Tomorrow, April 26, Indianapolis doomers Apostle of Solitude launch their 20th anniversary European tour at the Grand Paris Sludge festival, embarking on a 14-date run that culminates at the inaugural Desertfest Oslo. The last time the band traveled abroad was in 2018 — the Beforetimes! — and in addition to changes like drummer Corey Webb cutting his hair and losing his beard in favor of a fierce, nigh-on-authoritarian mustache, and bassist Marshall Kreeb joining in place of Mike Naish, let alone being on the other side of a global pandemic, etc., that’s also long enough ago to be before they put out their latest album, 2021’s Until the Darkness Goes (review here). If you were looking for an excuse to see them, the record alone should do it.

As one might when promoting the kind of tour that doesn’t happen every year, the four-piece of Webb, Kreeb, and guitarist/vocalists Chuck Brown and Steve Janiak have posted a new video, for the track “Deeper Than the Oceans” from Until the Darkness Goes. Made in DIY fashion with Kreeb filming and Janiak handling the edits, it’s duly watery in the visuals and a showcase for the song itself, which leads off the second half of the record and is resonant in both its overarching melancholic heft and the emotive crux in Brown and Janiak‘s shared and oft-harmonized vocals.

Over the course of their now-20 years, Apostle of Solitude have always excelled at conveying a sense of defeat or despondency without losing themselves in that musically, and “Deeper Than the Oceans” encapsulates this well. That’s not to say they’re pairing sad-sung verses and choruses with hard-charging thrash — it’s a doom song with water in the title; full-on “big nod coming” dogwhistle for the converted — but while they’re plenty depressive on Until the Darkness Goes and in “Deeper Than the Oceans,” they dwell in more than just that atmospherically, as the build in the midsection after four minutes in demonstrates. They’re never totally hopeless, as brooding or dark as their material might seem.

And believe it or not — and they might take this as an insult but I assure you it’s not meant that way — they’re fun live, too. Yeah, actual fun. Don’t tell them I said that, but if you’re in their path, this tour would be a fitting occasion to show up and find out for yourself as they move on toward a new full-length hopefully sometime in 2025.

Enjoy the video:

Apostle of Solitude, “Deeper Than the Oceans” official video

Apostle of Solitude’s music video for “Deeper than the Oceans” from the album “Until the Darkness Goes” available from Cruz Del Sur Music. https://www.cruzdelsurmusic.com

Filmed by Marshall Kreeb
Edits: S. Janiak
special thanks: Mike Naish

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 20th Anniversary European Tour:
April 26 – Paris, France @ Savigny le Temple, l’Empreinte Grand Paris Sludge
April 27 – Martigny, Switzerland @ Les Caves du Manior
April 28 – Torino, Italy @ Ziggy Club
April 29 – Bologna, Italy @ Freakout Club
April 30 – Viareggio, Italy @ Circolo ARCI GOB
May 02 – Osnabrück, Germany @ Bastard Club
May 03 – Berlin, Germany @ Slaughterhouse Berlin
May 04 – Vienna, Austria @ Escape Metalcorner
May 05 – Budapest, Hungary @ Robot
May 07 – Wiesbaden, Germany @ Schlachthof Wiesbaden
May 08 – Göppingen, Germany @ Zille
May 09 – Düsseldorf, Germany @ Pitcher
May 10 – Sebnitz, Germany @ Wonnemond Festival
May 11 – Oslo, Norway @ Desertfest Oslo

Apostle of Solitude:
Chuck Brown – Guitar, Vocals
Corey Webb – Drums
Steve Janiak – Guitar, Vocals
Marshall Kreeb – Bass

Apostle of Solitude, Full Band Interview, March 3, 2024

(L-R in video: Steve Janiak, Marshall Kreeb, Chuck Brown, Corey Webb)

Apostle of Solitude, Until the Darkness Goes (2021)

Apostle of Solitude on Facebook

Apostle of Solitude on Instagram

Apostle of Solitude on Bandcamp

Apostle of Solitude BigCartel store

Apostle of Solitude website

Cruz Del Sur Music on Facebook

Cruz del Sur Music website

Today, Indianapolis doom metallers Apostle of Solitude announce the longest stretch of European touring they’ve done. Anchored by appearances at Grand Paris Sludge, Wonnemond Festival and Desertfest Oslo, it’s not their first time abroad, but it’s special both because they’re going places they’ve never been and it’s how the band are celebrating their 20th anniversary.

