Posted in Features on April 16th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.
Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.
Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan
Days of Rona: Karl Simon of The Gates of Slumber & Wretch (Indianapolis, Indiana)
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Well, Gates of Slumber just got back from Europe just ahead of things going to shit here. We were all in quarantine for two weeks at home… and now shelter in place.
Somehow in spite of being in O’Hare the date of that big shitshow we are all healthy. No fevers no symptoms.
Wretch was meant to be recording our second record at the end of April. Those plans are paused now as we are just waiting to see what the future has in store. Sucks… this album has been held up so long… it’s like the way things go for Wretch: everything takes twice as long as it should. Which is fine.
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I don’t know. I am just holed up indoors. So far as I know it’s carry-out only at restaurants and maybe bars. People can still go to stores you just keep your distance.
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I see more people walking in front of my house than normal. Kids riding bikes. People walking their dogs. I think that’s a good thing to come of this: people have been slowed the fuck down. And hopefully we stick with it. But that is just what I see out my window. I don’t really pay attention to the news or anything. Stay away and stay down. If you have to go out: cover up the best you can — wear any kind of glove/mask/hat. Get in get what you need and get out. Wash your hands a fuck ton.
As far as music goes. I think a lot of bands are going to be releasing some very meticulously arranged stuff over the next few years. I expect we might see attention spans lengthen and that’s always good I think. I like the live shows people have been doing on social media. Might be the future…. which sucks for me as I actually like the idea of touring and playing live. But all of this remains to be seen.
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I think that we will get over this and things will get back to a normal. People need to take it easy. And they need to look out for each other a bit more. This won’t last forever.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 28th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Beginning next week, Indianapolis doomers Custom Cover Letter - select the service, and our professional scholars will do your assignment flawlessly Instead of spending time in inefficient attempts The Gates of Slumber will embark on a European tour that, centered around and fostered by an appearance at The Academic Papers UK is the most reliable firm since we have a large customer base and experience of around 10 years. Here, we offer Essay Writing Websites Reviews service in the UK to support you in completing your dissertation when; You find it difficult to select the appropriate methodology or data analysis part of your dissertation. Hell over Hammaburg in Germany, will touch down in six different countries across nine shows. It’s not the hugest tour the band have ever undertaken by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a special moment nonetheless as founding guitarist/vocalist The first way and actually the compulsory one is to fill in all the required fields of the order form for buying essays online. Thus, to Research Paper Topics Animalss you should click on the “order now” button on our website and you will be transferred to the page mentioned. After filling in all the instructions you should click on the “check out” button and you will be transferred to the payment system to proceed with the payment for your online essay. After placing the order, you can log in to your Karl Simon (interview here) — who’s spent the last couple years developing the similarly-minded trio Read Our Expert Reviews and User Reviews of the most popular Can You Grade 5 Homework here, including features lists, star ratings, pricing information, videos Wretch in part to spread You can Distribution Logistics Manager Resume from our writers who have some great experience in your field of studies. If the deadline is approaching fast, you can buy a thesis online or request a research paper help and sit back knowing our professionals will take care of it. Your topic will be carefully researched taking into account all the possible theories to ensure that all the key concepts and ideas are The Gates of Slumber‘s legacy — revitalizes the band after splitting up in 2013. They go abroad with the express purpose of celebrating their 2004 debut, Write Any Papers is exactly that article source you need. We are a market leader and offer editing services to students from all over the world. Our team includes expert editors from various fields of science. …The Awakening (originally released on Hire the best writers Get certified Help On Biology Homework that will assist you in reaching your goal Zero Plagiarism Affordable Pricing Final Chapter Records), and joining We offer http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?do-and-donts-on-a-resume at affordable prices. We started as a small team with a primary focus on helping students from different countries in their dissertations. Currently, we help students from across the globe on nearly every topic. Simon in the lineup is drummer see here service is special assistance for the learners who usually come across with the pressures of completing a thesis paper in a short time. Place your order any time you feel like since our customer representatives remain active round the clock. Try the custom dissertation writing service of our professionals once and let them craft the thesis that perfectly caters all Chuck Brown, who played on the album and went on to found homework help tumblr Do My Algebra Homework Your intro to an essay application essays how to Apostle of Solitude as vocalist/guitarist after its release, and bassist homework meaning my site word count for essay writing an essay for college application universal Steve Janiak, who’s been in Apostle of Solitude since about 2012 and who also fronts the wildly underrated Devil to Pay, also in vocals and guitar. The latter steps into an especially precarious position in the band, taking on the role once held by Jason McCash prior to his leaving the band in 2013 — causing the breakup — and subsequent death the next year.
