Flash forward a couple months later and guitarist Andy “Dinger” Beresky announces on the forum that he’s quitting the band and proceeds to go on a months-long bridge-burning expedition, trolling his own threads with pseudo-mysticism and purposeful confusion, sending misleading emails to Black Pyramid industry contacts, behaving in a manner so paranoid and disruptive it results in being the first-ever ban on the board. As great as it felt to see the trio at Roadburn, the unraveling that ensued following their return from a European run alongside Blood Farmers was equal parts painful and sad, on both a personal and critical level.

For all intents and purposes, the band was done. And yet, they stood on the eve of the release of their second full-length, II, through MeteorCity. Bassist Gein and drummer Clay Neely were left in the awkward position of having to decide whether to press on and and try to replace Beresky or cut the band’s life short just as it seemed to be hitting its stride creatively. In the end, Neely and Gein opted to continue Black Pyramid, bringing in respected Massachusetts guitarist Darryl Shepard (Milligram, Hackman, Blackwolfgoat) to fill the vacant slot, and pressing forward almost immediately with writing new material, which will see release this year as part of a split.

And as the summation of what the original incarnation of the band was able to accomplish, II is an utter triumph. Produced by Neely himself and mixed by the band in conjunction with Justin Pizzoferrato, it revels in the glory of battle as did the preceding 2009 self-titled, but adds melodic depth and a range of composition less limited by the confines of genre or expectation. With II (review here), Black Pyramid were becoming their own band. Now moving past it, they have to become a new one. And quick. The announcement that the band would continue came packaged with word of an impending performance at this year’s London Desertfest at the start of April.

In what I later found out was his first phoner interview, Neely discussed these issues of Black Pyramid‘s demise and rebirth, as well as the processes of writing and recording II and bringing Shepard in to be a part of the Mk. II lineup. There was some more said off the record about Beresky leaving, but for the purposes here, I wanted to keep the focus on the fact that Black Pyramid, true to the warrior nature fused into their lyrics, are fighting their way forward despite what others might have expected to hold them back. I hope that comes though.

Complete Q&A with Clay Neely is after the jump. Please enjoy.

When did you know you’d keep the band going after Andy left?

I guess it was really just a matter of a couple weeks. We just chose to sit on it, because we were basically waiting to see how long the shitstorm would last, to be honest. When it appeared like it was just not gonna end, we started talking to Dan, and we were like, “Look. We don’t want to fan the flames here or anything to make matters worse, but we just thought because of the circumstances surrounding everything, we’re gonna keep the band going.” We just didn’t want to add more gas to the fire.

How did Darryl enter the picture?

He actually sent a private message on Facebook or something saying hey, asking what was going on, offering condolences and seeing if we ever wanted to jam. He never implied he wanted to be in the band at all – he just wanted to see if maybe we wanted to get together at some point and work on some stuff. That’s when I just countered it and said, “Would you be open to playing with us?” And he was really open to it and said, “Yeah, it’s worth a shot. Let’s give it a go.” We had a practice, and all the systems were go. It was really nice. Really relaxed and laid back, and it felt like an enormous weight had been lifted off our shoulders. The light at the end of the tunnel and all that other good stuff.

Have you heard from Andy at all? Do you have any sense of what happened there?

Yeah, I talked to him a couple times. When everything first happened, he sent out a letter to both me and Gein, saying he was tired of the industry and this, that and the other, and that he was going – basically the same stuff that he said on the forums – that he was going to go with his fiancee and live with his mom out in Belchertown, which is kind of far from here, and just retire from music. And we were just kind of like, “Okay…” All the gear was at the practice space, so I went and got all that stuff and kept it up at my studio, and basically I didn’t hear from him too much between the last couple months, except for just trying to orchestrate a time for him to get the gear. He doesn’t have a car, and to make a long, boring story short, yeah, I’ve talked to him a couple times. He seems okay, but you know, he even said it himself. I said, “I kind of miss talking to the guy I used to be in the van with,” and he said, “Well, he doesn’t exist anymore. I’m a different person now, so there’s no reason to think you could ever speak to that person again.” Just really weird, cryptic stuff like that, and I was like, “Okay, good luck with that” (laughs). Sure, I’ve talked to him a couple times, but it’s just basically email trying to tie up loose ends in terms of getting his gear and wanting to donate or give it away. Now he’s selling it. I don’t know what’s going on.

