"Desolation" seems like a pretty fitting title for Winnipeg Sludge Doom trio Ogimaa's new EP. It's dark, cold, and full of misery. The first track "Fallen Empire" starts off with a melancholic/bleak intro riff that seems pretty tame, but then when these dudes finally roar, they fucking let it rip, teeth and all. The music itself feels like getting hit by a wave of filled with nothing but dead trees and roadkill. Every down stroke feels like being underneath the foot of a giant troll, lumbering around in a doomed and trivial existence. The mix here is top notch with every part coming out the way it was intended to be. Nothing is ever too muddy or too fuzzy. The guitars have the right amount of distortion for an awesome sludge tone that is less syrupy and has an impact closer to a sledgehammer. Detuned and fucking heavy! The bass has a nice distorted growl, especially in those moments when its isolated and not just supporting the weight of the guitars. The drums pound angrily with great fury that never drags and has purpose striking forward. The vocals have a nice mix between something harsh and a singing scream. Speaking of which, the drummer is the one doing the vocals on this one. Not like the guitar and bass are doing the vocals, and the drummer does the back up. He's the only one doing them! So fucking bravo on that, because I hardly see enough of that! Overall this a pretty enjoyable EP. It will be over before you know, and have you wanting more which every good release should strive to do. Cheers! -Samir
Vermiforme have the nastiest Stoner/Sludge/Doom in South America. If someone wants to dispute me on this, that's cool but I'm sure I'm pretty close to being right. One thing that threw me off about this album is that it's actually a live recording. What tipped me off is when the vocalist said "gracias" and people were cheering. I don't maybe it was the intro that did it, but overall the sound quality is fucking top notch, as I'm guessing this is exactly how the dudes wanted it to sound like in a studio setting. Without listening to their older stuff but just glancing at it I can tell there's a good chunk of older tunes on here. However, if this is your first introduction to the band I think it works as a way to discover and then go back to their first two releases. The only band who I can compare their sound to is probably Conan, but I feel like they're the gold standard now as far as Doom bands go, along with Bongripper and Monolord. They're a little bit nastier than Conan and definitely have more of a Stoner vibe than they do. They just sound so filthy and disgusting it's soothes me. Plus they don't scream in English it's all Spanish, so kudos to them for not conforming to a global audience. Plus the singer has a very unique sounding voice. It's guttural, harsh, raspy, deep and most importantly menacing. It's like I'm not sure I wanna meet the dude because he'd probably scare the fuck out of me. It's also worth noting that their cover of Black Sabbath's "Solitude" (mellow as fuck) is played brutal as fuck. I wasn't so sure when I read the track listing, like are you sure you guys wanna cover that one with the way you sound? It kinda doesn't fit. However, they take the tune and destroy and crush it until it becomes their own with their own sound. Overall I really dug this, I'm definitely gonna check out their older shit and hope they make some new filthy/nasty Stoner Sludge Doom riffs in the near future. Cheers! -Samir
Like I mentioned in my review of "Agnozia" (which you can view right here) Subetroth defy any sort of categorization. They're definitely heavy as fuck and seem to be somewhat grounded in Stoner/Sludge/Doom, but from there they kinda just do whatever they want. Subetroth create a sound that's original and unique for a sub-genre of metal that sees lots of imitators and duplicators, and I wanted to pick their brains to figure out how these Avant Sludge Fiends do what they do.
Super Dank Metal Jams: So how did you guys form?
Scott- It started with me and former member, Justin Cook (Ravena, Botulist), while we were writing material for
Ravena, which is a post-rock/post-metal group of sorts. We both realized we had more of a metal background with
each other and decided to try and make something a little heavier. So, I hit up Frank, whom I’ve known since we
were in high school, and had a tech-metal band with some years later.
Frank- Yeah, he hit me up and said he was starting a Doom metal project, and I was like “What the hell is doom
metal?” He said he thought I would be good at it, and I was looking for a reason to get back into playing again after
our 10-year hiatus from playing together. Scott told me to come through and meet and Justin and see how the
chemistry worked. So, they taught me their first song, which was ‘Okker’s Shanty’, and we all clicked. Then I just
started writing riffs.
SDMJ: Who are your biggest influences and inspires you?
Frank- Me and Scott listened to a lot of shit like Cephalic Carnage, Candiria, Converge, Nasum, and Soilent Green
when we were in high school.
