First of all, I’ve got to say that I love the band’s name: MYSTIC TAPE DECK. I have fond nostalgia for the cassette tape format, with all its hiss and possibility. Here comes another band out of Boise, to join those we’ve premiered on this blog (including Ghorot and Ealdor Bealu), and this pair with roots in the DIY ‘90s scene seems to be aiming for something big and out of the ordinary.

Tags I’ve never seen before appear connected with their projects, including garage jazz and gutter prog. Whatever you want to call it, it’ll get right under your skin and into your bloodstream. At times bizarre, baddass, and amusing; at others sublime and soothing. That is how I would sum up the most entertaining 16-song collection that was Bards: Of The Shimmering Seraphs last year, the third in a series reaching back to 2019. Each installment has been a labor of love production, complete with books and artwork exploring hidden knowledge of the underground.

The duo loves experimentation, venturing into realms of folk, electronica, rock, and metal – sometimes mashing things up obscenely, but at the same time tempered with an accessibility that pulls magnetically toward rhythm and harmony. You can tell they’re having fun with it, and that makes me smile.

“The Soothsayer’s Bone” is Mystic Tape Deck’s latest single, and I appreciate that it comes with a lore of its own, continuing with the theme of the wandering bard that seems to umbrella their opus well. The band frames this song with an old Shakespeare quote, most apropos for our time: “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

If you are a fan of randomness, but with intelligence, mystery, and history behind it, I’m betting you’ll dig what this band is dishing.

Look for more on Mystic Tape Deck website and Bandcamp page.

Stick it on your own eclectic playlist with bands like Tenacious D, Mr. Bungle, Gentle Giant, Frank Zappa, Melvins, System of a Down, and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets.

Give ear…

THE LORE

“The Soothsayer’s Bone” is said to be the femur of a prophet and psychic so ancient, their name has been forgotten to the mists of time. The bone has been passed down through a long chain of people in positions of great power around the world. It is said to possess great fortune telling powers, granting whomever holds it the ability to use it as a sort of divining rod to merge normally disconnected timelines and open a window through the astral veil - through which the future can be seen. The outcomes appear as implanted “memories” in the mind of the user, who can then “see” the future outcome of a chain of causal events as though they are recalling something they had already experienced.

The relic has a history of being passed down through a long chain of tyrannical rulers who have used the powers of the bone to forecast the outcome of military battles and political upheavals. It was especially useful in the hands of despots and oppressors who used it only for personal gain and securing their continuing authoritarian power.

While the bone could potentially be used to advance humanity and create a more just and peaceful world, instead it has passed the eons in the hands of simple minded evildoers who use it instead for personal gain and power over others. Some legends say that it was always meant to serve only the needs of its most selfish and hateful masters, but that one day it will fall into the possession of someone who will make great peace with it and vanquish evil from the Earth.

Nazilic scholars say that the relic has existed through multiple iterations of the great cycle, and is fiercely guarded by those in power who hold it, preventing it from landing in the hands of the one who will use it for the goodly benefit of all humankind. Many of these despotic leaders have insisted they be buried with the artifact, being unwilling to part with it even in death, but it has been dug up and robbed from their graves each and every time.

Nazilic monks believe it is their destiny to finally possess the bone, and that it will play a role in the final dissolution of the shining one by falling into the hands of one who shall rise from amongst their own ranks. So far, however, they have not been successful in obtaining it through several iterations of the great cycle.

MYSTIC TAPE DECK will reveal “The Soothsayer’s Bone” on April 13th, 2026.

LYRICS

They plough their fields, They sow their rows
They weave their blankets for the nights when the cold wind blows
They swing their scythe, They reap their stow
And they grind their crusty bread with the soothsayer’s bone

They light their fires, Burn their effigies
All dancing deep in madness, rapt in ecstacy
They wave their flags, They wail and moan
And they beat the war drums with the soothsayer’s bone

They’re the prowlers on the prairie
They’re the keepers of the key
They’re the shadow steppers stepping, stepping over you and me
They’re the dreamers of the desert
And they’re never at home
And they stir their bubbling stew with the soothsayer’s bone

They pour their wine, They fill their grail
Collect the seeping gore in gilded golden pails
They nod and chant, Ascend the throne
And they pierce the astral veil with the soothsayer’s bone

They pick their battles, They win their fights
Adore their kings and revere their shining knights
They sacrifice the innocent, For sins they must atone
And they pick their rotten teeth with the soothsayer’s bone
They’re the prowlers on the prairie
They’re the keepers of the key
They’re the shadow steppers stepping, stepping over you and me
They’re the dreamers of the desert
And they’re never at home
And they stir their bubbling stew with the soothsayer’s bone

SOME BUZZ

Initially conceived in the minds of two 11 year old boys making up imaginary bands and drawing album covers for them, Mystic Tape Deck was officially forged and magnetized in a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign in 2019.

This was when Patrick S. Perkins (ref. as “PS Perkins”) and Ron Thomas came together (again*) to make the first installment of Mystic Tape Deck’s BARDS series, “BARDS: Of The Morning Star.”

The initial edition was a 52 page book and a 78 minute CD containing DIY home recordings which served to tell the story of a mystical being known as “The Shining One.” This first book/CD was intended as a Minerval’s gateway and guide to a vast and mysterious parallel universe where a deeply strange and art-obsessed cult of followers lurk in urban communes they call “encroachments” and who use performance art as both ritual and religion, referring to themselves as “The Cloak of Nazili” or simply, “The Cloak.”

Since the first installment was published, Mystic Tape Deck have produced an additional two book/CD installations in the BARDS series which further expand on the home-spun mythology underpinning this imaginary and eldritch monastic tradition. At least two more of these are in the works, with book 4 already underway and nearing completion (est. release date late 2026).

Taken as a whole, the BARDS series also stands as a testament to the diy ethic and what is possible if you just continue moving forward a little at a time. The project begins with a decidedly lo-fi approach to the music and books as we embark on a “figure it out as we go” type of journey that progressively gains clarity of vision and production as its creators gain experience by creating it.

It has always been of paramount importance to us that above all else, it gets made, and put out into the world - rather than allow it to languish and rot for a pretense of “perfection” in the dark and spidery basement where we create it. The story of its creators learning how to create and conquer these ideas is inextricably woven throughout the entire experience.

Mystic Tape Deck has always kept at the center of its vision a simple motto: “More Than Sounds,” and we continue to deliver on that promise with everything we create. This isn’t just music. This is multimedia storytelling, in a realm where we can be as weird and wild as we want (dare) to be.

The project explores many deeply spiritual concepts, ancient alchemical and hermetic wisdom, mixed with a healthy dose of decided absurdity, as it drills into the mechanisms of The Cloak and the mythical being at its center known simply as “The Shining One.”

Perkins and Thomas spent most of the 90’s playing together in various incarnations of bands such as “Godzoundz”, “Size Of…” and others. They self released many cassettes, did a couple DIY tours, and played some pretty wild shows, serving as one of the more bizarre fixtures of the Boise underground DIY scene for over a decade. Perkins and Thomas also form the experimental improv performance art and musical duo known as “The Pleasant Company” (indefinite hiatus).

Perkins played drums for Boise band “The Universal” from 2005 - 2011 releasing a self titled EP recorded at local Chop Shop studio, and a full length recorded by Grammy winning producer Art Hodge “Everything is Everywhere (2009)” for which Perkins also designed the six panel cover art.

Perkins was also a founding member of seminal Boise band Caustic Resin, playing drums on 2003’s “Keep On Truckin” (Up! Records) as well as guest appearances on several other albums.

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

Cursed Monk Records from Waterford, Ireland has brought us such notables over the years as Coroza, Torpor, Nomadic Rituals, Sloth Hammer, The Red Widows, OLDD WVRMS, and Burn Ritual – many of which have been featured in these pages or on The Doomed & Stoned Show over the past 11 years.

Now we welcome UNBELIEVABLE LAKE from Mid-Ulster, a three-piece heavy psych trio made up of Doc, Pat, and Trev. All of their releases since 2017 have been on a grander scale, trending between 30 and 45 minutes in length. And their latest, ‘I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream’ (2025), is no exception.

