Dingbatz is an institution in North Jersey metal, and may it outlive us all and the forces of suburban luxurycondofication be forever vanquished. It was Friday night and it had been a start-strong-heads-downhill kind of week, so I was ready for the volume when it hit. Four bands on a Friday, it wasn’t gonna be an early night, but I got to see friends and that was no less welcome than the riffs that ensued.

But really, the place is a treasure. And I’ve seen some killer shows here. Here’s how this one went:

The Crooked Skulls

Tonight started with The Crooked Skulls, who organized the show and had family in the crowd. That’s wonderful and I mean it. Not the first time I’ve seen them, and I dug last year’s Midnight Sun (review here), and since when I saw them the first time was last September, and that was before I’d heard the album, the difference was in knowing the songs better. They revel in the Big Riff in a way that makes them a lot of fun to watch, and the Dingbatz lights were on point. The band are growing, geling in some of the slowest parts, and you can hear them putting together that chemistry between the three of them. The proverbial killer leadoff for the evening.

Precious Blood

My first experience with the New York trio, whose dungeon-stoner-meets-garage-black-metal-rock, three vocals and all, was an intriguing proposition. They were also, it should be noted, having a good time. And the shred, my goodness. They’re following the riff, midtempo, maybe on the low end of midtempo, then a snap and it’s blastbeats and a solo tearing it up. The twists suited them and they each took a turn on mic between songs, which seemed to me probably something they’ve considered. Their sound was likewise worked on, and the first impression was strikingly positive. Like I would go home and check out the record they released last Fall. Horror punk, but like grown up weirdo metal too? It was a hell of a blend.

Thunderchief

Well, the 11 months since I saw them last did nothing to dull the pummel of Richmond, Virginia, two-piece Thunderchief, who have a new record out in With Hatchet, Pike, or Morning Star… and have been on the road accordingly since the first of July or some such madness. This past weekend they were at No Gods No Masters in Portland, Maine, and they weren’t done after this show, but they were in the home stretch. They played like a band who’ve been on the road for a month with only the odd Tuesday off, only more furious, with Rik Surly’s tonal torrent piping through a full bass rig in addition to the full stack for his guitar and Erik Larson level to him on the other side of the stage, down off the riser, just beating the everloving shit out of his poor drums. And Surly’s vocals, that I-could-do-this-all-night-and-be-good-to-go-tomorrow natural scream, were once again vicious. They destroyed, no bullshit all go, and cut off at the end, broke down the gear and were gone. Hot damn what a band. I told Surly he was a monster after and I meant it as a compliment.

Clamfight

I missed their 20th anniversary show because I had covid, but I’ve known the Clamkings for the better part of those two decades and holy smokes were they a blast. Not to mention following up after Thunderchief, who leveled me, but they did their thing, with Joel and Louis on stage left and Sean losing his goddamn mind on stage right. They opened with a new one and then dove back for older stuff, shouting a song out to me and my former bandmate John Eager, who lives near the venue and came out to the show and whom it was a pleasure to see, and that kind of gave the end of the night a nostalgic vibe, as heavy and aggressive as “Fuck Bulldozers” is. It had been a few years since I saw my them hit it last and I was happy to again. They’re a band I remember doing shows with in like 2006/2007, and they were always awesome, always so cool to hang out with. It was doing a show with your friends. My band broke up, but the Clam-I-Ams stuck it out and now their families are family. It’s beautiful. You know, I’ve always seen myself as the guy who’s there for the music, put your head down, keep working, but I’ve been lucky to know some pretty incredible people in my time. And don’t get me wrong, I like the Clamgentlmenses’ new stuff too, but those are good memories. And yeah, Sean came down off the stage to rip it up in the front for a few minutes. He went all out. It was rad. I missed these guys.

—

It felt like a quick night and the air was warm when I walked out to my car. I got to see some good friends at this one, and then on top of that the music was good and every band hit it in their own way. I love North Jersey heavy shows.

Thanks for reading. More pics after the jump.

Read more »

It was like two weeks ago that The Knights of Doom 2026 — the inaugural edition of a two-dayer put on by JB Matson and the crew from Maryland Doom Fest, which ended its decade-plus run in 2025 — announced the first names for its lineup. The full bill has been revealed since, and if you’re getting mini-MDDF vibes off the list of names, many of whom are veterans of past years, I don’t think that’s unfair, but there are some newcomers as well. And if you do some quick division on 35 bands over two days, you know that’s 17.5 per day — actually it’s 16 on June 20 and 19 on June 21; yes I had to count — so those days are probably going to start early, go late, and be jam-packed in a spirit that should be familiar to anyone who hit MDDF during its time.