Scott- I think we both agree Cephalic’s ‘Exploiting Dysfunction’ is one of the greatest metal albums ever made. It
was flawless in its delivery and dynamic presence.
Frank- Hell yeah, and bands like Mars Volta and At The Drive-in, I like that kind of shit.
Scott- I’d have to say that Soilent Green was probably the biggest contributing factor to my particular writing style.
Cephalic Carnage just gave me the balls to be unafraid to try weird and obscure shit that no one else was doing. I
think we’re both inspired by groups who didn’t fit into any particular genre or scene. At that time (late 90’s, early
00’s), you still had to sift through CDs at the local music store and read hard copy magazines to get a glimpse of what
was going on in metal. There was no way to listen to any of these groups before buying the actual physical album
back then. Needless to say, most albums were one and done. But the few gems we found or came across totally
shaped how we viewed metal from there on out.
SDMJ: What is your songwriting process?
Scott- Dropbox.
Frank- I would be at home, find some time to write some riffs, and record them on the phone and send them to our
Dropbox folder where Scott would construct some the tracks based on what we would send.
Scott- Frank has like 70 riffs currently still sitting in our ‘Riff Bank’ folder.
Frank- I have some more.
Scott- As far as what we try and accomplish with our particular sound, we wanted to find a way to make music that IS
agonizing. Not just sounds like it, not just lyrics that convey the message, it needed to be painful. For ‘Native Alien’,
we were bullshitting around about what the sound would be like, and Justin mentioned that he had a fretless 7-string
he had used for some experimental black-metal stuff he was working on. We thought it would be cool to have some
elements like that in our sound, but then he wrote the last riff of ‘Res Judicata’, and me and Frank were like “Fuck.”
Frank- Yeah, we can’t just have that one part be fretless, we couldn’t even play it on our fretted guitars. We made the
commitment, right then, with that riff, that we HAD to be a fretless band. So, then we went back, and essentially
“defretted” all of our material and gave it more of a sleazy sound that comprised Native Alien into what it is.
Scott- We went from doing something we thought might just fit in with all the other doom/sludge, to doing something
nobody is doing, which is committing an entire metal band/sound to fretless instruments.
SDMJ: How did you write for Agnozia?
Scott- After ‘Native Alien’ dropped, we realized we weren’t doing the fretless thing enough, mostly because we had
deconstructed fretted riffs into fretless ones. Not only that, it seems like even if we did, we still weren’t blurring
enough lines to step out of the flock. So, I figured we should do something more experimental that probably won’t be
acceptable for most doom/sludge followers, who are into some version of the Sabbath-worship sound. I realized
quickly that, to me, the heaviest genre of music in the world was based on some sort of 70’s detuned vibe, and I’m
not really into that at all, and honestly disagree. Frank and I came from the dirtier side of the underground, and we
learned that we actually fit more into the “Sludge” category than doom. But we were really into what bands like
Bongripper and Thou were doing, so we didn’t know that we had to make a hard stance on where our band was
going.
So, for the second release, we had to get weird. We had to try things that let it be known that we weren’t gonna just
spit out the same record over and over. Back when were actually still writing and recording for ‘Native Alien’, I had
shown Frank a song of a local Folk artist (Josh Davenport) and was telling him how cool I thought it would be to
eventually cover his song ‘Preacher, Drunken Killer’, but it was just an idea and nothing came of it at the time. So,
some time had passed after NA released, and I watched ‘Black Snake Moan’ and thought, “Holy shit, we should
totally pay tribute to the sound that influenced THE sound.” Black Sabbath was heavily influenced by the blues, and
my favorite style was Delta Blues. Just one guy, with a guitar and a slide. After the movie ended, I went into my
studio and wrote the intro to ‘Rubber Band Moan’ with no intention of making it heavy, I was just inspired in that
moment. What the song turned into was bringing the influence of what heavy music is to us in full circle, making sure
to understand that we had to do something different than everyone else to pay REAL tribute to those who came
before us.
So RBM was actually written first, and we had the idea of covering Josh’s PDK, and we thought we should just do an
experimental EP that reflects on the significance of American musical heritage.
SDMJ: What has compelled you to combine Sludge/Doom and Avant Garde music?