The tendency toward expression in longer forms, beyond 3-5 minute song structures, is something that heavy bands have experimented with over the decades, Sleep’s Dopesmoker making the most ubiquitous mention in our scene. But several UK bands in recent years have taken a stab at expansive, high-concept compositions, Orme and Ungraven coming most readily to my memory. The atmospherics on this record also call to mind the strange evocations of Trent Reznor’s now 26-year old NIN album The Fragile. Of course the history of psychedelia and progressive rock has long been a launching pad for such longer compositions.

There is no program to the Unbelievable Lake piece, per se, apart from its title. And it may or may not have some deliberate tie-ins with the Harlan Ellison short story of the same name from 1967 (or the subsequent game circa 1995). With that said, there are elements to the music (dronings, hums, electric sounds, screeches, rhythmic niches) that certainly hint at the vast, God-like supercomputer that is the antagonist of Ellison’s work (which, if you haven’t read it, deserves to be heard for the first time in the author’s own crazed audiobook narration).

Unbelievable Lake plot a steady hand on these sonic waters to begin, playing with distorted and emotive guitar chords that have a vaguely new wave flair. The beat is steady, plodding, but with the feeling of ever building intensity, like a great threatening swell of dark clouds mounting in the skies. There are vocals throughout that cry out, sometimes competing with the crescendo of the band itself, but this somehow compliments the sensation of grandiosity.

There is ebb and flow to the piece, as well, so it is not all one wall of sound. When things reach unbearable heights, there is a sudden shift to quiet (as after the first 11 minutes). A calm in the midst of a storm. Might this represent the slow insanity of the characters represented in Ellison’s novel? Or perhaps it is a meditation on the inevitable rise of The Machine itself, which is overtaking all of human existence.

13-minutes in, the bass gently signals a second theme, with a period of psychedelic blissfulness. The riffs spurt and tussle in ways that border between sweet and disturbing. Surely I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream is as much a trip for the mind as its literary inspiration.

Elements of it reminded me of the Blade Runner soundtrack, too, namely those plucking, glistening string-like sounds 18-minutes in. This is contrasted with a persistent, emphatic four-note heart beat that becomes more pronounced as the piece rolls closer and closer toward its pre-destined end.

Things get crunchy around the 25-minute mark, taking a decidedly heavier direction, as the machinations of AM grind away, ultimately leaving us in hair-pulling psychological terror. It’s certainly an experiment you will not soon forget.

Look for Unbelievable Lake’s newest contemplation on Cursed Monk Records this Friday, June 13th (pre-order here).

Give ear…

SOME BUZZ

Belfast/South Derry heavy experimental psych trio Unbelievable Lake’s second LP, ‘I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream’. The follow up to 2020’s Forgive, is a single 41-minute piece, its repetition drives focus on the liminality, identity and the suffocating paralysis of Northern Ireland society.

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Unbelievable Lake

The band writes: “Our music is psychedelic doom, characterised by heavy repetition, layers of tension, and heavy passages broken up with drones. We are inspired musically by early Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Om, Sleep, Neurosis, Swans, Camera and Can. Thematically, we draw inspiration from our history of conflict and beautiful surroundings, rural isolation, urban decay, anxiety and paranoia.”

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Today, we hail a powerful new atmospheric gem from Bordeaux three-piece ENDLESS FLOODS. I’m not sure if the band’s name is drawn from the Song of Solomon or not (“many waters cannot quench love”) or whether it is in reference to something more grim, such as the soul-weathering nature of our era. All that’s important is we have a fourth album from the band, which we brought to your attention way back in 2016 when they released their self-titled debut.

Now we ready for a fourth album Rites Futurs, this one featuring a seamless melding of talent from Louise Dehaye (vocals), Stéphane Miollan (guitar, bass, vox), and Benjamin Sablon (drums, synth, vox). Thibault Laisney (who provides some additional guitar) a fantastic job of recording and mixing the record at a/b box studio, the sound is clear, full, and roomy.

The songs certainly give you a lot to think about – less narrative and more contemplative. Sung entirely in the French tongue, the words in English are no less compelling:

“Planet-piercing silver spear
Incandescent like immense flames
Chariots arrive slowly
The chariots and the burning wind”

“L'Eclair” comes out with bristling guitar and wailing dissonance as the moon makes its appearance in the night sky. The amazing three-person choir is immediately arresting, containing elements classic and modern that flow from beautiful to mysterious to unsettling within a single progression. The jaded crooning at 2:05 rivals those of Undersmile. There are exaltant moments in this song (around 4 minutes in) that tap into a similar vein as Green Lung. Endless Floods are masters at transporting us through moods as naturally as the flow of disruptive waters. This is about light, balance, and contrast.

“Décennie” seems to be about time and how events repeat themselves endlessly in cycles, leading to a passionate climax of cymbals, screeching dissonance, and wailing voices.

Relancer chaque jour l'effet
et dans l'echo tout noyer

Lyrics are similarly grim on “Muraille,” which might be contemplating the ashen remains of Vesuvius (Nuage de lave mêlé au cristal des murs de flammes). There’s something quite ancient about the way the song starts, drawing upon early contrapuntal style. There are doomy elements in play, such as the funeral-esque guitar lead that follows. This is counterbalanced by glistening post-metal ambience and a haunting entanglement of voices that eventually take soaring into the aerosphere. There’s something at once meditative and bittersweet about the chorus that concludes the song (“Stone after stone, let’s climb airless enclaves”).

Louise Dehaye’s singing is reassuring and enchanting in the serene unfolding of title track “Rites Futures”. As the song developed, there are standout moments you’ll not hear anywhere else, such as the distant, riotous warbling of carolers set against a slow, fuzzy, bad-ass headbanger riff with garage vibes that goes shoegazey then has an out-and-out meltdown of black metal tremeloes, finally taking us to record center in a blaze of hypnotic glory as singers coalesce Gregorian chant style. The closing moments settle us into calm, reassurance that after all is said and done, we are always in the ever-present NOW.

Look for Endless Flood’s Rites Futurs on Friday, July 12th, with a limited run of cassettes issued by Breath Plastic Records (get it here or here). For many it will prompt you to get into their back catalogue, and summer is the perfect time to do it, especially at sunrise.

Give ear…

SOME BUZZ

After a five-year absence, Endless Floods are reunited around vocalist Louise Dehaye, Stéphane Miollan (guitar, bass, vocals) and Benjamin Sablon (drums, synths, vocals). Spanning through the crepuscular and droney doom landscapes of their first three records, they reveal in a prodigious blaze of post-metal, doom and shoegaze driven by the trio’s aerial choirs.

Bordeaux, France’s doom metal experimentalists Endless Floods formed in 2015 in Bordeaux around Stéphane Miollan (ex-Monarch, Bombardement, Faucheuse), Benjamin Sablon (ex-Monarch, Bombardement, Shock, Mégot) et Simon Bédy. With “no boundaries in heaviness” as a motto, they raise a prodigiously dense wall of sound by blending drone and doom metal aesthetics with mind-expanding ambient structures, like a sorrowful procession arising from the limbo…

The trio released their self-titled debut in 2015, quickly followed by their sophomore album “II” in the winter of 2017. This drone-sounding assault saw the band sinking deeper into bleakness and minimalism, immersing the listener in a monolithic and feedback-laden sonic experience described by the press as “a vast, never-ending room of heavy” (Cvlt Nation), “a juggernaut of sonic grandeur” (Metal Nexus) or simply “sublime” by Pure Grain Audio. Their third album “Circle The Gold” epitomized a fresh start in their creative process: between chaos and light, the Bordeaux trio transcended genre boundaries while unveiling a more melodic and cathartic aspect of their music.

After a five-year hiatus, ENDLESS FLOODS now returns with a new lineup and their fourth record "Rites Futurs”, to be released in July 2024. About the album, the band comments: “On Rites Futurs, we built a mythology around the idea of the rite of passage. The five tracks symbolize this tipping point into the unknown by evoking ancient traditions where fires extinguished everything in their path.”

