For the past several months, Doomed & Stoned has been invading the airwaves, broadcasting a tight, one-hour block of heavy underground music with a different theme each week on Trendkill Radio.

This week, we explored the theme of Cosmic Doom, with expansive, galactic pieces from Slomatics, Space Witch, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, DÖ, Ered Gulder, and more!

Remember, you can catch Choice Cuts live every Thursday at 6pm PST, 9pm EST at TrendkillRadio.com!

In the meanwhile, here’s the archived broadcast for your listening delight…

Psycho Las Vegas

A Visual Diary

Day Three

~Photographs by Sally Townsend~

~Films by Arturo Gallegos~

For the past week, we’ve sorted through memories of Psycho Las Vegas, as captured by the lens of Sally Townsend. In its second year, the ambitious late summer fest brought us an incredible spectrum of bands from the heavy underground. Too many, in fact, for one photographer to capture. That’s why we dispatched Alyssa Herrman and Elizabeth Gore to help out, and we’ll be looking back at Psycho from their unique perspectives before the year is over.

During Day One, Sally snapped Chelsea Wolfe, Conan, Dark Castle, Fister, Goya, the Melvins, Pelican, Royal Thunder, Sleep, Slo Burn, Toke, Usnea, Vhöl, Wolves In The Throne Room, Young And In The Way, and Youngblood Supercult. On Day Two, she captured Ace Frehley, Blood Ceremony, Carcass, Cough, Cult Leader, Diamond Head, Earthless, Hollow Leg, Inter Arma, Myrkur, Neurosis, Summoner, and Weedeater. For her last day in Sin City, Sally Townsend present a spectacular panorama: Abbath, Cirith Ungol, Cloud Catcher, Cult of Luna, Mastodon, Minsk, Murder City Devils, North, Slomatics, Swans, Warning, Windhand, Year of the Cobra, and Zeal And Ardor.

If you were to ask her, I’m sure Sally would tell you her feet have just about returned to normal, but she’s ready to make the trip again! And travel she will – from an ocean away in Melbourne, Australia – for Psycho Las Vegas 2018. We’ll see you there!

DAY THREE (August 20th, 2017)

ABBATH

CIRITH UNGOL

CLOUD CATCHER

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY

CULT OF LUNA WITH JULIE CHRISTMAS

MASTODON

MINSK

MURDER CITY DEVILS

NORTH

SLOMATICS

SWANS

WARNING

WINDHAND

YEAR OF THE COBRA

ZEAL AND ARDOR

THE GREAT BIG
SLOMATICS INTERVIEW

Would ya believe that in all these years, we’ve never had a chance to do a one-on-one with Slomatics? With the Belfast band making a key appearance in the States this year at Psycho Las Vegas, we figured it was high time to change that. Guitarist David Majury was kind enough to oblige our questions. (Billy)

To start, we’d love to hear your telling of the Slomatics origin story.

The band has been together for 13 years now, which is sort of hard to believe. We formed out of the ashes of a previous band called The Naut in 2004, which all three of us had played in. The bassist of that band became our original drummer, but Marty replaced him in 2012 so it feels like things went full circle. We’ve all done a lot of other bands. Marty and I played in a garage band called The Favourites and a stoner band called Cosmonaut, and Marty played in a whole range of stuff for years from old school hardcore to psych collectives. Chris and I have played in various bands together for around 17 years now.

As for Slomatics, we formed, released two albums, some splits, and seven inches, and toured Ireland and the UK, all being pretty low-key DIY. We then recorded our split with Conan and the previous drummer quit, both of which led us to move things on pretty quickly. With Marty in the band, all restrictions of the previous line-up were removed and in the last five years we’ve released three albums, a seven inch, a digital EP, a soundtrack song, and have studio time booked for our next release. We’ve started travelling a lot more, even though we don’t tour, and have played Desertfest and Roadburn in the last year or so.

What’s at the core of your musical inspiration?