The reunion tour and what it might lead to aside, …The Awakening hit 15 years old in 2019 and remains a work out of its own time. Not that there was no doom happening circa 2004 — indeed, The Gates of Slumber‘s “membership” in the ‘Circle of True Doom’ speaks to a community already crossing international borders — but they represented a new generation in direct engagement with some of the style’s most treasured traditions. You want to know how to doom? Cool. Go ahead and put on the opening track of …The Awakening, and once you’re past the howling wind, tolling bell and vague screams that consume the first minute-plus, sit back as Simon, McCash and Brown put together a handy tutorial on doing it right. Seriously. “The Awakening (Interpolating the Wrath of the Undead)” is a nine-minute clinic not only in what the album that in part shares its name has to offer, but really on the appeal of traditionalist doom on the whole. Its Sabbathian lurch is worn on-sleeve, and Simon‘s vocals are immediately downtrodden, the melody following the riff on a depressive spiral punctuated by the bell of Brown‘s ride cymbal evoking the introduction. The song grows slower and more tortured in its second half setting up the guitar solo that consumes both channels in Iommic layering, and then, as it approaches its last minute, the drums kick into a faster progression to thrash out as another, more ripping lead finishes off.
I won’t discount the 9:33 bookending closer “The Burial,” or a speedster shuffle like “The Executioner,” the low-end-shoved chug of “Broken on the Wheel” or the plod and swing of “The Judge” and “The Jury,” respectively — this is essential doom and essentialist doom. It is doom the cuts through nuance and bullshit and proceeds to death. That is what it does from front to back. Wakes up on its last day, sees judge and jury, is tortured, executed and buried — done. But it’s in “The Awakening (Interpolating the Wrath of the Undead)” that The Gates of Slumber set the stage on which the drama that follows plays out, and they’re never so much consumed by the narrative as they are bringing to bear the sense of defeat of one who is powerless against their fate. Every dense-toned bassline from McCash and even the most uptempo of parts in “Broken on the Wheel” or “The Executioner” are prefaced by that last stretch in the leadoff cut. Perhaps only the penultimate bass-led interlude “Blessed Pathway to the Celestial Kingdom” stands apart in terms of aesthetic, but definitely not in mood, and …The Awakening remains unified in its purpose even as it transitions from alive to dead in that brief moment.
“The Burial,” then, is a glorious epilogue of a wasted life. You never find out what brings about the execution — “The Awakening (Interpolating the Wrath of the Undead)” references zombies and post-death horrors at the outset, but the nearest clue is in the lyrics to “The Jury,” with the lines, “You were guilty as the oaths were sworn. A felon to die upon the morn.” Whether we’re burying the undead alive or punishing some unknown treason or betrayal, does it really matter? The underlying point of …The Awakening is that existence is the punishment, and whatever situational extrapolation one might want to bring to the narrative across the songs, the same statement applies. There’s no getting away from it. No escape from that executioner’s blade. We’re all fucked. Doom on.
As much as one might look at a lineup of The Gates of Slumber with Karl Simon, Steve Janiak and Chuck Brown and daydream of new material topped with morose three-part harmonies to fill the grueling spaces left by the band’s signature riffs, part of the appeal of …The Awakening — a big part of it — is its straightforwardness. It is hiding nothing, either about its origins, its influences, or its intentions. The band at the time were beginning an exploration that would gradually lead them away from doom as a central focus and toward a more epic metal style, as 2006’s Suffer No Guilt begat 2008’s Conqueror and 2009’s Hymns of Blood and Thunder (review here), but doom was always there, and when 2011’s The Wretch (review here) — from whence Simon‘s post-Gates band would later derive their name — surfaced in all its ultra-Saint Vitus-style misery, the feeling was that The Gates of Slumber‘s claim on the forefront of US doom had never been stronger or more resonant. When their 2013 EP, Stormcrow (review here), served as the final installment of their career, even more than a decade on from their start the primary loss seemed to be in their potential going unfulfilled.