It was recorded and mixed by Thibault Laisney at a/b box studio (Lestiac, France) and mastered by Ben Jones. Cover art and graphic design by Louise Dehaye. Constantly maintaining the subtle balance between light and melancholy, soaring atmospherics and granite riffs, Endless Floods deliver their sonic rebirth in forty minutes of a grippingly emotional experience.

SPHAÈROS is an emergent subterranean rock effort by David Sphaèros, he of Paris outfit Aqua Nebula Oscillator. ‘Possession’ (2023), the forthcoming debut Sphaèros, may be considered both a dream and nightmare, perhaps something more, with a panoply of samples thoughtfully mixed and mingled into swirling psychedelic, progressive, garage, and noise soundscapes.

The vision is described in this manner:

Seven music pieces and seven films, born from spheres, without a preconceived form, created spontaneously like automatic writing, to let the spirits speak. This work is made up of a superposition of successive layers of sound, visions, poetry, and colors. When linked together, these elements create a unique living kaleidoscopic universe that blends seeing, hearing, and spiritual thinking into the Beyond and its parallel worlds.

Possession follows the generations-old tradition of the jam session, with all the thrills of spontaneity and a purposeful arc in mind. Comparisons could be drawn to a contemporary band like Acid Mothers Temple, or more distantly Tangerine Dream. Yet it seems that Sphaèros has a liking for taking things off the rails, as happens on the fourth track “Vibration,” which runs wild and free.

Other songs will trance you out in the best Doors kind of way, as with the sun-drenched desert hallucination “Oeil.” Accompanying them are passages in French (sometimes spoken, other times sung or distorted beyond recognition), with sparkling electronic effects (“Void”), transcendent organ (“Ange De Lumiére”), and Eastern touches (“Lucifero”).

Before us is the new single and music video for title track “Possession.” The experience is visceral right from the start, with words and imagery that offend, titillate, and disgust. Musically, we’re thrown into increasingly delirious rhythmic patterns that involve a slew of Middle Eastern instruments and a synthesizer that prefers to soar, whilst David beats a drum with the femur bones.

Possession by Sphaèros releases on June 23rd via legendary New York label Tee Pee Records (get it here). Stick it on a playlist with Aqua Nebula Oscillator, Bardo Pond, Silver Apples, and Giöbia.

Give ear…

SOME BUZZ

After spending thirty years as a multimedia artist experimenting in sculpture, retinal visualization, travel, and poetry, Aqua Nebula Oscillator founder David Sphaèros has channelled his creative energies into music once again for the protean monster: “Possession.”

When forming the beloved Parisian psych rock cellar-dwellers ANQ in 1999, Sphaèros pulled inspiration from several dimensions. Voodoo, horror, underground literature, early cult cinema and even painters like Jérôme Bosch and Salvador Dali. Chartering more than his fair share of ships across many a sea of creative existence, in 2005 he eventually settled underground. Literally, beneath the capital, establishing a cosmic haven of crypts and sixteenth century caverns to house his art, sculptures, mystic paraphernalia, photos, and videos.

Due for release on the legendary New York label Tee Pee Records this June, Possession is the aural embodiment of those three years spent inside that inner world, living an almost monastic life to find the very essence of creation, and to openly share a vision of both magic and reality as without any concession.

“For Possession, I’ve created seven music pieces and seven films, born from spheres, without a preconceived form, created spontaneously like automatic writing, to let the spirits speak,” explains Sphaèros. “This work is made up of a superposition of successive layers of sound, visions, poetry, and colours. When linked together, these elements create a unique living kaleidoscopic universe that blends seeing, hearing, and spiritual thinking into the Beyond and its parallel worlds.”

It’s the weekend! Time for deep breaths and a slower pace and reflection. At least time enough to check out the new music video from MILANKU. The five-member Montréal band conjures an ethereal sound that takes advantage of ambient soundscapes to drop a robust blend of post-everything.

Milanku’s new record is entitled ‘À l'aube’ (2023), which translates to “At dawn.” Each track on the album takes a que from there, starting with misty atmosphere, perhaps representing various stages of the rising sun. This is followed by a radiant post-rock instrumental push with post-hardcore vocal inflections.

The band sings in French, as well, with lyrics inspired by the poetry of French-Czech writer Milan Kundera (b. 1929), who wrote The Unbearable Lightness of Being – a book that muses about philosophical themes like time, happiness, and eternal return (the idea that everything in the universe repeats itself).

In fact, the song titles themselves are each piece of a poem, which like the music delves into poignant feelings of loneliness, despair, and consolation. Milanku gave us this window into their creative process:

Most of the skeleton of the album was built before the pandemic. After a few months of downtime, we refined and modified the songs and recorded the songs in two studio sessions. The pandemic had an impact on the sound of all the songs on the album. Without the pandemic, the result of the album would not be the same at all. The album sounds like a whole, a maturity of the band and a story that is told from the first note to the last.

Having revealed the opening track already, today Milanku reveals the album closer: “À l'aube; nous sommes disparus” (“At dawn; we will be gone”). It features Erika Angell from Thus Owls.

The most musically emotional track of the album, this song starts off as a sweet guitar melody and slowly turns into a storm featuring Erika’s voice as the grand priestess of this storm that everyone is trying to escape. The lyrics in Swedish and French make it even more mystical.

Milaku’s À l'aube doesn’t just rage against the gloom; it observes it, experiences it deeply, and reaches tirelessly towards hope. The sound absolutely envelops you in ecstatic glory by album’s end. Look for it March 31st on Folivora Records (pre-order here). For fans of Cult of Luna, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and Neurosis

Give ear…

SOME BUZZ

If Milanku draws its origins from the work of Milan Kundera, the soundtrack is definitely more on the side of the thundering density of the being than of its “unbearable lightness”, galvanized by the Czech author.

From the start, Milanku hammers out its brutal character, infused with melancholy, even dystopia, and standing straight upright on the wire: defiant, shouting, and inspired.

Mesmerized by the warrior’s rage, flayed by its own doldrums, the quartet relies on pared-down arrangements and an oft-staged vocal presence, harmonizing like an instrument, and howling at the big time, but plastered with a disquieting sense of dilettante.

At the heart of the enterprise, tearing off the peels of flapping skins, we explore the state of affairs of the contemporary genre, tragic, desolate, where any notion of common sense seems diffuse in the amalgam of trompe-l'oeil. The texts are meditative, inquisitive and the observations that emanate from them, weep and persist in trying to make sense of it, through its ever-growing losses of illusion.

With four full-length releases behind them, Milanku presents today 'À l'aube’ (2023), a five-track burn that breathes new life into a caste of disenfranchised people, imbued with a disarming lucidity, and gives itself a framework and a voice to pull its head out of the swamp.

About five years ago, the band ELECTRIC OCTOPUS came to my attention. The experimental heavy psych trio had just released ‘Driving Under the Influence of Jam’ (2017) to great fan and critical acclaim. Given their more spontaneous style of creation, it’s not surprising that the band keeps evolving record after record. Before us is their latest, 'St. Patrick’s Cough’ (2022), which came out earlier this year and is now receiving its formal release on Interstellar Smoke Records.

The 13-track LP opens with a passion-filled guitar improvisation, which is joined unprompted by the bass and drums. Sexy blues interplays with complex rhythm work. All of the sudden, the band bursts forth with funky aplomb. This is “Turnkey” and it is your welcome to a very interesting, at times strange journey deep down into the rabbit hole of instrumental psychedelia.

“Leighton Buzzard” is a characteristic piece that musically comes to embody its subject through ragged percussion that has the odd effect of dusty, fluttering wings, and guitar that sounds positively vintage with its Hawaiian and early rock 'n’ roll expressions.

Not sure what “Restaurant Banking” is about, but I’m sure I’ll spend some time thinking about it the next time I’m high. Listening to this song, the case could definitely be made that Electric Octopus is transcending the psychedelic and venturing into realms that are impressionistic, even surreal, so as you listen, turn your imagination loose.

“a2enmod” is next, the title having something to do with a programming script, but the beat sounds like one busy washing machine, with hints of a Latin American, Caribbean, and tribal dance when it gets good and busy. The bass tone is fat and it bounces about busily with plenty of body.