Scott- Well Avant-Garde in of itself is void of description. We like heavy music…
Frank- And what heavy is to us. We are the only all fretless band that we know of that is doing what we’re doing, and
being fretless changes the way you write things. Riffs can’t just be power chords and 5ths, we actually have to
compose who will be playing what note so as to not create such a heavy out-of-tune warble that can be substantial
for a low as we tune and being fretless. I mean, our guitars are tuned like basses (E1), and the bass is tuned down to
E0. That’s 20.6 Hz and up that we have to ensure precision playing.
Scott- Exactly. So it sounds like what we’re doing is really simple, and it is as far as understanding the building of
the riffs, but we had to practice a lot in order to get the timing of our slides right, and even just exact hand placement
was a learning curve. We had to come up with new vernacular that we had never used before in other bands when
describing where a particular slide would start and end, and how fast it should be. Like “Ok, so start at the 3 fret, and
slide up to 6 ½…” or “roll your finger forward/back a little more on this part” and shit like that.
Frank- So when we decided on the fretless thing, the idea was exciting for what we could come up with. In the
creative process, it just opens up possibilities and makes you step outside the norm, or changing what’s been done.
We went back and did what we called “defretting” all of our material, like taking out chunky linear progressions and
turning them into slides to give a much more uneasy feeling…
Scott-Which was heavier to us than anything we have experienced. The music was uncomfortable, and yet fun and
sometimes playful.
Frank- And made us giggle.
Scott- Yeah, we knew that when we started acting like little school girls over a particular riff, we were going in the
right direction.
SDMJ: Where did the idea of adding instruments such as the banjo into a doom song come from?
Scott- I remember one of Zakk Wylde’s old albums, Pride and Glory. The opener of that album had a banjo that introduced the
band who then came in and played the same riff. I thought that was so cool back then when it came out and apparently, it
never left my mind when we finally decided the theme of ‘Agnozia’. The guy who played for us, Chandler Pratt (Good Luck Thrift
Store Outfit, The Little Fuller Band), is actually a fucking monster on guitar, but also plays a savage mandolin and pretty much
whatever else he wants. He and I were in our first band together as kids, and it only made sense to me to have him come in on
the project. I gave him no direction, except for “play banjo here”. He went with some sort of a Celtic highlands/Middle Eastern
vibe on it that still managed to keep the integrity of American history. There’s no way that song would even be on the album if
he hadn’t done what he did, it’s the catchiest part of the album for us.
SDMJ: I saw in the bandcamp tag for Agnozia that you had put concept album in there. What are the concepts, themes, and ideas explored on this album?
Scott- There was no continuous theme for the album from song to song, but the album as a whole is a tribute to American folk and blues music. We tried to incorporate sounds from the world of old (old for our country anyway), and sort of honor the contributions that came to shape most major genres of music in the world. And honestly, it was just a fun concept that was easy for us to entertain. So each song has its own story that stands by itself from the album, but I tried to write the lyrics to where they had purpose and meaning to me, but are vague enough for the listeners to interpret a meaning for themselves. PDK is all of Josh's original lyrics, barring the one spot/bridge where we added our own riffs to the song, and I tried to write in a way that respected his song while saying something that I would yell in a SUBETROTH song. There is no set way we come up with arrangements other than conceptualizing an idea and trying to figure out a way to sonically portray that idea. We would run all sorts of ideas through the ringer. Sometimes shit would work the first try, while other riffs/ideas/deliveries never made it to the album. We would just experiment by literally cutting and pasting demo riffs in Logic Pro, add a generic beat for tempo, and listen, listen, listen. I think the benefit of being a studio band is that we spend WAY more time listening to ourselves than we we do actually playing our instruments, which is sort of unique from the way a traditional band operates. We have no idea how our material works on a crowd, so it hasn't shaped our understanding of what we're supposed to be doing. We just tinker with everything until it's something we like to listen to, not to play or perform. For Agnozia, it was American folk and blues. For the next one, we'll try and ruin some other genre (or genres) of music. Not everyone will dig what we do, but blurring genre lines is the only way new shit gets created, and we want to make stuff people haven't heard before. Otherwise, we're just doing a slight variation of what's been done over and over in doom and sludge. Doing that is very uninteresting to us.