You can see how this might go, right? Folks show up for the family reunion — and MDDF was very, very much that; a more loyal crew would be hard to find on the Eastern Seaboard if you even deigned to look — and bands get added. This year is two days. It’s got room to grow, and I don’t know if it will — on some level, these folks have been-there-done-that in terms of building a festival culture and vibe, let alone managing four days’ worth of logistics with 50-plus bands shuffling about — but this will be the starting point one way or the other. It can only happen first once, and with love and respect for many in that family from a little ways north, I hope it goes off without a hitch.

The announcements were made on social media:

💀KNIGHTS OF DOOM ‘26 final band dump / rosters / complete lineup!!!

Early bird discounted ticket link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mddf-knights-of-doom-early-bird-discounted-tickets-tickets-1980654877055

Lets go!!!!!!

June 20:

Wolftooth, Vanishing Kids, Foghound, Crop, Moonsinger, Uga Buga, Clamfight, Sun Voyager, Locust Pointe, End of Age, Thunderbird Divine, Black Manta, Bog Wizard, Faith in Jane, Black Night, Tommy Stewart’s Dyerwulf

June 21:

Lie Heavy, Borracho, Stone Nomads, Curse the Son, Bloodshot, Stormtoker, Hovel, Mourn the Light, Thunder Horse, Kulvera, Born of Plagues, Dreadstar, Professor Emeritus, Strange Highways, Gravedigger’s Biscuits, Grave Next Door, Double Planet, Bleak Shore, Burn the Martyr

2 Days of Nonstop Music
More Than 20 Bands

www.marylanddoomfest.com
https://www.instagram.com/marylanddoomfest
https://www.facebook.com/MdDoomFest/

Wolftooth, Wizard’s Light (2025)

This is out today. It is Clamfight’s fourth full-length and very much a self-titled in the tradition of a band declaring themselves as a group. It’s self-released, and it comes seven years after their last record, III. I reviewed that album. I could probably review this one too, and talk about the tones in Sean McKee’s and Joel Harris’ guitars or the former’s e’er vigilant shred, the punch Louis Koble brings to “Dragonhead,” drummer/vocalist Andy Martin’s duet with Oldest Sea’s Samantha Marandola in “Brodgar,” or the fact that across seven songs and 43 minutes the band manage to turn riffy burl-rock into a platform for a mostly-not-toxic expression of masculine love — that is, their love for each other — with an emotional honesty that resonates even beyond the heartstring-pull of the eponymous “Clamfight”‘s guest vocal spot from Steve Murphy of Kings Destroy.

I’m also on that track, on “Clamfight,” screaming like a jerk, but even more than that — I was fortunate enough to meet engineer Steve Poponi, who recorded this and helmed everything else Clamfight has released to-date, before he passed away in 2023 — it’s the emotional honesty of the thing I want to highlight. Why on earth, in talking about an album that so much wears its heart on its sleeve, would I pretend that, say, I haven’t known Clamfight for two decades, or pretend that I don’t consider them friends, that I wasn’t honored to be included in not only what’s their best album (and I say that as somebody who helped release one of them) but in what’s so clearly intended as an all-in culmination of their time together, made in the precious knowledge that all is fleeting. It’s been seven real years since their last record and the spirit of Clamfight, the urgency from the sprawl of 11-minute opener “The Oar” onward, comes in part from that. Love, loss, growth, life, death — Clamfight are celebrating as much as they’re mourning here, but the point is they’re doing it all together and realizing how lucky they are to have the chance to do that as part of their lives for so long. They’re right, and it’s a beautiful, if very adult, realization to witness.

It comes with a corresponding sincerity of form. Don’t tell this to “Drinking Tooth” on here, but Clamfight are not a stoner band and they never were, however large their tones may grow or how weighted their grooves can get or how informed they may be by things like fishing and obscure historical lore. Okay, maybe a little. But they’ve never been about chasing fuzz, or about playing to ideas of genre, and part of the honesty throughout Clamfight is in just how much they push against that. It’s ’90s thrash and hardcore gang shouts. It’s the acoustics and string sounds on “FRH.” The unrepentantly epic ground-scorch before “Redtail” is even halfway over (also after), setting up a punch-drunk roll as the band ride their own groove into the sunset, aware that any time could be the last time. It’s not social media content. It’s not trying to get on the cool playlist. It’s its own thing because they made it true to who they are as people and who they’ve grown to be as they’ve come into adulthood together. “Clamfight” itself is very much about that, but it’s all over the rest of the songs as well, and if you’d tell me you can’t understand how outwardly aggressive or loud or harsh music can be used to express love or gratitude, the only reply I really have for you is I’m sorry.

