The annual Descendants of Crom in Pittsburgh has become a reliable assemblage of heavy, with a lineup diverse in sound woven together by a consistent quality of taste that unites across styles. For evidence of the ongoing nature of this phenomenon, look no further than the first two names on the poster of Descendants of Crom IV — Bongzilla and Ruby the Hatchet. The former, a recongealed stoner-sludge exercise in Midwestern working-class bomber crust, and the latter, a more urbane newschool-via-oldschool heavy rock outfit laced with keys and nigh-on-glam melodicism.

Those differences are stark, but I’ll be damned if both don’t fit well at the top of the bill here, which includes plenty of shouldn’t-be-missed names in the likes of Orodruin, Valley of the Sun, Heavy Temple, Rebreather, Pale Divine, Horehound, Cavern, on and on. I guess I could probably just run down the whole list at that point. It’s a good fest, and more even than last year, you begin to see the sense of curation and the personality of the festival emerge in its blend of styles. It’s not just about more, more, more, in an overwhelming onslaught of bands, but about what each specifically brings to the lineup as a whole. Kudos, as ever, to Shy Kennedy and her crew on a job on its way to being well done.

Here’s the announcement:

DESCENDANTS OF CROM IV – A GATHERING OF THE HEAVY UNDERGROUND

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2nd & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3rd

CATTIVO NIGHTCLUB – ­­­PITTSBURGH, PA, USA

The fourth annual Descendants of Crom will be held this year again in Pittsburgh on both floors of Cattivo Nightclub. The events begin early Friday evening and are followed by a Saturday all-dayer.

The underground scene of heavy rock and metal here is healthy and thriving and we’re feeding great regional bands to a hungry crowd and utilizing legendary, international fan-favorites to entice music fans in the door with the support of our amazing local artists. Descendants of Crom was planted in 2017 as a little black seed and has been growing and strong contender among other established annual music festivals. We aspire to become the premier music event of the Northeast and invite you to become part of the 2020 event. After all, we are all Descendants of Crom!

This year’s DESCENDANTS are:

Bongzilla, Ruby the Hatchet, Black Tusk, Valley of the Sun, Evoken, Orodruin, Rebreather, Horseburner, Heavy Temple, Horehound, Cavern, Pale Divine, Howling Giant, Ironflame, Cruces, God Root, Zom, The Long Hunt, Makeshift Urn, and We, the Creature.

Schedule and tickets will be on sale Friday, March 6th for single-day as well as two-day passes.

We’re looking for sponsors, vendors, and any entity that supports the heavy underground and all things psych, stoner, doom, sludge, and occult to reach out and be a part of our event and community.

Additionally, in anticipation for this year’s Descendants of Crom, there will be a DOC showcase held at Cattivo on Saturday, March 21st featuring bands that have all been part of the Descendants of Crom history. Urns, The Long Hunt, Horehound, Horesburner (WV), and Ironflame. This showcase is a taster of what sort of musicianship and energy that DOC brings to the stages.

Rritual event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/509381869977026/

https://www.facebook.com/DescendantsOfCrom/
www.instagram.com/descendantsofcrom/
https://www.facebook.com/events/437759083832580/
www.descendantsofcrom.com/Tickets.php
http://descendantsofcrom.com

Ruby the Hatchet, Live in Atlanta, GA, Dec. 5, 2019

I don’t have any idea what Shadow Woods IV — the name trimmed down from the original Shadow Woods Metal Fest for reasons that will become clear as you continue to read — would possibly have to gain from any kind of endorsement on my part, official or not, but let me say anyway that if you can’t respect this idea, the fact that they’ve done it four years running, and the obvious blood-borne passion that goes into making each edition an event unlike anything else in the US when it comes to the mix of bands, the locale, the vibe and the very concept from which it’s working, you can basically fuck off. I may not be into every band on this list — it’s a really, really long list — but there are plenty here who would justify a trip to Harpers Ferry in September, and yeah, all this is is something special year after year.

The lineup this time around is completely over the top, as you can see first in the grim-grim-grim poster below, then in the running order for each for Shadow Woods IV‘s three nights, and then, finally, in alphabetical order, because they are thorough and that’s only one more reason to hold Shadow Woods in such high regard.

Behold:

Shadow Woods Productions LLC presents the fourth edition of Shadow Woods Metal Fest, now simply referred to as Shadow Woods IV.

http://www.shadowwoodsmetalfest.com/

What: Shadow Woods IV is a multi-day open air music and camping event in that includes bands from many subgenres of metal, rock, folk, experimental and noise. The fest will host more than 40 bands on two alternating stages with no overlapping sets so attendees can enjoy every set. There will also be delicious food, craft beer, a vendor marketplace with art, jewelry, home decor, music, and rock and metal merchandise.

