Spanning years and creative spaces in kind, Blizaro‘s Strange Doorways is a consuming document of doom that one might be tempted to call “traditional” but for the force and individuality put into its presentation. A 2CD out through Italian imprint I, Voidhanger Records, it encompasses four separate Blizaro releases from 2012 back to the band’s beginnings in 2006 and is from the very first note and really even before that a work of deep, abiding passion. Cover art by Costin Chioreanu adds to the otherworldly bleakness of the extended offering, and laudatory liner notes from John Brenner of Revelation/Against Nature for the accomplishments of Blizaro spearhead John James Gallo — also of Orodruin — set a tone of appreciation that serves as the reasoning for the compilation in the first place. That is, Strange Doorways — which pulls together 2012’s Black Majicians demo, 2009’s The Old Wizard of Winter demo, 2008’s Blue Tape demo and 2006’s Horror Rock demo, two on each disc accompanied by other bonus tracks, three on the first disc and five on the second — is clearly not a piece for the uninitiated. For Blizaro, it’s not where you start. That might be the 2010 full-length, City of the Living Nightmare, but at just a hair under two and a half hours, Strange Doorways is for those who genuinely want to lose themselves within Blizaro‘s doomscape, which back to its origins the better part of a decade ago retains a cinematic mood and sense of synth-fueled drama that distinguishes the band both from Gallo‘s work in Orodruin and from the glut of traditional doom worldwide.

To put names to it, the most constant influences Gallo — who’s joined in Blizaro these days by his Orodruin bandmate Mike Waske on drums and bassist Mark Rapone while he handles guitar, synth, vocals and more than that on some of these recordings — seems to be under are those of Paul Chain, Reverend Bizarre, Goblin and Candlemass. Not bad places to start, and since Strange Doorways begins with the most recent material, we hear Gallo‘s vision at its most cohesive, pulling together a Leif Edling-style chorus on “Voyage Beyond Space” and adjusting his vocal approach accordingly after the cavernous metal of “Slave of Chaos” earlier on or the mournful lead work on the instrumental closer “Projections,” which follows. Synth and organ come more into focus on The Old Wizard of Winter, but the mood and overarching purpose is consistent, even as “White Frijid Mass” eases its way past the seven-minute mark and church organ meets with swirling, windy effects. This release, which Gallo says in his extensive song-by-song liner notes, was originally composed as a holiday gift to his family, but after being pleased with the results, he decided to make it public. It is the most atmospheric stretch of Strange Doorways, and knowing the circumstances of its creation — one night, lots of synth, little guitar — it’s easy to read a touch of the Xmas album in “Sulumucca” or “Shadow Walk,” though any such perceivable whimsy comes tempered with an atmospheric darkness fed into by the surrounding material, the artwork and the rhythms themselves, which retain a mournful, doomly pace. Gallo does not wassail, it would seem.

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If it seems strange that a band with one full-length out would have enough material backlogged for a double-CD compilation, take that strangeness as indicative of the kind of weirdo horror doom Blizaro traffic. The Rochester, NY, trio — which features two-thirds of Orodruin in guitarist/vocalist John James Gallo and drummer Mike Waske, who are joined by bassist Mark Rapone — will mark a decade of existence with Strange Doorways, which is set for “coming soon”-type release through I, Voidhanger Records. News off the PR wire also makes mention of a follow-up to Blizaro‘s 2010 full-length, City of the Living Nightmare, expected in 2014 on Razorback Records.

Blizaro also self-released a long-player in 2012’s Blak Majicians that will be included on Strange Doorways. Here’s the announcement off the PR wire:

Out in October via I, Voidhanger Records: BLIZARO “Strange Doorways” 2-CD Anthology

Known mainly as the founder of superb doomsters ORODRUIN and now-defunct black metallers CRUCIFIST, singer/guitarist John Gallo has many alter egos and exciting musical incarnations, though BLIZARO is certainly the most adventurous and unpredictable of all.

BLIZARO’s songs are like dark portals leading to mysterious and macabre dimensions populated by mutants, ghosts, ghouls, and other unearthly presences. Like the Crypt Keeper from the infamous Tales From The Crypts comics, John Gallo tells us their stories of horror and madness using his own peculiar doom rock language, assisted by the unquestionable talents of Mike Waske (drums) and Mark Rapone (bass).

Musically, the band shortens the distances between the American way of doom and the school of Paul Chain and Black Hole, at the same time combining the so called “dark sound” and the heavy-psych/prog rock styles of the Seventies with the frightening synth-driven soundtracks composed by Goblin and Fabio Frizzi for Italian horror movies like Suspiria and The Beyond.