The line is right there in the galloping part of “Clamfight” — “Same four dudes/All this time” — and the song itself asks how long it can last. I don’t have an answer for that, but the band does. The answer is in cherishing what you have, whether that’s a band, a family, your life, a dumpy blog or some other outlet, for the time you have it. That’s what makes Clamfight a mature Clamfight album, and I don’t think I have to say that these aren’t the kinds of self-manifestations one would generally get from dudes in their 20s — not to disparage the songs Clamfight were writing at the time; I still love 2010’s Volume I (review here) and remember nostalgically seeing them on stage before then as well — but accepting being grown up and knowing a little more about who you are is a part of moving into middle age. There’s no attempt to hide that in these songs. No attempt to hide the fun. It’s as open a record as Clamfight could ever have hoped to make, and I love it for that. You can hear each one of them putting everything they have into it. Not every band gets to make an album like that, let alone to realize they’re doing it at the time and value it accordingly.

So they’re lucky to have each other and they know it. In uncertain times and facing an unknowable future ahead where little seems bright, that warmth is a saving grace. If the lesson of the pandemic was to teach the value of being together by keeping us apart, Clamfight embrace this as sweeping personal growth and depth of craft. These songs, this album taken as a whole, is a ready example of why you would be in a band for 20 years without care for ‘making it big’ or financial profit. It’s because you love it and you love the people you do it with. Such a simple answer and in no small part because men are raised to be emotional cripples it’s such a rare thing to see outside of violent and/or misogynist contexts. That is to say, it’s socially acceptable for men to bond so long as they’re hating women or killing somebody. But sounds so heavy with love so clearly at their foundation are rare and special and that’s exactly what Clamfight’s Clamfight is. The declaration it makes is no less than the band bearing their heart in portraying the family they’ve become over the last two decades. It’s brash and gorgeous and special and I’m very, very happy for my friends.

Also, Andy got married last week and Sean’s family recently welcomed a new member, so congrats all around.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

—

Why not bold the proper names above? I don’t know. It didn’t feel right. Too review-y, maybe. I’m still just finishing my coffee at 9AM, so bear with me.

My alarm was set for 6:30 but the kid was pounding on the wall before that. We had a late night. The Patient Mrs. was out and The Pecan and I were on our own for the evening, which was fine. Bedtime started after nine and went until a bit before 10PM, which is already long, and she was out her bedroom door before I was downstairs long enough to take a sip of water. Back up like four more times before I made it to bed, then she came down two more times, finally decided she needed to poop, and did that I guess around an hour after she first came down, making it about 11PM. I took her back upstairs and fell asleep in her bed, where thankfully she also fell asleep at long last, and made it back downstairs sometime shortly after midnight. The Patient Mrs. was home by then, so I got to say goodnight in my barely-conscious ‘you wanna watch a Star Trek?’ state. TOS it is.

The kid had had a rough day at school, missing behavior targets and such, and The Patient Mrs. didn’t want to risk derailing recent forward progress — because this week has been better until yesterday, and three incident-free days, one of them a field trip, isn’t nothing to us at this point — so we’re keeping her home today. I’ll take her to the arcade or something since the weather sucks. I asked for and received the time to write this while they watch videos in the living room, and I am grateful for it.

Getting home from Oslo on Sunday was fine. It was a typical landing in Newark, which means the plane was tossed from side to side like a Micro Machines in a vortex and the line at customs took 40 minutes. My bad was out when I got out, so I didn’t wait there. In Europe, you wait for the bag. In the US, you wait to find out if you’re going to be let in the country.

I could go on about that or the Lord Buffalo thing this week with the drummer being detained and then it comes out he’s got warrants or somesuch. Like that makes it better. People being perfectly happy to miss the point is precisely why I said I was worried the US will learn nothing from the dark moment in history it’s inhabiting. We dismantled education. On purpose. First you need a cultural recommitment, and that also means money. Then you need to raise a generation of teachers. Then you need to raise a generation of educated kids. If you say it’s been since Nixon the right wing has been trying to privatize schooling, then the damage that’s been done to-date will need at least that long to undo, again, if the commitment to undo it was made, which given the track the country is on now there’s about zero chance of happening. I wonder if public schooling will exist by the time my daughter is my age. They want to privatize garbage collection in my town. There’s 50,000 people here. How fucking stupid do you need to be?

As noted, I could go on.

