The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Leila Abdul-Rauf of Vastum, Cardinal Wyrm, Ionophore, and More

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I try not to define it too much. I attempt to recreate the sounds I either dream about or imagining in my head that satisfy my perpetual urge to craft something that is exquisitely beautiful while at the same time, incredibly disturbing. The path to my ever-evolving creative process came with a lot of struggle, an unfortunate amount of strife and gaslighting from others, painful self-discovery and the courage to never neglect my inner voice.

Describe your first musical memory.

It was probably the sound of my mother’s singing voice when I was in the womb, because the soothing sound of her voice is and will be forever embedded in my unconscious. And the sound of my father singing the call to prayer at home and in the mosque when I was a kid. And going through my mom’s record collection when I was 5 or 6 years old: Bee Gees, Beatles, Journey, David Bowie, etc.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

There are a lot that I would consider equally best. In my formative teen years, I saw a lot of amazing acts that shaped my musical path: Skinny Puppy, Peter Murphy, Einsturzende Neubauten, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Jesus and Mary Chain in the early ’90s. Seeing Slayer, Cannibal Corpse and Deicide in the late ’90s. Being exposed to fusion jazz in my 20s: Mahavishnu Orchestra/Shakti/John Maclaughlin, Return to Forever/Chick Corea/Al DiMeola, Weather Report, Allan Holdsworth, etc. Or any time I’ve seen Judas Priest, Bauhaus, Secret Chiefs 3, Harold Budd or Kitka live.

As a performer, there are many best memories as well. My trumpet teacher invited me to play an outdoor concert with the New Jersey Bergen Philharmonic when I was 12 years old. Opening for The Great Kat at CBGBs when I was in high school. Performing with Amber Asylum at Wave Gotik Treffen in 2010 and Wroclaw Industrial Fest in 2011; performing solo as main support for William Basinski at Hopscotch Fest; with Vastum at Heavy Montreal fest in 2016 and leveling the main stage at Killtown Death Fest in Copenhagen 2019 were all quite spectacular.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

There has never been a time in my life when they haven’t been tested; the world and commonly held beliefs are constantly changing and in some ways I feel like a lot of the world is finally catching up to where I was mentally 20 years ago; I relate more to the way younger people think and sometimes I feel like I was born a generation too early. It’s ok to talk about so many things now that weren’t acceptable back then. And still, the constant testing of my own beliefs is what leads me to continue to grow psychologically and spiritually.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I can’t speak for others, but for me, it leads to a deeper understanding of myself and others throughout different phases of life, as well as the universe as we currently understand it; a thinning of the veil between “real” and “imagined,” earth vs. spirit worlds…

How do you define success?

I feel success is always something that should be self-defined yet unfortunately we often let others define it for us, driven by the economic realities of our world. If an idea is rolling around in your head and it becomes a reality, that sounds like success to me. In music, if you finish recording an album that gives you goosebumps when you listen to it, I’d say mission accomplished. And of equal importance is success in relationships: if you have inspiring, healthy and stimulating relationships with collaborators, hold onto them forever; they’re gold. I’m so fortunate to have several of them.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

So many things, but most of all, the effects of out-of-control economic disparity and climate change while civil rights are being perpetually stripped away from marginalized populations by brainwashed politicians.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

Entering the film soundtrack composition world would be a bit of a dream. I’ve also always fantasized about developing visual art skills. Perhaps it will happen someday.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To reflect life in a way that is bigger than ourselves as individuals and will outlast our short lives. Specifically in music, understanding that humans and all living beings originate from sound vibration energy that is as old as time itself, which in my view, is the reason musicians are driven to compose; we first came from sound, in order for sound to come from us.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Traveling to parts of the world I still have yet to see and visiting with friends again.

https://leilaabdulrauf.bandcamp.com
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https://www.cycliclaw.com
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http://www.cloisterrecordingsus.bigcartel.com
https://www.facebook.com/cloisterrecordings.us

Leila Abdul-Rauf, Phantasiai (2021)

Vastum, Official Purge (2019)

Oakland, California’s Cardinal Wyrm will release their fourth full-length, Devotionals, this Friday, Dec. 11. And like its certifiably badass Kim Holm cover art, the independently-issued follow-up to 2016’s Cast Away Souls finds the trio at the entryway of some unknown dungeon, fire and demons filling the sky. And not the kind of dungeon where synth happens either. The kind of dungeon with random-encounter battles and quickly depleting health points. The kind of dungeon in which there inexplicably dwells some kind of octopus monster and if you don’t figure out that its weakness is lightning spells, you’re boned no matter how much you’ve been grinding on the low-yield imps or slimes outside in the forest. Radness ensues, with swinging battle axe, leaping dragoons and, indeed, flashes of elemental magic.