Frank- For ‘Ungrown Tug’, Scott came with a really cool intro riff with the purpose of having a banjo on it. By this
time, we had PDK and RBM conceptually written, but we wanted the party-like opener for the EP. Some of these riffs
were in our Riff Bank, and we had a rough idea on which riffs we were going to use, even though some of them were
written on fretted guitars. Then Scott mangled the shit out of them and defretted them…
Scott- “Let’s slow this riff to ¼ speed…”
Frank- Jesus! He added a whole sort of swag to these riffs and made them new. Ungrown Tug was the last song we
wrote out of the 3, and after hearing it in it’s almost finished state, I was like “We need a fuckin’ harmonica in here or
something.” So like with the blast beat section in Ungrown Tug, it’s the same riff as what’s being played under the
harmonica solo, but Scott did what he does, arranged it, and then I heard what I had originally wrote in a new way,
hence the need for a harmonica. That with the banjo only made sense. The song had a very fun-vibe to it, and
having Nathan come in was exactly what made the song complete.
Scott- All the songs needed that little bit of out-of-genre flair. For PDK, the song in its raw format is the song of a
broken, but good man. The progressions in the original are traditional, diatonic minor in delivery, and it was that
along with his lyrics that made me want to cover the song. I wanted to capture a fractured mind, but also have it be
beautiful in a bitter-sweet sort of way. So for the intro, we took his original recording, and added some horror-like
concepts to it so as to give the feeling of the whole despair thing or whatever. When the band kicks in, we wanted a
big theatrical presence to counter the intro, and then we brought Reese Rose in to give it that haunting, beautiful
quality….
Frank- Which was the final touch to a song that was missing something until she came in. Even though we worked
on the delivery a lot, the progression was still Josh. So we decided to put the two riffs that are obviously outside of
the original song in, the first one from me, the second one from Scott.
Scott- Yeah Frank’s riff had that, “Ok, back to SUBETROTH” feel to it that let stood on its own, and allowed for a
break to bring the band back in, in a familiar way. The second riff goes back to us needing to show the fretlessness of
the band, and not some gimmick that just makes it harder for us to play shit people with fretted guitars can do. I tried
to replicate some sort of hybrid speaking-in-tongues thing with someone who suffers from mental illness that solely
pays tribute to the title of the song, and Josh himself.
Frank- And RBM is just a SUBETROTH song, with a cool intro.
Scott- Done.
SDMJ: What do you think is the best way for you to execute writing for a concept album, and how would that change
for the future?
Scott- Well like Frank said, it goes back to being fretless. We almost have no option but to write differently when it
comes to our brand of music, whatever that is. Being unpredictable keeps expectations of us low, and allows us to
experiment with whatever we want since we’re still a new band with little to no presence in the scene because we are
a studio band. I mean, now, it’s just me and Frank. Just us doing whatever the fuck we want with no social or fan
obligations. We got a little buzz from Agnozia, but it’s still nothing compared to what bands that actually tour get.
People stumble across us, and for that, we don’t have to take what we do too seriously. So we don’t.
Frank- We just get after it, make sure we have enough material to work with, and not be scared to be experimental or
conceptual, no matter how silly the idea might be. Just fuckin’ execute.
SDMJ: How do you stay creative?
Scott- Don’t listen to metal.
Frank- Yeah I gotta step away from metal pretty often. Gotta go back to the stuff that makes you feel good, and then
come back with the state of mind that you’re gonna come back with some heavy ass shit. I find that I don’t like a lot of stuff
these days, not much metal other than the old stuff I grew up with. Seems like there’s not enough risk takers in
metal, especially in the doom/sludge genre, and it’s kind of irritating.
SDMJ: What are you currently listening to, and what should we check out for the blog?
Frank- Hall & Oates, Slightly Stoopid, Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, 311, The Cars, Minus The Bear, Phil Collins,
Classic Rock, 80’s shit, and SUBETROTH. I don’t know, just pretty much whatever is good.