Was the album release ever in jeopardy?

I don’t think so. I spoke to Dan as soon as I got the email, and I was like, “I just wanted to let you know as soon as possible, because I know people aren’t in the business of releasing albums from broken-up bands or dysfunctional bands, but since you’re the one sinking money into this, I thought you should know as soon as possible, and if it’s a no-go, I totally understand and no bad feelings or anything like, that.” But he was like, “No, we’re still 100 percent going with it, no matter what arises.” That was a huge relief, because we’d spent all summer working on it, and I don’t know if it was [Andy]’s insecurity about it, having to bottle up whatever overblown debut CD that we did or whatever, but I don’t know if he thought that if he completely disassociated himself with it and called it crap that he would be free of any criticism directed towards him. I don’t know, man. There’s a million possibilities out there, and it doesn’t really change anything.

In the meantime, though, you guys did Roadburn, you did Europe with Blood Farmers, you came back as the conquering heroes and made this killer record. Are you thinking of this album as the culmination of the band to this point?

I would think so, yeah. This year was definitely the high-water mark as far as where we went and what we were able to do. It’s obviously definitely a closing of a chapter. It’d be foolhardy to be like, “Nah man, the best is yet to come!” but that’s the thing, the tour was a success. We actually made money on the European tour. We had a blast. Everything was taken care of over there, and Roadburn was Roadburn. I don’t know who doesn’t have a good time over there. We played a great set, it was a fantastic adventure, but I think as soon as we got back here – I think Andy even mentioned it in that interview, in his last one – coming back and voluntarily going into a mental hospital or whatever. I think he was going really manic over in Europe. At the time we just chalked it up, because we’re all coffee drinkers, and we’re all really excited and whatnot, but I think when he got back over to the States, something didn’t click right. Something happened with his job too, but I don’t know what happened. I think it was at that point things started going downhill in his mind or whatever. I don’t know. But yeah, this year was just aces, man. I had a blast (laughs).

Tell me about recording yourself for the album. If you can step back from all the bullshit that’s ensued, I’m thinking of the process of putting this record to tape.

When we were over in Europe, we had plenty of time in the van to devise what we were going to do. Basically, what we’ll do – due to the geographical distance between the band members – we’d have Andy come in and lay down a rough track of a song. A real bare skeleton. Then I’d go in there and lay down the drums and then bring in Andy to fill in the guitar, and then bring in Gein to fill in the bass, then Andy would finish the vocals and whatever extraneous solos or whatever, if I needed to do keyboards, things like that, I would put those on and make sure everything was in place – check it off, “Yup, everything’s good” – and then once everything’s checked off, we bring in a fresh set of ears to help mix, because at that point, it’s not that you lose objectivity, but you want that fresh set of ears to hear something you maybe didn’t or who might have a different idea of a direction the song could take. It’s just things like that. It’s nice, because you’re not dealing with a full-on producer, but at the same time, you’re with someone you can ask, “Was that good? What do you think?” Justin’s a good mix, I would say, and just to make sure everything’s hunky-dory, I would say. But everything was pretty methodical. Just drums, bass, guitar. We never did anything live, just due to the geographical things, and my studio’s kind of small, so just doing drums by themselves, I can open up a lot more doors that would’ve been shut for isolation purposes and get a little bit of a bigger sound. So that’s another reason I like doing it that way. Plus, I can get all Steely Dan with my drums and criticize myself (laughs). All drummers hate themselves anyway, so I can go in there and just do take after take until I’m like, “Well, I guess that’s the best one out of all the bad ones” (laughs).

How would you compare the process of recording yourself to doing the Elder record? I know that was a little bit ago at this point, but even so.