The Church Within Records has — today, apparently — issued a live record called Live at Tempe Arizona, and The Gates of Slumber have been steadily posting rehearsal footage from a basement that should be well recognizable to anyone who follows along with similar videos from Apostle of Solitude. Wherever their reunion goes or doesn’t go after this tour, whether there’s another The Gates of Slumber album or tour or not, their legacy is cast in the quality and the sincerity of their doom. There are few bands who have been able to play to style while feeling as genuine and heartfelt as The Gates of Slumber do on …The Awakening, and that only makes the record all the more worthy of the homage they’re paying it.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
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Don’t even ask what’s on next week. I have a dentist appointment Thursday? I know that. But I don’t even know what I’m writing about for Monday. It’s in the notes, I’ll deal with it over the weekend. Lord Buffalo maybe? I don’t know. Whatever. I’ve been trying to sleep later with mixed results and this week sucked anyway. Kid’s good. Everyone’s healthy. Whatever else.
Fuck email. I just don’t have the energy to deal with that shit. I have 147 messages that I just have no idea what the fuck to do with. I want to put up an out of office and be like, “Sorry I’m dead.” Facebook Messenger. Are you fucking kidding me?
Oh, I’m gonna review Arbouretum next week. Well that’s a break. That’ll be good. No one will give a crap, but whatever. I reviewed My Dying Bride this week, no one gave a crap. Why would they. Band’s been around for 30 years, what the hell am I gonna say about them that hasn’t been said 100 times before? Duh they’re good at what they do. Review over. Took me 1,000 words to say that, pretentious nitwit that I am. Feigning relevance for 11 years and counting! I don’t care. I just keep doing it anyway. I need it.
I’m burnt out, man. Still more than a month to go until Roadburn and I’m feeling like that spiritual rejuvenation is needed. Lot of hills to climb before I get there.
Leap Day tomorrow. I’ll be watching baseball and trying to avoid looking at the computer, counting down the minutes until it’s time to heat up leftovers for dinner. Farmer’s market on Sunday maybe. Fine.
Last night, I got offered $100 to write a review for today. Someone trying to buy coverage. This is a person who, in the past, I’ve considered a friend. Trying to buy coverage from me. Obviously clueless as to how insulting that is. I did not, and now will not, write the review. How could I possibly?
That’s life.
So I’m out $100. Ha.
At least Picard is good.
Anyway. Great and safe weekend. Appreciate you reading. FRM.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 23rd, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Ever since The Gates of Slumber first announced their reunion last April, the questions over whether they’d tour and, if so, just how much, have loomed. When I asked founding guitarist/vocalist about it a few days later in our interview, his response was a succinct, “if there is a demand we’ll play.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s a demand, and accordingly, the reinvigorated three-piece of Simon, bassist Steve Janiak and drummer Chuck Brown (both of whom double as guitarist/vocalists in Apostle of Solitude, while the former now handles triple-duty fronting Devil to Pay) will do a round of EU shows around the slot at Hell Over Hammaburg that was the impetus behind the reunion in the first place. They’ll be in Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. And that’s news in itself, and awesome, but look at the god damn bands they’re playing with.
There are plenty of killer nights here, with Altar of Oblivion, Hazemaze, and other familiar names — let alone the fest itself in Hamburg — but look at that Berlin show. You mean I could see The Gates of Slumber playing a set of early material on a bill with Cardinals Folly, Leaden Fumes and friggin’ Lord Vicar? Someone needs to fly my ass to Berlin. Come on. That’s too good. We should all go.