Where: Our new fest venue is the Harpers Ferry Adventure Center (HFAC) located at 37410 Adventure Center Lane in Purcellville, VA 20132, situated in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains at the confluence of the Shenandoah and the Potomac rivers. HFAC features zip lines, ropes courses, tubing, white water rafting, cabins, campsites and an onsite craft brewery. It is located just a little more than a hour from Washington DC and Baltimore, MD near the intersection of the Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia state lines. Festival attendees receive a discount of HFAC activities as well as on the cost of campground and cabin rental with the Shadow Woods group rate.

https://harpersferryadventurecenter.com/

When: Sept 20-22, 2018. Thursday night features primarily acoustic, folk and ritual noise from 6 p.m. until 11 pm. Friday and Saturday showcases rock and metal bands from noon until 11 pm each day.

How: Tickets are on sale now. A full weekend event pass is $130. Day passes for Thursday are $30; Friday and Saturday passes are $60 each. (Important note: Tent camping and cabin are not included in the tickets. Reservations must be made directly through the HFAC and you must request the Shadow Woods group rate. The venue is requesting that attendees hold off on reserving sites for the time being until a system can be put in place for managing this.)

Why: “It was pretty clear from the positive feedback I received after the 2017 fest that festival goers did not want to see Shadow Woods end, even though our property in Maryland had been sold,” said Mary Spiro, fest founder. So without a venue or a confirmed lineup, I started quietly raising the funds to do a new fest via the contributions of past attendees. In January 2018, I was able to find an fantastic site to host the fest that was even better than what we had before. The lineup came together very quickly and I am extremely proud and excited to present these past favorites and new discoveries.”

Here is lineup by day in roughly the reverse order of playing (so headliner at the top) subject to change of course. Then the lineup is in ABC order at the bottom. Brian Sheehan has done the poster.

At this time in terms of Vendors, you can say expect to see some of the ones seen last year plus many new ones.

Don’t have any food vendors or specific sponsors named yet. Beer is the Harpers Ferry Brewing Company which is part of the venue.

Thursday
Xasthur – doomgrass, folk rock (Los Angeles, CA)
On The Water – strange folk (Philadelphia)
Goblin Hovel – metal folk (NY/PA)
Skulsyr – occult noise (Doylestown, PA)
Jerome Deppe and Miss Elizabeth’s All-Girl Band – folk ballads of the damned (Baltimore, MD)
Bound For The Ground – the devil’s blues supergroup with members of Grave Gnosis, The Owls Are Not What They Seem, and Cultic (GA/FL/PA)
Earendel – acoustic folk duo (Baltimore)

Friday
Tombs – post metal (NYC)
Rozamov – psyche-tinged grueling doom (Boston)
Heavy Temple – Hard Fuzz, Psych and Doom (Philadelphia)
Barishi – Gritty Progressive Metal (Brattleboro, VT)
Aether Realm – Viking folk metal (Greenville, NC)
Destroyer of Light – doom and roll (Austin, TX)
Electropathic – doom hard rock with members from several foundational Maryland doom groups (Wheaton, MD)
Husbandry – Fugazi meets Aaliyah (NYC)
God Root – ritualistic sludge (Philadelphia)
Dysfigure – modern heavy metal (Martinsburg, WV)
Windfaerer – extreme aural entity (New Jersey)
Witch Hazel – occult rock and roll/doom (York, PA)
Forest of Legend – doom/stoner/sludge (Virginia Beach, VA)
Hepatagua – sludge/doom/thrash (Boston)
Flummox – nongenre specific doomy metal (Murfreesboro, TN)
Ferus Din – black metal and flutes (Buffalo, NY)
Haze Mage – stoner metal (Baltimore)
Malphas – progressive blackened melodeath (Philadelphia)

Saturday
Uada – black metal (Portland, OR)
Cloak – black and roll (Atlanta, GA)
Panzerfaust – black metal (Toronto, ON)
Voarm – black metal (Richmond, VA)
Imperial Triumphant – black metal (NYC)
Athame – black metal (MD/WV)
Hubris – black metal (Buffalo, NY)
Enthauptung – atmospheric black metal (Rochester, NY)
A Sound of Thunder – traditional/NWOBHM heavy metal (DC/VA)
Bound By The Grave – death metal (Baltimore)
Destroying Angel – dark folk rock (Philadelphia)
All Hell – black and roll (Asheville, NC)
Black Mass – death thrash (Boston)
Hexxus – sludge metal (Birmingham, AL)
Replicant – death metal (NJ)
Tyrannis – death metal (Radford, VA)
Sluagh – progressive metal (Martinsburg, WV)
Sickdeer – death metal (DC)