Next week I’ve got premieres for Electric Citizen, The Lotus Matter, and Entheomorphosis, and I’m going to review the new Turtle Skull, which will feel like exorcising a demon as I finally get all the laudatory blah blah blah out of my brain that I’ve been writing there for the last however-many weeks. Like a top-three of the year for me, that one.

I wish you a great and safe weekend. Drink water. Watch your head. Tell someone you love them. Listen to good music. I’m back Monday.

FRM.

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In the spirit of the album’s honesty, I’ll tell you flat-out I love Clamfight. I’ve known them as people and as a group for nigh on 20 years, and from doing shows together in the long-long ago to joining Steve Murphy of Kings Destroy in doing guest vocals for the eponymous “Clamfight” on this record and editing the bio, there are few acts out there to whom I feel closer. Maybe none.

So I’m not going to feign impartiality here or whatever. I’ve followed along as the band started putting this record together, through covid, losing engineer Steve Poponi after they were done, and I’ve seen and heard how they’ve pushed themselves, dug deeper into what they do, and come up with the best material they’ve ever written. And I say that as a dude who helped put out one of their record. Clamfight‘s Clamfight is the kind of record you make after you realize how lucky you are to still be making records at all, let alone with people you love. It is the truest declaration of self Clamfight have ever made.

I also can’t help but love the fact that their first single has been up since the end of January, is 11 minutes long and it’s four minutes in before you hear the first vocals — that Clamfight music industry acumen strikes again! In all seriousness, “The Oar” is at the bottom of this post and is obviously more about immersion more than trying to beat you over the head with an immediate chorus. The rest of the album follows suit in variable mood and intensity, but remains affected by the atmosphere of “The Oar,” so it’s a good place to start before you push further.

It was an honor to be involved in this in the small way I was.

From the PR wire:

CLAMFIGHT: New Jersey Sludge/Doom Metal Quartet Prepares To Release Eponymous Fourth LP On May 16th; “The Oar” Streaming + Preorders Posted

New Jersey/Philly sludge beasts CLAMFIGHT are prepared to self-release their eponymous fourth full-length release this Spring, unveiling the cover art, track listing, preorders, and lead single, “The Oar.”

The members of CLAMFIGHT are childhood friends who played their first show together in the Fall of 2005. The band’s lineup has remained the same ever since, with bassist Louis Koble, guitarists Joel Harris and Sean McKee, and drummer/vocalist Andy Martin. Over the past twenty years, the band has played shows along the entire East Coast and beyond, having shared a lot of laughs and shenanigans as well as loss and heartache together along the way. Having released three albums to date – Vol. I in 2010, I vs. The Glacier in 2013, and III in 2018 – the band now presents their most somber yet victorious record yet with Clamfight.

CLAMFIGHT began work on album number four right as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. With only drum tracks finished the weekend before the lockdowns began, the sudden downtime gave the band the opportunity to broaden their sound. With their longtime friend, mentor, and producer Steve Poponi, the band expanded the sonic range of the new material and brought more dynamics and intricacy to the seven new songs.

The pandemic also changed the record lyrically and thematically. Lyrically, Clamfight became a sort of diary or memoir, but not about masks and temperature checks at the grocery store, but about how the love and friendship between the band helped get them all through those dark times. If there’s a central theme to Clamfight it’s that life is short and precious, but that the people around you – the people that you love and that love you back – are the ones that make it worth savoring.

Now, Clamfight is ready to see the light of the day. “To us, this is easily the most personal and important record that we’ve ever done. It was part of why we wanted to self-release it. We didn’t want to be beholden to anyone else on this one, and we wanted to push it as much or as little as we pleased without feeling like we were letting anyone down. We’ve got all the respect for Argonauta and some of the other folks we talked to about this one, but for a record that was so personal going at it alone felt right.”

Clamfight was recorded by Steve Poponi and Matt Weber at The Gradwell House in Haddon Heights, New Jersey where it was also mixed by Steve Poponi and Dave Downham and mastered by Dave Downham, and the album’s cover art and layout was handled by Morgan E Russell. The record features guest vocals on “Brodgar” by Sam Marandola and on “Clamfight” by Stephen Murphy and JJ Koczan.

The lead single from Clamfight arrives with the album’s opening track, “The Oar.” Andy Martin reveals with the song, “In making this record we leaned on each other and our collaborators more than ever before. I never write lyrics until we’re in the studio, and as recording was happening, I found myself writing about where we were in our lives, the people we loved, the mistakes we made, and about how much I love these guys, so when it came time to name the record, the choice was obvious. This is the last record we were privileged to make with our brother Steve Poponi. You’ll hear him at the end of the track. Words fall short when it comes to expressing how much we miss him, so for and now always, we’ll just say Poponi Forever. Take care of yourselves gang.”