Following a pair of formative demos, their debut album, Sincerest Misery (discussed here), came out in 2008 through Eyes Like Snow, and set them on an innovative course that helped define an emotive strain of doom which continues to flesh out today. After the warm-but-for-the-artwork reception their second full-length, Last Sunrise (review here), garnered upon release in 2010, the band offered a pair of splits in 2011 and restructured the lineup around founding members Chuck Brown (guitar/vocals) and Corey Webb (drums), bringing in Bob Fouts (who passed away in 2020) on bass and Steve Janiak of heavy rockers Devil to Pay as a second guitarist and singer.

The addition of Janiak to Apostle of Solitude shouldn’t be discounted as a landmark in the band’s 20-year run. I remember picking up their 2012 Demo (discussed here) at Days of the Doomed in Wisconsin that year and listening to the CD on the long drive home. It wasn’t a full conceptual reset for the band — they were doom before and doom after — but it was the start of a new era, and I’ll gladly put the three records they’ve done since, 2014’s Of Woe and Wounds (review here), 2018’s From Gold to Ash (review here), and 2021’s Until the Darkness Goes (review here), forth as examples of their progression in style and songwriting.

They’ve been talking about their next record for a while now, which is kind of how it goes. In the video interview below, which was conducted this past Sunday afternoon as the band met for rehearsal in Brown‘s basement (recognizable from any number of shared pics over the years), they talk a bit about new material and how they might or might not put it together for a sixth LP, but there’s no concrete recording or release plan at this point, and three years out from the last record, that’s fair. But if it’s 2025 or even 2026 before Apostle of Solitude make their next offering, what, you’re gonna be like, “No, this took too long so I won’t listen?” Probably not.

From Webb and Brown as originals, to Janiak now tenured for 13 years, to bassist Marshall Kreeb, who joined last summer, Apostle of Solitude have a range of perspectives on the band’s history, and I felt fortunate to be able to talk to all of them about it. And let the record show that when called upon to stand up for 20 years of Apostle of Solitude, they indeed stood. I say it to them and I’ll write it here: congratulations on 20 years of Apostle of Solitude.

Enjoy the interview. The tour announcement (fresh today) follows in blue.

Here you go:

Apostle of Solitude, Full Band Interview, March 3, 2024

(L-R in video: Steve Janiak, Marshall Kreeb, Chuck Brown, Corey Webb)

Commemorating their 20th Anniversary, Apostle of Solitude embark on a European tour this spring. The tour begins at the Grand Paris Sludge festival in Paris France on April 26th, and includes 14 shows in 7 different countries (including 5 shows and 2 festival appearances with Eyehategod), concluding at Desertfest Oslo in Oslo, Norway on May 11th. Apostle of Solitude have released five full-length albums since the band’s inception in 2004, the most recent being their 2021 release “Until The Darkness Goes”, on Cruz Del Sur Music.