The thing about the Edler record was the clock was ticking on them as far as getting it done before Nick split for Germany. So they came in and busted out, over the course of the weekend, they knocked out  bass, guitar and drums, and got those done in the span of about three-four days. And then Nick would come in a couple weeks later or whatever to try to do some vocal work. The thing that took longest on the Elder record was the keyboards (laughs), and there’s really not that many in there, but the three of them were in the control room just twiddling the knobs on this Italian synthesizer, and one was like, “Nah, nah, you’re doing it wrong,” and they’re all just huddled around it, and you’re sitting there like, “Well, alright. They’re know what they’re doing, I guess” (laughs). But doing basic tracking with them was excellent. I think they knew too that it was like, “We need to get this done,” and they banged it out, and like I said, the stuff that took longest was the small, extraneous stuff. But yeah, it was a blast, just because we’d played live with them so many times, and you kind of get a bit of an idea of their overall sound and what they’re going for. Also, they did a community television thing up in Greenfield, and I wound up doing live sound with that, so that helped out too. They were relatively easy, man (laughs). They just get in there and they knock it out.

Do you have any other recording projects coming up?

Nah, we’re just kind of working on the new stuff with Darryl right now, just hashing out demos in the studio. At the moment, no, not really. No one that would be of any – I don’t want to say “significance,” but it’s just local people around here who aren’t really doom or anything like that. That’s basically it.

How is the writing going with Darryl?

Really smooth. Like I said, there’s way less tension in the air, and so there’s a lot more ideas that are being thrown around, and things just seem a little bit lighter. The sound is relatively the same. Darryl’s got his own style, so he’s not going to be the mirror image or anything. We’re really psyched with the way the vocals are going and the way Darryl’s interpreted the older songs on guitar. They sound great. Basically it took three practices and we probably could’ve gone out and played a 20 or 30-minute set. He learned the stuff really, really quick, and that really was helpful because it gave us all a lot of extra time to start working on new stuff, which is where we are now. I was really grateful we were able to get the old set knocked out in such a timely fashion. Writing with him is great because I’m such a huge fan of Blackwolfgoat and I’m trying to get him to incorporate aspects of that into the new stuff as well. We’ve only had three practices and he’s come out to the studio just to jam and work out some ideas, and it’s been super-positive and great. I’m really glad it all kind of worked out.

Black Pyramid is no stranger to the 7”. Will do guys do singles to set the ground for the next EP or album?

That’s what we’re trying to get knocked out. Right now all we need to do basically is track the bass and the vocals for the 7” that we’re gonna be doing in March. It’s a split 7”. So that’s cool to have. We’re chomping at the bit to get that out. Can’t wait. But also, we’re aiming to have – hopefully, if it all works out – at least an EP by summer or by the end of the year. We’re writing pretty quick. Things are coming out pretty fast and furious, and it’s nice. It’s pretty cool that there’s no weird writer’s block or “What do we do now?” sort of stuff. Everything’s just kind of continuing. In fact, I think we’re doing a little better lately as far as the writing than the last couple months with the old lineup. Things are a lot more fun now, that’s for sure. The tension’s just gone, and it’s just more open. You know how Darryl is (laughs). It’s just so much more fun, and that has a lot to do with it. No one is feeling uptight about having to defend their ideas or anything. It’s just like, “You like this? Cool. Right on.” Same kind of principle that we’ve always used, we just don’t have to be as defensive about it (laughs). It’s nice.

How did Desertfest come about?

I just got an email from Reese asking if we’d like to play. It was around the time that we still were unsure about acknowledging our continued existence because we didn’t want to see things going the way they were, but it was around that time we said yeah. We went ahead. That was probably early October or late September when we got the email from him. We were just like, “Absolutely. No problem.” That’s basically how it worked. That easy (laughs).

Will you do more European touring around that, or is it just there and back?

We work with Vibra Agency over in Germany, but the thing is, right now, we talked to them and we were like, “We’re going to play Desertfest, any possibility for future dates?” because last year, they were like, “We’ll take care of you in Europe,” so when we got the Desertfest, I talked to Klaus, and was like, “Do we need to go through you with this?” and he was like, “Let me check it out. That sounds good. Okay.” But as far as additional dates right now, they have a surplus of bands over there around April, so they’re like, “Maybe at another point, but right now there’s way too much going on.” I remember when we were over there last year, Zoroaster was over there, Graveyard. We were basically playing the same clubs three nights before or after they were there. There’s no shortage of stoner doom over there in April, that’s for sure. Everyone’s trying to piggyback dates on top of Roadburn or Desertfest or whathaveyou. This year, we might get to squeeze in an extra date in Holland with Roadsaw. We don’t know yet. It’s still kind of up in the air.