The title track introduces itself with the sitar – one of many exotic instruments (insofar as the traditional rock band is concerned) that we encounter on this remarkable record. Bass joins in with fine-drawn pulsations and soon finds itself a part of the conversation. Almost three minutes later, percussion gets involved as well. It’s an unusual piece, to say the least, but its color is welcome. The following track (“Consonance”) has Electric Octopus mouth hugging the didgeridoo, one of my favorite instruments.

Reached for comment, the band had this to say about St. Patrick’s Cough:

This album represents a distillation of about a year of work, taking jams we played in a range of times and places and choosing the pieces of music that popped out during mixing. The songs are more experimental than most, and we’ve all been on a big journey with this one.

The majority of this album was recorded in Holywell, nestled in between the mountains of county Fermanagh and county Leitrim. A short walk from St Patrick’s holy well. The water is reputed to be the coldest in Ireland, and is a site of pilgrimage for local people. The upwelling has a yield of about 600 gallons per minute and flows off into two streams, each flowing in a different direction. A magical place and the namesake of this album.

We spent a time playing sporadically during the pandemic, split across continents and then landmasses. Here we have brought together the different elements we each gathered on our respective journeys.

Today, pre-orders are launched for the vinyl edition of St. Patrick’s Cough by Electric Octopus (get it here or here). Doomed & Stoned is pleased to host the stream of the album so you can get better acquainted with it. Let us know what you think.

Give ear…

OOZE is a band that defies you to put them in a box and give their sound a category. Formed in 2018, the young Ukraine outfit issued ‘Cableway’ (2019), an oft bleak instrumental landscape of a debut EP, less than a year ago. Now they’re ready to deliver a second record, 'Shivers’ (2020), which was recorded at LipkyZvukoZapys Studio (notable for their production of records by Somali Yacht Club and Stoned Jesus).

The EP presents as a 21-minute story, divided into four tracks with no breaks or pauses. The first movement is flowing and rhapsodic, with a dramatic undercurrent. I keep waiting for an electrified, fuzzed-out guitar to come crashing in (as in “Pillars of Creation” from their first EP), but then it dawns on me that the violin is not only capable of holding its own, it’s practically owning this show already.

For this record, the band is joined by violin master Natalya Ivasiuk, whose artistry augments the jazzy blues of the band’s first offering with what the press clippings characterize a “grotesque but cosy atmosphere.” She deserves not only a standing ovation, but a formal role in the band after helping to establish Ooze’s sound with many of us first-time listeners. Then again, it might be interesting to see the band collab with a variety of rotating guest artists, or just grow organically like The Creeping Terror of 1964.

The second movement had me thinking of the long days trying to practice Beethoven’s “Rage Over A Lost Penny” on the piano. It’s what ya call a bagatelle, which is an old Italian word that means “baggage.” It’s stuff you just got weighing on you and have to get off your chest. Maybe it will come off brilliantly, probably it will be a little weird for some people to see, but the baggage has got to go, the skin has to be shed. “Hankering For The Mountaintop” really does a good job of getting across that itch to just get away from it all.

There’s certainly a lot of tension in the middle section of this otherwise sprawling work, which transforms suddenly into a flurry of sounds, instruments madly strumming and plucking and sawing everywhere (for a moment, I was reminded of an orchestra tuning up). If intended to represent a storm, it is quite effective.

Turns out to be a short-lived shower, and we’re ushered from “Ambitions Blight” into the longest track of the spin, “Faulty Feeling of Demise.” Whirling pedal effects mimic the buzz of machinery. Keyboards join a march through the smoke, with a deeply moving violin passage eventually joining the procession.

No joke, this could be the next evolution of the violin sonata.

The improvisation gets a little nebulous towards the end and you’ll probably find yourself wondering where the hell this ride is taking you, but its in these moments you’ve just gotta remind yourself that music isn’t always going to give you a guided tour; the best compositions know how to paint the scenery for your trip. So kick back, let go, and let’s fly, baby.

Shivers by Ooze releases Friday, August 7th on Robustfellow Records (pre-order here).

Give ear…

Oregon bands seem to drink deep from the Well Of Doom. Consistent excellence in the doom/sludge genres seems to emanate from the pores over there. CAERULEAN WELLES from Fall Creek join the ranks of the OR illuminati with this superb release ‘Oblivion Rides A Horse’ (2020): four extended tomes of tortures, tremors and terrors lurk perilously within.

The aching, introverted opening to “Al-Nakba” beguiles and allures until the crushing death blasts and angular shreds decapitate you, Then the Doom breaks down and collapses in a heap of gore and rot, manifesting visions of evil djinns and forbidden rites in dark Arabian caverns.

A squealing, throbbing entrance to “Schismatics And The Sowers Of Discord” bleeds into more anguished, baleful guitar noise and tremor-inducing bass blows then the death drums thunder once more and the savage riffs rage unrepentant until some old school doom slithers in to shatter the tension.

“Round The Clock Lightning and the Black Inane” is pure BM incarnate: a gnarling, twisted refrain smothered on a bed of grisled percussion creating a foaming and insatiable frenzy of pace and potency.

Closer “Apotropaic” enters a different dimension – trippy repetition and spike-maced Wraiths drooling in a melancholic stupor of strychnine-laced strings and festering bass, unsettling like the punk in the corner idly toying with his switchblade.

Oblivion Rides A Horse delivers deep-rooted delirium and macabre glee from every antechamber of the Haunted Realms; the sour aftertaste of defilement in dark alleyways.

Continuing our series of interviews of bands in the southern sludge scene, we’re now in Columbia, South Carolina visiting with unconventional three-piece OAKSKIN. As they come ever closer to finishing their debut LP, we take a look at the band’s origins, inspirations, and aspirations in this one-on-one at last year’s Starkfest.

We are at the Sparrow in North Charleston. You guys played with Mode Low and Midmourner tonight. Damn good show!

Bianca:

Yeah, for sure!

Phillip: I’m digging Mode Low, too!

Bianca: Yeah, yeah.

Austin: Kinda krautrock, kinda noisey. I dig it.

Yeah, Paisley Adams the bass player just left, she is in Tripping The Mechanism.

Phillip: Tripping The Mechanism, right. I produced a couple of records of theirs.

Austin: They were supposed to play tonight, but there was something with scheduling.

Yeah, I thought the original flyer said “Tripping The Mechanism.” Then it changed and said “to be determined.”

Bianca: That was because they had work or something.

The other two guys in the band were here later on in the show.

Phillip: They’re a great band, really cool.

The first time I interviewed you guys were at the Radio Room in Greenville, South Carolina, at Starkfest in July. I’d imagine you guys have played a few shows in the span of time since.

Bianca: Only one!

Phillip: Yeah this is our third show.

Wow, third show. Your first show was at Starkfest 2018. Now you have some shirts!

Phillip: Yeah, we’re moving up!(laughs)

You got some merch!

Bianca: We’ve got stickers now!(laughs)

So explain your Oakskin t-shirt.

Bianca: The way our name started was because me and Phil, all three of us were on the porch mulling over what our name would be. We had no fucking idea! It was so difficult. Phil saw an oak tree in my yard and said, “Oak something.” I said Oakflesh, because I am a Skyrim nerd. He said that’s too brutal because our music isn’t that brutal. (laughs) We’re not a fucking death metal band! (laughs) Phil said Oakskin. I said, “Fuck yeah!” Later, we found out it was a spell in Dungeons and Dragons. We just winged it with the shirt design. Twenty-sided die on the shirt.

As soon as I saw it, I recognized it was a twenty-sided die.

Phillip: Who didn’t play D&D at least once?

Bianca: Or at least knows about it.

Or any role playing game requiring multiple sided dice.

Bianca: D&D is the only game using twenty sided die.

Phillip: I’ve never seen a shirt with a die on it.

Bianca: The funny thing coming up with the shirt was like, “Let’s put people under a spell. Well, why don’t we incorporate the whole D&D concept?” It progressed from there.

Austin: It was the easiest decision we’ve had yet.

I believe you guys released a song recently. I got the notification from Bandcamp ‘cause I’m following you guys and shared it on Facebook.

Phillip: Thank you!

Tell me about this song.