20th Anniversary EU Tour dates are as follows:

April 26 – Paris, France @ Savigny le Temple, l’Empreinte Grand Paris Sludge
April 27 – Martigny, Switzerland @ Les Caves du Manior
April 28 – Torino, Italy @ Ziggy Club
April 29 – Bologna, Italy @ Freakout Club
April 30 – Viareggio, Italy @ Circolo ARCI GOB
May 02 – Osnabrück, Germany @ Bastard Club
May 03 – Berlin, Germany @ Slaughterhouse Berlin
May 04 – Vienna, Austria @ Escape Metalcorner
May 05 – Budapest, Hungary @ Robot
May 07 – Wiesbaden, Germany @ Schlachthof Wiesbaden
May 08 – Göppingen, Germany @ Zille
May 09 – Düsseldorf, Germany @ Pitcher
May 10 – Sebnitz, Germany @ Wonnemond Festival
May 11 – Oslo, Norway @ Desertfest Oslo

Apostle of Solitude, Until the Darkness Goes (2021)

Apostle of Solitude on Facebook

Apostle of Solitude on Instagram

Apostle of Solitude on Bandcamp

Apostle of Solitude BigCartel store

Apostle of Solitude website

Cruz Del Sur Music on Facebook

Cruz del Sur Music website

Perhaps by the time they get the ball rolling on their debut album through Cruz Del Sur Music — to which the band are newly announced as signed — Boston’s The Watcher will have a band photo. Maybe they won’t; you know heavy metal is shy like that sometimes. I don’t like looking at pictures of myself either, and that might be the most metal thing about me save for the crushingly accurate lack of self worth of which that’s a symptom, but then again, I’m not promoting a first record being put out by one of the best underground heavy metal and doom imprints going. The Watcher — who are not to be confused with San Fran’s The Watchers or any other lookie-loo type monikers out there — find themselves, or will soon find themselves, in that very position.

The trio released their debut EP, Your Turn to Die, in 2021. You’ll note the cover where the band photo discussed above might otherwise be. You can stream the EP below because Bandcamp hasn’t actually collapsed yet after firing half their staff blah blah corporate bullshit ruining lives. Comprised of three songs and topping 13 minutes, it was recorded in 2017. Six years ago! How you can guess the album will be good is that Cruz Del Sur probably wouldn’t ink a band whose only offering came out two years ago and was recorded six years ago and who haven’t spent all that time touring incessantly without at least hearing some new music first, whether that’s demos or partial finished tracks as The Watcher will look to complete the recording process in November, as the PR wire tells it. Though if it was just Your Turn to Die that hooked the label, that’s fine too.

From the PR wire:

THE WATCHER Joins Cruz Del Sur Music, New Album Due in 2024

Cruz Del Sur Music is proud to announce the signing of Boston classic metal/doom outfit, THE WATCHER. The label will release the band’s first full-length album in 2024.

THE WATCHER is the 2016 creation of guitarist/bassist Max Furst, who, after many years of playing darker and heavier styles of metal, wanted to write music that was more driving, epic and up-tempo. Furst embarked on finding the proper musicians, first landing on drummer Chris Spraker. The two promptly began work on the music that would become the Your Turn To Die EP. But first, they needed to find a vocalist.

“After years of dead ends and countless ‘no’s,’ I was fortuitously introduced to Paden Reed in late 2020 through a mutual acquaintance,” says Furst. “Paden was the first person to come at the project with sincere enthusiasm, and in July 2020, he sent me a demo of what would become Your Turn To Die. I was beyond floored by his delivery of the vocals and his interpretation of the music. I immediately knew we had something special, so we spent the next few months developing vocals for two additional songs from a 2017 instrumental demo. Paden then went into a studio to properly record the vocals; we then mixed and mastered the entire session.”

The Your Turn To Die EP finally saw the light of day in 2021. The wait for THE WATCHER was worth it — the EP was warmly received across the metal underground for its tight, immediate songwriting and timeless blend of BLACK SABBATH and NWOBHM. (To boot, all physical copies of Your Turn To Die are sold out!)

Furst says THE WATCHER is currently set to finish tracking the album this coming month with Sasha Stroud at Artifact Audio in New York City.

With new tracks on the way along with the promise of future live shows, joining the Cruz Del Sur Music roster is the logical next step for THE WATCHER.