Next Autumn/Winter BLIZARO are going to release their highly-anticipated sophomore album, “Cornucopia della Morte” on CD, once again under the banner of the excellent horror metal label Razorback Records. A vinyl version shall follow next year on I, Voidhanger Records, but first we will celebrate BLIZARO’s first decade of life by releasing a monumental 2-CD anthology that will offer a complete pan on the band’s doom eccentricities.

Aptly titled “Strange Doorways” and wrapped in the stunning, visionary artwork conceived by Costin Chioreanu, the box-set will feature all the BLIZARO demo recordings: “Horror Rock” (2006), “Blue Tape” (2008, with a cameo from Peter Vicar of Reverend Bizarre fame!), an expanded version of “The Old Wizard Of Winter” (2009), and the amazing “Blak Majicians” album (2012). Plus lots of rare, unreleased and never-heard-before tracks directly from John Gallo’s vaults.

The 2-CD release will come with a luxurious 20-page full-colour booklet featuring extra artwork by Costin Chioreanu (who has drawn new covers for each demo!), rare band photos, plentiful liner notes by John Brenner of REVELATION, and track-by-track commentaries provided by John Gallo himself!

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Blizaro, “Strange Doorways”

Maryland trio Chowder are one band whose pedigree and lineage give you absolutely no context for what they sound like. Some bands, you know what you’re getting just by who they hang out with, but when you consider that guitarist Josh Hart cut his teeth playing in early incarnations of Revelation and Unorthodox — both names of formidable contribution to Maryland’s doom scene — and that he’s currently a member of Earthride, well, that kind of sets you up to think doom, or at very least some derivation thereof. On their long-in-arriving debut full-length, Passion Rift, Chowder defy almost every expectation you could put on them while still also using guitars.

The album, released by I, Voidhanger Records, is entirely instrumental and blindingly varied musically, bouncing hardcore rhythms off wild off-time changes and the kind of progressive technicalities that only true fans of Rush seem to be able to make gospel. There are elements of heavy riffing to be found here and there, but not enough to really ally the band to one genre or another. They never rest that long, and even ambient pieces like “Mazuku” or the opening “Mysterioid” have more to them than they might at first seem to, with Hart adding layers of synth, mellotron and even theremin to the mix of effects and drones.

Comprised of Hart alongside bassist Doug Williams (also cello) and drummer Chad Rush, Chowder began in 1992. It wasn’t until 2006 that the band released a demo through Revelation guitarist/vocalist John Brenner‘s Bland Hand Records, and Passion Rift has been another six years coming beyond that, so when it came time for listening to the album (streaming a couple tracks here), I had plenty of questions about how it was made, when and what were the band’s motivations.

As you can see in the following Six Dumb Questions, Hart had plenty of answers. Please enjoy:

1. Take me through the history of the band. It seems like Chowder was always in the background while other projects were the main focus. How has working with Chad changed over the years? Did you always know you wanted to keep the band instrumental?

Chad and I started writing music together while I was still in Revelation, back in 1992 I guess. A mutual friend thought we might be on the same page and it clicked pretty early. We wrote a few songs around that time but just sort of always considered it a sort of side-project as I was busy playing bass with Revelation and then Unorthodox soon after. In 1994 we managed to get into a studio and record four of the tunes we’d been screwing around with over those couple of years under the name Spectre that I clipped from my favorite Revelation song. Our friend Rich Newberger sang on three of those songs and his brother Steve played bass. It was pretty exciting to hear that stuff recorded because it was so weird for the time period. I don’t think many people we played it for really knew what to make of it then. That lineup kind of fizzled out and Chad and I continued to write a ton of music after I split with Unorthodox. It was one of those periods when you’re just spilling over with ideas, like every time I picked up my guitar I was writing a keeper riff or something. Sadly, we could never flesh out a lineup to play live and just kind of floundered over the years.

Back then I thought we wanted a singer as well and that was really tough because I was super-picky and there weren’t many people around that really fit what I expected. So we just hammered away as a three piece, Chad, myself and Joe Ruthvin on bass who left to form Earthride with [Dave] Sherman and Eric Little. It was always easy to write with Chad though, we both had a somewhat eclectic tastes so nothing was ever really a contention idea-wise. I’d bring something to the table and we’d both get really excited about it and try out best to form it into something unique. I remember laughing our asses off at some weird riff that just seemed so ridiculous but by the time we’d evolved it into a song it felt really, really cool and fresh. That was even before we started to implement synths and other post-rock effects. Chad‘s talent for irrational timing was really exceptional and allowed me to just go with whatever crazy thing came up. As far as being instrumental goes, like I said that wasn’t the plan but I was always into that kind of thing from the early math rock bands like Buzzard and King Sour to the obvious Rush and ‘70s prog tracks where the bands just busted loose for a song or two.