Stream “The Oar,” CLAMFIGHT’s lead single from the powerful new Clamfight, now playing RIGHT HERE: https://clamfight.bandcamp.com/album/clamfight

The band will self-release Clamfight digitally and on CD on May 16th. Preorders are now live at Bandcamp HERE: https://clamfight.bandcamp.com/album/clamfight

Clamfight Track Listing:
1. The Oar
2. Brodgar
3. Dragonhead
4. FRH
5. Drinking Tooth
6. Clamfight
7. Redtail

CLAMFIGHT is also booking regional tour dates and live events supporting the new album. They will play Brooklyn on June 20th and a benefit show for their late friend Steve Poponi in Philadelphia on June 21st. A record release show and additional dates are also in the works. Watch for updates to post alongside additional previews of the album over the weeks ahead.

CLAMFIGHT Live:
5/31/2025 Kung Fu Necktie – Philadelphia, PA *record release show
6/20/2025 Goldsounds – Brooklyn, NY w/ Hollow Leg, Florist, End Of Hope
6/21/2025 Poponipalooza ’25: D.I.L.F.@ Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA

CLAMFIGHT:
Louis Koble – bass
Joel Harris – guitar
Sean McKee – guitar
Andy Martin – drums/vocals

https://www.facebook.com/Clamfight
https://www.instagram.com/clamfight
https://clamfight.bandcamp.com/

Clamfight, Clamfight (2025)

11 minutes of new Clams is a big ‘yes please’ this morning as the Philly-ish riff-crunchers unveil “The Oar” as the first single from their impending self-titled follow-up to 2018’s III (review here). The four-piece who are a veteran presence both on stages up and down the Eastern Seaboard and in my heart have been working on Clamfight for years now — I know because I sing guest vocals on it (different song) and I recorded like two years ago — and as drummer/vocalist Andy Martin notes below, it will be their last collaboration with Steve Poponi, who passed away last year.

Bittersweet, then, certainly for the band. “The Oar” is big and lumbering, not without a reach in its melody and linear in its trajectory, build and flow. When it hits the comedown, you’ll be surprised the 11 minutes hare gone. If you’ve seen them live since the pandemic, I’m pretty sure they’ve been doing this one live for the last however long, epic solos and all. Plus gang vocals. Little something for everyone here.

I don’t have any idea on the release plan for Clamfight‘s Clamfight because, uh, I don’t, but I’ll keep an eye/ear for more, and there’s plenty here to dig into in the meantime. Enjoy:

In Andy’s words:

It’s very hard to sum up what this record means to us, or what the process of making it was like. The drum tracks were laid down as Lock Down was beginning and now we’re releasing it during another very dark and uncertain time. In the intervening years we lost close friends and family and gained new ones.

In making this record we leaned on each other and our collaborators more than ever before. I never write lyrics until we’re in the studio and as recording happened I found myself writing about where we were in our lives, the people we loved, the mistakes we made, and about how much I love these guys. So when it came time to name the record, the choice was obvious.

Submitted for your listening pleasure, this is “The Oar” the first song off the record “Clamfight” by the band Clamfight.

This is the last record we were privileged to make with our brother Steve Poponi. You’ll hear him on the end of the track. Words fall short when it comes out to expressing how much we miss him, so for and now always, we’ll just say Poponi Forever.

Take care of yourselves gang.

https://www.facebook.com/Clamfight
https://www.instagram.com/clamfight
https://clamfight.bandcamp.com/

Clamfight, “The Oar”

Good bill here. I assure you, I’m just about the last person you want to ask concerning anything to do with craft beer — even when I drank I was never that cool — but band-wise, you’ve got a lineup for Doom and Brews III that spans a decent portion of the Eastern Seaboard from the Mid-Atlantic up into New England and beyond. Indianapolis’ Void King will travel the farthest, while Yatra, from Maryland, and Book of Wyrms, from Richmond, Virginia, are set to headline, and alongisde Connecticut natives Curse the Son, Pinto Graham, Afghan Haze, Entierro, Bone Church and Mourn the Light, Clamfight, Thunderbird Divine, The Age of Truth and Almost Honest will be up from PA and Mother Iron Horse and Conclave come south from Massachusetts. Mark it a win.

Goes without saying that everything in existence is tentative, but here’s hoping this one happens. If you’ve been sitting on tickets for the affiliated New England Stoner & Doom Fest 3, you get in free here as well, so, you know, bonus.