“Finding a label that felt right for the band was tricky,” says Furst. “I was fortunate enough to be put in touch with Cruz Del Sur through a mutual friend. Cruz Del Sur stood out to me because of the wide range of bands they release. While everything is squarely within the scope of the metal genre, each band has a distinct and unique quality about them. Above all, all of the folks at Cruz Del Sur seem incredibly passionate about the music they release. To me, that implies a true personal investment in what they do and that is the most important trait a label should have, in my opinion.”

The Watcher is:
Paden Reed – Vocals
Max Furst – Guitars & Bass
Chris Spraker – Drums

https://instagram.com/the.watcher.heavy.metal
https://thewatcherheavymetal.bandcamp.com

cruzdelsurmusic.com
facebook.com/cruzdelsurmusic
cruzdelsurmusic.bandcamp.com

The Watcher, Your Turn to Die EP (2021)

To answer the question you most definitely didn’t ask, yeah, I was kind of thinking of posting this Apostle of Solitude December weekender as an excuse to check in and see what’s going on with the band. Thank you for (not) asking. Also the poster is cool!

As to that, what’s going on with Apostle of Solitude and these three shows is… there are three shows… and the band will play them… with… other bands. And doom! Yes. Doom! Doom will be had.

Those who’ve been waiting for word from the Indianapolis-based doomers about a follow-up to 2021’s Until the Darkness Goes (review here) can just keep waiting. Good doom takes time. Apostle of Solitude, nearly 20 years on since being founded by guitarist/vocalist Chuck Brown and drummer Corey Webb, more than 10 since they brought in Steve Janiak (Devil to Pay) on guitar and vocals, brought in new bassist Marshall Kreeb this summer to replace Mike Naish, so one imagines it’s taken some time to get Kreeb integrated into the band, to learn the songs and their we’re-really-goofballs-and-everyone-knows-it-but-we’re-very-serious-in-pictures presentation while they continue to write for the inevitable next release.

2024 for that? Not impossible if they hit it hard over the winter, but I’d be more inclined to think of them recording in the middle or second half of next year and releasing in 2025. The three years between 2018’s From Gold to Ash (review here) and Until the Darkness Goes was pretty standard, but if it’s another whole year before they get an LP out, just imagine how doomed the world will feel by the time it arrives. Mmm, an unknowable and invariably threatening future. Plus doom. Things to look forward to.

From social media:

AOS upcoming shows:
Thu Dec 7th
at 816 Pint & Slice, Ft Wayne IN
w Feticide & The Holy Nothing

Fri Dec 8th
at Club Garibaldi, Milwaukee, WI
w Carbellion & Lost Tribes of the Moon

Sat Dec 9th
at Burlington Bar, Chicago, IL
w Faces of the Bog, Arriver & Arbogast

Apostle of Solitude:
Chuck Brown – Guitar, vocals
Steve Janiak – Guitar, vocals
Marshall Kreeb – Bass
Corey Webb – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/apostleofsolitude
https://www.instagram.com/apostleofsolitude/
http://apostleofsolitude.com

cruzdelsurmusic.com
facebook.com/cruzdelsurmusic
cruzdelsurmusic.bandcamp.com

Apostle of Solitude, Until the Darkness Goes (2021)

So long, Mike Naish, and thanks for the seven years of holding down low end in Apostle of Solitude. Naish, who has also played in Shroud of Vulture, Astral Mass and others, joined the Indianapolis-based doom metallers in 2016, taking the place of Dan Davidson and making his first appearance on record with 2018’s From Gold to Ash (review here) before also performing on 2021’s Until the Darkness Goes (review here). I’ll count both of those as among the finest releases in US doom of the last five years — if you’ve got a list, they’re probably on it, or if not I’d be genuinely interested to know why; and no, I don’t mean that as a challenge — and as Marshall Kreeb, who used to play bass and keys in Devils of Belgrade while also handling engineering, mixing and mastering duties, steps in to fill the role live, the band also reportedly has new music in progress heading toward presumably their next album.

