West Coast blackened sludge metallers Bog Oak have inked a deal to release their debut 10″ and subsequent LP on Svart Records. The four-piece will have the EP out this fall and an album in winter if all goes to plan. The cold season seems appropriate for their frosty, cultish sludge, vocalist Julie Seymour switching on the demo track “A Shepard’s Teeth for a Winter’s Coat” between throaty black metal screaming and more groove-riding clean singing. That cut, which you can hear and download below, winds up catchier than you might think at first, and if the undulating central riff gets stuck in your head as you make your way through, at least know that you’re not the first.

More to come on Bog Oak I’m sure, but for your preliminaries, the PR wire:

BOG OAK sign with SVART RECORDS, prepare label debut

SVART RECORDS announces the signing of California’s BOG OAK. The band’s debut SVART release will be a limited 10″/mini-CD in the autumn, with a full-length album later in the winter of 2015.

BOG OAK formed in October 2013 around the core of Phillip Gallagher and Matthew Woods Wilhoit, who both lived in the Sacramento area. They met when Gallagher answered an ad placed by Wilhoit looking for someone to jam with. The pair bonded over their mutual love of heavy metal, tube amplifiers, and occult philosophy, writing the songs “A Shepard’s Teeth for a Winter’s Coat” and “Dragger” during their first jam session with Gallagher on drums and Wilhoit on guitar.

After recording these songs at Earth Tone Studios in Rocklin, California, with session bassist Robert Lander, the pair decided to shop their demo around and place an ad for a vocalist. Julie Seymour responded, and got the job after one audition: Gallagher and Wilhoit were impressed with her ability to switch back and forth between black metal screams and ethereal clean singing.

After a few rehearsals, Gallagher, Wilhoit, and Seymour entered Earth Tone Studios to add vocals to the first two songs and record two new songs, “Behold, The Valley Of Slaughter” and “Experiments In Extinction” with Gallagher and Wilhoit sharing bass duties. To achieve a fuller live sound and to expand the harmonic possibility within BOG OAK, Gallagher switched from drums to baritone guitar after recruiting drummer and longtime friend Steven Campbell. Wilhoit recruited longtime friend DBC to act as bassist for live performances.

Conceptually, BOG OAK embrace all things occult, pulling inspiration from a wide range of esoteric ideas like those of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Aleister Crowley, and Laveyan Satanism, to the ideas of more extremist occult groups like the O9A and the Temple Of Black Light, into the more mystical concepts of Pythagoras, the metaphysics of Mulla Sadra, Suhrawardi’s philosophy of illumination, and the alchemy of Al-Ghazali.

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Bog Oak, “A Shepard’s Teeth for a Winter’s Coat”

Let’s be frank: if you’re going to do a short run of shows in Cali, Nebula is the band you want to do it with. Not only do they rule, but they’re more CA than the vision of the year 2015 in Back to the Future Part II. Those blessed enough to live on the west coast will get the chance to see recent Obelisk interviewees Dusted Angel and Nebula together toward the end of this month and the beginning of next. Here’s the dates and PR wire infotainments:

The Santa Cruz-based doom/rock unit Dusted Angel features members of Bl’ast, Spaceboy, Gargantula and more. Their debut EP is available via iTunes now, with an extra song that is not available on the 7″ release of the EP on November 17th. The EP is being released by Corruption Recordings, now exclusively distributed by Relapse Records.

Dusted Angel with Nebula (and Radio Moscow):
11/28/2009 Blank Club – San Jose, CA
11/29/2009 Annie’s Social Club – San Francisco, CA
12/03/2009 Kensington Club – San Diego, CA w/?Red Octopuss
12/04/2009 The Royal Dive – Oceanside, CA w/ Red Octopuss
12/05/2009 Nomad Gallery – Los Angeles, CA w/ Green & Wood