Any chance of touring in the US?

Yeah, we’re kicking around a possible tour right now with Backwoods Payback and Order of the Owl in late March. It’d just be a little five-day run from Atlanta up to New York. We’re trying to see how the numbers would work on that. If we don’t lose money, then we’re totally down with doing it. That’s currently on our radar. That and it would help in getting ready for Europe and whatnot. Oh, and King Giant, too. They’d be on the lineup. So it would be us, Backwoods, Order of the Owl and King Giant. It would only be five dates in March. I don’t think we have anything lined up as far as extensive US touring at this time.

Fair enough. I know you’re still kind of getting settled.

(Laughs) Four practices with Darryl. Don’t want to be too cocksure (laughs).

Black Pyramid on Thee Facebooks

MeteorCity

That’s especially true of Beresky, whose performance throughout II is easily the best of his career either in this band or in his prior outfit, Palace in Thunderland. Whether it’s the more scripted-sounding leads of “Dreams of the Dead” or the layered acoustic work of the interlude “Tanelorn,” or the High on Fire-esque bombast of the later movements in “Sons of Chaos,” he handles it all deftly and with poise, and his vocals – a subject of some debate among followers of the band – show development both melodically and in terms of the confidence in delivery. His descending semi-melodicism in opener “Endless Agony” begins to display itself as a genuine style by the end of II, and similar to the way Slough Feg incorporates progressions out of Celtic folk, Beresky brings a drinking-song cadence to his lines that only enhances the battle-minded lyrics. Neely, who also engineered II, has him layer the guitar effectively, so that leads are backed by rhythm tracks in addition to the bass and drums, and the resulting sound is full and engaging – “Mercy’s Bane” beginning with Neely’s own thundering toms and moving quickly to stand itself out as a highlight of the album following the immersive and catchy “Endless Agony,” a well-placed opener for its memorable lyric and musical hook. “Mercy’s Bane” is longer by more than two full minutes, but expands on the ideas in the album’s beginning without losing sight of the structure that makes it so effective. Black Pyramid are heavy – certainly tonally and thematically weighted – but still unflinchingly accessible, and they remain so even in the varying moments of indulgence that the hour-long II presents.

A slowdown caps “Mercy’s Bane” and acts as lead-in for the chugging “Night Queen,” which rounds out a strong opening trio of memorable choruses and riffs. Gein’s bass follows Beresky’s guitar for the most part, handling the winding transitions between cycles in “Night Queen” well while the vocals come on in effective near-gang-chant layers. A longer instrumental break starts quiet and finds Neely rolling on his snare while Beresky tops with a relatively-restrained wah solo, one of II’s bluesiest and best. At 6:48, “Night Queen” is the longest of the record’s “regular” tracks – and by that I mean the ones under 10 minutes and that feel purposefully extended – of which there are two. The first is “Dreams of the Dead,” which follows “Night Queen,” effectively rounding out the first half of II (though “Tanelorn” could just as easily be an outro to the first half as an intro to the second on the CD; the time divide is actually more even that way) and making for one of the album’s most accomplished moments melodically. It seems to be Black Pyramid stepping out of their doom-stomping comfort zone, though that element is still there, and it’s worth noting that after the second chorus ends at about three minutes in, the remainder of “Dreams of the Dead”’s 12:12 runtime is devoted to expansive instrumental parts, breaking following a driving riff and solo at almost precisely five minutes to effect a grandiose build from the ground up. It’s effective, and the part works, but can also feel a little tacked on when looked at from the structural perspective. I’m not sure the longer part wouldn’t also have worked following “Mercy’s Bane” or “Night Queen,” in other words, and why, despite its increased melodic focus, it needed to be “Dreams of the Dead” given the ultra-epic treatment on an album full of epics.

