Mama Doom Premiere “Man Parts” Video; Blood Salt Sacrifice LP Coming Soon

Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 19th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Mama Doom

NSFW, obviously.

It’s not dismemberment, it’s memberment! Newburgh, New York, sans-guitar atmospheric doom rockers Mama Doom will release their new album, Blood Salt Sacrifice, through Interstellar Smoke Records in the coming months. You might recall their 2021 debut, Ash Bone Skin & Stone (discussed here), was released through Majestic Mountain Records, and the band has been around in various incarnations, haunting the two-lane-highway woods of Orange County for well over a decade. I don’t have a release date yet on the new album, but they sure have a single ready to go.

The video premiering below for “Man Parts” is sub-two-and-a-half-minutes of pure horror kitsch. A gory short film in which the three-piece — vocalist D.Lolli, bassist Chuckie Rumbles and drummer Anne Terror — piece together Rumbles à la Mary Shelly. It’s a fun twist on the classic, and the song is a quick sample from Blood Salt Sacrifice that bodes well in its melody, atmosphere and hook. It looks like it was probably a good time to put together, and I’m not sure if James Cromwell (Star Trek‘s own Zefram Cochrane) actually saw it, but according to the below it did feature at a film fest that he hosted. Also fun.

As regards the record, it’s not the most substantial sampling; a short video and shorter song. But it’s an early glimpse, a guts-on-the-table teaser. More info on Blood Salt Sacrifice when I get it, for now, enjoy the clip responsibly and expect more heavy, languid groove to come.

Dig:

Mama Doom, “Man Parts” video premiere

Interstellar Smoke Label will be putting out our third album “Blood Salt Sacrifice”, preorder information coming soon.

Gratuitous Productions created a fun-filled bloody Frankenstein-esque video, Man Parts serving as our first single. Gratuitous Productions is a production company run by Anne Terror and Grave Dave. The video for Man Parts was showcased at the Hudson Valley Film Festival hosted by James Cromwell.

https://linktr.ee/gratuitousproductions

It started with a little light and was burning and burning. Mama Doom was summoned from the fire like a phoenix resurrecting itself yet keeping its old bones. Mutating into three because there is power and strength in the number 3. We’ve kept things simple yet complex with only the booming presence of bass guitar, haunting keyboards, and complex drumming. Vocally we take you on a journey of dark humor with an undertone of satanic references. Hailing from Newburgh NY, Mama Doom has been together since 2016 and finally discovered the perfect combination of sounds.

Track listing:
1. Love ‘n Dead
2. Ring the Bell
3. Devil in the Sky
4. Lovely Home
5. Bleeding Garden
6. Bury Your Bones
7. Man Parts
8. Nosferatu (Witches Worm)
9. Burned into Nothing

Band Members:
D.Lolli – Vocals
Chuckie Rumbles – Bass
Anne Terror – Drums

Mama Doom on Facebook

Mama Doom on Instagram

Mama Doom on Bandcamp

Mama Doom Linktr.ee

Mama Doom website

Interstellar Smoke Records webstore

Interstellar Smoke Records on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records on Instagram

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Mama Doom Premiere “Oh, Lucifer” Video; Ash Bone Skin ‘n’ Stone out July 23

Posted in Bootleg Theater on May 26th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

mama doom

The hook line of Mama Doom‘s new single is, ‘I’m having a black mass and nobody came.’ Consider me hooked. I certainly know that every black mass/soirée/childhood-birthday-party I’ve ever thrown has gone unattended, by Satan or otherwise, so yeah, I can relate to “Oh, Lucifer” for sure. The Newburgh, New York-based three-piece caught my eye earlier this year when they were announces as the first US band to sign with Majestic Mountain Records, and “Oh, Lucifer” is the catchy preface to their upcoming album, Ash Bone Skin ‘n’ Stone, which the same label will release on July 23. Preorders — if you’re the type who likes to get a jump on such things — are available now.

I’m almost universally a sucker for charm, and “Oh, Lucifer” has that working in its favor to be sure, but its cultish aspects — and being a sendup of same still counts, if that’s what’s playing out across the LP; mama doom ash bone skin n stonehaven’t heard it, don’t know — still mark a turn from the more straightforward blues rocking aspects of the prior 2018 offering, From Blue to Bone. I’d have called it an EP. The PR wire calls it their debut album. Take your pick. In any case, the trio of keyboardist/vocalist D.Lolli, bassist Chuckie Rumbles and drummer Smak have been rolling for well over half a decade, and “Oh, Lucifer” would seem not to be their first foray into a darker thematic, but it’s telling that it’s also the first thing they’re putting out from the full-length to come. And as to what’s taken so long to put out a record? Shut up. Good food takes time.