I think that inspiration is often confused with music people enjoy. For example, I listen to PJ Harvey a lot, but I’m never going to really try and write music to sound like her. For us, it’s been more a case of having a certain sound we gravitate towards, but without a specific reference point. I mean, we’re not claiming to be any sort of genre-defying thing, we play heavy, fuzzy rock music, so of course we take something from Sabbath and the Melvins, but I wouldn’t say those bands influence us specifically.

I get most of my inspiration from bands we play with, so seeing Bismuth recently made me think about layers in our sound, or Wild Rocket made me thing about their use of effects, and then I’ll try to interpret those experiences our own way. One band does really stand out though. In our early days, we played a few shows with a band called Like a Kind of Matador who were from Leeds, England. They had such an unusual approach to song structure and guitar playing/tones, which really stuck with me. They’d no bassist, either, which appealed to me, too, and helped me realize that it’s only convention which dictates a band’s line-up. We don’t sound anything like them, but just seeing a band do things their own way with no thought for how they’d be perceived certainly made us want to do the same.

If we were to take peek at your playlist these days, what would we be listening to?

I’ll give you the last five records I’ve bought:

1. Part Chimp – ‘IV’ (2017). Their last record was maybe eight years ago and they’d been on hiatus for years, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this really is their best album yet. Monstrously heavy and sounding completely epic, they out-heavy just about anyone else making guitar music today. Incredible band.
2. Soundcarriers – 'Entropicalia’ (2014). A friend turned me on to this record, and it’s definitely not a doom album. It combines '60s French pop like Serge Gainsbourg with a sort of Can-esque drumming and weirdness, like the soundtrack to some lost arthouse movie.
3. Hornets – 'Witch Hunt’ (2017). Raging hardcore from Belfast! These guys embody what I think of as hardcore, rather than the sort of awful metalcore stuff that passes itself off as hardcore these days. They’ve a real doomy edge, too, which adds a really creepy feel to their sound, and are one of those bands who can make negativity and anger somehow sound uplifting. We’ve played a lot of shows with them and they’re so intense live. Great band.
4. Documenta – 'Drone Pop #1’ (2015). I’m flying the flag for local music here. These guys have been around for a while, but I only really heard them last year and this record has barely left my turntable since. I’ve no idea how to categorize this record. It’s really cinematic, with just amazing textures and guitar sounds, beautifully produced and really moving.
5. Holly Hunt – 'The Wait/Bowling Green’ (2017). This is the most recent 12” from this two-piece. I was a fan of their first album and through nerdy guitar stuff online I hooked up with them, leading to us releasing a split 7" a couple of years back. They’re absolutely amazing, again, hard to categorize, but if you’ve any interest at all in heavy guitar sounds then this will appeal to you. Their sound, a bit like Part Chimp, is almost overwhelmingly huge.

Let’s switch gears now and talk about your own discography. How do you feel about your output to date and do you see a progression, musically?

I suppose I feel proud of it all, just because I know how difficult it is for bands at our level to create any kind of longevity. There’s no monetary reward and for the first few years it’s generally playing to small crowds. I think a lot of great bands just fizzle out, which is always a shame. My friend has a theory that in every town of a certain size there will be at least one amazing band, but that they won’t ever really be heard outside of that town or their own basement. I’ve certainly seen those bands here in Belfast and it’s easy to see why some things don’t last. I feel good that Chris and I kept going, kept being excited about playing music together, and maintained a reasonable prolific output, which in a way is just a reflection of our friendship.

Each record represents where we were at that time, really, so although the early stuff – and all the stuff with the previous line-up, to be honest – feels like a different band, I’m still reminded of how much we enjoyed things at the time. That being said, once Marty joined the band it felt like we’d really opened the door to being able to do all the stuff we’d always wanted to, and the records we’ve done with this line-up are something I feel really proud of.