The follow-up to Until the Darkness Goes — whatever it’s called, however completed it is, and whenever it sees release — will be Apostle of Solitude‘s sixth LP overall, and one assumes that it will see release as well in continued alliance with Cruz del Sur Music because, well, that alliance seems to work well for all parties. I don’t know how much touring they’ll do or where, but they have hints in that regard as well, so a bit of general pot-stirring to go with the lineup shuffle. It happened the other day, actually, that I was thinking it had been a few minutes since the last time the band had an update, and I wouldn’t expect a new LP before 2024, but that’s in like six months and not so terribly long from now. When and if I hear more, I’ll post accordingly. Unless I’m told to keep it secret, which also happens sometimes. Shh…

First show with Kreeb is Sept. 1, so they’ve all got some time to get settled in. As per socials:

Friends, due to family and work constraints and commitments, our friend and brother, Mike Naish has unfortunately had to step away from bass duties in Apostle of Solitude. We wish him all the best.

Stepping in to fill that role, Marshall Kreeb (ex-Devils of Belgrade) will join us for our next show at the Melody Inn on Friday September 1st, with Wolftooth and Firebreather (Sweden): https://facebook.com/events/976523766729749/

We have new music, more tour updates and other surprises in the days to come. Thank you for your support.

https://www.facebook.com/apostleofsolitude
https://www.instagram.com/apostleofsolitude/
http://apostleofsolitude.com

cruzdelsurmusic.com
facebook.com/cruzdelsurmusic
cruzdelsurmusic.bandcamp.com

Apostle of Solitude, Until the Darkness Goes (2021)

Later this year, Los Angeles traditional doom metallers Stygian Crown will release their second LP through Cruz Del Sur Music. In early March, the five-piece traveled to Germany to perform at the vaunted Hell Over Hammaburg Festival alongside Morne, Brutus, Wheel, Sanhedrin and others. Their making the trip comes almost three full years after the June 2020 arrival of their self-titled debut, from which songs like “Devour the Dead” and “Up Through the Depths” are taken, and between the two records is certainly a tumultuous stretch of time. Nonetheless, Stygian Crown‘s doom is resilient, strident, and forceful in its metal-stud-accoutrements homage to Candlemass and Dio-era Sabbath, and conveyed with due presence through the vocals of Melissa Pinion and the riffs of guitarists Andy Hicks and Nelson Miranda and the steady roll/periodic shove — looking at you, “Flametongue” — from bassist Eric Bryan and drummer Rhett Davis (ex-Morgion).

If you heard the album — and I’m sure you did because it’s not like there was anything else going on that spring/summer — you already know it’s a work of stately heavy metal, with Pinion at the fore melodically over fist-pump-worthy progressions like that of closer “Two Coins for the Ferryman.” The keyboard lines in the studio version of that album-finale and the other cuts are absent from the live renditions here, and while Pinion contributed in that regard in the studio, it makes sense watching the video that, as she conquers either side of the stage, or the middle for that matter, she might not necessarily want to be tethered to a keyboard instead. Lose some flourish, gain raw impact. These are the tradeoffs one makes in deciding how to bring material to life, but it does nothing to hold Stygian Crown back, either for “Two Coins for the Ferryman” or anywhere else, and it raises curiosity as to how “Where the Candle Always Burns” and “Scourge of the Seven Hills” might be embellished when the new LP arrives.

I don’t know when that will be, mind you, but there’s a lot of 2023 left and always room for doom. In the interim, the 43-minute video serves well as a bridge leaving behind one full-length and embarking on the next, and I find in watching that I remain a sucker for the ubiquity of concert videos. Especially being a pro-shot, multi-camera, soundboard-audio example of the form, it’s enough to make me feel old remembering a time when such things were the treasures of bootleg hunters rather than something to be dialed up in a matter of seconds. You might find a VHS at somebody’s merch table or in some distro somewhere, or trade through the mail if that was your thing, but even then, you’d be dumb lucky to stumble on something of this kind of quality for a band with only one record out. I could go on, but again, it makes me feel old. Not exclusive in that, these days.