Scott- I found myself caught up in the recent trap/twerking/dub phenomenon. I love that shit, Buku, Knife Party,
Toadface, Excision, and Celldweller. I also love Tech N9ne and Krizz Kaliko, those dudes rap like Meshuggah does
polyrhythms. I know none of what Frank and I are listening to helps the people who listen to heavy music or are
reading this probably, but if had to recommend something, I got one, Author & Punisher. I saw that dude open up for
Weedeater and it was one of the heaviest things I’ve ever heard in my entire life. That dude fuckin’ gets it. -Samir
Shrouded in a plume of putrid smoke is Burn the Chapel - a one-man stoner/doom baron from Detroit - and it smells like there's something new burning. "Phases", his latest EP, is a dirty, instrumental riff mammoth intent on leaving you in a tepid haze. The release is composed of four original songs, plus a re-released bonus. Almost everything on the first three is played with a long draw - perfect for spacing out and letting the music put your mind out to pasture. The guitar solos chirp with tons of classic rock flair, pairing perfectly with the slow churn underneath. Afterwards, the title track starts with a similar style, but halfway through it shifts and the song simmers with something a little more modern. "Monolith", the bonus track, was lifted from an earlier EP, but it's been redone for this release. Once you hear it, you'll totally understand why - it's an awesome, desert-tinged sonic journey with a monstrous solo. It's something that will really have you wandering the soundscape, so it's worth putting out twice! There are some serious fumes coming off of these tracks, so if you need to get lost in your head for a while Burn the Chapel can show you the way. -Brandon
In an act of genre-bending defiance, two titans of doom have teamed up to introduce some wretchedness into traditional American folk songs. Khemmis, whose sophomore album "Hunted" seemed to make an appearance on every "Best of 2016" list last year, and Spirit Adrift, a one-man master of melancholy, just put out "Fraught With Peril", a split where each band covers a classic tune with origins in the early 20th century. Both songs are completely uncompromising and put the heaviness second to none. The bands each have a style that draws the misery out of these songs to help you experience a fragment of the pain that inspired them. Khemmis tackles "A Conversation With Death", a song that was originally written by Lloyd Chandler but was twisted by oral tradition until it was overshadowed by a more popular variation, "O Death". Their rendition starts with a haunting, powerful vocal intro before divulging into a deep, full-band heavy metal dirge. It's definitely got a lot of the sound that they are known for - slow, tragic, and well produced. Afterwards, Spirit Adrift sings lamentations on "Man of Constant Sorrow", most often attributed to Dick Burnett. Again, the track starts with vocal harmonies before swiftly descending into a woeful piece with a wide breadth. The rhythm hits a low thunder and the vocals moan with grief, but the guitar leads bring in a touch of southern twang that hearkens back to the song's roots. On their own, these pieces are awesome, but paired together they become a massive combo that speaks to the timelessness of human suffering. This is definitely more than a couple of cover songs, this is a continuation of musical legacy. -Brandon
Norska features members from the band Yob, and while there might be some sonic strands of their DNA in there, the band's brand of Sludge is more in line with Red Fang and High on Fire. Given the artwork of "Too Many Winters" don't expect any bong worship on this album. The art reflects the cold darkness that prevails throughout this release. Unlike the usual stuff we expect from Yob the music has more uptempo moments and moves with a sense of urgency, which is not your typical doom metal pacing. The riffs are fiery and slightly blackened, with touches of dark atmospheric psych. There are times when the music does pull back to play slower, and I think that it gives those moments more of a chance to ring to let the vocals shine through and be more melodic and create great harmonizing parts. Speaking of which, the vocals aren't too harsh. I mean they're screamed and growled, but there are also those moments where there's singing, and it really ties in with the song and doesn't stand out as being obnoxious or out of place. The guitars and bass have a gruffness to them but not anything overly distorted. Overall, great shit coming out of Oregon when it comes to doom. Keep up the good work! Cheers! -Samir
Hexxus play sludge infused post metal, that stays aggressive and moves along sluggishly with anguished torment and despair. Under the thick layer of caked on crusty sludge produced by the heavy combination of detuned bass and guitar are well written beautiful harmonies that remain bleak like the rest of the music. This is a good thing. It's definitely interesting music and not your typical sludge metal fare. There's some really good grooves and riffage going on with this album, and when these dudes heavy, it's massive as fuck. It's like walking through a cloud of dirt with rocks coming at you from all directions. The band pulls you into the mud while being hogtied then dragged through the muck, then plucks you out and beats you slowly with mallets. The vocals on "Tunguska" remain pissed throughout. No clean singing whatsoever, and that's fucking by me. Fuck singing. But really I enjoyed the vocals. Nasty and threatening as fuck. In fact I enjoyed the whole things, which is why I'm writing about it. I mean you should give it a listen as well. Cheers! -Samir