As one might expect/hope, the video is a wild time, with witchy this-and-that, some stuff filmed out in the woods, and the devil showing up to make it right. You get the sense that, despite the apparent cold discussed below, they had a good time making it, and as I can’t help but say the title of the song in sitcom-mom voice — “oh, Lucifer!” followed immediately in my head by canned laughter on WPIX from a black and white box tv set — that would seem to be in the spirit of things.

More to come on the record, but for now, enjoy:

Mama Doom, “Oh, Lucifer” official video premiere

Mama Doom on “Oh, Lucifer”:

“‘Oh Lucifer’ is a love song between a woman and Lucifer. Lucifer represent one’s power to believe in themselves and not worry about what everyone else thinks or expects of them. Go against the grain and love yourself. The video concept was all from the minds of Anne and Dave from Gratuitous Productions. They wanted to create a short film about a girl summoning Lucifer who was followed by a deranged man with prejudice due to her beliefs. He torments her until something unusual happens; he mysteriously falls to his death. Lucifer arrives to save the day of course! We had two full days of shooting. Day 1 was at our rehearsal spot and Day 2 was outside in the woods above a cemetery.

“COVID didn’t really stop us filming but the snow did as we had to wait over a month to film the outside stuff because everything was covered. Once the snow eventually melted, we were set but it was freezing! Gratuitous Productions said there was so much great footage to choose from and some comical stuff. We are hoping a blooper reel eventually shows up. We will be working with them in the future since they not only did an amazing job with this video but because they have more ideas on other tracks from the album. Interestingly too, there will be a lunar eclipse on Wednesday (Blood Moon), so it really is a perfect day for the video release!”

Majestic Mountain Records – Sweden’s leading proponents of hard-hitting psych, rock and heavy metal – is thrilled to announce the release of Ash Bone Skin N Stone; the sophomore album by haunting hard-rockers, Mama Doom.

Formed in Newburgh, New York in 2016, last year the trio become the first US band signed to the Swedish, joining the ever-growing ranks of impressive acts like Grand Cadaver, Saint Karloff, and Electric Hydra.

With the release of their exceptional 2018 debut, From Blue to Bone, Mama Doom traded guitars in for keyboards and ethereal vocals, and by so drove deep grooves into the dominion below. Forming a perfect union with crushing bass and drums, their sound is at once familiar to fans of doom, but at the same time offers a strangely unfamiliar and unique tone, given its impressive component parts.

Traversing a spectrum that spans traditional blues, heavy doom, and ego-death metal and fronted by the supremely gifted High Priestess, D. Lolli, make no mistake that Mama Doom are a serious force to be reckoned with.

Ash Bone Skin N Stone will be released on Friday 23rd July 2021 and can be pre-ordered here – https://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com/product/mama-doom

Track Listing
1. Batshit Crazy
2. Vodka
3. Blood Moon
4. Indigo
5. Oh, Lucifer
6. Werewolf
7. Slither
8. Cherry

Mama Doom is:
D.Lolli – Vocals & Keys
Chuckie Rumbles – Bass
Smak – Drums

Mama Doom on Facebook

Mama Doom on Instagram

Mama Doom on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records webstore

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

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Mama Doom Are First US Band Signed to Majestic Mountain Records

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 4th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Years from now, when you’re out at the bar doing underground heavy trivia as relates to the early 2020s, you’ll know that the first American band who signed to Majestic Mountain Records was, in fact, Mama Doom from Newburgh, New York. The trio released a heavy, bluesy, East Coast attitude-y album called From Blue to Bone in the grand before-time of 2018 and according to the PR wire below they’ll have a follow-up sometime later this year. They join a bevvy of cool European acts on the imprint and bring of course something of their own to the lineup as well. With the first record being out for going on three years at this point, one has to wonder if there was some new recording that tipped the label in their favor or if it was simply on the strength of the debut alone. Either way they’re a cool find.