Alphabetical
Aether Realm
All Hell
A Sound of Thunder
Athame
Barishi
Black Mass
Bound By The Grave
Bound For The Ground
Cloak
Jerome Deppe and Miss Elizabeth’s All-Girl Band
Destroyer of Light
Destroying Angel
Dysfigure
Earendel
Electropathic
Enthauptung
Ferus Din
Flummox
Forest of Legend
Goblin Hovel
God Root
Haze Mage
Heavy Temple
Hepatagua
Hexxus
Hubris
Husbandry
Imperial Triumphant
Malphas
On The Water
Panzerfaust
Replicant
Rozamov
Sickdeer
Skulsyr
Sluagh
Tombs
Tyrannis
Uada
Voarm
Windfaerer
Witch Hazel
Xasthur

http://www.shadowwoodsmetalfest.com/
https://www.facebook.com/shadowwoodsmetalfest/
https://twitter.com/ShadowWoodsMF
https://harpersferryadventurecenter.com/

Shadow Woods Metal Fest 2018 playlist

There is a teaser clip below that you can watch for the forthcoming July 11 release, Salt and Rot, from Philadelphia post-sludge five-piece God Root, but truth be told, it’s a pretty light tease. Like you’re about halfway through the 55 seconds before it really starts to make noise and even then you don’t get much more than ambience. Entirely possible the dudes drone out across the whole record and that’s just how it goes, but somehow I’ve got my doubts after how it went down on their self-titled EP (discussed here) last year. Not to say they aren’t atmospheric, just that at some point they’re probably going to punch you in the face with volume.

However much of it they’re letting you hear beforehand, the album will be out digitally through an alliance with Horror Pain Gore Death, and the band have a limited number of self-made CDs to offer as well. Audio may be sparse, but there’s much info below, including preorder links and tour dates with Sunrot for August, all from the PR wire:

Philly sludge shamans GOD ROOT announce new album!

Philadelphia avant-garde sludge shamans GOD ROOT announce their second offering, Salt And Rot, due July 11th. Salt And Rot will be released digitally with Horror Pain Gore Death Productions and limited, hand screen-printed compact discs will be available through the band.

“We hope this record helps people escape”, bassist/vocalist Ross Bradley explains about the creation of Salt And Rot. “That’s what we wrote it for and we paid a lot of attention to how it moves from track to track and what kind of journey it takes a listener on. Thematically the record deals with the frailty of human life and of ego and the dogmas we’ve tried to build for ourselves. It’s about facing one’s mortality and letting go of what you can’t control, destroying those oppressive forces trying to control and manipulate you and becoming self-reliant outside of these systems”.

Recorded throughout 2017 with Neil Cote and Richard Bukowski at Groundwork Sound in Somerville, NJ, GOD ROOT spared no expense to create their own brand of primitive and tribalistic sludge, and the doomed cinematic soundscapes found on Salt and Rot. GOD ROOT also welcomed friends and family into the studio to participate in their “Let Go” project. “We put a call out to our friends and family to contribute something they wanted to “Let go” of. We recorded their voices/read their writings. Some of these were personal stories and some were phrases or names that meant something to them. We processed them into our track “From Hounds to Silent Skies” in a way that maintains their respective privacy. It was really harrowing and humbling to have these people we love be as vulnerable and open and honest as they were” Bradley explains.

GOD ROOT will team up with New Jersey power sludge band SUNROT to embark on a tour in support of Salt And Rot, which begins on August 3rd in Brooklyn, NY. The tour will take them extensively throughout the east coast and midwest and then return to them Philadelphia, PA on August 19th.

Pre-order for Salt And Rot is available now.

