The band traces their roots back to 1973, when they began as a recording project separate from drummer Geof O’Keefe‘s other band, Pentagram, but it wasn’t until the past decade that Bedemon really came to any sort of prominence. Once fronted by Pentagram‘s legendary vocalist, Bobby Liebling, it was O’Keefe and guitarist Randy Palmer driving the band, and for all intents and purposes, they were done. After being contacted by Metal Maniacs writer Perry Grayson for an interview in 2001 and realizing there was interest in what Bedemon was and still could be, they decided to give it another go.

Four years later, in 2005, the compilation Child of Darkness: From the Original Master Tapes would surface. Sort of an answer to Pentagram‘s First Daze Here — or at least a complementary piece of an admittedly complicated puzzle — the classic ’70s sound of Bedemon won acclaim from doomers and fans of early metal the world over, but what was unknown at the time was that Bedemon — now O’Keefe, Palmer, bassist Mike Matthews and vocalist Craig Junghandel — had begun work on new material three years earlier in April 2002, and recorded most of an album just months prior to Palmer‘s death following a car crash in July of that year.

A full decade has passed since Symphony of Shadows began to take shape, the band writing in O’Keefe‘s living room and recording in his garage, but after years of work and personal triumphs and tragedies, the CD/LP is available through Svart Records and Bedemon managed to capture the ’70s-style heaviness that formed the original roots of the band without sounding like a redundant rehash of past glories. Responsible for the bulk of the vocal arrangements in conjunction with Junghandel and for a decent portion of the guitar solos as well as the two songs he actually wrote on his own, O’Keefe‘s role in making Symphony of Shadows is not to be understated.

His work, however, has paid off. As with the recently-streamed “The Plague” from the album, Symphony of Shadows makes its home in the primordial ooze from which dark and heavy traditional doom emerged, immediately aligning itself to the formative elements and paying homage to influences like Sabbath, Uriah Heep, UFO and others. In the interview that follows, O’Keefe discusses his legacy and Bedemon‘s being permanently intertwined with Pentagram, the years that went into arranging, recording and mixing the nine tracks on the record and how that balances with the spontaneous setting in which they were initially created, his appearance in the Bobby Liebling documentary Last Days Here (review here) and his thoughts on the finished product of that, the potential for another Bedemon album built from riff demos Palmer recorded before his death, and much, much more.

You’ll see that many references are made to the extensive liner notes O’Keefe composed for the album. You can probably pick up on the point without if you want to, but because they factor so heavily into the interview, I asked and have been granted permission to host the liner notes in their entirety for your perusal or further reading. Click here to read them.

Thanks to Nathan Birk for the allowance there, and to O’Keefe for the interview.

You’ll find the complete 6,000-word Q&A after the jump. Please enjoy.

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Theirs is doom a decade in the making, and yet, with the buzzsaw lead that rips a hole right through “The Plague,” mysterious Virginian doom forebears Bedemon sound organic and classic. The recording of their new album, Symphony of Shadows (Svart Records) is rough and that only adds to its heavy ’70s sensibilities — the undulating riff that seems directly built out of Black Sabbath‘s “Electric Funeral” should be enough to give an exact idea of where the band is coming from.

And it’s been a hard road to get them here. Bedemon — guitarist Randy Palmer, bassist Mike Matthews, drummer Geof O’Keefe (a founding member of Pentagram) and vocalist Craig Junghandel — recorded the basic tracks for Symphony of Shadows in April 2002, with Matthews and O’Keefe handling the majority of the guitar leads. Just a few months later, Palmer died in a tragic car accident and the band was completely derailed. They decided to persist and finish the incomplete recordings, interpreting Palmer‘s songwriting from the basic tapes of riffs and the lyrics he’d left behind, but between mourning, recording vocals, mixing, various other personal shakeups and life in general, a full 10 years passed between the recording and the release.

In that regard, though, the timing couldn’t be better. Bedemon‘s restored 2005 collection of oft-bootlegged early ’70s material, Child of Darkness — on which the band was fronted by Bobby Liebling — helped bring the band critical and audience acclaim like they’d never known before, and while I don’t necessarily think you can fairly say a record that arrives seven years later is capitalizing on the momentum of its predecessor, at very least the doom heads Symphony of Shadows is looking to reach won’t have to be told who the band is or reminded of O’Keefe‘s foundational contributions to some of the earliest of the American works in the genre. That’s bound to be a leg up.

More importantly, Symphony of Shadows is of quality enough to stand on its own, and “The Plague” gives a more than solid indication of the means by which it does so. Please find the track on the player below, and enjoy:

[mp3player width=460 height=150 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=bedemon.xml]

Bedemon‘s Symphony of Shadows hits iTunes/Amazon on Aug. 25, the same day it’s out in Continental Europe, through Svart. A Sept. 5 release follows for the UK and the record is primed to hit North American shores on Oct. 23. For more info, check out Bedemon‘s site, their Thee Facebooks, or the label’s page. Thanks to Svart and Nathan T. Birk for permission to host “The Plague.”