More than a decade on from their inception, Cardinal Wyrm are a band perhaps even more diverse than their pedigree, which includes the deathly likes of Vastum, post-whathaveyou outfit Terebellum and undervalued trad metallers Hammers of Misfortune, among others. Devotionals, as it would, has its paean moments to old gods of metal and otherwise, but instrumentally, there’s such a strong sense of self throughout the eight-track/50-minute run of the LP that they could’ve just as easily called the album ‘iconoclasm.’ Extreme metal intertwines with sludge riffing (“The Abbess”), doom with aggressive hardcore chug (“Selimesh”), deathly growls play off declarative proclamations in “Canticle,” and above all, Devotionals becomes an album of ideas and narrative. The further you go, the deeper you are into the world it makes, and as vocalist/drummer Pranjal Tiwari, bassist/vocalist Leila Abdul-Rauf and guitarist Nathan A. Verrill push through the initial punkish breakout of “Gannet” at the outset and into “Mrityunjaya,” the just-wait-for-the-explosion-it’s-coming “Imposter” and “Selimesh” on side A, already the notion of the album as a journey is palpable and only becomes more so across the second half of the LP as the more extreme aspects are brought to bear.

A strange thing happens when one encounters Devotionals in repeat fashion. Usually with records, the more you hear, the more you know, but Cardinal Wyrm manage to answer engagement with nuance, and there always seems to be something else to hear. That might not seem to be the case on a first listen. One might put it on, be like, “Okay, trad metal, bit of doom, punk, and so on,” and go about the day — and if that’s how you listen to music the first time through, I feel you — but even as the guitar solo rises up in the back end of “Canticle” only to be consumed by howls, or “Abbess” gallops into a wall o’ chug, “Nightmarchers” indulges Candlemassian grandiosity while also coating it in grit and closer “Do We Have Another Battle Left in Us?” offers a questioning self-assessment of the band that of course speaks to much, much more as well in this most confusing and terrible of years, Cardinal Wyrm find persona in grim intricacy, tearing limbs off different microgenres to construct a monster of their own.

My only regret in streaming the album ahead of its release on Friday is not asking permission to post the full lyric sheet, because the words — some more discernible than others in the actual hearing — deserve to be read as well as listened to. Alas. Perhaps you’ll consider this a cue to dig further on your own into the considerable and deeply appreciated text that Tiwari offers below. I know everybody’s busy, but one can hope, and it holds true of Cardinal Wyrm‘s Devotionals that the more you’re willing to put into it, the more you’re going to get out when you ultimately emerge from that dungeon.

Please enjoy:

Pranjal Tiwari on Devotionals:

“Devotionals” was a labor of love. We’re all immensely proud of these songs and put a lot of work into getting them just right. It’s been a somewhat hard road to releasing this album, we pretty much had to do all the heavy lifting ourselves, with no support from labels or anything. At times it really felt like we were crazy, that we were the only people in the world that believed in this record, like some mad group of preachers ranting on a street corner while the world walked past bemused. Add to that the whole saga of physical, mental, and financial turmoil that we’ve all experienced in 2020, it’s pretty much been a shitshow all around. Now that the album is finally seeing the light of day, I think it’s perfect that we chose the title “Devotionals.” It takes something extra to keep going through times like this, it takes an almost fanatical devotion to keep walking a path that can seem both pointless and hopeless. In that sense, it’s also perfect that we put this album out ourselves, because I think that sort of fanatical devotion I’ve described is exactly what fuels the DIY spirit and the independent music scene that we’ve all been a part of for so many years.

There seems to be a lot of talk about whether this record is “doom” or not, even among people who have enjoyed the album. My response is, who cares? This is a Cardinal Wyrm record – and I absolutely think what you’re hearing on “Devotionals” is the culmination of the Cardinal Wyrm sound. For starters, all three of us had a hand in writing and shaping every song on this record at the practice space, it’s our most collaborative album to date. But beyond that, I think you can really hear the sound of a band that loves playing together, and whose members had an absolute blast recording these songs. I think that energy and that spirit shines through. For me, arguing about what category to shoehorn this album into is about as boring as you can get, I’d rather people just take the time to listen to it with an open mind and absorb it for what it is – after that you can call it whatever you like.