That first album is streaming below. Here’s word from the PR wire:

mama doom

New York’s Rising Occult Rockers MAMA DOOM Sign to MAJESTIC MOUNTAIN RECORDS

The haunting hard-rock trio become the first US band signed to the Swedish label

Majestic Mountain Records – Sweden’s leading proponents of hard-hitting underground psych, rock and heavy metal – is thrilled to announce the signing of Mama Doom for the release of their new album.

Formed in Newburgh, New York in 2016, the trio join the ever-growing ranks of impressive MMR acts like Grand Cadaver, Saint Karloff and Electric Hydra and will soon release the long-awaited follow-up to their exceptional 2018 debut, From Blue to Bone (listen below).

“The moment we heard the new album we just knew we had to sign them to MMR,” explains Marco Berg. “They occupy a place on a spectrum that spans traditional blues, heavy doom and ego-death metal, and with High Priestess D. Lolli at the helm they are a serious force to be reckoned with.”

In lieu of guitars; keys and ethereal vocals drive the grooves deep into the earth in perfect union with crushing bass and drums. It’s a sound at once familiar to fans already accustomed to the doom genre, but at the same time it takes on a strangely unfamiliar tone given its unique assembly of component parts.

“We are so incredibly excited to be part of the Majestic Mountain family,” Lolli explains. “This label attracted us from the start due to the diversity and quality of bands on its roster and it’s a great honour to be the first US band signed to Majestic Mountain.”

Mama Doom’s as-yet-untitled new album will be released later this year.

Mama Doom are:
D.Lolli-vocals & keys
Chuckie Rumbles-bass
Smak-drums & vocals

https://mama-doom.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/MamaDoommusic
https://www.instagram.com/mamadoomband
http://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com
http://facebook.com/majesticmountainrecords
http://instagram.com/majesticmountainrecords

Mama Doom, From Blue to Bone (2018)

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Quarterly Review: Sandrider, Witchkiss, Satta Caveira, Apollo80, The Great Unwilling, Grusom, Träden, Orthodox, Disrule, Ozymandias

Posted in Reviews on December 5th, 2018 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review

Good morning from the kitchen table. It’s a couple minutes before 4AM as I get this post started. I’ve got my coffee, my iced tea in the same cup I’ve been using for the last three days, and I’m ready to roll through the next 10 records in this massive, frankly silly, Quarterly Review. Yesterday went well enough and I’m three days into the total 10 and I don’t feel like my head is going to explode, so I’ll just say so far so good.

As ever, there’s a lot to get through, so I won’t delay. I hope you find something here you dig. I certainly have.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Sandrider, Armada

sandrider armada

Armada is the third full-length from Seattle noiseblasters Sandrider, and at this point I’m starting to wonder what it’s going to take for this band to get their due. Produced by Matt Bayles and released through Good to Die Records, the album is an absolute monster front to back. Scathing. Beastly. And yet the songs have character. It’s the trio’s first outing since 2015’s split with Kinski (review here) and follows 2013’s Godhead (review here) and 2011’s self-titled debut (review here) in melding the band’s West Coast noise superiority with a sense of melody and depth as the trio of guitarist/vocalist Jon Weisnewski, bassist/vocalist Jesse Roberts, and omegadrummer Nat Damm course and wind their way through intense but varied material. “Banger” has been tapped for its grunge influence. Eh. Maybe in the riff, but who cares when there’s so much more going on with it? “Brambles” is out and out brutal but still has a hook, and cuts like “Industry” and the closing “Dogwater” remind of just how skilled Sandrider are at making that brutality fun. If the record was six minutes long and just had “Hollowed” on it, you’d still call it a win.

Sandrider on Thee Facebooks

Good to Die Records website

 

Witchkiss, The Austere Curtains of Our Eyes

witchkiss the austere curtains of our eyes

Goodness gracious. Cavernous echo accompanies the roars of guitarist Scott Prater that are offset by the more subdued melodies of drummer Amber Burns, but even in the most spacious reaches of 11-minute second cut “Blind Faith,” Witchkiss are fucking massive-sounding. Their debut album, The Austere Curtains of Our Eyes, presents an especially crushing take on ritualistic volume, sounding its catharsis in a song like “Spirits of the Dirt” and sounding natural as it trades between a rolling assault and the atmospheres of its quieter moments. With the departure since the recording of bassist Anthony DiBlasi, the New York-based outfit will invariably shift in dynamic somewhat coming out of this record, but with such an obvious clarity of mission, I honestly doubt their core approach will change all that much. A band doesn’t make a record like this without direct intention. They may evolve, and one hopes they do just because one always hopes for that, but this isn’t a band feeling their way through their first record. This is a band who know exactly the kind of ferocity they want to conjure, and who conjure it without regret.

