits: S. Janiak live footage from: Black Circle Brewing, Indianapolis Indiana Knubbel Marburg, Marburg, Germany Bobble Café, Lomme, France ELPEE Café, Deinze, Belgium MTS LPs and CD, Oldenburg, Germany Little Devil Bar, Tilburg, Netherlands Bambi Galore, Hamburg, Germany Posthalle Wurzburg HAMMER OF DOOM XIII, Wurzburg, Germany Horst, Saarbrucken, Germany
Recorded by Mike Bridavsky at Russian Recording, Bloomington, IN Mixed by Mike Bridavsky Mastered by Collin Jordan at The Boiler Room Chicago, Il
APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE is: Corey Webb – drums Chuck Brown – guitars, vocals Steve Janiak – guitars, vocals Mike Naish – bass
Fitting that the new Apostle of Solitude video should be for the closing track from their 2018 full-length, From Gold to Ash (review here), since “Grey Farewell” would seem essentially to be how the Indianapolis-based outfit are saying goodbye to that record as they move onto the next one. It is a quarantine video — four dudes in four boxes — but I’m glad for the excuse to revisit the record and to get the check-in from the band that informs they’ll enter the studio in September (outbreaks pending, one assumes) with a batch of new songs for a 2021 release on Cruz Del Sur.
2018 was an exceptionally good year for doom, with offerings from The Skull, Witch Mountain, Windhand, Pale Divine, and hosts of others alongside Apostle of Solitude in subsets traditional and otherwise. From Gold to Ash was my pick of the bunch though, and two years later, I stand by that completely. The combination of sonic force and emotional resonance the band brought to this particular group of tracks, the way their dynamic came together not just between guitarist/vocalists Chuck Brown and Steve Janiak — both now also in the reignited The Gates of Slumber and the latter also of Devil to Pay — but also with drummer Corey Webb and bassist Mike Naish made for a to-date high point in their catalog, and there’s no reason whatsoever to think they’ll backstep on the next one. I’ll happily call it highly anticipated.
Some things to watch for in the video: Action figures, R2-D2 and Devil to Pay cover art in Janiak‘s box; the same camera angle Webb used on that “Under the Sun” cover posted the other day; Brown‘s US flags that have shown up in rehearsal clips and Apostle of Solitude promo photos for years now; and Naish pretty clearly wanting to go for it and headbang the whole time. All that plus the song makes for a quality quarantine-era clip if e’er I saw one, and I’ve seen a few by now.
Dudes be like:
Apostle of Solitude, “Grey Farewell” official video
Apostle of Solitude’s music video for “Grey Farewell” from the album “From Gold to Ash” available from Cruz Del Sur Music.
Edits: S. Janiak
Recorded by Mike Bridavsky at Russian Recording, Bloomington, IN Mixed by Mike Bridavsky Mastered by Collin Jordan at The Boiler Room Chicago, Il
Apostle of Solitude are completing writing and song arrangements for their fifth full length album, due to be released in early 2021; their third album on Italy’s Cruz Del Sur Music label. The band is scheduled to record the album within the familiar confines of Russian Recording in Bloomington Indiana in September, with album artwork designed by German artist Rebecca Waek.
The band’s last two albums were supported by both US and European tours, and the band hopes to do the same for this release, hopefully in 2021 assuming the current pandemic does not prohibit such plans.
APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE is: Corey Webb – drums Chuck Brown – guitars, vocals Steve Janiak – guitars, vocals Mike Naish – bass
You already know that doom knows no national borders, so maybe it’s not such a surprise that dudes in on three different continents would come together virtually to pay homage to the masters and arguable inventors of the form. Frontman Göran Jacobson of Sweden’s Quicksand Dream, guitarist Matías Aguirre and bassist Daniel Perez Saa of Chile’s King Heavy and drummer Corey Webb of Apostle of Solitude have done precisely that, collaborating on a cover of Black Sabbath‘s “Under the Sun” that falls into an emerging lockdown-era genre of Zoom collaborations, some of which have managed to go viral in that have-media-company-marketing-backing kind of way. It’s a sad state of affairs that bands can’t get together and jam in person, in a room, but maybe this is some kind of consolation, and in the before-times — the long-long ago — this kind of thing probably wouldn’t have happened nearly as often as it’s happening now, so not only is it a marker of the time, it’s something positive to come out of a worldwide plague. Those seem to be pretty rare.