Tickets on sale Aug. 6. Here’s info:

SCENE PRODUCTIONS and SALT OF THE EARTH RECORDS are extremely excited to announce the full lineup for DOOM & BREWS III

Altones Music Hall (Jewett City, CT)

November 12 & 13 marks the return of the infamous New England tradition DOOM & BREWS, a gathering of heavy riffs and amazing craft beers… this is an event not to be missed!

2 Days of some of the Best Doom bands in the Northeast & some of the Best Beer New England has to offer!

ATTENTION NESDF3 TICKETHOLDERS!!!!!!

If you purchased tickets to NESDF3 before 2021, you will be on guest list at the door as a thank you for your support and patience.

LINEUP:
Friday, Nov. 12:
Yatra, Bone Church, Mother Iron Horse, Entierro, Thunderbird Divine, Mourn the Light, Almost Honest

Saturday, Nov. 13:
Book of Wyrms, Curse the Son, Conclave, Clamfight, The Age of Truth, Void King, Pinto Graham, Afghan Haze

Tickets go on sale Aug 6th
https://www.newenglandstoneranddoomfest.com/buy-tickets

https://www.facebook.com/events/altones-music-hall/doom-brews-iii/843747549822354/
https://www.facebook.com/Altonesmusichall
https://www.newenglandstoneranddoomfest.com/

Yatra, All is Lost (2020)

The ongoing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the varied responses of publics and governments worldwide, and the disruption to lives and livelihoods has reached a scale that is unprecedented. Whatever the month or the month after or the future itself brings, more than one generation will bear the mark of having lived through this time, and art, artists, and those who provide the support system to help uphold them have all been affected.

In continuing the Days of Rona feature, it remains pivotal to give a varied human perspective on these events and these responses. It is important to remind ourselves that whether someone is devastated or untouched, sick or well, we are all thinking, feeling people with lives we want to live again, whatever renewed shape they might take from this point onward. We all have to embrace a new normal. What will that be and how will we get there?

Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan

Days of Rona: Andy Martin of Clamfight (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

—

How have you been you dealing with this crisis as a band? As an individual? What effect has it had on your plans or creative processes?

As a band we currently have about half of our fourth record recorded. We were in the studio the weekend of March 13th which is pretty much when shit hit the fan in the Philly/New Jersey area so it seemed like every time I checked my phone between takes there’d be another set new of restrictions or some new horrifying statistic coming out of NYC or Italy. Since then it’s been no practice, but we talk every day and Sean’s been writing a lot.

Sean has been killing it with new material but I’ve been pretty creatively blocked for most of lock down. I wrote a novel in 2019, some friends have read it and given me great feedback but I haven’t been able to get moving on the second draft at all.

Ken from Eternal Black roped Erik from Thunderbird Divine and I into his Swarm of Flies project, and that seems to have finally gotten me moving and creating again, which is great. Now that I feel like I can write again I’m going to attack some new Clamfight stuff Sean has sent me and hopefully get on with the second draft of the novel.

Personally, I lost my job pretty quickly and that stung but I’ve been lucky enough to land with a new company and I’m back where I belong, digging holes in farm fields.

How do you feel about the public response to the outbreak where you are? From the government response to the people around you, what have you seen and heard from others?

The city of Philadelphia gave the bars St Patty’s Day weekend, and I wonder how many fewer cases our area would have had if they clamped down quicker. It was so bizarre being in the recording studio and reading about what was unfolding in New York and coming home to my neighborhood in South Philly and seeing the bars on Two Street packed. Since that first stumble I’ve got to give the city a lot of credit, they’ve handled it pretty well. Who knows though, Philly has a pretty terrible public transportation system and that may have saved more lives than the lockdown.

Parks have remained open and fishing has been allowed which has been a great way of retaining my sanity but otherwise we’re pretty similar to NJ and NY, masks in stores, with most businesses that aren’t grocery stores and Home Depot closed.

What do you think of how the music community specifically has responded? How do you feel during this time? Are you inspired? Discouraged? Bored? Any and all of it?

I think the response by the music community has been pretty great. Live-streams, people digging out show footage, putting out demos (Clamfight will hopefully be doing something similar soon), it’s all been gravy. As for the future of what live music looks like, I’m unfortunately less optimistic. I almost get cranky when I see people advertising shows later in the summer or even the fall, because I think the broader federal response in the US has been so criminally inept that live music, bars, restaurants, etc aren’t coming back any time soon. It just won’t be safe. Setting aside the question of how many venues even survive this, unless there’s a vaccine, playing a show or attending one is going to be a real act of a faith in the people around you. Are they being smart and safe? Would they even know if they were a carrier? That’s kind of where I’m at with the live music, it may happen, but it’s going to be a real question of who is actually willing to show up from bands or the audience.
That said, would I play a show in the woods with a generator? Yes, yes I would.