Witchkiss on Thee Facebooks

Witchkiss on Bandcamp

 

Satta Caveira, MMI

Satta Caveira MMI

Argentinian instrumentalist trio Satta Caveira make a point of saying they recorded MMI, their second or third album depending on what you count, live in their home studio without edits or overdubs, click tracks or anything else. Clearly the intention then is to capture the raw spirit of the material as it’s happening. The eight songs that make up the unmanageable 62-minute listen of MMI — to be fair, 14 of those minutes are opener “Kundalini” and 23 are the sludge-into-jam-into-sludge riffer “T.H.C.” — are accordingly raw, but that in itself becomes a component of their aesthetic. Whether it’s the volume swell that seems to consume “Don Santos” in its second half, the funk of closer “Afrovoid” or the drift in “Kalifornia,” Satta Caveira manage to hone a sense of range amid all the naturalism, and with the gritty and more aggressive riffing of the title-track and the rush of the penultimate “Router,” their sound might actually work with a more elaborate production, but they’ve got a thing, it works well, and I’m not inclined to argue.

Satta Caveira on Thee Facebooks

Satta Caveira on Bandcamp

 

Apollo80, Lizard! Lizard! Lizard!

apollo 80 lizard lizard lizard

Vocalized only by spoken samples of astronauts, the thrice-exclamatory Lizard! Lizard! Lizard! is the debut EP from Perth, Australia, three-piece Apollo80, who are given mostly to exploring an outpouring of heavy molten vibes but still able to hone a bit of cacophony following the “godspeed, John Glenn” sample in second cut “FFH.” There are four songs on the 26-minute offering, and its spaciousness is brought to earth somewhat by the dirt in which the guitar and bass tones are caked, but it’s more the red dust of Mars than anything one might find kicking around a Terran desert. Unsurprisingly, the high point of the outing is the 10:46 title-track, where guitarist Luke, bassist Brano and drummer Shane push farthest into the cosmos — though that’s debatable with the interstellar drone of closer “Good Night” — but even in the impact of “Apollo” at the outset, there’s a feeling of low-oxygen in the atmosphere, and if you get lightheaded, that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be.

Apollo80 on Thee Facebooks

Apollo80 on Bandcamp

 

The Great Unwilling, EP

the great unwilling ep

The prevailing influence throughout the untitled debut EP from Minnesota’s The Great Unwilling is Queens of the Stone Age, but listening to the layer of wah intertwine with the solo on “Sanguine,” there’s more to their approach than just that, however dreamy the vocal melodies from guitarist Jesse Hoheisel might be. Hoheisel, bassist Joe Ulvi and Mark Messina present a clean four tracks and 20 minutes on their first outing, and for having been together for about 18 months, their songwriting seems to have a firm grasp on what they want to do. “If 3 was 7” rolls along at a heavy clip into an effectively drifting midsection and second half jam before returning to the initial riff, while “Current” leads off with a particularly Hommeian construction, and soon gives way to the flowing pace and apparent lyrical references of the aforementioned “Sanguine.” They finish with the dirtier tonality of “Apostasy” and cap with no more pretense than they started, bringing the short release to a close with a chorus that seems to finish with more to say. No doubt they’ll get there.

The Great Unwilling on Thee Facebooks

The Great Unwilling on Bandcamp

 

Grusom, II

grusom ii

A prominent current of organ alongside the guitars gives Grusom‘s aptly-titled second album on Kozmik Artifactz, II, a willfully classic feel, and even the lyrics of “Peace of Mind” play into that with the opening lines, “I always said I was born too late/This future is not for me,” but the presentation from the Svendborg six-piece isn’t actually all that retro-fied. Rather, the two guitars and organ work in tandem to showcase a modern take on those classic ideas, as the back and forth conversation between them in the extended jam of “Skeletons” demonstrates, and with a steady rhythmic foundation and soulful vocals overtop, Grusom‘s craft doesn’t need the superficial trappings of a ’70s influence to convey those roots in their sound. Songs like “Dead End Valley” and “Embers” have a bloozy swing as they head toward the melancholy closer “Cursed from Birth,” but even there, the proceedings are light on pretense and the atmosphere is more concerned with a natural vibe rather than pretending it’s half a century ago.