I think the thing that made me say, “Screw it, we don’t even need a singer,” was this Asylum tape I used to just play constantly that was a whole 45-minute side of songs without vocals. That was my favorite thing out of all the Maryland “doom” bands and it was funny because when I started playing with Unorthodox, Dale [Flood] and I used to joke about him not singing anymore and just going that route. By 2006, when John Brenner and I were booking the Doom or be Doomed fest in Baltimore and the idea of Chowder playing was on the table, I was comfortable with the idea of just playing the music and started to write with more self-indulgence and less conventional structure. I felt the addition of all the synths and mellotrons could keep things interesting enough that some kind of vocal wouldn’t be missed. Ultimately, I really don’t have anything to say to these people listening that they haven’t heard 1,000 times before anyway. I know as I get older I get kind of burned out on hearing the screaming guy wailing at me about his inner tumoils and emotions or whatever book he/she just read.

2. When was the material on Passion Rift written? What’s the writing process like?

The album is all over the place. “Mazuku,” “Salt Creep,” “The Innsmouth Look” and “Head Full of Rats” all go back to the ‘90s. The rest of it was written for the album between 2007-2008. I think it’s a good mix and some of our best material. I purposely kept it off the 2007 EP we did with Bland Hand Records to save for a full-length if it ever happened. I’ll usually bring riffs or whole songs to the other guys and we build on it from there. Sometimes I’ll have specific ideas about what the drums or bass do, but mostly it’s very loose and we just sort of design the song together based on a rough outline I’ve come up with. Playing with guys who really know their chops is a huge comfort when coming up with ideas. We developed a kind of language over time to communicate ideas back and forth. Like, “Try one of those sizzle drop, slap runs” and Doug would know what I was referring to. Most of the descriptions aren’t really words though and are just sounds. DUN DUN DUN dee doo DUN dddeeeeiin!!

3. One thing the album seems to do is balance different styles. The songs have a lot from prog, more than a bit of hardcore and some doom in them. When you started putting together the demo in 2006, how clear of an idea did you have of what you wanted to do stylistically? When you’re writing when does something start to take shape as a Chowder song?

I know that no matter what I write that these guys can play it and they’re up for trying it out which is the beauty of this band in my eyes. There’s never been a conversation about what we should sound like or, “is this new song really us?” I know we’re not breaking any new ground here but the idea has always been to just write what sounds good, what feels right. The demo was actually recorded in 1997. John Brenner released it for download on his Bland Hand Records label around 2006. No, it’s never been clear. I’m so heavily influenced and have been by so many different kinds of music and bands that it’s nearly impossible to write within a style on purpose, if that makes any sense. Like if you were to tell me to write a straight doom metal song, I would have trouble. Same goes for anything else, punk, hardcore, rock. Everything seems to channel through some screwy filter and come out all twisted up. If I’m writing, it’s a Chowder song. If I start playing something on the guitar and it sounds like it could be a potential Earthride riff, for example, I usually have to change some element about it to make it fit. Music loses its power when it tries too hard to capture a certain vibe or sound. If you can easily stuff my band into a genre then I’m probably not living up to my full potential as a musician.

4. When in the recording process for Passion Rift were the samples, keyboards, mellotrons, theremin added? How much of that stuff comes from experimenting in the studio and how much is thought out beforehand?

Most of those things were recorded after the basic guitar, bass and drum tracks. There are a few parts in the there that were recorded with me on synth with the bass and drums at the same time though. Any part like that was written and rehearsed long before we booked recording time. The track “Mysterioid” was written almost entirely in studio with only the main synth notes worked out before. It and “Mazuku” were both intended to be production pieces only so we had some room to mess around with them in there. Adding a bunch of different things, getting out of hand with it. Everything else is written. Anything you hear in the other songs was worked out ahead of time at home and at rehearsal. We were very lucky to meet Jim Rezek through our engineer Mike Potter. Jim has the nicest vintage synthesizer and keyboard collection I’ve ever seen and was entirely open to the idea of us coming to his house and recording some tracks on his equipment.

5. What are some of the differences for you between playing guitar in Chowder and playing bass in Earthride? Are there things the two bands have in common, or is it a totally different experience?