The simple fix for that is bring the first part’s chorus back at the end – though as far out as they go, they’d have a tough time writing that transition – but “Dreams of the Dead” satisfies as is on its own level, and Black Pyramid do pretty much the same thing with “Into the Dawn,” the closer and other extended cut at 15:37, which abandons its lyrical structure at about 3:30. A trio can afford to do something like that live because there isn’t a stand-alone singer waiting there for 12 minutes with nowhere to put himself, but though it offers symmetry between the first half of II and the second, following “Tanelorn,” “Sons of Chaos,” “Empty-Handed Insurrection” and “The Hidden Kingdom,” “Into the Dawn” can feel cumbersome if you’re not already totally on board and willing to let yourself go along with Gein, Beresky and Neely by that point. Fortunately, they do a pretty good job of making sure you are, beginning with the semi-medieval acoustics of “Tanelorn” (no relation to the Blind Guardian song of the same name, other than the common reference out of fantasy literature) and moving into the foreboding groove of “Sons of Chaos,” which launches straight out of the Blessed Black Wings-era High on Fire playbook, balancing thrash tension against thickened tonality and fleeting solo work. Out of all the tracks on II, it’s perhaps the most that’s singularly about what Beresky is doing on guitar, but his performance stands up to the extra scrutiny resulting, even though his solo feels cut short. Neely’s tom runs following give the song its headbang-worthy drive, and the transition into the shorter instrumental “Empty-Handed Insurrection” feels more like a crash than a smooth crossing over, but no question that’s exactly what Black Pyramid intended for it.

It’s not filler exactly, serving as a bridge between “Sons of Chaos” and “The Hidden Kingdom,” which brings back the endearing catchiness of II’s first tracks, but “Empty-Handed Insurrection” feels underdeveloped compared to some of what’s around it, a quickly-materialized groove not really getting the chance to pay itself off before the next cut takes hold. On the whole, II doesn’t need to be any longer, but presented differently or with more of a build, “Empty-Handed Insurrection” could affect a more apparent progression. Maybe that’s nitpicking – at 2:51, it’s practically over before its start, and “The Hidden Kingdom” mirrors the methodology of “Night Queen” in balancing a hooky chorus with grander instrumentation. Beresky’s vocals – basically shouts – fit the verses well, and the subtle weaving in of acoustic guitar gives the aforementioned closer, “Into the Dawn,” a fitting precursor. That’s not to mention that the verse-based structure also gives way to instrumentalism on “The Hidden Kingdom” as it does with the finale, making the pairing even more appropriate. “Into the Dawn” fits as well with “Dreams of the Dead”’s willingness to engage with melody in the vocals, and if you’re locked into the album’s overarching groove, the ensuing riffs will feel like gravy. Just before the eight-minute mark, the song crashes and feedbacks into a ring-out that seems like a conclusion, but ultimately gives way to the second half, topped with cascading lead lines and morphing gradually into one of the heaviest stretches of II, which in turn rings out to a guitar-led build that once more incorporates acoustics and multiple layers of electrics, cleaner toned and more ready to let Gein’s bass shine through. Like the conclusion of “Dreams of the Dead,” it feels somewhat tacked on to the song itself, but it works to wrap the record, devolving to rumble and fading to silence.

With II apparently being the last from Black Pyramid’s Beresky-fronted incarnation, it’s fitting that the album should be their best offering to date. It answers loudly the potential of the first record and shows that substantial growth had taken place in a relatively short amount of time, with Gein and Neely proving a formidable rhythm section more than able to stand up to the onslaught of riffs and leads. As Black Pyramid move into their next phase with Shepard at the fore, it will be fascinating to hear how the two consistent members of the band continue to progress, and of course, to see how the personality of the band changes with the shift in vocals and guitar. While I look forward to that and feel – perhaps even more than before – that Black Pyramid have the capability to do great things within heavy rock and doom, it’s hard not to listen to II and be wistful for what this lineup could’ve accomplished going forward from here. II is an early 2012 highlight and an excellent closing chapter in the band’s ongoing journey.

Black Pyramid on Thee Facebooks

MeteorCity

Drummer Clay Neely and bassist Gein have since regrouped under the Black Pyramid moniker and found venerable riffer Darryl Shepard (he of Milligram, Hackman and Blackwolfgoat, among others) to fill the vacated guitarist/vocalist role, and already they’ve begun to demo and record new material — it helps in that regard that Neely is also an engineer. But the songs on II still show the promise and the progress of the original trio, whose sound had become more melodically aware and sonically expansive. Their epic battle metal aesthetic will be familiar to anyone who heard the first album, but when they made II, Black Pyramid had grown within it and through it into something even more formidable than they were when they started out.