I’m gonna splash cold water on my broke-ass face. You check out the dates:
The Gates of Slumber 2020 European Dates
Recently-reunited Indianapolis doom metal trio The Gates of Slumber have announced additional tour dates around their upcoming appearance at Hell over Hammaburg 8. Guitarist / vocalist Karl Simon (also of Wretch) is joined by early-era TGOS drummer Chuck Brown (Apostle of Solitude) and Steve Janiak (Apostle of Solitude, Devil to Pay) on bass.
The band’s set will focus on material from the debut album “The Awakening” (2004) and subsequent EP, “Like a Plague Upon the Land” (2005) both of which featured Chuck Brown on drums. The album and EP are also slated to be reissued via Church Within Records in 2020.
The Gates of Slumber will share the stage with Lord Vicar, Altar of Oblivion, Haunt, Bellrope, Visigoth and more.
THE GATES OF SLUMBER “The Re-Awakening” 2020 Presented by Vibra Agency & The Church Within Records 04.03.2020 BEL – Brussels, Magasin 4, w Nornes, Loose License 05.03.2020 GER – Dortmund, Junkyard, w Hexer 06.03.2020 GER – Berlin, Zukunft, Lord Vicar, Cardinals Folly 07.03.2020 GER – Hamburg, Markthalle, Hell Over Hamburg 2020 w Haunt, Bellrope, Visigoth & more 08.03.2020 DNK – Copenhagen, Stengade, w Altar of Oblivion 09.03.2020 SWE – Gothenburg, Musikens Hus 10.03.2020 NOR – Oslo, Roverstaden, w Tempelheks III 11.03.2020 SWE – Stockholm Hus 7 w Black Soil, Hazemaze 13.03.2020 FIN – Helsinki, Rocks
It’s only too fitting that The Gates of Slumber‘s reunion after five years of inactivity should focus on their 2004 debut, …The Awakening. Founded in 1997 in Indianapolis as The Keep by guitarist/vocalist Karl Simon, the band would go on to release five full-lengths between ’04 and 2011, as well as a slew of splits and EPs, thereby spearheading an American traditionalist doom outside the geographic confines of Maryland’s scene. Their sound embraced epic metal on Conqueror (2008) and 2009’s Hymns of Blood and Thunder (review here), but never wavered from its core purpose in doom, and their final LP, 2011’s The Wretch (review here), was a gloriously downtrodden exploration of drunken regret set to riffage that used the open spaces of the recording to create an even more oppressive sphere.
When bassist Jason McCash left the band in Sept. 2013, Simon said, “I always said I’d never go on doing TGoS without Jason, I don’t think anyone ever really believed it, but yeah, it’s done.” Soon enough, Simon would go on to found Wretch as a continuation of The Gates of Slumber‘s cathartic outlet, and their self-titled debut LP (review here) showed up in 2016, followed the next year by an EP, Bastards Born (discussed here), as the new unit began to find its own direction within the sphere of doom. The legacy of The Gates of Slumber and McCash, who passed away in 2014, loomed large, but Simon was always upfront about what he wanted the band to be and Wretch went so far as to play select The Gates of Slumber songs live. You don’t name your new band after your old band’s last album if you’re trying to distance yourself from what you’ve done in the past. Wretch worked and continues to work as a project precisely because of its direct engagement and honesty about its origins.
News came down earlier this week that The Gates of Slumber would reunite for Hell Over Hammaburg in Hamburg, Germany, next year, playing alongside Nifelheim, Argus, Haunt, Bellrope and a slew more not yet announced. The new lineup of the band features Steve Janiak of Devil to Pay and Apostle of Solitude on bass and Chuck Brown of Apostle of Solitude on drums. The latter is also a veteran of The Gates of Slumber, having played on …The Awakening before being ousted and starting his own band. Together, the new trio will embark on the trip to Germany in 2020 and then…? It’s up in the air. Simon notes below they’re willing to take it as far as people want without affecting anyone’s work in other bands, including his own, and of course one recalls that at the time of their breakup, The Gates of Slumber were slated to do nearly three weeks on the road supporting Church of Misery the next month. I don’t think they’ll pickup right where they left off, but perhaps there’s some sense of work still to be done on the part of one of this millennium’s most essential US doom purveyors.