Bianca: The song is called “Brood.” The name spawned from my love for cicadas, cause we’re from the South. Not to say cicadas aren’t from all over the world, really. In the South, in particular, you get used to hearing them. That noise that taunts you!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHH!!! (laughs)

Bianca: You know it!

Phillip: We open the song with that. That’s us sitting on the porch. That song is part of a bunch of songs we are recording for an album. We are taking our time with it. We are not in a rush. We don’t have a label or anything.

That’s probably the best with no time limits and taking your time.

Phillip: Yeah, no deadlines, so we are going to release it when we are 100% happy.

Organic and letting it flow naturally.

Phillip: We haven’t released anything since February because we had these shows. I had that song close to done, mixing it. We decided to put these songs out for these shows. Honestly, what we posted when we first played, they were kind of surprised. They weren’t expecting us to be so heavy. So we were like, “Let’s put a heavier song out.”

Bianca: I love the surprise of us being heavy. (laughs) I do love that, but I think it gives people an idea of where we are going or what we’re trying to do.

Phillip: The band has gotten heavier and darker as we’ve gone along.

I noticed tonight it seemed a little different. There was something like a blast beat in there – whoa!

Bianca: We all love black metal. We all love death metal. We love different kinds of music. I think over time as we progress, we will incorporate all of our interests in all we do. We all love different kinds of music.

Austin: When we started it was in our kitchen.

Phillip: I don’t know if I talked about this last time, but I wrote a keyboard line just for fun. I was thinking about a solo project. Bianca came in and asked, “Do you mind if I sing on this?” Austin came in and said, “Do you mind if I jam to this?” We were all in other bands. I was working on another project.

Bianca: I was in two bands.

Phillip: All of us were working on other projects, but we were like, “This is kind of cool!” The first song we recorded in our kitchen.

Bianca: It literally was recorded in our kitchen.

Austin: I got off work and pulled up to the house and heard the drum machine going. “Damn, someone’s partying, someone’s jamming! That’s some cool shit!” I walked in and it got louder. It’s Phillip and Bianca jamming on some stuff.

Bianca: Me and Austin have worked together before in a couple of different projects that really didn’t go anywhere, but I knew I wanted to be in a band with him because I love him pretty much.

Phillip: So after that kitchen jam and recording I was like, “That was pretty cool. We’ll come out with a name and release it and see if anybody is interested.” People were and we are going to jump on this! Now this is her and mine main band. Austin has put 100% in! Since then, we have been writing as a band and it’s just naturally gotten heavier and darker. It’s just where it’s gone we haven’t tried to control it.

Bianca: It’s darker, but light in some weird way.

Phillip: (laughs)

Bianca: Hear me out!

Phillip: Yeah, I’m going to hear you out on this!

Bianca: The lyrics, if we get them out there, they’re not necessarily dark. The lyrical concepts are light and dark, but the music is so fucking heavy!

It is!

Bianca: It’s like pushing the concept forward.

Austin: It all sounds like noise to me. (laughs)

Phillip: We haven’t focused on a concept. We have focused on writing.

Bianca: Each song has its own entity. When we hear people’s input on it, we create its own entity within the song. It makes it unified, to me. We aren’t stressed out about it, where it’s going. We do what we want to do.

I think you’ll have better songs and a better album when you don’t have the pressure or deadlines.

Phillip: I have had to live by deadlines for years, so it’s nice to be in a situation where nobody’s breathing down my neck about it, you know?

Bianca: Right.

Phillip: It’s nice to get it done as it gets done.

Austin: It was two days after Starkfest we had six songs tracked now. We went straight in on the first session and knocked them out – pow, pow, pow!

Phillip: We have been practicing for months. I was like it’s kind of harsh to do that to them, but I was like, “We’ve been practicing these songs for months, let’s go record them after the show! Who knows what work schedules will get in the way? We’re tight so let’s go knock these out while we’re tight.” We went in and knocked the songs out. When we get some more, we’ll knock those out.

Bianca: We have already started on some other songs, too. I love the direction y'all are going in! I come in after they finalize it, oh it’s so good! I fucking love it so much! It’s so weird and great. I really love it! I was like, “Can I come in now?” (laughs)

Phillip: (laughs) She was trying to sing over it and we didn’t have it done yet!

Bianca: Let me sing on it! (laughs) I get really excited. We all get excited in a really weird way. Mostly we all vibe off each other.

Phillip: I think that most bands get excited about what they’re doing or they wouldn’t be doing it.

Bianca: Some bands don’t get excited, because they get big or whatever reason.

Phillip: I understand that whole second guessing thing. I’ve been there: “I don’t know if anyone else will like this or not?”

Bianca: I feel like bigger bands don’t have the time to spend on songs anymore, because they’re pushed to put something out. They don’t get to enjoy it like they used to.

Austin: Well, if your doing two tours a year…

Bianca: Right.

Phillip: You’re touring non-stop. It’s hard to even find time to write. Try to write a little bit when you’re home. That shit gets really hard! Starting a new band makes it a lot easier.

Bianca: Especially with your connections, it makes it easier for us, genuinely.

Phillip: To a certain degree. In all fairness, we are starting right at the bottom like most bands do. Nobody’s been like, “Here ya go!” Play small shows…

…hit the road. Get some merch. Get some gigs.

Phillip: We’re starting out like I’ve started every other band I’ve started. (laughs) I just love playing music ya know? I love playing at any level. There’s certain things like yeah it would be nice to have a budget!(laughs) There are other times it is nice to start fresh and not have any expectations.

Austin: What is interesting to me about this band is Bianca. Oakskin has been together for about a year now.

Phillip: Yeah, about a year.

Austin: Before that, like she said we were rehearsing with some other projects. Until Oakskin she hadn’t been in a band. Not trying to…

Bianca: …no, it’s fine. The other two bands I was in didn’t play shows. It was just us trying to put music together.

Austin: So we have Bianca who is very new to it.

Bianca: This is my third show ever! Playing live, ever. (laughs)

Austin: I have been doing this fifteen years or so now. Phillip’s experienced, he’s been doing it for thirty years!

Phillip: I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have shushed you. I wanted to see where he was going with this. (laughs)

Austin: Well, for me seeing where you [Bianca] have come from and seeing where you [Phillip] have come from. You [Bianca] are still enthusiastic. Phillip and I get down and shit (laughs), because we are grumpy and run down. You [Bianca] are like, “No, we can do this!”

Phillip: That is true.

Bianca: (laughs)

Phillip: I think one of the funny things is yeah, she is starting fresh and I’m kind of old and grizzled. It’s like I see everything ahead of me that’s going to go wrong. This is going to wrong! This is going to go wrong! This is going to go wrong!

(laughs)

Bianca: I have bright eyes about everything. Everything is great, ya know? (laughs)

Phillip: It’s been fun, I will say that.

Bianca: I love doing music with y'all, for real!

Phillip: It’s being done for the right reasons. It’s really nice.

Down the road, you guys will release a full-length proper, right?

Phillip: We were going to do an EP and then we were like, “Let’s just keep going and make an album.”

Bianca: We have at least three more songs to write and we’ll have an album.

Nice. Can’t wait!

Bianca: It will come out whenever we feel like it!(laughs)

Austin: It will be four gatefold 12" LP’s!

It’s going to be a double live album! (laughs)

Bianca: (laughs)

Phillip: In reality, it will be a Bandcamp download! (laughs)

It was good catching up with you guys and seeing you live again.

Bianca: Thank you for coming to see us. Genuinely, thank you!

Is there anything that you guys would like to plug or push?

Well it depends on when this comes out!

Bianca: (laughs)

Right on! Fair enough! I still need to put the Starkfest interview out there. Guilty as charged!

Phillip: That was not a dig.

It’s fine. I really want to get that one out there.

Austin: We have a show in Atlanta in two days.

Bianca: Yeah we are playing SlaughterQUE.

Hell, yeah. I saw the post for that on Facebook. It’s two days right?

Bianca: If you would have liked, commented, and shared you could have won two free tickets!

What? Goddamnit!

Bianca: Only fifteen people did that.

I think I shared it. I saw it.

Phillip: You forgot to like it. (laughs)

Bianca: We had very strict rules about it.