Lyrically and thematically, ‘Devotionals’ also goes back to storytelling, telling stories has always been a big thing for us. Every song on this album tells a story, tapping into various strands of mythology both old and new. The opener ‘Gannet’ is about being out of place in the world and the paranoia and anxiety that instills, about being intimately controlled by the all-knowing and negative voices in your head. The track ‘Imposter’ is a story about casting a shadow that has a life of its own, the darkness that stares at you from the other side of the mirror.

Other tracks on the album are more literal in their storytelling. ‘Mrityunjaya’, for example, the title means ‘death conqueror’ in Hindi or Sanskrit, and it’s a term associated with the story of Karna from the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. Karna is such a great and evocative character, rejected at birth by those who should have raised him and cared for him, but realizing his life’s potential through loyalty and love to those who took him in, eventually fighting against his blood relatives to defend his chosen family. The song isn’t a literal retelling of the tale, it’s only very loosely based on Karna, sort of reimagining him as a stray wolf that finds a pack to run with. Probably because we all love rescue dogs so much.

The tracks ‘Canticle’ and ‘Abbess’ are both stories about false promises. ‘Canticle’ is the age-old tale of meeting the devil at the crossroads, told from the point of view of the devil making the listener an offer. ‘Abbess’ is a similar tale from the point of view of the one taking the bargain, a story about being seduced by a mirage, and made to do terrible things by the fear of being forgotten.

The final song on the album, “Do We Have Another Battle Left In Us?” is both a question and a rallying cry. Old friends gather and raise drinks to remember the trials they’ve shared and overcome. They toast to all they have loved and lost and those that remain. On the horizon, the enemy recoups their forces and presses forward. Our friends stand, lay hands on their weapons and wonder if they still have the strength to draw them again. “I think right now in the world, everyone is tired, physically and mentally, especially after the year that 2020 has been, and faced with a future that seems so hopeless. It’s a genuine question at this point – can we, do we want to keep going? It’s terrifying, but also thrilling to face that head on, and to forge your own path into the future.

There’s a lot going on musically too. I think the riffs are more intricate and the song structures are tighter than on previous albums. The overall feel is one of shorter and more driving bursts, and I wouldn’t say the whole thing is FAST, but it feels just a little bit faster than before. As one of the lines in the track “Nightmarchers” proclaims, “this beast has a bite.””

CARDINAL WYRM is embodied by lead vocalist/drummer Pranjal Tiwari (S.C.R.A.M.), bassist/vocalist Leila Abdul-Rauf (Vastum, Terebellum, Hammers Of Misfortune, Fyrhtu), and guitarist/vocalist Nathan A. Verrill (Terebellum, Fyrhtu). The follow-up to their Cast Away Souls album, released via Svart Records in 2016, Devotionals can be described as heavy, intricate, driving, progressive, and genre-bending music that seeks to tell a story.

Devotionals was recorded and mixed by Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer Studios (Necrot, Vastum, Brainoil) and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Obituary, Sunn O))), Vastum). The record features striking cover artwork by Kim Holm, photography by Michael Thorn and Amy Oshit, and layout/design by Shelby Lermo.

Cardinal Wyrm on Thee Facebooks

Cardinal Wyrm on Twitter

Cardinal Wyrm on Instagram

Cardinal Wyrm on Bandcamp

Doom and metal! Cardinal Wyrm will do the self-release thing with their upcoming fourth LP, set to arrive Dec. 11. Given the title Devotionals, the impending outing is given its first official airing with the track “Nightmarchers” that you can hear below, and yes, it is doom, and yes, it is metal. I haven’t had the chance to dig into the rest of the record yet, but will do so and report back accordingly, even as the release date fast approaches. Note that it’s a tape and digital-only offering. Bold move, doomers. I like it.

Maybe they’re waiting for someone else to pick it up on vinyl — certainly the Kim Holm cover art warrants the larger presentation — but either way, for those chasing down the digital, it should be easy enough to find. For example, the links below.

Dig it:

CARDINAL WYRM: Oakland Doom Metal Trio With Members Of Vastum, Terebellum, And More To Release Fourth Album, Devotionals; “Nightmarchers” Streaming + Preorders Posted

Long-running Oakland, California-based doom metal band CARDINAL WYRM is preparing to release their fourth album, Devotionals, on December 11th. Alongside the album’s details, cover art, and preorders, the song “Nightmarchers” has been made available for streaming.