Laziness. In Earthride, I’m able to lay back a good bit and stay in the pocket with Eric, which was something I missed while playing all this wacko, technical music for so long. I can just live out my Geezer Butler fantasy while relaxing up there and groove to the massive heaviness. With Chowder something is coming down the pipe at all times. A chord or key change, a solo, something to trigger on the pedals. It requires a shitload of concentration and I’m going to go so far as to say it isn’t much fun. When we’re playing that material live and we nail it, it’s very rewarding but I’m not so sure it’s worth the panic attack I’m about to have about every 30 seconds attempting it. I totally get why bands like Rush and Genesis simmered down on that shit over the years. It wasn’t just for the sake of selling records! And those guys are WAY better at that stuff than we’ll ever be. I gained a hell of a lot more respect for what bands like that accomplish in a live setting trying to be fancy like them. Ultimately, it’s two different experiences, both rewarding though. I have loved playing other people’s music because each one taught me something new that I’ve taken with me and implemented in writing my own songs or how to behave (or not). Joining Earthride was almost a no brainer anyway because I went to high school with those guys. We’ve been friends a long, long time. Hell, Eric and I were in our first band together with Kelly Carmichael from Internal Void back in 1985. So it feels like home. Chowder feels like a draconian P.O.W. camp in Siberia…only less smiling.

6. What’s next for Chowder? Will you guys do shows, and would you be able to recreate all those layers of keys and effects in a live setting?

Well, things are a little weird these days for us. Chad moved to the West Coast a couple years ago and seems to be happy doing what he’s doing out there. I have however started rehearsing and writing some material with Ronnie Kalimon from Asylum/Unorthodox/Internal Void and things are going nicely. Doug has expressed interest so I’m hoping he’ll be available to join us soon and we can start moving forward. I’m not sure what will actually come out of it. My desire would be to play some shows, maybe a fest or two and most importantly record something new. I’d pretty much given up on anything happening at all as it was a true struggle to get this record onto a label and released and then with Chad moving it was looking pretty grim. Anything at all is a bonus. Everything we’ve recorded is done so in a way that it can be reproduced live aside from the obvious production tracks. There are parts on “Passion Rift” and “Custody” where the guitar drops out and I take over on the keyboards which we were also doing live. Anything that plays concurrent with the guitar is done by Doug on the Taurus pedals or triggered by me on Roland PK-5 midi pedals from an E-MU Vintage Keys synth. It’s a nightmare, let me tell you. I look like a fat, dancing idiot up there trying to nail all that stuff at the right times. During our last few shows I would be thinking, “Never again, never again,” but somehow we always ended up there doing it again. Must be the loads of girls that come out to see us.

Chowder on Thee Facebooks

I, Voidhanger Records

In listening to the long-in-the-making Passion Rift debut full-length from Frederick, Maryland, prog/doom instru-metallers Chowder (please note, that’s about as loose a genre designation as you can get), it was exceedingly hard to come up with one song that summarized the rest of the record. So, with the kind permission of guitarist Joshua Hart (also formerly of Unorthodox and Revelation and currently handling bass in Earthride), we’ll stream two.

We begin with “Insidious,” mostly because it appears first on the tracklist, but also because it’s shorter and starts with the sample of Fry from Futurama talking about his all-Rush mixtape. That Rush nod is apt, as Chowder soon embark on a surprisingly technical and intricate progressive instrumentalism. Thickened up with doom’s tonality, Passion Rift nonetheless makes no sacrifice of clarity, as bassist Doug Williams (also electric cello) and drummer Chad Rush join Hart, who also handles 12-string, mellotron, synth and theremin throughout the album.

“Custody” is longer and by its nature more spacious, but still not as far into ambience as Chowder go on tracks like “Mazuku” and “Mysterioid.” Beginning with a sample from what I’m pretty sure is the 1982 Conan: The Barbarian movie, the track gives some idea as to the band’s overall scope, setting prog complexity against hardcore rhythms and still coming across memorably in the process. As widely varied as Passion Rift is, it’s also remarkably cohesive, residing in a similar sphere as fellow Marylanders Admiral Browning, but perhaps even more given to its technical side.

Check out “Insidious” and “Custody” on the player below and please enjoy:

[mp3player width=460 height=170 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=chowder.xml]

Chowder‘s Passion Rift is the follow-up to 2007’s self-titled EP and is available now through I, Voidhanger Records. For more info on the band and to read John Brenner from Revelation/Against Nature‘s bio, check out the label’s artist page. Special thanks to Hart for letting me host these tracks.