Don’t let me keep you. Doom awaits, and more to come with the next record before the end of the year.

In advance of that, please enjoy:

Stygian Crown, ‘Live From Hell Over Hammaburg 2023’ premiere

Stygian Crown Releases “Live From Hell Over Hammaburg” Video

Los Angeles epic doom band Stygian Crown has released a video of their full set from the March 3-4 festival “Hell Over Hammaburg” in Hamburg, Germany.

“Live from Hell Over Hammaburg” showcases the band’s set from the sold-out festival at the Markthalle Hamburg. The two-day fest also featured artists including Sanhedrin, High Spirits and The Ruins of Beverast.

“There is no substitute for actually being at Hell Over Hammaburg, but we think this is the next best thing,” said singer Melissa Pinion. “We are extremely grateful to the festival promoters for accommodating the Visual Evidence camera crew so we can share this unforgettable experience with the world.”

Stygian Crown’s set:

Devour the Dead
Up From the Depths
Scourge of the Seven Hills
Two Coins for the Ferryman
Where the Candle Always Burns
Flametongue

The set featured four songs from the self-titled debut and two new songs, including the world premiere of “Where the Candle Always Burns,” which is expected to be on the new release, along with “Scourge of the Seven Hills.”

The new album is expected to drop in 2023 through Cruz Del Sur Music.

STYGIAN CROWN:
Melissa Pinion – Vocals, Synth
Nelson Tomas Miranda – Lead Guitar
Eric Bryan – Bass Guitar
Andy Hicks – Lead Guitar
Rhett A. Davis – Drums

Stygian Crown, Stygian Crown (2020)

Stygian Crown on Facebook

Stygian Crown on Instagram

Stygian Crown on YouTube

Stygian Crown on Bandcamp

Stygian Crown linktr.ee

Cruz Del Sur Music on Facebook

Cruz Del Sur Music on Instagram

Cruz del Sur Music website

However you want to take this, I read Mythosphere‘s new lyric video as a reminder to anyone who hasn’t yet checked out their debut album, Pathological (review here), to do so, please and thank you. The offering that brings together guitarist/vocalist Dana Ortt (Pale Divine, ex-Beelzefuzz), bassist Ron “Fezz” McGinnis (Pale Divine, Admiral Browning, so many more), drummer Darin McCloskey (Pale Divine, ex-Beelzefuzz) and Connecticut-based lead guitarist Victor Arduini (Fates Warning, Arduini/Balich, etc.) issued Pathological just last week, and though the modern model of release promotion seems to be ‘months of hype beforehand followed by either nothing or touring, depending on the band,’ it’s encouraging to see an act like Mythosphere — who likely won’t be out on the road for months at a time — find a way to get something out to add to the momentum coming off the release.

I’ve been in something of a bind as regards Pathological, and it’s forced my hand in terms of what I consider a debut full-length this year. Three of these guys play together in Pale Divine, and the lineage from Ortt and McCloskey‘s time in Beelzefuzz is writ large in Mythosphere‘s sound — not a complaint, mind you — even with Arduini adding metallic shred to the mix. Given their prior familiarity with each other, is Pathological still a first album, or some kind of extension of what they’ve done before? A branch or a new tree?

To an embarrassing degree, I’ve been back and forth on this question, and really the only reason it can even pretend to matter is thinking of where to place it in terms of 2022’s best debut albums come list-time next month. Because if it is a debut, it’s most definitely high on the list of the year’s finest. But Mythosphere aren’t the only former-members-of band to release a first record in 2022, and if I count them, it wouldn’t be fair to not also include the work of others born from similar circumstance. Ultimately, I’ve decided to err on the side of inclusion — which I think is a decent policy across the board — and if it’s one more chance for someone to catch on to what Pathological has to offer because they saw it here instead of there in a year-end post, so much the better. What are we doing here otherwise?

