With more reportedly on the way, the Pittsburgh-based dark arts heavyfest Descendants of Crom has announced the first round of acts for its seventh — or VIIth, if you prefer — edition this September. Set to take place over two days, Sept. 26-27, at Thunderbird Music Hall, the festival continues its strong run of doom, metal and sludge with this year’s lineup from the rank pill-popped Midwestern apathy of Fistula to Crypt Sermon‘s trad-metal standard-bearing, Black Tusk‘s progressive take on Southern heavy and Valkyrie‘s pastoral, modernized classic rock, and much more besides.

It hadn’t occurred to me until I was grabbing the embed at the bottom of this post, but fest-staples Rebreather — I need to buy a new Rebreather shirt because my last one got a hole in the side and I don’t want to be without one — are four years removed from their killer comebacker The Line, its Width and the War Drone (review here), and I can’t help but be curious if the sludge-rooted Ohio outfit will have anything new in the works. Time for some social media digging? Yeah, maybe after I put that shirt in my Bandcamp cart.

Much continued respect to Descendants of Crom VII headed into its seventh year. I’ve never been — it’s traditionally right around the weekend of my wedding anniversary, Sept. 28 — but it’s always cool to see who’ll be there and to keep up as the fest has expanded its palette and grown into the warrior you see before you on the poster. Killer.

Dig:

DESCENDANTS OF CROM VII – September 26 & 27 – Pittsburgh, PA

Tickets: https://www.etix.com/ticket/k/18115925/descendants-of-crom-vii-weekend-warrior-pass-early-crow-pittsburgh-thunderbird-caf%C3%A9-music-hall

The forge is burning hot—it’s time to reveal the first wave of bands confirmed for this year’s gathering of the underground faithful. DOC VII returns with two days of heavy music, diverse in sound and tone, never compromising on originality or quality.

2025 LINEUP (SO FAR):
Black Tusk • Valkyrie • Crypt Sermon • Ringworm • Cherubs • Fistula • Rebreather • Weed Demon • Edhochuli • Brown Angel • Funerals • Riparian • Sathanas • Passing Bell

…and more to come, including our co-headliners, regional support, vendors, and sponsors.

EARLY CROW “WEEKEND WARRIOR” PASSES ON SALE NOW:
Very limited—only 50 available
Available through July 4 or until sold out
–After that: regular advance single-day & weekend passes launch

No band submissions please, but vendors and sponsors can still reach out to Blackseed Services.

Come join our celebration this year, after all… We Are All Descendants of Crom ⚔️

EARLY CROW WEEKEND WARRIOR $50, 50 tickets available

Advance single day and weekend pass tickets will be available after the Early Crow options are gone or on July 4th.

21+ w/ID

http://descendantsofcrom.com
https://www.instagram.com/descendantsofcrom/
https://www.facebook.com/DescendantsOfCrom/

Rebreather, The Line, its Width and the War Drone (2021)

This is some nasty, nasty shit. I wouldn’t lie to you. Bottom line, top line and all lines in between — nasty.

Based in Pittsburgh and having just last month put up their two initial singles — “Hollow Eyes,” for which a lyric video premieres below, and the concurrent “The Burden We Have Become” — Passing Bell are a new band that pulls together members of Horehound, The Long Hunt and others and who have set themselves immediately to the work of vicious stylization. The harsh, largely indecipherable barks of vocalist Kevin Tuite — good thing it’s a lyric video — are the flay to coincide with the bludgeon of riff in “Hollow Eyes,” and though it and its companion piece are relatively short at under five minutes, that’s plenty of time for Tuite, guitarist/engineer Trevor Richards, bassist Russ Johnson and drummer Christian Dean to affect a mood (by souring it) and entrench themselves onto the brain of the listener, there to fester.

The lyrics for “Hollow Eyes” are below — why not? I never include lyrics but probably should — and surely lines like “Hollow eyes reflect across darkened water under starless skies” give some impression on their own of where Passing Bell are coming from. “Fester” is in there too, as part of a litany of grim descriptives to go along with the biting instrumentation behind. So is this the part where I say that given the extreme nature of the music, listeners should be advised before taking it on that it’s not going to be for everybody? You bet your ass it is. While “Hollow Eyes” and “The Burden We Have Become” both have one foot in a rock-based groove, the other has a boot on your larynx, and admittedly, that’s not something universally accessible. If you can get on board with the rawer side of Passing Bell as they present themselves here, so much the better. Go see them live. Be a fan. Caustic bands need love too, mate. Get in there with hugs and enjoy.

Lovey dovey. If you can’t hear that here, in the overarching catharsis if nowhere else in the four and a half-ish minutes, that’s okay. Some bands make it a challenge.

Please enjoy:

Passing Bell, “Hollow Eyes” lyric video premiere

From Crevices so dark
the moon dare not spare light
Hollow eyes reflect across
darkened water under starless skies

An abhorrent wind
does spring forth
Driven forward, reins held
by the cursed whispers
gasped from a mouth
of multiple tongues

Hollow eyes reflect across
darkened water under starless skies
a lasso cast by the (sinister)
Advancing in violent bursts
etching beauty to jagged stone.

A scorched and tarred trail
of festering slime is what’s left behind
A mother of amphibious plains beckons
A corrupt summons an invitation
utterly blasphemous

Hollow eyes reflect across
darkened water under starless skies

Embark into the wild
under the distant darkened sky
Join her scaled womb draped in moss
Marinate in the fetid waters
of the desolate marsh

released January 10, 2025

Passing Bell are:
Kevin Tuite : Vocals & Lyrics
Christian Dean: Drums
Russ Johnson: Bass
Trevor Richards: Guitar

Album photography by Russ Johnson. Recording and mixing by Trevor Richards.

Passing Bell on Facebook

Passing Bell on Instagram

Passing Bell on Bandcamp