I’ll assume if you’re here you know the original. “Under the Sun” closed Black Sabbath‘s 1972 outing, Vol. 4, which is about as landmark as a doom record gets without being Master of Reality. Yes, the song is a treasure, and yes, they give it its due. If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing Corey Webb play drums in a live setting, I won’t call this an outright replacement for that experience — particularly as he takes such relish in slower tempos and “Under the Sun” swings pretty quick — but it’s a nice reminder of why one shows up for such a thing when the opportunity presents itself. I miss shows. Volume. Oof.
Anyway, I have no idea how these dudes know each other — some fest? — but the video is cool and if you need a reminder that good things are still happening as you watch the death toll creep up here and there around the world (USA! USA!), it should more than serve to give at least a few minutes respite.
Enjoy:
Matías Aguirre, Göran Jacobson, Daniel Perez Saa & Corey Webb, “Under the Sun”
Isolated in their homes due to this global pandemic and separated by oceans and thousands of miles between their primary bands’ respective home bases, doom metal musicians from three separate continents connect virtually to bang out a cover of the Black Sabbath classic “Under the Sun”.
While current restrictions prevent rehearsals with their existing bands, Matías Aguirre (guitar; King Heavy, Mourners Lament; Suffering Dusk; The Ancient Doom; hailing from Chile), Göran Jacobson (vocals; Quicksand Dream; hailing from Sweden), Daniel Perez Saa (bass; King Heavy; Marchafunebre; Infernal Thorns; Mortajas; hailing from Chile), and Corey Webb (drums, Apostle of Solitude; hailing from the US) make the most of this quarantine time by finding ways to keep the fires of Doom burning
Special thanks to Matias for the Mix, and very very special thanks to my super friend Johnny Verdugo, Jotun por the video!!!
Yeah, I know, Maryland Doom Fest 2019 was like a month ago. Quit livin’ in the past and all that. Well, this show was supposed to air July 5, so whatever. It got pushed back because apparently July 4 is some kind of holiday now — what.ever. — and it was kicked down the line to two weeks later with re-runs on in the interim. Did anyone notice? Did anyone care? I did. But I’m glad to have had the chance to pay homage to MDDF one way or the other, since it was such a killer time and boasted a lineup of so many good bands.
Of course I had to lead off with Beelzefuzz and Foghound, two staples of the Frederick diet, and the show unfolds from there with new stuff from Zed and Lo-Pan and Kings Destroy amid the likes of Devil to Pay and Earthride and Backwoods Payback and Greenbeard. I made sure to put Solace and Freedom Hawk and Horehound and Toke and Witchkiss in here because their sets were particularly righteous — not to mention Year of the Cobra! — and in addition to representing the headliners in Conan, Mothership and Earthride, I had to include WarHorse since their reunion set was something so particularly special and such a huge part of the festival.
For those who didn’t hear the show, Gimme Radio runs the ‘Gimme Brigade’ which you can sign up for. I think it’s $5 a month or something like that, but you get access to their full archive and help them with hosting costs, etc., so fair enough. If you got to hear this one, thanks. If not, the basic point of the thing was that Maryland Doom Fest 2019 kicked ass, which I sincerely hope also came across in the reviews.
