Guitarist Steve Mills of UK-based cult doomers The Wounded Kings checked in with an update on the band, who are getting ready to record their third album (second for Sweden‘s I Hate Records) in June. Busy times for Foel Studios, it seems. Conan‘s new split was done there, as will be their next album, and Groan are headed in come mid-August for their second record, as reported yesterday. Makes me wonder who’s there in July.

Also of note in the realm of The Wounded Kings is a new lineup, which Mills details below. He has this:

We now have our new lineup complete with new members Alex Kearney (guitar) Jim Willumsen (bass) Sharie Neyland (vox) and Mike Heath (drums).

We will be entering Foel Studios (Electric Wizard, Napalm Death and Conan) in June to record the five tracks that will make up our third album, In The Chapel of The Black Hand, which will be released through I Hate Records once again.

I’m going to be honest with you: I really, really like this album. I’ve gone back to it time and again since hearing it early this year, and doing so has brought me nothing but satisfaction. The Wounded Kings are a bright spot on the UK‘s hope for the doomed future. I felt that way with 2008’s Embrace of the Narrow House, and I feel that way with their I Hate Records debut, The Shadow Over Atlantis.

Not only is the record cohesive sonically and ideologically, but multi-instrumentalist Steve Mills and guitarist/bassist/vocalist George Birch inflict an atmosphere so dense that it affects your mood for the rest of the day. There’s plenty of doom out there that’s dreary, but The Wounded Kings go beyond the melancholic, plunging the depths of Lovecraftian terror and arising therefrom with a hellacious beauty in tow. “The Swirling Mist” and “The Sons of Belial” are more rituals than songs.

The Shadow Over Atlantis also marks the end of an era for The Wounded Kings, as they’ve since gone on to include a full-time bassist and drummer in Luke Taylor and Nick Collings (respectively). Already this new lineup has shown its prowess on the An Introduction to the Black Arts split LP with Cough, and with their increased ability to play live now that they’re a complete band, The Wounded Kings feel like they’re just getting started. Let’s hope that’s the case.

Culled together on the aptly titled Forcefield Records split release, An Introduction to the Black Arts, two of next-gen occult doom’s brightest (bleakest?) team up for more than 34 minutes of torturous musical sprawl. Dartmoor’s The Wounded Kings and Richmond, Virginia’s Cough reportedly got in touch with each other before any label got involved; drawn, no doubt, by their mutual predilection for riff-led worship and affection for the genre’s forebears. If the UK and US outfits have anything in common other than riffs, feedback and plod, it’s probably an affection for Electric Wizard, though that comes out more on Cough’s 18:36 “The Gates of Madness” than The Wounded Kings’ 15:03 “Curse of Chains,” which takes a less blatantly Oborn-ian approach and shares more in concept than strict execution with the band’s Dorset countrymen and adds more traditional doom to the mix.

“The Gates of Madness” was recorded by Sanford Parker at the same time Cough put to tape their recently-released Relapse Records debut, Ritual Abuse. They showed their love of Electric Wizard there, and follow suit on this extended cut, blending in screamed vocals as well to add notes of aggressive individuality, more in line with their 2008 Forcefield debut, Sigillum Luciferi. The difference, though, isn’t so great that anyone who heard and/or dug Ritual Abuse is going to be particularly surprised by “The Gates of Madness,” and rather, I’d argue that Cough’s Side A contribution to An Introduction to the Black Arts is an opportunity for those who couldn’t get enough of their sound on the sophomore outing to once more sample their heavier, more abrasive side. With droning, ultra-low tones and lumber sufficient enough to build a house, Cough easily justify the buzz they’ve been getting lately.

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The song is called “Curse of Chains,” it’s 15 minutes long and it comes from The Wounded Kings‘ new split with Virginian doomers Cough, An Introduction to the Black Arts, which is out Nov. 16 on Forcefield Records. If you think you can handle the sheer classicist doom misery of the song, put your robe on and feast your ears on its darkened wonders:

Curse of Chains

Astute attendees will remember earlier this year when I interviewed The Wounded Kings guitarist Steve Mills and he mentioned the split. Here’s what he had to say at the time:

“…it was recorded in a studio rather than in my basement studio, so it’s a whole different process going on. We played it live with four musicians straight away, and it’s got a different sound again. It’s evolved. I think you’ll find that the musicianship is definitely better (laughs)… We got a much better drummer. I’m not putting myself down too much, but I play practically all the instruments on the album, and I play what’s needed to get my point across of what I’m trying to convey. On the new recording that’s coming out, there’s a drummer who’s a drummer. He lives for drums. And there’s a bass player who loves his bass and so forth. It’s evolved again, on a musicianship level of play.”

In case you missed it, our amigo Black Bubblegum over at BrooklynVegan premiered Cough‘s portion of the split on Monday. Cough will also be playing BrooklynVegan‘s CMJ showcase this Saturday with The Body, Inter Arma, Royal Thunder and Batillus at Union Pool. More info on that here.

Well friends, it looks like there’s a technicality issue with this year’s TFFH. I thought I’d be all set to go with Clamfight‘s righteous Vol. 1 at number five, but I got this comment from guitarist Sean on the original post:

To clarify, the CD has not been officially released, we are aiming to have it out for a release show in Philly on August 13th with some incredible bands. We’ve been doling out home-burned copies to a select few and some songs will be up for download on the various sites shortly.