Yeah I was smoking in the boys room when you were talking about the rules! I’ll share it, but I’m not going to “like” it. I like those guys and everything! (laughs)

Bianca: (laughs)

Phillip: We have a couple shows coming up.

Austin: Next month.

Bianca: Our video was adorable, because we had a lot of cats. Our cats are very cute, too!

Phillip: If anything it was a statement: “We don’t give a fuck!” (laughs)

Bianca: And also we love cats.

Phillip: Love cats, yeah.

Bianca: We love Halloween and cats.

Phillip: That is a true statement. Our house has a ridiculous amount of cats right now.

Oh no!

Bianca: We don’t have like thirty or anything. We have four.

If you get over fifteen cats, you have to get the crazy cat lady action figure. (laughs) I’m not sure, I will check the handbook.

Phillip: One of our cats got stuck in a tree.

Bianca: To be fair, this cat’s name is Siren. He never shuts up. He is constantly meowing.

Phillip: So Siren gets stuck in a tree. We couldn’t find him.

Bianca: The way we found him was because he is so loud, the neighbors behind us heard him.

Phillip: Here’s the funny story. The tree the cat got stuck in was at a cat person’s house. They had over thirty cats!

Austin: They were rescue cats.

Phillip: Lucky for that cat he was way up there.

Bianca: 25 feet up in the tree!

Phillip: We were calling people to get him out and none of us could afford that.

Bianca: That guy had a tree climbing friend.

Wow!

Bianca: That cat is so lucky! We’re so broke. You have to pay the fire department two hundred and fifty dollars to get a cat out of a tree.

Jesus Christ!

Phillip: I had no idea our neighbor had that many cats!

Bianca: That cat does not want to go outside anymore! So anyways we love cats. (laughs)

Well, that will make a great shirt, some Oakskin stickers maybe. Huh?

Phillip: The next shirt will be a cat stuck in an oak tree.

Austin: That’s wilder than a cat going up a tree.

Bianca: Austin knows all these southern sayings. Phillip and I are from the south and we don’t know what he’s saying.

Austin: No one has ever heard all the sayings I know.

I am from the south, as well. I had a book of old southern laws and some of it was ridiculous, some very bizarre. Thanks a lot guys! I appreciate it!

Phillip: Thank you so much!

As much as I enjoy retro-rock and old school doom (or whatever else you want to call it), I think you’d lie to yourself if you claimed that innovation was one of the biggest virtues of the genre. Usually it’s enough to do what is tried and tested well, but to do something new is rare. I remember a few years back when a band called MESSA and their music video for “Babalon” was making the rounds. Suddenly, there was this young Italian band that combined occult rock with drone metal, and heads were turning left and right.

Clearly, Messa was onto something with their debut Belfry, and it went beyond the fantastic songwriting and Sara’s sublime vocals. Something Messa would reiterate with their excellent sophomore record Feast for Water last year, which boldly flirted with elements of doom-jazz and even black metal. So prior to their special set at Roadburn 2019, for which they had brought along their saxophonist Lorenzo, I sat down with Sara (vocals), Marco (guitar & bass), Alberto (guitar & keys), Rocco (drums & additional vocals) and Lorenzo to talk roots, plans, and what it takes to come up with a new sound in a traditional genre. The transcript of our conversation follows.

How are you?

We’re fine.

Where are you actually based? I know it’s somewhere in Northern Italy but I’ve got no details.

Sara: We live about an hour away from Venice, near the mountains. One of the closest mountains around us is Monte Tomba and one of the songs on our first record is named after it. A little bit of Messa trivia.

And how did you all get together? Is there an established music scene in that region?

Sara: We were all in different bands before Messa but knew each other through the local music scene.

Alberto: And we’re the same age.

Sara: Yeah, three of us were born in ‘92 and we went to school together. Knew each other since we were 14, but we never played in a band together before. And there’s a lot of bands in our area, everything from black metal, to progressive and stoner rock. We all have different musical backgrounds and different genres that inspire us.

So, could you talk about the different bands you were in?

Rocco: Well, I play black metal, and it’s also what I usually listen to. When I started playing for Messa I first had to get used to playing so slowly. But I wanted to try something new, experience something different, and I really enjoy what we’ve been doing.

Lorenzo: Well, I think I’m the alien of the group because my background is so different as a saxophone player. That being Jazz of course. The funny thing is that when I was young, I used to sing for a rock band. Had long hair and all.

Sara: I’d love to see some pictures of that.

And what about you, Sara?

Sara: Well, I’ve always played hardcore punk and fast music in general. I still play bass in Restos Humanos, which is a deathgrind band with Spanish lyrics, as our singer is originally from Colombia. And I’ve got a studio project called Sixcircles that’s psych-folksy kind of stuff. But my main background is playing bass in hardcore punk bands.

Alberto: I’ve been in several surf rock bands and I have a '70s prog band. I went to a conservatory to study jazz guitar. That’s also where I met Lorenzo. And I met the rest of Messa through a stoner rock band I was involved in.

Marco: I’ve always been in rock bands. I had a band called The Sade that was a mix of Danzig and The Hellacopters, you know that Scandinavian rock sound. Been doing that for 10 years and then Messa came about.

And when you first started Messa did you go into it with a concept in mind, or did the sound clarify itself through jamming together?

Sara: We had a certain idea in mind. We knew we wanted to play doom because it’s something none of us had ever done before. And the more we developed the music the vision developed with it. It went hand in hand.

Still, I’ve heard my fair share of old school doom bands and practically none have ever been as adventurous as you. I had always assumed there was some degree of deliberation behind that, but did it really just come about like that?

Marco: I think we’re very different minds with different musical interests.

Rocco: And we fully put ourselves into it.

Sara: And we work together very closely. We’re bound to each other when we work on songs. But at the same time, we don’t want to be held back by boundaries and get stuck into something. Like using the Rhodes Piano. We just went for it. Said “Why not, let’s do that.” There’s a lot of great '70s doom bands out there that we love, but we as musicians wanted to create something different.

Would you not wanting to get stuck in something also explain the slight shift in sound between 'Belfry’ and 'Feast for Water’?

Marco: Well, for Belfry it was first just me and Sara wanting to do something different with doom. After a few months we shared our work with Rocco and Alberto and started jamming. And for Feast we had a similar approach, wanting to do something new, not be satisfied with the first shot, the first riff.

Sara: And I’d say it was natural that there was change. Belfry was composed rather quickly in a few months. Feast took more time to be developed. We got to know each other better as musicians in between the two records. And like I said, we’re very close and still are growing together, on an individual level, on a musical level and a spiritual level.

And how long was Messa a band before you went into the studio to record 'Belfry’?

Sara: As a serious band? Less than a year. We first got together in November, recorded in August 2015, and Belfry was released in 2016.

Marco: It was very straight forward. We went into the studio with the entire material written and recorded Belfry instead of playing the material live and see how people react to it and then try to make an EP and wait. No big demos. Just straight into the studio.

Put it in the can and you’re out again.

Rocco: One shot, one kill.

Marco: But yeah, straight into the studio, really low budget. But we were sure of what we had done, we believed in our work.

And were you already signed to Aural Music at that point?

Marco: We sent out some stuff and we made a Bandcamp that had a rehearsal recording with some black and white pictures as cover, really simple. And then Emiliano from Aural music wrote us. Said “Please, I want to hear more. It sounds really interesting.” He was also interested because despite being Italian himself, he’s only got like three Italian bands on his label.

And what is the local music scene in general like in your region? You said that you were all based in pretty much the same area, right?

Sara: Well, three of us live a maximum of 10 kilometers away from each other. And we live in tiny places, there’s no huge city. It’s a five minute drive to rehearsals. For some of us it’s a bit longer, like an hour.

Rocco: And there’s a lot of musicians in our area, from all kinds of different genres.

Marco: As far as doom and stoner rock goes though, maybe not as much in our own region, but in the whole of Italy there’s some bands that we want to mention. There’s Grime from Trieste, who play sludge metal. There’s Naga from Naples, a great blackened doom band who are friends of ours.

Sara: Super nice guys, but devastating, especially live. One of the best Italian bands at the moment, in my opinion.