It’s exciting to wonder what the new trio might come up with — and knowing how prolific the band has been in the past, it probably won’t be long until we find out — but in the meantime, II documents a lineup hitting what might have been their peak, and whatever may have happened to bring about an end to this era of the band, it’s great to know a new one has begun. Today I’m fortunate enough to be able to stream the track “Night Queen,” which I think sums up both the maturity and the heaviness of Beresky-fronted Black Pyramid.

You’ll find it on the player below, followed immediately by some PR wire details about the album’s release. Please enjoy:

New England doom rock trio Black Pyramid will release its long awaited sophomore album Black Pyramid II on January 31, 2012 via MeteorCity. Recorded “in the foothills of the Berkshires” at Black Coffee Sound (Elks, Elder) and mixed by Justin Pizzoferrato (Sonic Youth, Witch, Dinosaur Jr.), the record features nine tracks of the band’s self-titled “galloping war metal.” Black Pyramid II was mastered by Matt Washburn (Mastodon) and is “at times a bit more death metal and black metal influenced” than the band’s previous material.

“We’re incredibly proud of the sonic landscapes we were able to achieve with the new album,” said Black Pyramid drummer Clay Neely. ”It’s a clear successor to the debut album and we allowed ourselves to further expand into some uncharted territories. The recording of the record was an incredibly rewarding experience and we can’t wait to bring the show back on the road.”

Black Pyramid will also be playing the London Desertfest in April 2012. For more info on that, click here.

In the meantime, Summoner sent this down the PR wire:

Hey all,

Just wanted to let everyone know that we will be changing our name.  After much deliberation and discussion between the guys in the band, we have decided to move forward with this.  The new name will be SUMMONER.  The old name will be missed, and yes we understand that a lot of people really like it, but we also found that just as may people don’t like it…. including ourselves. 

I’ll spare you the long drawn out explanation of when and why we have decided to do this.  Just know that we are the exact same band… SAME DUDES, SAME MUSIC, DIFFERENT NAME.

Please follow the link to the new Facebook page and “LIKE” us so we can keep you all updated on news, shows, and most importantly, when we will be releasing the new album Phoenix!!!  The record is mixed, mastered and we have some amazing cover art (courtesy of Alyssa Maucere).  We’re going to take some time to shop the record around while we settle in as SUMMONER.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us over these last few years… now it’s time to move forward!!!
—
Summoner
(formerly Riff Cannon)

Last time I was at Hank’s Saloon was just over a year ago, to see Black Thai (which boasts two members of Cortez in its ranks) hit up a gig with Thinning the Herd, and as low key as that was, I knew that with Mighty High on the bill, good times were bound to be had. When I rolled in, there was what had previously been described to me as an “alt country” act on the stage. It was a little white girl, soul-singing like little white girls do, accompanied by some dude who seems to have found Les Claypool‘s tailor on guitar. Striped pants, silly hat, and — inevitably, predictably, excruciatingly — a kazoo. Hell, it was bound to happen, but they were about half done when I got there, so it could’ve been worse. They covered Spinal Tap‘s “Gimme Some Money,” and that was a fun reference.

They’d been put on the bill by the venue, which as I understand it, is for sale. Bar-ownership being something of a long-term fantasy of mine, as Cortez set up their gear on the small stage, I looked up at the ceiling beams, down at the dirty floor, over at the walls full of pictures and stickers and post-its with cabbie phone numbers. I inhaled the smell of mold and thought to myself, “Yeah, I could do this.” The Patient Mrs., joining me for the night on the town, seemed less thrilled at the notion.

Cortez frontman Matt Harrington would soon blow out the Hank’s P.A., but as soon as they got going, they were on the ball. They hit up a few songs from their forthcoming self-titled (vinyl master is on the way, reportedly), including highlights “Monolith,” “Johnny” and the catchy “Until We Die,” with bassist Jay Furlo adding backups to Harrington‘s melodies while Scott O’Dowd, aka Scotty Fuse, let fly carefully constructed riffs and drummer Jeremy Hemond (also of Roadsaw and Black Thai) managed to do some equipment damage of his own. I can’t remember ever seeing him play that he didn’t require a new snare at some point in the set, and Hank’s was no exception.

