Anyone who heard Massachusetts stoner-doom trio Faces of Bayon‘s debut CD, Heart of the Fire, would likely be glad to tell you the band has a penchant for the epic. Well, the interview I did with guitarist/vocalist Matt Smith, who also did a stretch in landmark New England outfit Warhorse, follows suit. Smith — joined in Faces of Bayon by bassist Ron Miles and drummer Mike Brown — was more than eager to open up on a range of topics surrounding the band.

And to be fair, there’s a lot to talk about. Not only is Heart of the Fire among 2011’s most fascinating and diverse doom releases — balancing punishingly heavy riffs and a darkened psychedelic feel against a narrative documenting the fall of Lucifer — but the circumstances under which it was realized would have been the undoing of many bands. The three-piece’s original drummer, Matt Davis, died in January of this year, leaving Smith and Miles with the difficult choice of pressing on or quitting altogether.

I don’t feel like I need a spoiler alert before I say they kept the band going. Faces of Bayon regrouped with Brown on drums and pushed forward with the release of Heart of the Fire. The album now stands as a tribute to Davis, who both played on and recorded it. Though he didn’t live to see it, Smith credits him for it existing and being released at all.

In the conversation that follows, Smith recounts the devastation the band felt at the loss of Davis and the support of the local community around them that made them keep going, the delays in releasing Heart of the Fire, being the only doom band on the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival this year, what inspired him to adopt the Luciferian concept and how that story — it’s pretty famous, you’ve probably heard it — relates to his own experience of going through a divorce.

The complete 6,000-word Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

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…Because they’re boozehounds. At least, that seems to be the central message of the song “Boozehound,” for which you’ll find the Massachusetts outfit’s video below. The Fitchburg four/fivesome pull off some pretty burly sounds on their self-released second album, Colossus. It’s a little produced, but groovy stuff nonetheless, and it has more than a touch of that classic “we all used to be in New England hardcore bands” feel.

Here’s “Boozehound”:

And just for the hell of it, here’s Colossus in its entirety, courtesy of Birch Hill Dam‘s Bandcamp page:

Proffering doomed desolation with just an edge of riff worship and plenty of tonal brutality, Massachusetts trio Faces of Bayon leave a huge impression with their debut full-length, Heart of the Fire (Ragnarok Records). The Fitchburg outfit formed in 2008, recorded all of Heart of the Fire live in the studio and dedicate the finished product in memory of drummer Matt Davis, who died suddenly in January 2011. Mike Brown has since come aboard to handle drums, but on Heart of the Fire, it’s the band’s original three-piece, with Davis and bassist Ron Miles (Scattered Remnants) led by guitarist/vocalist Matt Smith, who did a stint in now-fabled outfit Warhorse prior to their 2001 As Heaven Turns to Ash LP. Smith’s vocals characterize a lot of Heart of the Fire and situate Faces of Bayon in a ‘90s death/doom vein, a cut like second track “Ethereality” bringing to mind a punchier version of early Paradise Lost or maybe even My Dying Bride without the violins or the drama. His growl – an exclusive approach across Heart of the Fire but for the quiet atmospheric piece “Godmaker” – is throaty, gruff and mostly saturated in echoing reverb, setting a kind of misanthropic atmosphere to the songs, which deal lyrically in part with the fall of Lucifer. However, Faces of Bayon are – most of all – ridiculously, floor-shakingly, chest-rattlingly heavy. From Miles’ ultra-low bass that kicks in 12-minute opener “Brimstoned” from under Smith’s feedback, to the righteously riff-led groove of “The Original Sin,” the three-piece taps into a weight of tone few ever attain, and manage to carry it through Heart of the Fire sounding clear, confident and in complete control.

Heads who recognize the name Warhorse or who dug the wretched atmospheres once affected by Winter will take demented pleasure in most of Heart of the Fire and the balance Faces of Bayon strike between their heavy influences. “Brimstoned” never loses sight of the nastiness of tone with which it begins, Miles and Davis following Smith’s riff as it leads them lower into some unknowable abyss, but at the same time, underneath that thickened and deathly distortion, there’s a current of groove running that’s both purely American in its style (distinguishing Faces of Bayon from the European end of the genre as typified by the Paradise Lost comparison above) and what manages to most hook the listener. Even as the song breaks into a quiet passage with whispered growls and quieter guitar lines – it’s a setup, they get heavy again soon enough – that groove is maintained, and it’s at the core of a lot of the success of Heart of the Fire. Perhaps the most memorable track on the album if only for its repeated usage of the line “Cry me a river,” second cut “Ethereality” finds Smith pushing his vocals down even further, while also having them show up higher in the mix – hazards of recording live – and though it seems at times like he’s straining to sustain the growl, it doesn’t at all upset the ambience of the song, which is viciously depressive and pained anyway. Again here Faces of Bayon make a firm statement about their willingness to push low-end heaviness to the forefront. A drawn out guitar solo toward the end of the song is like a hand come up from quicksand, but it too is ultimately sucked down into a morass of  feedback and cymbal crashes.

If there’s relief to be found anywhere in the album’s first half, it’s on “Godmaker,” which despite being consistent in terms of mood, is a quiet, somewhat psychedelic tale of Luciferian abandonment scored by soft guitar lines and far-away drumming from Davis. It is Smith’s only clean vocal performance on Heart of the Fire, and though he remains effects-laden, he does a decent job through his several verses. Important to note that even when the lyrics are concerned with these themes, Faces of Bayon don’t put on airs about worshiping the devil or anything like that. “Godmaker” and Heart of the Fire as a whole are concerned more in telling an all-too-human story of disappointment. These songs are emotionally-wrought, not dogmatically blasphemous (unless you consider giving fallen angels an emotional response to be blasphemy). As “Godmaker” leads into the epic 13:33 “The Original Sin,” Faces of Bayon slam back into the heavier side of their sound, but base the song around a more stoner metal progression than any of the earlier tracks. Of all the material on Heart of the Fire, “The Original Sin” feels the most riff-based. Smith goes back to growling, but taken out of its context, his guitar line could have been subject to almost any vocal treatment and have worked. The tempo is still slow, but faster than “Brimstoned,” and consistent until about the last four minutes, when Davis cuts the drums out and an excruciating rash of feedback and noise ensues.

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