Marco: Thing is, you gotta drive at least one hour to get to most concerts in Italy. What’s happening music-wise is usually restricted to the big cities.

A bit of a thematic jump, but what are some defining records or bands for you?

Sara: I think for each one of us there’s gotta be some Led Zeppelin record in our lists.

Marco: Yeah, I think we gravitate more towards Zeppelin than Sabbath.

Sara: Well I like them both, but I’d say Messa is way more influenced by Led Zeppelin than Black Sabbath. As for other records, the first –- no, all records from The Devil’s Blood. I think that goes for Marco, as well.

Did you catch the Molasses (the new band of The Devil’s Blood vocalist Farida Lemouchi) set yesterday?

Sara: I loved it.

Marco: I think it was missing some of that darkness.

Sara: But I think that was intentional, it was going for something different. It’s a rib of The Devil’s Blood. They can’t be the same. The concert was great. Farida’s voice is amazing.

Marco: As a project beside The Devil’s Blood it was super good concert. If you just treat it as its own thing and don’t think about it coming from The Devil’s Blood. The drummer was great.

I really enjoyed the guitars and unusual structures.

Sara: And the Rhodes Piano and guitars. I love twin guitars. How can you not love them?

Alberto: Disraeli Gears by Cream.

Sara: So, we’ve got Zeppelin, The Devil’s Blood, Cream. Ah, Transilvanian Hunger by Darkthrone.

Rocco: Oh, yeah. I used to listen to that one a lot when I was younger. It’s still good.

Lorenzo: I’d say the biggest influence for me was Lush Life by Joe Henderson. Best record I ever listened to in my life. But I love all the jazz greats and can listen to another one each day.

Marco: One band we haven’t mentioned so far that really changed how we wrote music was Bohren & Der Club of Gore. I cried the two times I’ve seen them live. We exchanged bands when we started writing and Bohren was one of them, and they really got us excited to experiment with music. So, that’s one of the central bands that gave us the push in the direction Messa was going.

Sara: It was game-changing.

See, I was almost waiting for you to name drop Bohren. If I have to explain Messa to somebody Bohren is sure to be mentioned, too.

Marco: Thinking of, there’s this band that also takes cues from Bohren who have released a new record recently. But they’re originally from the whole screamo/post-hardcore scene, and they mix a bit of that into it. They’re called Radare. They’re great, check them out.

I’ll be sure to do that. What was the preparation for Roadburn like? They must’ve approached you first to come and play, right?

Sara: Yeah, they asked us to play. We’re super happy to be here and being able to play at these great venues, work with professionals and play with a lot of awesome bands. It’s such a cool opportunity to be here.

Rocoo: Yeah, it’s quite surreal. I won’t really believe it happened until after the show tonight.

Marco: As for preparations, we rehearsed a lot with Lorenzo to get ready for the show.

So, will you perform more often Lorenzo in the future then?

Marco: We’ll see how it goes. It depends on his price. He’s an expensive dude (laughs).

Sara (to Lorenzo): Are you ready to sleep on a floor for five days and have no showers?

Lorenzo: Yeah, we’ll see how it goes.

Sara: We had a lot of rehearsals for this and we worked hard to arrange the songs and tracklist in way that it flows nicely. We’ll play material from both records as well as a song we never performed live before. We’re anxious and happy to get on stage.

Marco: And shortly after Roadburn, we’ve got a 10-day tour with Sabbath Assembly.

Sara: And we’re playing Hellfest this summer and after that we’ll see what happens.

And is this the first time you’re playing with the full line up?

Sara: Actually the second time. The first time was the release show for Feast for Water.

Marco: We did that show in our rehearsal space, which is in an old church. it was a friends only thing, no facebook event, just invitation by email.

Rocco: And we played together with Gorrch, which is a great black metal band and good friends of ours.

So, what sets have you already seen at Roadburn and which ones are you trying to catch tonight?

Marco: Well, Gold is playing soon, so definitely them.

Sara: Triptykon. We saw Twin Temple.

Rocco: I’ll see Midnight.

Alberto: Heilung.

Rocco: Petbrick was fucking freaky.

Marco: AA Williams.

Sara: Craft is playing tonight but we’ll unfortunately miss them.

Yeah, I was thinking about watching them too, but alas there are clashes. What are your plans for the future? Can we expect some new music soon?

Sara: We haven’t really worked on any new music so far. We’ve been concentrating on preparing for Roadburn and the tour in general mostly. Of course, sooner or later the call for new music will come. I have some ideas I’d like to develop and I think the same goes for the rest of the band.

Last question. Which five objects would one have to lay in a pentagram to summon you?

Rocco: A beer. A piece of wood.

Sara: A burning fire.

Rocco: A burning fire for sure. Something from nature. So I guess water and sand.

Those fortunate enough to have grown up during the glory days of the mixtape know the thrill of discovering new bands – and even new styles of heavy music – by way of a humble Memorex cassette dubbed by that edgy metalhead down the street who never quite fit in at school. My first full fledged album purchase, in fact, was Guns N’ Roses Appetite for Destruction on cassette tape. This was near the peak of Satanic Panic in the ‘80s where bands were being accused of hiding subliminal messages in their songs to corrupt the young by way of a technique called “backward masking.” True story: I once unscrewed the housing for that self-same GnR tape and reversed the spools in hopes that I could find some clandestine dispatches from the Devil (I actually did encounter something on “Welcome To The Jungle,” though it’s hard to say whether my imagination was just playing tricks on me).

For those of you who don’t know what the hell this boomer is going on about, I’ve got something far out to share with you today. It’s an album that simulates the mixtape experience, coming from an artist we’ve featured in these pages before: WILLOW ASH.

The brainchild of Christpher Guest, Willow Ash is a “lo-fi doom metal band from the cold, dark northeast, totally hellbent on creating the muddiest, greasiest, most earthen sound you’ve ever heard. Vermont’s powerful and harsh environment comes through the music. Not to mention the legal weed and one of the largest collections of craft breweries in the country.”

Finding inspiration in a number of musical styles, Willow Ash takes a kind of eclectic “Mr. Bungle” approach to the records produced. The last record we featured in these pages, for example, was a gritty doom-tinged collection of songs called 'Luxcavoida’ (2018). You can imagine my suprise, then, when I encountered the opening moments of 'Willow Ash’ (2019), the band’s first full-length.

We hear the familiar sound (well at least to some of us) of a tape being placed into the tape deck and the play button being pushed in, complete with hiss and all. Christopher, in fact, describes the experience of writing the new LP as “more like a mixtape than an actual album by one band. So I figured fuck it, I’ll just write what comes out of me and see what happens, almost like an experiment.”

Perhaps that is the best way to approach the listening that lies ahead. Here is an eclectic smattering of tracks that exposes the listener to a buzzing musical mind alive with inspiration, emotion, and possibilities. “I’ve been listening to a lot of proto-doom bands recently,” Christopher says, “along with more straight doom and some blackened. I think it shows through on the record.” It’s true: the songs are both raging and engaging, at times even ethereal.

I asked Willow Ash for some background on the album that Doomed & Stoned is debuting this week and have included a track-by-track guide below. “I like to tell stories a lot,” Christopher says, “so most songs are some sort of tale with characters and events (including throwbacks and references to older songs of mine). I used my surroundings for a lot of the inspiration for the sounds and the locations in the lyrics.”

Alright, everyone got a Walkman in hand? Get ready for a spirited adventure into strange electric realms and look for the album out August 31st on Obsidian Realm Records.

Give ear…

VVelcome to the Cvlt Dungeon Cravvl!

I wrote this song to kind of poke fun at the “cvlt” phenomenon, so obviously that needed to include some Dungeon Synth and Raw Black Metal badly inserted into it that sounds like it’s been dubbed 5 or 6 times onto shit $.89 tapes (don’t get me wrong, I am LoFi all the way, and purposely so, but Necrosound is just funny), which leads into the next song.

Cradle My Sig

I wanted the anti-sellout feeling of the first track to directly oppose the second track, which is arguably the most “bro-y” song I’ve ever written. It’s about pointing a gun at a cop and feeling like a tough guy. This is also the first song I wrote in drop A tuning, which I absolutely fell in love with.