Here’s the full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 07.19.19
Beelzefuzz
All the Feeling Returns
Beelzefuzz (2013)
Foghound
Known Wolves
Awaken to Destroy (2018)
Zed
Chingus
Volume*
Lo-Pan
Savage Heart
Subtle*
BREAK
Devil to Pay
Ten Lizardmen and One Pocketknife
Fate is Your Muse (2013)
Kings Destroy
Yonkers Ceiling Collapse
Fantasma Nera*
Earthride
Vampire Circus
Vampire Circus (2005)
Witchkiss
Seer
The Austere Curtains of Our Eyes (2018)
Year of the Cobra
Cold
Burn Your Dead (2017)
BREAK
Solace
Khan (World of Fire)
The Black Black (2007)
Backwoods Payback
Whatever
Future Slum (2018)
Toke
Blackened
Orange (2017)
Greenbeard
WCCQ
Onward, Pillager (2018)
Conan
Battle in the Swamp
Monnos (2012)
Apostle of Solitude
Ruination Be Thy Name
From Gold to Ash (2018)
The Age of Truth
Come Back a God
Threshold (2017)
BREAK
Horehound
Dier’s Dirge
Holocene (2018)
Freedom Hawk
Danger
Beast Remains (2018)
Mothership
Midnight Express
High Strangeness (2017)
Warhorse
Lysergic Communion
As Heaven Turns to Ash (2001)
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio airs every other Friday at 1PM Eastern, with replays every Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next show is Aug. 2. Thanks for listening if you do.
At some point early on yesterday I decided to drink as much coffee as I possibly could before the show started. It was not a choice I regret. Day two of Maryland Doom Fest 2019 played host to a whopping 11 bands on the Cafe 611 stage and five more — Crooked Hills, Seasick Gladiator, Thunderchief, Pale Grey Lore and Electric Age — at Guido’s, none of whom I’d see because, like yesterday, I got carded at the door and couldn’t get in. Still, 11 bands in an evening is a healthy dose, and Cafe 611 was packed out pretty early on. People always come and go, mill about, go smoke outside and whatnot at a show like this, but when everyone was in front of the stage, you knew it. Such was the case most especially for Beelzefuzz and the evening’s headliners, Pentagram.
I do think pounding all that caffeine was a boon to the night generally, but neither can I discount the quality of the bill in that regard. Aside from being the last Beelzefuzz show, as was announced earlier this month, there was plenty else to envy in the lineup. Also in the merch area. I was like, “I’ll buy some shirts later,” and then missed my shot at a festival shirt and a Beelzefuzz shirt, so commerce was being had for sure. I’ve been coming here for a couple years at this point, and it definitely feels more crowded this year than it ever has. Inevitable for an event that’s growing as this one is, I suppose, and well deserved on the part of Maryland Doom Fest itself.
No question I was feeling it by the end of the night, but spirits were high nonetheless. I don’t want to sound self-aggrandizing or anything, but people have been really very nice to me and said kind things about this site and stuff, and that’s both incredibly awkward and very much appreciated. Both of those things. It means a lot to me, and it makes me blush. Both of those things are true.
I feel like, as Maryland Doom Fest continues to grow, it’s nights like this that will be the biggest source of future nostalgia.
And it started long before sunset:
Greenbeard
There’s a lot of varying kinds of heavy at Doom Fest this year, but not a lot of boogie, and so Austin, Texas, trio Greenbeard were an immediately welcome start to the day. The three-piece have toured steadily over the last couple years and late in 2018 they released a three-songer EP called Onward, Pillager! through Sailor Records that was intended as a preview and fund drive for a full-length to come this year. I don’t know what the status is of that follow-up to 2017’s Lödarödböl (review here), but while their atmosphere is all party and uptempo vibes and awesome times, they’re not screwing around as their shuffle meets desert-hued tone and melody, and that was clear at Cafe 611. Guitarist/vocalist Chance Allen, bassist Jeff Klein and drummer Buddy Hachar (who played here with Doomstress last year) were spot on in their delivery and they drew people in even as the show was just getting started. They were vital, and fun in a way that stood them out from the doomly pack and only made them more of a highlight at the outset. They were a wake-up call to get up and throw down. I wouldn’t be surprised if part of the reason there hasn’t been news of their next album is because they’re talking to labels.