We practice in a lock-up in an industrial estate here in Belfast. It’s certainly not glamorous or “pro” in any way, and yet there are three great looking records that folk around the world have thought enough of to spend money on. Holding a copy of one of those records in my hands is a very satisfying thing, I’ll not deny it, and I’m sure anyone who releases a record feels the same way. That really blows my mind and it’s a great feeling.

As for progression, that’s the aim. I suppose it’s up to the listener to decide if we’ve achieved it or not. We’ve never deliberately tried to reinvent ourselves, but it felt like we took a leap forward once Marty joined and that each release since has been closer to the sounds in our heads. On the last record, I think we were fairly happy that it sounded like we’d hoped it would and that the songs has the light and shade we’d aimed for. It’s maybe the record where we felt we’d included all the things we’d tried out on the previous two, but hopefully in a more fully realized way.

What’s the Slomatics approach to writing and recording new material?

It’s different every time, really. I think we all have a sort of unspoken role in the band, and we try to work together to our strengths. I write most of the riffs, which are the initial ideas. Often, I sit at home with my iPhone recording wee 20 second segments and building up a load of ideas. Most come to nothing, of course, and probably 70% of them are just me messing about with delay pedals or weird noises. I’ll bring them to the practice room and if the others think there’s something worth working on, then we’ll jam it out and think about dynamics.

Marty often interprets my ideas completely differently to how I envisaged them, which is always a cool moment as the song takes on a more collaborative form. A lot of the last record was written that way. Chris is always a good sounding board for what makes the studio. He’ll always try moving riffs about before dismissing anything, so he’s a great barometer to have. And unlike me, he’s a really technically proficient player, so he’ll have ideas about where chords and things fit in. It really is different every time, though. The last record was basically written by me and Marty, but of the three new songs we’ll record in November, one is fully collaborative with all three of us writing riffs, one is all Marty, and the third is all me. It just depends who has ideas at a given time.

Recording has changed a little through time. We used a great studio called Start Together here in Belfast for 'A Hocht’ (2012) and 'Estron’ (2014), but then switched to Skyhammer for the Holly Hunt split (2014) and 'Future Echo Returns’ (2016). This was mainly as we’re now on Black Bow Records, but also because the studio is so amazing. Chris Fielding from Conan is the engineer at Skyhammer and he has such an amazing ear for heavy sounds. We loved the production he’d done on the Throne and Conan records, so it was a very easy decision to go to his studio. It’s stress free, as Chris is really easy to be around, and we trust his mixing completely. There are very few tweaks ever done. We’ll record the next record in November there, too.

What’s most important when writing a new song: the lyrical concept or those musical ideas you referred to?

It always starts with the music. If the riff isn’t there, then there’s no skeleton to hang the song on. We usually write all the music first and then Marty goes away and writes all the lyrics and melody, although recently he’s started writing sections as we go along. He really does spend a lot of time and effort with the lyrics and it’s not like they’re an afterthought. We’ll often change the structure to create space for where the lyrics will fit, even before they’re written.

Do you plan on booking some shows outside Ireland?

Actually, we play more shows outside of Ireland than we do at home these days. We don’t tour due to work and family commitments, so most of our shows will involve flying into somewhere, playing a show or two, and then flying home. It’s frustrating in some ways, as we end up turning down shows that we know would be amazing, but we all accept that it’s just how it is. It’s not that we don’t love playing Ireland, either, but for a band like ours playing a couple of shows a year is enough, as Belfast is pretty small and folk would get tired of us if we played every weekend. I think I might get tired of it, too! In the last year, we’ve played England a few times, Scotland, the Hostsabbat Fest in Norway, and of course Roadburn, and we’ll be in Las Vegas in August before returning to England in September. We’d love to play away more often, though. There are places like Germany and Sweden we’d love to play. Hopefully in 2018!

You are playing Psycho Las Vegas this August. I believe Billy Goate recommended you to the organizer, who asked for his top picks. How will you prepare for that event? What other bands are you hoping to get to see?