The Mysterious Lights Over Victory Bog

I had this riff kicking around since “VVITCHES” and loved it but couldn’t ever find the right way to put it together. Then I randomly started writing the fake news report about ghost lights over the town of Victory, Vermont and the massive bog that is located there. It supposes that animals are having their blood sucked from them during the night while the lights flash over the bog. No one knows what is causing them.

His Hill

The name His Hill is taken directly from the hill that I live on, here in Vermont. My house is the only one up here so during the summer it can get eerie with the fog just four feet off the ground over the pond and the fields surrounding my house. The studio I write and record in looks out over most of this, so it was kind of a direct inspiration literally from just looking up from my guitar. Side note: the percussion in His Hill was me punching the back of an acoustic guitar and dropping a chain on a wood stove then mixing a tambourine in.

Buried Hull

I spent some time in Mexico earlier this year, and looking out over the expanse of the ocean, it hit me how horrifying it must be to be out there in a storm on a ship that is undeniably sinking. That to me is true horror.

The Fall of Lucifer Suite: From God/From Satan/Descent

I’m a sucker for movements in music and prog rock in general and this song is an homage to that. It written as the feelings and dialogue between God and Satan in the final moments before The Fall. I wanted it to seem like two lovers, one naive and one jaded and tired.

Melekath’s Children

An instrumental based on how reading the Immortality and Chaos series made me feel about the antagonists in the story.

Only Masters

Written about the Ancient Alien theory that the Sumerian gods, the Annunaki – ETs that created humans as slaves to mine the earth for resources, rather than being created by “God” because he wanted something to worship him.

Fire Eternal

About coping with immeasurable loss.

Rider Ov The Great North VVoods

A sequel of sorts to VVitches Ov The Great North VVoods From the EP VVITCHES. This story just came to me randomly. The song is pretty self explanatory.

This Ghost of Yours

I think Dark Country or Goth Country or whatever you want to call it is so metal without being metal. It’s heavy without being loud and I wanted to try a bit of that, based on a haunted farmhouse I lived in about 5 years ago.

Writing instrumental heavy music is no easy task, which perhaps explains why so few metal acts attempt it. The role of a singer in many a band, I dare say, is to work their magic on pieces of a song that have been soldered together, creating a cohesive track out of disparate sections that might sound awkward and clunky if exposed. That’s why I’m so impressed when bands like Clouds Taste Satanic, Bongripper, Major Kong, Weedpecker, Psyrup, Atomic Vulture and a handful of others, can present a composition to their listeners with the confidence that will comfortably hold its own. Many have even transcended the genre by conceptualizing their songs as vivid tone poems that can hold their own against more traditionally scored works.

Today, Doomed & Stoned is pleased to bring you a band who has effectively mastered the instrumental metal genre. We first introduced you to Belgian experimental psychedelic doomers DORRE a couple of year back, when the four-piece brought us their full-length debut, ‘One Mic Garage Takes’ (2015), followed by the massive 30-minute track, 'One Collapsed at The Altar’ (2016), writing this about them at the time:

Adriaan De Raymaeker (guitar), Wolf Overloop (drums), Etherik Heyns (guitar), and Andrew Hockley (bass) are downright impressive. The 30-minute heavy instrumental composition is a churning sea that starts tranquil enough, but steadily grows more tumultuous, buttressed by wicked fuzz and gritty downtuned riffs, which gradually become more polyphonic, creating a complex weave of textures that cannot help but pull you into this beautifully tangled web of destruction. For points of reference, think Seattle’s Giza, San Diego’s Deep Sea Thunder Beast, or even the great Inter Arma. There is also an element of calm that one could compare to OM, though the Belgian band always has something more ominous bubbling.

In the interim, the guys served up a substantial split with Denmark doomers Bethmoora, then went right to work on their sophomore album. “After a two year journey of writing, rewriting, sound-searching, recording and collaborating with profoundly talented artists and partners,” Dorre revel, “we can finally say it’s here. We are very proud to be able to present our upcoming full album: a dark and murky sensory undertaking, wandering through the alluring town of Fall River.”

As you might have suspected, 'Fall River’ (2019) is a concept album (my favorite kind of record, if I’m being honest), with each of the six tracks building around the events of the aforementioned settlement. Though wordless, the song titles and the characteristic drama of each alludes to “mysterious deaths, disappearances, and an alleged cult leader,” according to the band. It’s not clear whether the band is referencing Fall River, Massachusetts, which was colonized in 1670 and has quite a twisted history of its own. Regardless, Dorre tells us, “We wanted to bring the emotions of these events into play, each track represents a shard of the spectrum, a glimpse into a troubled mind, a raw feeling.”

Fall River is a powerful, absorbing spin from end to end, with each track holding its own as a single, yet blending together so harmoniously that it feels like the movements of a symphonic suite. Blistering drumbeats welcome us to “Satisfying Sadistic Urges,” which sounds every bit worthy of that ravenous title with its contemporary metal stylings. “Force The Victims” ushers in a strangely melancholic mood, one that suggests uncertainty, perhaps even fear. Once again, Dorre execute the material with conviction that gives the listener certain ground to stand on. “Maximum State of Emotional Arousal” is next, teasing us with the band’s progressive psychedelic leanings, though never evading the sense of the ominous. Violent tremolos underscore the turbulent thematic backdrop, taking us into the heart-quickening fourth track: “The Greatest Amount of Life Force.”

Laura Donnelly from Edinburgh’s King Witch makes a surprise appearance on the penultimate song, “Extracted At The Moment Of Death.” If you have never heard her gloriously commanding singing, you are truly missing out on one of the great vocal talents of our scene. Her falsettos are beyond amazing (afterwards, go listen to King Witch’s monumental album, Under The Mountain, one of my top picks from last year’s releases). I’m so happy that Dorre collaborated with Laura for this one. It adds an important anchor to Fall River that lends additional gravitas to the already weighty numbers that preceded it.

Dorre’s excursion into madness ends with the album’s namesake track, which plays with some unconventional tones and scales that summon a disorienting atmosphere that is at once surreal and urgent. Recorded by Jean-Pol Van Hamme and Thomas Stadnicki at Magnet Studio’s, and mixed and mastered by Chris Fielding at Skyhammer, who combined did a remarkable job of capturing the glorious range of sound, from its most grandiose heights to its basest downtuned depths.

Fall River is the perfect record to thaw out your winter and perhaps make you more open to exploring new music again. The LP will be issued on high quality, 180 gram vinyl, with its first pressing getting a limited edition release consisting of 100 colored albums, as well as 200 black slabs of wax. You’ll soon be able to purchase it in multiple formats here on February 1st. Recommended for fans of Elder.

Give ear…

Some Buzz

Dorre is a four-headed instrumental band with drone, psych, stoner and noise influences out of Leuven, Belgium. The band was born at the Rock Café in Leuven when Adriaan De Raymaeker and Wolf Overloop decided to head up to the attic that Pektop (Adriaan’s former band) used to rehearse. Picking up a guitar and settling behind the drums respectively, noise began to fill the room. Deep, dark, heavy riffs were made and quite possibly enjoyed by several blocks of flats and houses around the building. No big plans were made. One show every year, free beer, towers of cabs and amps, guest musicians joining in the jam.

After several years of this continued tradition, Dorre was asked to play more shows. Obligingly, several small stages around Leuven were played and Erik Heyns joined the steady line-up. Deciding that the time had come to widen the scope of Dorre, a more serious approach was taken to write long pieces of music that incorporated every aspect of each musician. A cohesion of doom, noise, psychedelic rock, blues and stoner was organically formed between the two guitars and the drums.

In 2015 Dorre played a select set of shows as build-up towards an EP release in December. The EP was made and released following a first stint outside of the borders, touring throughout England and Scotland in January of 2016 and sharing the stage with many great bands. By mid-2016, longtime friend and sound guy Andrew Hockley joined the line-up, taking up bass duties for the band. Now, more than ever, Dorre is focused on creating dark, heavy music and playing immense live sets. This year, they will continue to win hearts and expand minds with their most ambitious album yet, 'Fall River’ (2019), releasing independently on multiple physical formats on February 1st, 2019.