They rocked in spite of any and all technical difficulties, and much as I’d hoped, the night played out as sans-bullshit as possible. All I wanted was a rock show with some good bands, good people, decently-priced beer and no Friday night fashion show, and that’s basically what I got. Mighty High‘s boogiethrash blend of Slayer, Black Flag, Motörhead, Sabbath and any number of ’70s obscurities I’m not qualified to name was the perfect finale. Decked out in a Foghat Live t-shirt, guitarist/vocalist Chris “Woody High” MacDermott introduced the native Brooklynite act by saying, “We’re The James Gang from Ohio,” and it only got better from there.

The thing about Mighty High, though, is that as much as songs like “Chemical Warpigs” (a highlight) “I Don’t Wanna Listen to Yes” (another highlight) and “Breakin’ Shit” (always a highlight) are about getting high and having fun, they’re also maddeningly good. Mighty High hit like a megaphone yelling at stoner rock to get its head out of its ass, but they have the chops musically to back it up. I’m not going to say they were perfect up there, but even where they stumbled, they did it right, guitarist Kevin Overdose, drummer Jesse D’Stills and bassist Labatts Santoro seeming to take the instruction to heart as Woody led the way through the opening cover of “Kick out the Jams.”

When they were done, I walked out with the “Hands Up!” chorus still in my head, where it stayed for much of the weekend, and — now that I’m thinking about it again — remains. The Patient Mrs. had already filled her rock quota for the evening and retired to the car, so I said some quick goodnights and we headed back to Jersey, where I happily checked off the first of three shows in a row and fulfilled my Friday destiny by crashing out as quickly as possible. Good fun.

Extra pics after the jump.

Cortez

Mighty High

Seems simple enough, but the individual loops run at different lengths, and since the nature sounds of wherever they’re placed inevitably factor into the overall experience of the work, as does the striking visual of the wooden boxes topped with futuristic-looking solar panels, it’s never the same twice. Colorusso has found a way to make the same elements work in a different way each time.

He started in the desert, but he’s taken Sun Boxes to sculpture parks in Maryland and his native Massachusetts as well, and even released a 7″ named the same as the installation, with the two sides “Frozen Pond” and “Grassy Field” featuring their respective environs. Though they’ll sound familiar to anyone who’s engaged themselves with drone before, the relaxing, subdued feel of the project comes through even just from the audio.

Colorusso — who has the 7″ available for purchase now on his website and is on Thee Facebooks here — was kind enough to let me host the tracks for streaming. You’ll find them on the player below, followed by some words from Colorusso himself. Please enjoy:

People often ask where all this came from. The short answer is… in November 2008, long time friend and collaborator, “Sexy” David Sanchez Burr called me up and said, “Yo! Make something solar. We’re going to the desert.” Then he hung up. Dave is the kind of guy when he’s on the phone you take the call. So, in June of 2009 we went to Rhyolite, Nevada, with Richard Voseller to a place called The Goldwell Open Air Museum. The three of us had a residency called “Off the Grid,” where we used sustainable energy to make art. Sun Boxes was my contribution.

The long answer is… I’m not sure. Although I would cite Dave as a catalyst the truth is I’ve been thinking about this a long time. 39 years of observations.

I really wanted make something people could feel like they’re part of physically. One of the things about Sun Boxes I love is as soon as you hear it or see it your in it. You decide how close you want get. I often find people on the edge of the array. I don’t like telling people what to do but I do encourage them to walk amongst the Boxes. It really sounds better in the middle of it all. I think it sounds best when you’re surrounded by the piece. Sun Boxes is loud enough to engulf the participant but quiet enough to allow ambient sounds of the environment to creep into the mix. Birds, traffic, wind, voices, feet crunching leaves, waves, all kinds of sounds sound very musical with Sun Boxes, even an ambulance full sirens.

The guitar of Nick DiSalvo (also vocals) is still very much at the fore, but the methodology is different. Songs like “Gemini” and the stunning, 11-plus-minute title-track range farther than one might have expected Elder to go after the first record. Groove remains formidably present, but Elder have begun to show their personality musically through these songs, and with elements and influences from the current European heavy psych scene, they’re honing in on an increasingly individual take. It’s not really a shock that Dead Roots Stirring, which was engineered by Black Pyramid‘s Clay Neely, would wind up as one of the year’s highlight records, but the avenue it took to get there is another story altogether.