Yeah we are! It’s a bit of a mind-blower, to be honest. We couldn’t believe it when we were asked. I replied to the organizers that we live in Ireland and don’t tour, but they were super cool and keen to have us over. Our mates in Conan and Tombstones have played it before, so we knew a bit about the fest. It’s like a who’s who of the heavy-alternative scene. It should be a real blast, seems like a really well organized set up with an insane lineup.

As for getting prepared, the main thing was sorting out equipment, which is all organized now. Beyond that, it’s literally turn up and play! We’ll probably do something special with Jon from Conan, too.

As for who I’m excited about seeing, all the usual suspects like Sleep, Neurosis, The Melvins, and Corrosion of Conformity. I’m sure they’ll be amazing, as always, but I’m really stoked about seeing stuff I’ve not seen before, like the Brian Jonestown Massacre and a band from Sweden called Domkraft, who I really love. There’s so much: obviously Conan, but the likes of Chelsea Wolfe, Psychic TV, Wizard Rifle, and Murder City Devils will be on my list, too. Hopefully I’ll see as much as possible.

Tell me more about the local scene in Ireland.

Honestly, that’s a whole separate interview in itself. Ireland has always had an amazing history of local music, but I’d say that right now things are better than ever. There’s a pile of doomy stuff going on, with some really great bands like Nomadic Rituals and 7.5 Tonnes of Beard putting out cool music, but the most interesting stuff tends to be at the edges of different scenes. Bands like Maw, Hornets, Documenta, The Bonnevilles, Los Reyes, Junk Drawer, Bosco Ramos, New Pagans, Gnarkats, Hiva Oa, Beauty Sleep, Venus Sleeps, Wild Rocket, Horse, No Spill Blood, Robocobra Quartet – honestly the list is so long.

There are a couple of really great venues like Voodoo and the Black Box, too, run by cool supportive people and with excellent PAs and crew. The scene is generally well supported; we’ve not played to an empty room for years now. There’re some great promoters bringing bigger names through town and putting local bands on bills, which is great, and we’ve a world class studio here, as I mentioned, called Start Together.

For a few years, I noticed that all the best local bands were older folk who’d been around for years, but in the last couple of years there’s been a real run of young bands playing really exciting new music, which is amazing to see, even if it does make me feel old! I suppose my only criticism would be that there could be more crossover between scenes and in the arts, in general, but then that’s true of most towns.

Any cool bands overall that I should check out?

My top three:

• Maw. A two-piece who blend ultra-heavy riffs with amazing melodies that somehow remind me of Pavement and the Melvins simultaneously. They use a weird set-up of hand built amps and pedals, too, so my inner geek finds them very satisfying.
• RoboCobra Quartet. Again, nearly impossible to put in any specific genre. They sound a bit like if Henry Rollins or maybe Steve Albini did a jazz record. Heavy as anything, but with saxophone and no fuzz boxes.
• Documenta. I know I’ve already mentioned this record, but it’s really worth a listen, if you’re a fan of cinematic, hazy textured guitar stuff. In particular, their album Drone Pop #1. Not heavy at all, but with some really creepy interludes. It has that ability to transport me away when I listen to it. It’s just a masterpiece.

If you were headlining a festival and you have the opportunity to choose the bands, who would you choose?

In reality, I’d stick loads of local bands on there, but I think I’ve banged on about that enough, so I’ll go international with this one:

• Pink Floyd. The 'Live at Pompeii’ (1972) era. When we started the band, both Chris and I were really obsessed with that DVD, so in the dream world we’d transport them through time and put the festival in an Italian amphitheater.
• Part Chimp. To this day they’re still the loudest band I’ve ever seen and I think they’d set the standard for colossal riffs at any festival.
• Mudhoney. Being of a certain age, I was a big fan of early '90s fuzz rock. I saw Mudhoney last year and they were even better than when I saw them in '92, so they’d get a spot in my festival line-up, for sure.
• Brothers of the Sonic Cloth. Because it’s Tad Doyle, no other reason required!
• Monoliths. They’re a three-piece with folk from Ommadon and Bismuth, both insanely heavy bands, and the marriage of the two is just as good as I’d hoped, with huge, looping, meditative riffs. I’d like something to trance out to at the fest, so these guys would do that nicely. Plus, they use about 100 amps live, so the stage would look really cool between all that and Floyd’s gong.
• Conan: Yes, they’re old mates of ours so hanging out would enhance my festival experience, but also because they’re just so good. Their wall of Green amps never ceases to impress, either.