ALBUM DETAILS
Release date: July 11, 2017
Album title: Salt and Rot
Format: Compact disc, digital
Label: Compact disc self-released, digital through Horror Pain Gore Death Productions

Track Listing:
1. Reclamation
2. From Hounds to Silent Skies
3. The Peak is Our Threshold
4. Conscious Disease

Recording and mixing: Neil Cote and Richard Bukowski at Groundwork Sound in Somerville, NJ
Mastering: Mike Cervantes at The Foxboro
Artwork: Illustration and layouts by Fred Grabosky at FTG Illustrations, additional art provided by Mary-Rose Runk
Promotional Photographs: Colour burst and live photos by Dante Torrieri of Useless Rebel Imaging, all others by Raechel Welch at Raechel Welch Photography
Promotional Video by: God Root

PRE-ORDER
Physical Pre-order: https://godroot.bandcamp.com
Digital Pre-order: https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/salt-and-rot

GOD ROOT
Fred Grabosky- Drums/Vocals
Ross Bradley- Bass/Vocals
Joe Hughes- Guitar/Vocals
Keith Riecke- Guitar
Jordan Stiff- Guitar/Electronics

GOD ROOT live dates:
8/03 Brooklyn, NY
8/04 Providence, RI
8/05 Kingston, NY
8/06 Syracuse, NY
8/07 Ithaca, NY
8/08 Rochester, NY
8/09 Buffalo, NY
8/10 Cleveland, OH
8/11 Detroit, MI
8/12 Kalamazoo, MI
8/13 Milwaukee, WI
8/14 Chicago, IL
8/15 Indianapolis, IN
8/16 Lexington, KY
8/17 Pittsburgh, PA
8/18 Washington, DC
8/19 Philadelphia, PA
All dates with SUNROT

https://godroot.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/godrootband
https://www.instagram.com/godrootband

God Root, Salt and Rot teaser video

Bursting out of the gate with a self-titled four-track EP that seems ripe for vinyl issue, Philadelphia’s God Root plunder with atmospheric metal sensibilities and an overarching sense of doing a lot with a little. To wit, dig deep enough into the 12-minute “Of Habit” and you’ll find Ufomammut churn as a claustrophobic antagonist to earlier minimalism, a contrast that seems simple enough but works greatly to establish a breadth upon which the five-piece only continue to build. Both longer cuts — “Of Habit” and the 10-minute closer “Of Control” — come with a drone/noise complement, and that only furthers the atmospheric crux of the release, which doesn’t exactly prove subtle in getting the point across that God Root know what they’re doing and where they want to be in terms of their sound.

The band features former Sadgiqacea drummer Fred Grabosky and this self-titled demo/EP was recorded by Crypt Sermon bassist Will Mellor. Much more info, as well as audio, follows here:

God Root (Self Titled) E.P. – 2016

After his previous pursuits in SADGIQACEA (with Evan Void of Tombs, Hivelords, Ominous Black) were put on hold, drummer/vocalist Fred Grabosky started recruiting musicians for a new project. This time with more leanings toward groove ridden and a tribal tinged doom/sludge with chant like vocals. The band started taking form in early 2015 with Ross Bradley on Bass/vocals, Gabe Howe on lead guitar and Jim Offer on rhythm guitar.

After a significant amount of line up changes and trials, a full, permanent line up was formed and by July 2015, God Root was truly born. The new members consisted of: Joe Hughes (lead guitar/vocals), Jordan Stiff (Noise/Soundscapes), Keith Riecke (Rhythm Guitar), and Ross Bradley remained on bass/vocals, with Fred on drums/vocals.

Though shows have been few and far between thus far, God Root has had the pleasure of playing their second show on record, with the mighty BONGZILLA as direct support at Kung Fu Necktie in Philadelphia back in October 23, 2015. They played along with Wizard Rifle(NY) and Amplified Heat presented by Flash Mob Productions -Sold Out-.

Their first show, promoted by Riff Lifter Touring (Evan Madden of Drones For Queens, Population Zero, ex Woods of Ypres etc) was a great success on a Monday night, pulling 60+ people. They shared the stage with touring band Drouth (PDX) and Sunrot (NJ) Astroseer (PA) on August 31st, 2015. Friday February 5th 2016 They will be playing with So Hideous and Inaeona (Prosthetic), one more TBA at Shred Shed in Philadelphia.

They have since recorded their first Self titled E.P. clocking in just under 28 minutes.

Artwork by Fred Grabosky of FTG Illustrations (www.ftgillustrations.com).

God Root, God Root tracklisting:
1. Intro (Spirits Rise) 02:28
2. Of Habit 12:32
3. Interlude (Bog Ascending) 02:48
4. Of Control 10:04

Upcoming shows for GOD ROOT:
February 5th at Shred Shed w/ Inaeona, Coastal Plain
March 9th w/???? and ????? at ????? – surprise BIG SHOW!
April 9th at Shred Shed w/ Abacus, Supine

https://www.facebook.com/godrootband/
https://godroot.bandcamp.com/
www.ftgillustrations.com

God Root, God Root (2016)