So, with Germany ahead and Wretch on tour now (playing New England Stoner & Doom Fest in CT this weekend), behold The Gates of Slumber‘s reawakening. Thanks to Simon for taking the time to talk about it on short notice, and to you for reading.
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The Gates of Slumber Interview with Karl Simon
First things first: How did the reunion come about? Did Hell Over Hammaburg bring the idea to you? What made you think this was the time to bring back The Gates of Slumber?
Well, Wolf [Mühlmann] from HOH asked me a while back about TGoS playing, and I was not in a place to really deal with it. My mother had just passed after a long illness and Wretch was on hold due to drama in the band, so I said something non-committal about the whole thing and left it at that. I basically took a chunk of time and quit thinking about bands. I learned a bunch of songs arranged for an acoustic and just kind of played for myself. Last year I asked Dustin Boltjes formerly of Skeletonwitch, The Dream is Dead, Demiricous and all around raging dude to take the throne and we started working on songs for the next Wretch record. In the middle of that, I tore my Achilles and had to take months off. And Oli [Richling] from Church Within contacted me asking about The Awakening, I’d been trying to pitch the live LP from the The Wretch tour forever, and we got a deal worked out for the Live record, The Awakening AND Like a Plague Upon the Land — the last recorded stuff with that lineup. Chuck had come by a bit during my downtime and we’d been talking a lot. We had this deal where our records were going to come back out and the way I saw it it would be a dumb thing to not at least play a few shows to support it. Jason would have done it in a minute…. and it gave me an excuse to play those songs with Chuck again and just hang out with an old friend. And that’s that.
How did the the lineup end up being you, Chuck and Steve? Was the fact that Chuck had been in Gates before a factor? Obviously they’re both in Apostle of Solitude now, but how did that all come together?
We both wanted to take this chance for sure, TGoS had a decent profile and we wanted to ride the goddamn snake, but we did not want any stress. It’s all super laid back for a change. Steve fell right in because he could commit right away and he was into it. His gear was at Chuck‘s where we practice and we just went with it. It’s all been very chill and easy. Which is how we want it.
It’s been nearly six years since the band first broke up. How do you feel about what The Gates of Slumber accomplished during its initial run? I know Wretch has played some Gates songs in the past, but how do you feel looking back on that material now that the band is going again? Has your appreciation for it changed at all?
We’ve been relearning songs from that era that basically stopped when we fired Chuck in ’05… it’s been fun and in a dippy sense healing. We realized how destructive we were to each other back then and how insecure we were as people and players, at least I have been. As far as what Wretch will do, basically the only song from TGoS we do is the namesake, I see that as a rallying point for Wretch… the other songs are going to stay with TGoS… I mean maybe someday we’ll trot out “Scovrge of Drvnkeness” or something, but in Wretch we are focused on writing new songs.
Do you have any idea of what you’ll play live yet?
We’ll be focusing exclusively on songs from The Awakening era. Sorry if you’re a fan of the later stuff. This is going back to the beginning and we plan to play at least an hour and 20 min, focusing mostly on songs that never got played live. You’ll hear “The Leach” for the first time, “The Burial” will be back, along with “Dweller in the Deep” and a bunch of other stuff.
It goes without saying that Jason’s legacy looms large in all things concerning The Gates of Slumber. The band initially quit when he left. How much is he in your mind when you think about what makes The Gates of Slumber what it was and is?
He’s there constantly, you know. His shadow looms over TGoS and Wretch a lot. I’ve had a lot of time with death. And grief never goes away. It’s softens… it’s like, Wretch just played our first show in two years on his birthday. His widow and son were there. It’s a family thing.
How far will this reunion go? Will you play other shows besides Hell Over Hammaburg? How will it affect Wretch, Apostle of Solitude and Devil to Pay? Will there ever be another Gates record?
As far as folks want it to, if there is a demand we’ll play… it’s not going to effect Apostle of Solitude or Wretch or Devil to Pay. For me Wretch is number one. We actually leave for tour tomorrow May 2. So, dear reader, if you’re trying to ask some questions about this you’d best see me at the merch table, get it? Got it? Good.