These are, sadly, the kinds of things that keep me up at night. In any case, I’m glad to have the excuse to post about Pathological again after the release. You’ll find the full album streaming at the bottom of this post — the band played a release show this past weekend in Frederick, Maryland, in the friendly company of Severed Satellites and High Noon Kahuna — for further digging.

Please enjoy:

Mythosphere, “For No Other Eye” lyric video

U.S. Progressive/Psychedelic Metal quartet MYTHOSPHERE – featuring past and present members of Pale Divine, Beezlefuzz and Fates Warning – have released a lyric video for “For No Other Eye,” a track from debut album Pathological. Check it out at youtu.be/TUL8GZsJlf8

Pathological was released November 18 on CD, vinyl, and digital formats via Cruz Del Sur Music. The album can be streamed in its entirety at:
mythosphere.bandcamp.com/album/pathological

Purchase Pathological:
CD: tinyurl.com/2xwr74c5
LIMITED EDITION GOLD VINYL (LMT 100): tinyurl.com/5aa3zb7c
LIMITED EDITION MARBLED VIOLET VINYL (LMT 200): tinyurl.com/b79n5h9d
REGULAR BLACK VINYL: tinyurl.com/bdcunb9u
BANDCAMP: mythosphere.bandcamp.com/releases

Line-up:
Dana Ortt – Vocals/guitar
Victor Arduini – Guitar
Ron McGinnis – Bass
Darin McCloskey – Drums

Mythosphere, Pathological (2022)

Mythosphere, “Pathological” official video

Mythosphere on Facebook

Mythosphere on Bandcamp

Cruz Del Sur Music on Facebook

Cruz Del Sur Music on Instagram

Cruz del Sur Music website

[Click play above to stream Mythosphere’s Pathological in full. Album is out Nov. 18 on Cruz Del Sur Music with preorders here.]

If Mythosphere‘s Pathological is Maryland doom — and it’s definitely that, at least in part — then it’s among the finest debut albums that venerable scene has produced. But then, of course, the band is new but the players are more familiar. Fronted by guitarist/vocalist Dana Ortt, formerly of Beelzefuzz, then Righteous Bloom, then Beelzefuzz again, then also Pale Divine, the band features drummer Darin McCloskey — who co-founded Pale Divine and has his own pedigree, but made the Beelzefuzz journey as well — bassist Ron “Fezz” McGinnis, known for his work in Admiral Browning, Thonian Horde, Bailjack, and others including also Pale Divine, and guitarist Victor Arduini.

The latter comprises the non-Chesapeake Region contingent of Mythosphere, as he’s based in Connecticut, and has a CV going back to the start of Fates Warning circa 1984, including more recently his work in Entierro and Arduini/Balich, and his solo parts are distinguished in class and the sharp-edged metallic traditionalism of his shred, while the punch he seems to bring to rhythm tracks adds impact to what one might expect from Ortt‘s riffing as well given his prior outfit, which ended up with two guitars by the time they were done too (it was Pale Divine‘s Greg Diener in Beelzefuzz‘s final incarnation, as if another connection was needed to make the point).

So is Mythosphere a new band or a continuation of the same voyage on a different path? It’s not the first time I’ve asked this question this year, and it doesn’t seem impossible that the covid-19 pandemic played a role on some level in the reshuffling, the starting of a new project born out of the old, and so on. Ortt offers a tour de force performance on vocals throughout Pathological‘s eight-track/35-minute run, with his voice soaring and theatrical in a way that is both classic metal and cult rock, controlled in its delivery but able to jump up to a higher note at the end of a word or phrase in a way that is exciting and demonstrates how little is actually out of his reach as a singer.

He and Arduini complement each other surprisingly well in the recording/mix by Noel Mueller at Tiny Castle Studios (also Grimoire Records, which one assumes isn’t releasing Mythosphere because of these players’ prior association with Cruz Del Sur), with differentiation between them that is in songs like “Walk in Darkness” or the earlier single “King’s Call to Arms” the difference between electric and acoustic guitar; the latter which is used to emphasize a folkish strum highlighting the lyrical storytelling, a kind of medievalism in theme that feels born out of the music itself rather than laid on top of it.