Eternal Black
What Eternal Black do with their new album, the just-out Slow Burn Suicide (review here), is bring a much-needed sense of perspective to traditionalist doom. The New York three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Ken Wohlrob, bassist/backing vocalist Hal Miller and drummer Joe Wood took what they did on their first record, 2017’s Bleed the Days (review here), and actively learned from it and pushed themselves forward. There are few things I consider as admirable when it comes to bands, so, aside from the fact that before they played I got to meet Joe Wood‘s parents — I’ve known Joe for a very long time, and he is among the sweetest people in the universe, so yes, this was a high point of the day for me — I was very excited to hear their new songs live. They didn’t disappoint, basically playing side A of the record with “Lost in the Fade,” “Below,” “The Ghost” and “Sum of All Fears” along with “Stained Eyes on a Setting Sun” from the debut. I’ve been fortunate enough to see them a couple times now, including here in 2016, but the crunch and impact they’ve fostered in their sound as they’ve continued to progress is as much their own as it is quintessential NYC heavy, and I very much look forward to seeing where the path they’re on takes them.
Atomic 26
Every bill needs a sore thumb, right? That one band who maybe is a little bit the square peg? Well, hello to Maryland’s Atomic 26, whose style of hardcore still had some tonal heft one might trace to a residual influence from earliest Clutch, but definitely were intended to be an outside-genre inclusion in the lineup. Hey, that’s cool. Dudes brought it, aggro chugga and all. I can only be honest and say I neither had the frame of reference to appreciate what they were doing or the inclination toward the genre itself, but at a certain point, whatever, man. They were having fun — shenanigans aplenty — and I’m not about to begrudge that. I’ll note as well there was a contingent up front for their whole set who were obviously well familiar with the proceedings, and the energy they started with offered no letup by the time they were done. I don’t know if their set means Maryland Doom Fest is starting to branch out in a different direction, widen the scope, or what, but sometimes you gotta have something different, and Atomic 26 — it’s iron, in case you were curious — ticked that box nicely.
Knoxxville
What, you’re not gonna hang out and watch JB‘s band? Of course you are. Festival organizer JB Matson anchors Knoxxville on drums, and as he’s got two basses and two guitars surrounding him on either side, there was a definite sense of fullness to what they were doing, despite the lack of a singer. My understanding is they had one and now they don’t. I’m sure the narrative is more complex than that, but that’s the upshot all the same. In instrumentalist fashion, they proffered workingman’s doom rock, both very much of the region and right to the heart of what Maryland Doom Fest is rooted in being, which felt like a reorientation after Atomic 26 but was a shift easily made. They’re they only group this weekend thus far to have two basses, and I have no idea why more bands don’t do that. Two guitars? Yeah, that’s cool. Pretty standard. But what the hell could be more doom than piling low end on top of low end? Even with that additional heft factor, Knoxxville moved at a decent clip, treating the crowd to essential local fare that most of all typified the lack of pretense — or if you prefer, bullshit — that Maryland doom has always done better than anyone else. They’ll either get a singer or they won’t, but they were right on as it was.
Forming the Void
I’m honestly not sure what I can tell you about Forming the Void that I haven’t already said after the other two times I’ve seen them this year (reviews here and here), but when it comes to the Lafayette, Louisiana, four-piece, the point is worth reiterating just how much these guys are right there. There they are. They’ve found their sound over the course a working-quick three albums, they’re already confirmed to go abroad next year for the first time, they’ve got a new record in the can and they’re right at the cusp of realizing their potential. The heavy prog-tinged melodies in the guitars and harmonized vocals of Shadi Omar Al-Khansa and James Marshall are an immediate standout factor, but the rolling riff style and the weight given to the material from bassist Luke Baker and drummer Thomas Colley is not to be minimized in terms of the overall affect of watching them on stage. They’re about to hit the road for a week with Year of the Cobra, and if that tour is going where you are, just go. That’s it. Go. I’ve yet to see Forming the Void that they didn’t surpass the experience of the time before, including last night, and in style and substance, they’re a bright spot in the American heavy underground. Even better, they still feel like they’re just getting started.