Bands come and go all the time. All the time. They come, then go, then come again, then go again. But if you and I were to sit down and have a chat — doesn’t that sound nice? — about bands who’ve come and gone and were unlikely to return, I’d probably have put The Gates of Slumber on that list. When the Indianapolis three-piece forerunners of doom traditionalism disbanded in 2013, then yeah, okay, maybe they’d have gotten back together, but then a few months later when bassist Jason McCash passed away, and guitarist/vocalist Karl Simon moved on to form Wretch, it just didn’t seem like the kind of thing that was ever going to happen. Then Germany called.
The Gates of Slumber will play a special set for Hell Over Hammaburg 2020. Of course the idea will be to focus on the band’s history and pay homage to McCash and the legacy of what they created in their original run. The new lineup is comprised of Simon, bassist Steve Janiak (also guitarist/vocalist of Devil to Pay and Apostle of Solitude) and drummer Chuck Brown (also guitarist/vocalist in Apostle of Solitude and drummer in an earlier incarnation of The Gates of Slumber as well), and they’ve posted a clip of some rehearsal footage on Thee Facebooks in order to get word out of the revitalization of the band.
There are always people who naysay reunions, and reunions with a new lineup as well. Whatever. The Gates of Slumber went out on the heels of their best work yet in 2011’s The Wretch (review here) — technically they also had the Stormcrow EP (review here) before they were done, but stay with me — and I think the fact that Simon went on to form Wretch is clear indication there was still more to be said there. I don’t know if they’ve even thought of working on new material, but my understanding is this is a special kind of one-off thing, they might do some dates around the festival, but basically it’s something unique for Hell Over Hammaburg next year, and that’s where it stands now. Of course we know plans can change. There wouldn’t be a reunion in the first place if that wasn’t true.
Check out the rehearsal footage below. There may also be some reissues in the works and the long-supposed live album might happen as well. I’ll hope for more to come all around.
Enjoy:
Just Announced: The Gates of Slumber to reunite for Hell Over Hammaburg 2020. More details to follow…
Posted in Features on April 6th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
To those who knew him, he was of course much more, but to the heavy underground, Jason McCash will be best remembered as the foundational low end resonating from The Gates of Slumber’s groundbreaking traditional doom. McCash, who left the trio late last year, reportedly died yesterday, April 5, from causes as yet unknown or unannounced.
McCash joined The Gates of Slumber in 2003, and his partnership with guitarist/vocalist Karl Simon proved pivotal to the band’s ultimate success. Hailing from Indianapolis, Indiana, The Gates of Slumber became a vanguard of Midwestern trad doom. From the band’s 2004 debut, …The Awakening, to their 2011 final full-length, The Wretch, the partnership between McCash and Simon — as well as drummers Chuck Brown, J. Clyde Paradis and Bob Fouts — would develop into one of the most potent in the American underground, pulling in elements from epic classic metal on 2008’s Conqueror and 2009’s Hymns of Blood and Thunder.
The Wretch found The Gates of Slumber returning to a more doomed approach, effectively doing to Saint Vitus what Saint Vitus did to Black Sabbath, creating something original out of homage. Their final release, a Scion A/V-sponsored EP called Stormcrow, was issued last year and continued along similar lines. Already influential both in their native Midwest and beyond, The Gates of Slumber ended when McCash quit, and the members had begun to move forward on other projects. The door to a future reunion seemed open.
Karl Simon had this comment on McCash’s passing:
My best friend died last night. There will be no reunion – no more of TGoS. It’s dead beyond dead, and I’ve lost a brother.
Please be respectful or silent. It’s a small world and I’m still alive. Remember that shit.
On behalf of myself and this site, I offer condolences to Jason McCash’s friends and family. Even those who knew him casually, in bands, or who just appreciated his work know that his loss leaves a void in doom and in the lives of those close to him. His death, far too soon, is a reminder of the importance of community and support in dark times.