Personally, I’ve been all over the place in terms of my mood. I’ve had days where I’ve spent hours fly fishing and then made a big dinner with my girlfriend and then settle in with some wine and watched a movie, and days like that feel like vacation. And then there’s the days when I’m missing my family, or all my close friends in the UK, and those days can be crushing.

What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything? What is your new normal? What have you learned from this experience, about yourself, your band, or anything?

Because there’s been comparatively little Clamfight for me recently, I’ll explain it from the fishing and archaeology side of things.

For eight years I’ve been a part of the Ness of Brodgar excavations in Orkney. It’s changed my life and joining the team has far and away been the best thing I’ve ever done. For obvious reasons, the Ness and a lot of other research excavations won’t be happening this year. On a personal level it’s a heart breaker, because the dig team is a second family to me and I don’t know when I’ll see them again, but missing a season can have huge repercussions for the dig itself. I know times are tight, but if you’re an archaeology or history buff and have a few bucks to spare it’d be worth checking to see if there’s any digs or research projects you’d like to support because without those visitor dollars, they’re all going to be hurting.

I’ve really rediscovered my love of fly fishing during lock down, and besides giving me something to do it’s restored my faith in humanity a bit during this age of performative shiftiness and a total lack of leadership from the Federal government.

Fisherman can be really chatty, but there’s been a real shift in that chatter recently. There‘a been several times during this thing where I’ve been in the middle of the creek and either another fisherman, or a retired guy getting his steps in will stop on the bank and we’ll talk. Not just the simple “catching any?” chatter, but fifteen or twenty minute conversations, that segue from fishing to health and the state of the world pretty quickly. And these conversations always end with the same two words, “stay safe.” Usually accompanied by a big open palm wave from a retired union guy with a hand like a side of beef. I don’t know what it is about these conversations but that level of openness between strangers really makes me feel better and give me hope that maybe, just maybe, we’ll come out a little better on the other side of this thing.

So that’s what I’ve got for you gang. We are clearly a very long way from the end of this thing, so stay safe.

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https://clamfight.bandcamp.com/

Half a decade ago, I tagged along with Kings Destroy on a West Coast tour that took us, among other places, through a snowstorm in Wyoming. It was late at night, and cars were sliding off the road and pulled over with their flashers on, plows nowhere to be seen. A general wreck. I took over driving that night — hi, I’m sober — and we just went to where we were staying very, very slowly. One does not want to flip the Sprinter van with all the gear in it when one is not even in the band.

I thought about that snowstorm at seven in the morning on Saturday to go south from Massachusetts to see Kings Destroy‘s record release show at the Saint Vitus Bar in the Lost City of Brooklyn after seeing them the night before in Boston, with Gozu and Forming the Void, who’d also be playing again, while Philly’s Clamfight stepped into the opening spot. It’s not every band on the planet I’d leave the house for, let alone take six hours to make a four-hour trip. It all worked out, though, and nobody flipped any vehicles. A win, even before the night started.

It was an early show, which is fine by me forever. There was an NYC Beer Week event with metal breweries at the Vitus Bar before the show kicked off, and Alewife Brewing had a special beer for Gozu — a Gozu Gose — and so it was a double release gig, with Kings Destroy marking the arrival this week of their fourth album, Fantasma Nera, and Gozu having a few cans of their own special brew on hand. There was no way it wasn’t going to be a party.

The beer thing was basically irrelevant to me other than the Gozu cans were cool looking, but it made sure the crowd had gotten plenty of “tasting” done by the time Clamfight went on. Here’s how it all went from there:

Clamfight

Hugs all around. I’ve known Clamfight for well over a decade at this point, and they played three songs at the Saint Vitus Bar, but honestly, apart from being happy to see them and the fact that in the time since I last did — in the same place, no less — they released last year’s III (review here), which was by any measure a huge leap forward in sound and approach, I spent the bulk of their set feeling cripplingly nervous. I had put out on social media a post with their track “Echoes in Stone” that said how I daydreamed about singing the song on stage with them, and they invited me to do it. When I was in a band a decade ago, we used to do shows together a lot and it was how we got to be friends. They invited me to do the song, and, after much hemming and hawing, I actually did it. I sang backups to drummer Andy Martin and was up on the Vitus Bar stage with him, bassist Louis Koble and guitarists Joel “Papa” Harris and guitarist Sean McKee and I did the song. The last time I was on a stage was eight years before, and I thought I’d never do it again, but in the end, the situation felt right and when it was done, I was glad I did it. Sore, and glad. And sore. But also glad. And sweaty. Before I got up, they also killed and the metal-breweries crowd left over from the beer event earlier were right on board with their more aggressive side. It had been too long since I saw them, and I’m glad to know I’ll catch them again at New England Stoner & Doom Fest this Spring.