The album begins with “Ashen Throne,” and acoustic is immediately a part of the fray along with an electric rhythm track and a lead track over the so-solid-they-should-make-construction-company-style-t-shirts-as-a-rhythm-section — ‘groove you can rely on’ comes to mind as a slogan (a political campaign-style shirt would also work) — efforts of McCloskey/McGinnis, the latter of whom emerges in a final salvo of the three shorter tracks “Star Crossed,” “No Halo” and “Through the Night” with essential tonal punch. A fluid blending of these elements, bolstered by (some of) the players’ prior experience together and further strengthened by the depth of craft in the songwriting.

One does not need to know the output of Beelzefuzz, or Pale Divine, or Entierro, or any of the members’ other various units to understand where Mythosphere are coming from, in part because the approach the new band takes is so individualized. But it doesn’t hurt, either. From “Ashen Throne” through the sleek chugging of “For No Other Eye,” a mellow-heavy roll that leaves plenty of open space for both the lead guitar and the vocal melodies to fill, which they do, and into the more urgent jabs of and solo angularity of the title-track, Pathological is in some ways the record that Beelzefuzz were always working toward but never had the chance to manifest, and thinking of it as the manifestation of more than a decade’s worth of reshuffling and development since that band got their start around 2011, the maturity and the sureness with which Mythosphere offer these songs makes sense.

But it’s not like “King’s Call to Arms” is too inward to bring the listener along as it marches off to who knows what battle, or like the hook of “Star Crossed” won’t resonate its classic metal vibe if you don’t know Arduini‘s prior work and where all that ripping soloing is coming from — Ortt also adds leads, Arduini also plays rhythm tracks; it is not quite as stark a division of duties as you-do-this and you-do-that — but you can hear when that extra layer of a guitar solo enters in “Walk in Darkness” or the amid the NWOBHM gallop in the penultimate “No Halo,” though admittedly in the latter, the lead guitar is more of a constant than something that comes and goes (not a complaint, considering). Mythosphere manage to be their own thing, a project and the beginning of a progression separate from its own past but not entirely ignoring it.

A key difference is in dynamic. The guitar-as-organ tonality that’s a signature of Ortt‘s methods as much as his soaring vocals is present here, as well as the kind of bouncing style of riff in “King’s Call to Arms,” “Walk in Darkness,” etc., but like the acoustic guitar (and it feels like less than the acoustic, but I hope you’ll forgive me if I spare myself plotting out percentages), it is used for flourish more than foundation. A thread of guitar chug — and really, in focusing so much on the guitar, one isn’t trying to detract from what McGinnis and McCloskey do on bass and drums; they hold it down and it’s just never a question; relax they’ll take care of it — shows up as “Ashen Throne” smooths out from its noodlier beginning, and becomes a recurring theme, and even as “Through the Night” rounds out with what feels like a daring and perhaps subliminal nod to ’80s-era Dio, part of what ties it to the rest of Pathological before it, in addition to the acoustics brought back to the forefront of the mix and the fluidity of the groove overall is the capturing of tension in that chug.

Melodically, rhythmically, in its construction and presentation, Mythosphere‘s first full-length — first release of any kind apart from a limited CD sampler that featured some of its tracks sold at Maryland Doom Fest earlier this year — is a triumph of substance and style. It is apart from the current wave of traditionalist metal rising in generational throwback fashion, but relevant to it, and it is of doom without losing the progressive thoughtfulness of its arrangements either of guitar or vocals, or even the level of detail that makes the snare in “Ashen Throne” such a punctuating wake up. One of 2022’s best debuts, if that’s how it’s to be counted, and at the same time it pays off a decade-plus of creative growth for Ortt, it refuses to look anywhere but forward at its own potential to push even further.

Mythosphere, “Pathological” official video

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