A fund has been set up for donations to help the McCash family with their finances in the wake of Jason’s passing. Contributions can be made here: http://www.gofundme.com/mccash-family-fund
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 11th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Originally announced at the beginning of September, the first volume of the Myelin Constellation MS benefit comp has been released. You can see below all the artists who took place in the thing with previously unreleased material, but seriously, it’s the $6 price tag that should be catching your eye. To shell out so little cash, have it go to a good cause — because, really, fuck MS — and get 20 tracks from killer bands, including Sleestak, whose own Matt Schmitz put the whole thing together can’t be seen as anything but a bigtime win if you’ve got ears and six dollars to your name.
Schmitz sent the following down the PR wire:
Myelin Constellation Vol. 1 is released!
I’m just gonna make this quick because I’ve been fairly busy with a handful of different things.
Myelin Constellation Volume 1 is out now (actually released October 1st but only got around to doing an email for it now). Please go tohttp://mconstellation.bandcamp.com/to download your copy. 20 bands, $6 or more if you can. Every bit helps us out over here and I appreciate everyone who has downloaded it so far! Thank you! Bands that appear in this first edition include:
Northless Sons Of Otis Gates Of Slumber Backwoods Payback Coltsblood Wo Fat Stone Magnum Apostle Of Solitude Sons Of Alpha Centauri Sleestak Black Capricorn At Devil Dirt Confused Little Girl Abrahma Narcotic Luxuria Asatta Headless Kross Myopic Empire Switchblade Jesus Albatwitch
Make sure to read the liner notes on the Bandcamp page please! Visit our Facebook page athttp://facebook.com/mconstellationand stay tuned for news regarding Volume 2. As always we are constantly accepting submissions from bands who have live, unreleased, alternate version, remixed, demo, rare, or just plain brand spankin’ new songs in their archives and want to be a part of this benefit comp for Multiple Sclerosis.
Thanks to all the bands who have helped, all the blogs, radio stations, and individuals that have helped with promoting this project!
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 23rd, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Bummer news out of the Midwest this morning as it seems Indianapolis trad doomers The Gates of Slumber have broken up following the departure of bassist Jason McCash. The trio’s last album was 2011’s stellar The Wretch(review here), and they also put out an EP through Scion A/V earlier this year, also closing out Days of the Doomed III in Wisconsin back in June. Never say never, even in doom, but if this is really is the end for the band, they leave a sizable legacy behind them of having been at the forefront of introducing traditional, Vitus-style doom to a new generation of fans and producing some of the most epic doom of the last decade.
No word on how this will affect The Gates of Slumber‘s slot supporting Church of Misery on their recently announced North American tour, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’s off. Hard to do two weeks on the road when you’re not a band anymore. Twice the bummer.
Here’s the announcement, as originally posted on Hellride.
The Gates are Closed
Some of you may have noticed that Jason quit The Gates of Slumber this past week.
So, yeah. it’s done. I always said I’d never go on doing TGoS without Jason, I don’t think anyone ever really believed it, but yeah, it’s done. I did start the band, but McCash has been my best friend for the last 20 years, the last 10 in this damn band. He wrote amazing music and was a killer person to be around on the road.
Somewhere about 3 years back shit started to change, and it’s ended with him quitting. I’m sure he needs the break, probably from me… I’m starting to *kind of* get the hint.
So yeah. It’s done.
Says McCash on his leaving the band:
I am really sorry to see this decision being made. It wasn’t my intention to prematurely end something that Karl and I have slaved over and over of for so many years. I didn’t want to hasten this day in coming. I had to come to my decision as a matter of fixing all those things in my life that was damaged and left ignored. This Dam of my life is cracked and broken and the high water line is over flowing and I really need to devote all my attention and sanity to fix these problems. I can no longer ignore them. I so wish these weary travelers (Karl, Bob and myself) chose a different path to travel down recently than the one we recently choose as things could have and should have been a lot better than what they are and maybe I wouldn’t have made this decision which brought on everything else. I apologies to Karl Simon and Bob Fouts again for this. Who knows what tomorrow will bring…
The Gates of Slumber, “Death March” official video