Forming the Void

It was really, really easy to watch Forming the Void play two nights in a row. They seemed comfortable on a bigger stage, and were able to spread out a bit more in their setup, but the huge tones and progressive melodies came through no less effectively for the larger space they occupied in Brooklyn than they had in Boston. And it’s interesting to see that people are clearly onto them. They brought out a good, growing-band crowd both nights, and what they brought to the bill was to be the one on the lineup that people hadn’t seen yet on the tour. The seeing-them-for-the-first-time band, because of course neither Gozu nor Kings Destroy — nor Clamfight, for that matter — were strangers to the venue, but you could see in the crowd people being engaged by the Louisiana natives, and that initial curiosity turning into fandom in real-time. Touring suits them. They’re building a stage presence and as they become more confident in their approach, that will become all the more a factor, but they’re already able to take a room and bring the people in it onto their side, and that is a massive step. Good band. Good band. Go see Forming the Void. Their next album or two — they work quickly — will tell the tale, but already, good band. They’ll be at Maryland Doom Fest in June, I’m hoping with new material in tow.

Gozu

Appropriately enough, Gozu and Kings Destroy switched up the order from the night before in Boston, giving the New York band the play-last spot in their hometown, but Gozu still tore through Saint Vitus Bar like headliners. This was their last night of the three on the road with Kings Destroy and Forming the Void — Portland, Boston, Brooklyn — and they railed into their set in absolute blowout fashion. If I didn’t know they were playing with a new drummer in Alex Fewell, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it, and it was clear they were getting it together as they were going. No flubs that I heard, and frankly, I was paying pretty close attention. If he’s permanent, Fewell (also of thrashers Black Mass) would be the third drummer in Gozu, and though he’s playing established material with parts originally written by someone else — either Mike Hubbard or Barry Spillberg — he brings his own sensibility to it. I was glad to see him a second night with the band, because that came through all the more. He’s not a pure tech drummer, but he’s able to carry the sharp-edged “Nature Boy” without trouble and still swing when called upon to do so. By the time guitarist/vocalist Marc Gaffney was shaking his hips later into the set in the middle of the stage with guitarist Doug Sherman and bassist Joe Grotto headbanging on either side, Gozu seemed fully locked in and sustainable as they are now. I don’t know how fluid their situation is, but their intent to keep moving forward was plain to see, and it’s worth being thankful for that.

Kings Destroy

I was at the record release show at Saint Vitus Bar in 2015 for Kings Destroy‘s self-titled third LP (review here). I got to do a track premiere for that one. This time, I wasn’t cool enough, but as they move toward the release of their fourth album, Fantasma Nera, this week as their offering under the banner of Svart Records, I couldn’t help but think back to that show and the massive difference in sound between that material and the newer stuff. They liken it to grunge, which is fair in a sense, but New York — and really, East Coast — grunge was always a bit meaner, and that holds true for Kings Destroy as well. What they’ve ended up with is a kind of heavy rock that in some ways communes with their hardcore past, but is much more melodically present and more than ever sure of its songwriting approach. I said of the Boston show they were still feeling out how to present the new songs live — once again, they played all Fantasma Nera material except for “Mr. O” from the last album — but being on their home turf definitely helped. This was their 25th show at the Saint Vitus Bar. I haven’t been at every one of those shows, but I’m happy to have seen as many as I have, and I know full well this won’t be the last one I catch. They are the masters of that domain, new songs or old, and owned the show the way you own your living room. I stood in the middle of the crowd — something I rarely do — and however many times I’ve seen them later, still felt lucky to be there.

—

Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of yourself and your place. Some people come to underground music with an endgame in mind. They have a goal and are working toward that goal. That’s not always the wrong call, but if you’re looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow of underground heavy, you’re doing it wrong. It’s not about the gold, it’s about the rainbow. It’s not what you get from the work, it’s the work itself. The work is the reward. People can support each other and help out and whatever else, but at the end of the night when you’re driving home from the show, if you’re not happy with the work, there’s no point to any of it. Because that gold? It’s bullshit. You’re never going to get it. But rainbows really do exist and they’re fucking awesome. Live for the work or live wrong. Nights like this, they help you align your perspective and inspire you to keep it right.

Thanks for reading. More pics after the jump.

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