CARDINAL WYRM’s Devotionals can be described as heavy, intricate, driving, progressive, and genre bending music that seeks to tell a story. The album features Pranjal Tiwari (S.C.R.A.M.) on drums and lead vocals, Nathan A. Verrill (Terebellum, Fyrhtu) on guitars and backing vocals, and Leila Abdul-Rauf (Vastum, Terebellum, Hammers Of Misfortune, Fyrhtu) playing bass and providing additional vocals.

The follow-up to their Svart Records-released 2016 album Cast Away Souls, CARDINAL WYRM’s Devotionals was recorded and mixed by Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer Studios (Necrot, Vastum, Brainoil) and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Obituary, Sunn O))), Vastum). The album is completed with cover artwork by Kim Holm, photography by Michael Thorn and Amy Oshit, and layout/design by Shelby Lermo.

CARDINAL WYRM will self-release Devotionals on cassette and across all digital service providers on December 11th. Find preorder options HERE and watch for a vinyl edition likely early next year.

Devotionals Track Listing:
1. Gannet
2. Mrityunjaya
3. Imposter
4. Selimesh
5. Canticle
6. Abbess
7. Nightmarchers
8. Do We Have Another Battle Left In Us?

With this release, “We wanted to go back to our DIY roots,” says drummer and vocalist Pranjal Tiwari. “One of the reasons we liked the title Devotionals is because it evokes that DIY spirit. This is a collection of songs for the faithful, for our community of people devoted to staying independent, to creating the music and art that we want, in our own spaces, and growing in our ability to channel from deep within. It often feels like we share a devotion to something that seems hopeless and is constantly under attack. But at the root of it all, there’s a fanatical belief in pulling off what other people think is impossible, and we wanted to go back and draw from that in making this album.”

CARDINAL WYRM:
Leila Abdul-Rauf – bass, vocals
Pranjal Tiwari – drums, lead vocals, lyrics
Nathan A. Verrill – guitars, vocals

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Cardinal Wyrm, Devotionals (2020)

Finnish narrative cultists Mansion offered up a couple remixes of their 2015 single Altar Sermon (review here) late last year, and together with their new split with Cardinal Wyrm, the intention seems to be to keep momentum going leading into their awaited debut full-length, which I hear is in progress. That can only be good news after the band’s 2013 We Shall Live (review here) and 2014 Uncreation (review here) EPs, and the new single — which, hey, is limited to 50 copies, released on Valentine’s Day, and streaming nowhere — pairs them with their doomly Californian labelmates working on a theme of both bands covering Joy Division, Mansion taking on “The Eternal” while Cardinal Wyrm lead off the release with “Exercise One.”

Cardinal Wyrm had their Cast Away Souls full-length out late last year on Svart, and that’s streaming in full below, as well as the aforementioned Mansion remixes. I haven’t heard the covers yet, but will hope I get to before the platters are gone, if they’re not already. Pressing is by their pressed by collaborative RR Records imprint, and it’s available only from the bands directly via their Thee Facebooks/Bandcamp pages.

Info and buy links follow, as sent along the PR wire:

Mansion / Cardinal Wyrm split 7″

Californian epic doom wanderers Cardinal Wyrm and Finland’s doomed congregation Mansion collaborate on this unique transmission of heart and soul. Released on the day of the lords 2017, this split 7” offers insight into the shadowplay of dead souls wandering the interzone, a perfect candidate for that one record you’d play as the new dawn fades into the wilderness of isolation.

The bands have neither walked in line nor rendered these songs as a means to an end, instead interpreting each track as its own ceremony, the sound of music as firm and brittle as glass, bringing them to the brink at which something must break into the realm of disorder. The only mistake you could make would be to passover this limited-issue 7” – pick it up while it lasts!

Cardinal Wyrm – Exercise One
Mansion – The Eternal

In a recent, depressing recording session we produced our version of the Joy Division song Eternal with guest vocals by brother Albert. We leave the year 2016 behind on this bleak note. Repent.

– Mikael / Mansion

https://cardinalwyrm.bandcamp.com/
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https://weshalllive.bandcamp.com/album/mansion-cardinal-wyrm-split-7
https://www.facebook.com/mansionalma/

Mansion, Altar Sermon Remix 2016

Cardinal Wyrm, Cast Away Souls (2016)