August clearly is not June, and since this is the Top Five of the First Half of 2010, Vol. 1 is hereby disqualified.

Controversy! I’ll give you a second to gasp…

Now that the shock has (hopefully) subsided, we can deal with the issue on a practical level. We all know Clamfight‘s Vol. 1 will be seen again at the end of the year, so it’s not worth crying about that, and obviously this change is no value judgment on the record — which, let me emphasize, fucking rules — but if I include a record that won’t be out until August on this list, then I’d have to include stuff like the new Zoroaster too, which comes out in July, and that’s not really what the TFFH about.

Without further ado, here is the revised Top Five of the First Half of 2010:
1. Asteroid, II
2. Solace, A.D.
3. Ufomammut, Eve
4. Fatso Jetson, Archaic Volumes
5. The Wounded Kings, The Shadow over Atlantis

There. Now we can all dance like Ewoks and be happy that the list is fair and only includes albums which were released in the first six months of the year. Honorable mentions go out to Apostle of Solitude, The Brought Low, Sasquatch and Brant Bjork, any of whom could have been on this list easily.

With that cleared up, that’s it for the 2010 TFFH. If you’ve got a list of your own, leave a comment and let me know what I’ve been missing.

When they made their debut in 2008 with Embrace of the Narrow House (Eichenwald Industries), the then-duo of multi-instrumentalist Steve Mills and vocalist/guitarist George Birch inserted themselves into the ever-growing sphere of bands with a direct line to Black Sabbath‘s darkest moments we commonly know as traditional doom. Though subgenre designations are debatable (endlessly so), what comes across centrally in the material of the UK‘s The Wounded Kings is not the band paying homage in the form of imitation, but rather, striving to bring something new to the foundations on which they’re working.

With their follow-up, sophomore effort, The Shadow over Atlantis, on Sweden‘s I Hate Records, Mills and Birch have developed this ethic even further, incorporating linear songwriting and threaded themes running the course of the record’s six tracks. Not only is the sound (recorded by Mills) working within and beyond the parameters of doom, but by injecting elements of darkened psychedelia and classical compositions, The Wounded Kings are ensuring none who hear The Shadow over Atlantis will come out of it without realizing the individuality driving the band who wrote those songs.

Though The Wounded Kings have since made permanent their two live members — bassist Luke Taylor and drummer Nick Collings — and are scheduled to participate in this year’s Roadburn Festival in The Netherlands, and though The Shadow over Atlantis was recorded nearly a year ago, Mills recently took some time out for a cross-continental phone interview to discuss the album, its concept and the band’s motivations and outlook going forward. You’ll find it available for reading after the jump. Enjoy.

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Whenever I hear a record like the The Shadow over Atlantis, the jaw-dropping sophomore outing from UK doomers The Wounded Kings (and contrary to whatever hyperbole is yet to come, reason knows there are other albums that have provoked this reaction), I feel oppressed by it, like I’m drowning in it — and yes, that is a very good thing. The duo’s I Hate Records label debut crosses traditional lines with newer atmospheres, and maintains a punishingly, torturously slow approach that simply is the essence of doom. As the cover art harkens to the vinyl days of yore while keeping a mystical, occult vibe, so too does the music fall into line across the six tracks of the album.

The Shadow over Atlantis is bookended by two 10-plus-minute tracks; “The Swirling Mist” and “Invocation of the Ancients.” Between them are four interestingly timed pieces, “Baptism of Atlantis” (8:11), “Into the Ocean’s Abyss” (2:02), “The Sons of Belial” (8:01) and “Deathless Echo” (2:50). The shorter tracks are essentially mood pieces and interludes, “Deathless Echo” setting up the closer especially well with multi-layered organ synth work from multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Steve Mills. The structure of the album isn’t necessarily based solely on the timing of these songs — that is, it doesn’t depend on them for flow or its overarching melancholic groove — but the numbers are interesting nonetheless, and add somehow to the mystery of the listening experience.

This is occult doom, through and through. It comes out in both the music’s slow ritualism and in the lyrics, which are delivered with a sort of far-off vibrato like Pete Stahl of Goatsnake in an echo chamber with Messiah Marcolin. There is a traceable narrative of mythological destruction (that of Atlantis comes to mind), but The Shadow over Atlantis isn’t a concept record in the Ayreon sense. Each track offers a complete and satisfying listen — interludes notwithstanding; though I might argue for either piece out of context delivering something on its own as well — and it’s just when they all come together that The Wounded Kings’ doomly immersion is complete.

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This is good news for several reasons. First, it means that UK traditional doom outfit The Wounded Kings are going to put out a new album. Second, it means Sweden‘s I Hate Records is still around, which if I’m not mistaken was kind of up in the air for a while. Third, well, the third is pretty much just a combination of the two, but it’s good news anyway. Here’s the gist of the email guitarist Steve Mills sent over to let me know what was up:

We are proud to announce that we have just inked a deal with awesome?Swedish label I Hate Records who will release our second album The Shadow over Atlantis in November 2009.

Congratulations and hearty doom to those guys. In case you missed out on The Wounded Kings‘ debut, Embrace of the Narrow House, it ruled. Get in touch with them via their MySpace and apologize profusely for not being on the ball at the time.