Grusom on Thee Facebooks

Kozmik Artifactz website

 

Träden, Träden

traden traden

Having originated as Träd Gräs och Stenar, the group now known as Träden is the product of a psychedelic legacy spanning generations. Founder Jakob Sjöholm has joined forces with Hanna Östergren of Hills, Reine Fiske of Dungen and Sigge Krantz of Archimedes Badkar to create a kind of supergroup of serenity, and their self-titled is blissful enough not only to life up to Träd Gräs och Stenar‘s cult status, but to capture one of its own. It’s gorgeous. Presumably the painting used on the cover is the cabin where it was recorded, and its eight tracks — sometimes mellow, sometimes more weighted, always hypnotic — are a naturalist blueprint that only make the world a better place. That sounds ridiculous, I know. But the truth is that for all the terrible, horrifying shit humanity does on a daily basis, to know that there are people on the planet making music like this with such a genuine spirit behind it is enough to instill a bit of hope for the species. This is what it’s all about. I couldn’t even make it through the Bandcamp stream without buying the CD. That never happens.

Träden on Thee Facebooks

Träden on Bandcamp

 

Orthodox, Krèas

orthodox kreas

Last year, Spanish experimentalists Orthodox released Supreme and turned their free-jazz meets low-doom into a 36-minute fracas of happening-right-now creativity. Krèas, a lone, 27-minute track with the core duo of bassist Marco Serrato and drummer Borja Díaz joined by saxophonist Achilleas Polychronidis, was recorded in the same session but somehow seems even more freaked-out. I mean, it’s gone. Gone to a degree that even the hepcats who claim to appreciate free-jazz on anything more than a theoretical level (that is, those who actually listen to it) will have their hair blown back. The rest of the universe? Well, they’ll probably continue on, blissfully unaware that Orthodox are out there smashing comets together like they are, but wow. Challenging the listener is one thing. Krèas is the stuff of dissertations. One only hopes Orthodox aren’t holding their breath waiting for humanity to catch up to what they’re doing, because, yeah, it’s gonna be a while.

Orthodox on Thee Facebooks

Alone Records webstore

 

Disrule, Sleep in Your Honour

Disrule Sleep in Your Honour

Danish bruisers Disrule run a brash gamut with their second album, Sleep in Your Honour (on Seeing Red). Leading off with the earworm hook of the title-track (premiered here), the album puts a charge into C.O.C.-style riffing and classic heavy rock, but shades of Clutch-y funk in “Going Wrong” and a lumbering bottom end in “Occult Razor” assure there’s no single angle from which they strike. “(Gotta Get Me Some) Control” elicits a blues-via-Sabbath vibe, but the drums seem to make sure Disrule are never really at rest, and so there’s a strong sense of momentum throughout the eight-song/29-minute EP, perhaps best emphasized by two-minute second cut “Death on My Mind,” which seems to throw elbows as it sprints past, though even shouted-chorus closer “Enter the Void” has an infectious energy about it. If you think something can’t be heavy and move, Disrule have a shove with your name on it.

Disrule on Thee Facebooks

Seeing Red Records on Bandcamp

 

Ozymandias, Cake!

ozymandias cake

First clue that all is not what it seems? The artwork. Definitely not a picture of cake on the cover of Ozymandias‘ debut album, Cake!, and accordingly, things don’t take long before they get too weird. “Jelly Beans” hits on harshest Nirvana — before it goes into blastbeats. “Mason Jar” scathes out organ-laced doom and vicious screaming, before “Hangman” gets all danceable like “All Pigs Must Die” earlier in the record. The wacky quotient is high, and the keyboards do a lot to add to that, but one can’t really call “Doom I – The Daisies” or the later “Doom II – The Lilies” anything but progressive in the Devin Townsend-shenanigans-metal sense of the word, and as wild as some stretches of Cake! are, the trio from Linz, Austria, are never out of control, and they never give a sense that what they’re doing is an accident. They’re just working on their own stylistic level, and to a degree that’s almost scary considering it’s their first record. I won’t claim to know where they might be headed, but it seems likely they have a plan.

Ozymandias on Thee Facebooks

StoneFree Records website

 

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