Sixes
Yes, Sixes are very, very heavy. There’s no arguing with that and I won’t try. What seemed more important as the Californian ultra-downer megasludgers brought to Maryland Doom Fest 2019 was more than tone, however. The consuming darkness of their atmosphere was simply on another wavelength from everything else I’ve seen this weekend so far, and they basked in that bleak extremity with purpose and intensity. Like many of the bands who played, they had some technical delays getting going — it would very much be that kind of day — but their lurching, charcoal-black style and largely-unrelenting force came through without hindrance and their sound was a spiraling chasm of ritualized volume. You could almost taste it. Bitter, without the sweet. But they weren’t just assault, and they were able to make the ambient stretches just as heavy as the full-on punishment. They’re signed to Black Bow — among others — and touring Europe later this year with Conan, so take that as the endorsement it is, and though I didn’t get to dig into 2018’s debut, Mephistopheles, when it came out, they made a convincing case for rectifying that immediately, courtesy of the plugs vibrating in my ears crying out for mercy that would not come.
Atala
A fresh reminder of what a difference a great drummer makes. Atala‘s Jeff Tedtaotao was neither the first of the day nor the last, but as guitarist/vocalist Kyle Stratton and bassist Dave Horn manifested sand sludge in communion with a land far, far away from Frederick, it was Tedtaotao‘s drumming that gave the band their sense of push and roll. It was not my first Atala experience — which I feel like one should for sure discuss in a way otherwise reserved for talking about ayahuasca, and not just for the bookending-vowel commonality — but it was my first time seeing them since the release last month of their fourth album, The Bearer of Light (review here), on Salt of the Earth Records, and as the prevailing impression of that record was, “Wow, these songs are cool and this production is raw and live-sounding as hell,” the interest in hearing that material come from a P.A. was high. “Desolate Lands,” “Upon the Altar” and the particularly crushing “Won’t Subside” answered that call, and as this was their second time at Maryland Doom Fest, they seemed at home on the Cafe 611 stage. They’re not a band I’m likely to ever complain about seeing live, and I felt like when they were done I only had a richer understanding of The Bearer of Light, so all the better.
Beelzefuzz
Man, up yours, Beelzefuzz, for making me feel feelings. As noted above, founding guitarist/vocalist Dana Ortt announced the end of the band after a decade together in one form or another, as he, drummer Darin McCloskey and lead guitarist/vocalist Greg Diener will continue in Pale Divine — which I believe leaves bassist Bert Hall as a free agent; Revelation reunion? — and I’m legitimately sorry to see them go. They played their final set to a crowd full of family and friends as well as some people who’d never even heard them before, and that could hardly have been more appropriate. With the progressive edge or Ortt‘s organ/vocal-harmony effects, McCloskey‘s smooth and classy style of drumming, Hall‘s complement thereto, the born-to-do-it soloing of Diener and his splitting the vocal duties with Ortt, they were a band who should have been around longer and who will be talked about in this part of the world for a long time to come. Whatever tumult they’d been through with the name change, lineup change, all of it, didn’t matter while they played. Their last show was about celebration, and from “Hypnotized” and “All the Feeling Returns” to the so-fitting last lead line reaches of “Hard Luck Melody,” they lived up to the legacy of what could and should have been for them all along. Special band. Will be missed.