I’m old, so I’ll keep this festival line-up to a one-day affair, as I’d be too wrecked for a second day. Between Monoliths, Part Chimp, Conan, and Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, my eardrums would need a rest, so I’ll go for John Carpenter. I think his stuff is really amazing, and if he played the ‘Lost Themes’ (2015) material I’d be able to relax nicely, maybe in one of those collapsible camping chairs with the drink holder. I can’t imagine much better.

Last of all, I’ve always been curious about the meaning of songs like “Estronomicon,” “In The Grip of Fausto,” and “Into The Eternal” off of the latest album, 'Future Echo Returns’ (2016).

We get asked about the meanings of specific songs quite a bit and I always feel like I’m ducking the question a little when I answer. The reason is that we don’t like to spell the songs out for the listener. We’d prefer people take their own meaning or interpretation of the song. I know that sounds pretentious, but when I listen to music I like to be transported somewhere by it and that experience may be the same for everyone else or perhaps it’s totally different. I like to believe that the latter is the case and that what might be transcendental for one person could be really superficial for another – both are fine.

The aim of our music is to be whatever people want to take from it. All that being said, yes, there is a narrative to the album, which follows on from and concludes the story of the previous two records. We’d always intended these to be a trilogy with a beginning and an end. This album hopefully feels like a conclusion. We tried to sequence the songs to create a sense of being on a journey with a certain pace and feel. We do have a clear story to the record, but as I said, it’s up to you to decide what that might be. We try to leave song titles and lyrics open to interpretation. Hopefully some folk pick up on that, but at the same time if anyone just wants to stick on a record and crack open a beer hopefully it works on that level, too. Maybe the next record will be more straightforward and we’ll have a song called “Viking Skulls,” which is actually about the skulls of Vikings – you never know.

The October Doom Chart Countdown

Here it is! Sunday’s radio broadcast, which aired live on Grip of Delusion Radio. In this episode I count down the Top 25 albums from the Doom Charts this month. And now, the playlist:

Intro: IRONAUT “Fire Eater”
#25 Church of the Cosmic Skull “Is Satan Real?”
#24 ATLAS “Devil’s Delight”
#23 Dopethrone “Skag Reek”
#22 Mephistofeles “Cursed To Death
#21 Geezer "One Leg up”
#20 Wretch “Icebound”
#19 ZED “So Low”
#18 Fuzz Evil “Odin Has Fallen”
#17 Troll "Savage Thunder"
#16 Asteroid “The Calling”
#15 Crobot “Not For Sale”
#14 Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard “Y Proffwyd Dwyll”
#13 Major Kong “Energy Whip”
#12 The Hazytones “Fool’s Paradise”
#11 Devil To Pay “Knuckledragger”
#10 Shadow Witch “The Shadow Witch”
#9 Slomatics “In The Grip of Fausto”
#8 Baby Woodrose “Freedom”
#7 Fire Down Below “Dashboard Jesus”
#6 Truckfighters “The 1”
#5 The Rare Breed “Echoes”
#4 Lord Mountain “Under The Mountain”
#3 1000mods “Into the Spell”
#2 Brant Bjork Tao of the Devil
#1 Holy Serpent “Sativan Harvest”

Information on purchasing the albums heard in this week’s broadcast here.

More heavy riffs in our scene-by-scene compilation series here.

(Painting by Zdzislaw Beksinski)