Foghound
Somewhere in the Big Book of Guaranteed Good Times, there’s a picture of Foghound playing Maryland Doom Fest. I probably didn’t take it, but still. It’s there. Not yet a year removed from their most recent album, Awaken to Destroy (review here), the dual-guitar Baltimorean four-piece came in, kicked ass, set the room on (figurative) fire, then split. It was awesome, they’re awesome, you’re awesome. Awesome. With Adam Heinzmann another year’s worth of locked-in on bass/periodic vocals — he shared a mic with guitarist Dee Settar, while guitarist Bob Sipes and drummer Chuck Dukehart each had their own — and the very-present spirit of bassist Rev. Jim Forrester in the place, they were the heavy rock boot to the ass that you knew was coming but still managed to be jolted by anyhow. They don’t tour, and they could, but neither do they screw around, and though they played here in 2018, between the fact of the new album out and the fact that they’re fucking Foghound and it’s Maryland, so yes, you want them to be there, they were awakened and they destroyed. If you’re at all into heavy rock, I can’t imagine a situation in which you would’ve watched their set and not been a fan by the end of it, whether or not you were before. That’s it. Done.
Apostle of Solitude
Indianapolis four-piece Apostle of Solitude released the best doom album of 2018 in the form of From Gold to Ash (review here) on Cruz Del Sur. They played here in 2017, but I was absent that year — can’t remember why, but I’m sure I had a doctor’s note for whatever it was; they also played in 2015 at the first one — so it had apparently been four years since I last saw them live, which for a band as good as they are is egregiously long. They opened the set with “Keeping the Lighthouse” from the new album, the hook of which will likely remain stuck in my head long after this weekend is over, and followed with cuts like “My Heart is Leaving Here” and “Ruination be Thy Name” to only further the impact, drummer Corey Webb earning shouts of “BEAST!” from the side of the stage after the first song with which one could only agree. Webb, bassist Mike Naish, and guitarist/vocalists Chuck Brown and Steve Janiak (the latter also of Devil to Pay, and both now of the semi-reignited The Gates of Slumber) were monstrous. I don’t know what pagan gods were bestowing gifts of riffs upon the masses assembled in front of the stage, but, you know, thanks and all that. At an event like this, I usually have one set where I end up pulling my earplugs out and just kind of giving into the volume and the vibe of the thing. At Maryland Doom Fest 2019, that was Apostle of Solitude, and it’s not a choice I regret in the slightest.
Pentagram
Is this the beginning of the redemption of Bobby Liebling? I have no idea, but I’d guess probably not. By any measure, we’re talking about someone who has actively or inadvertently squandered just about every visible opportunity and/or second chance he’s worked for or had come his way in his life, and so when it comes to Pentagram‘s future, if you look back over the last 50 years or so, it’s hard to imagine any radical change. Does the fact that the dude assaulted his mom, got called out on tour for sexual harassment, and so on, mean that the band doesn’t deserve to headline at Maryland Doom Fest? It’s certainly debatable. But if the redemption of Bobby Liebling were ever to happen, this would be the place it started, and the room was certainly rooting for him, from the young woman who kissed his hand during “Starlady” early on in the set to the crowd surfing and moshing that took hold later as the house lights came up and they went into “Forever My Queen.” The word is “polarizing,” but as Oscar Wilde said, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about,” so make of it what you will. The band behind Liebling — bassist Greg Turly, drummer “Minnesota” Pete Campbell (who was announced as the winner of the night’s raffle right before going on stage) and guitarist Matt Goldsborough — were on point, and the response was there as it’s been for the last decade-plus. You kind of have to shrug or throw up your hands. That’s me not taking a side. Pentagram will keep going either way. What else is there?
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As I write this, it’s almost 1PM and the last day of the fest starts in a couple hours. Nine more bands on the Cafe 611 stage and I’m not even going to embarrass myself trying to get into Guido’s again. Very rock and roll of me, I know. I’ll get ’em in 2020. Shower first, and then more coffee and all the water. I’d like to sit for a bit and get my head on straight as I was lucky enough to do yesterday, and the energy was so good throughout last night that I want to try to recapture it as much as I am able, particularly after feeling by the end of Friday like I’d been hit by the doomtruck. I’m hardly in peak physical condition — my legs and back are feeling it — but we’ll see how it goes. The mind is willing, the flesh is… increasingly saggy.