Elder is DiSalvo alongside bassist Jack Donovan and drummer Matt Couto, and Dead Roots Stirring has been a long time coming. As early as last year, I recall hearing Massachusetts locals bragging on having heard the album and touting its change in direction. The band shopped the record around, but eventually wound up sticking with MeteorCity for the release, which was further delayed in the mixing and by DiSalvo‘s studies abroad. When it came out in October, topped with gorgeously painted Adrian Dexter artwork, I imagine there was some sense of relief in the band that it had finally materialized. I know there certainly was on my end, hearing it.

The interview that follows was conducted a few days before the release, and in our conversation, DiSalvo talked about the research that led him to Germany and away from the band, the recording process for Dead Roots Stirring, what was behind some of the stylistic growth shown on the album, and much more. I know it’s been a couple weeks that I’ve been trying to get this posted, and I thank you for your patience in waiting.

Complete Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

Congratulations on the album. I had been waiting for it for a while, and it really took me by surprise.

Thanks a lot. You’re not the first person to say they’ve been waiting for it. We had our share of difficulties in firstly getting material together, then recording and mixing. There were big delays, especially in ending up coming back to MeteorCity to do the release, so it was a long time coming, but we’re very satisfied. We’ve had nothing but a positive reception so far, and it’s all been rewarding in the end.

What was behind some of those delays? You did some traveling?

The biggest delays were between our recording of the album, which took place I guess now that would be two winters ago, so the winter of 2010, and mixing and mastering. We had a big gap in there because we were actually sort of shopping the record around to see if we couldn’t get a label interested and maybe help us out financially with some of the mastering costs and stuff like that. We’re still pretty broke, but we were pretty broke at that point. We were hoping that we could get out to a bigger audience, and we had some sort of false leads from a couple labels, and so we weren’t really trying to rush anything, and so we decided to take our time and see if we couldn’t find a label that would put it out. We eventually ended up going back to MeteorCity, like I mentioned before. Once that was decided, it was sort of in the bag. We just found someone to master it and got on with things.

You did go abroad though, right? You went to Germany?

I was in Germany this past year. I was going to school, doing study abroad, not just traveling. I just returned about two months ago or so.

What were you studying?

I study German, actually. Language and literature. I was just attending a regular university over there, actually through my school here. I go to the University of Massachusetts, and they have a partnership with one of the federal states over there, so you can just enroll in the school over there and take classes. I was in Freiberg. It’s in the southwestern-most part of the country, sort of on the border with Switzerland and France. I kind of concentrated in contemporary German literature. I’m working on translating a book right now, so I was essentially there to help polish my skills and I think that had the desired effect. It was a great time.

Going into the recording for Dead Roots Stirring, did you know you wanted something different sound-wise?

Yes. The first album – we were pretty happy with it when it came out. At that time I think we had sort of immature expectations of a sound. We actually also recorded that on no budget; it was self-recorded and self-produced. And the more we let it sit and listened to it, the more, at least for me, it took on a sort of metallic or artificial, very cold sound to it. I know in comparison to modern metal or rock productions or something like that, it was a warm record tonally, but it wasn’t really indicative of the sound aesthetic that we wanted for the newer material. It was very clear off the bat that we were going to go to an engineer who knew the sound we were going for and we also had more of a focused idea of how we wanted it to sound, so we were going to take those ideas and shop around, and we ended up finding Clay, the drummer of Black Pyramid. He runs a studio up here, and we played with Black Pyramid a lot before they broke up. So he was a guy we were very familiar with, and he was familiar with our work, and he seemed to be a perfect fit, actually.

How long were you in the studio?

We were there for three days. Three days recording, and then another two days mixing, or something. It was a real compact session. Again, we didn’t have a lot of money to do it, and we also knew the material very well, so we weren’t in there trying to make a perfect record with a thousand overdubs or something. There are errors on the album. But I guess that’s sort of charming in a way that a lot of older analog records are anyhow. We tend to look at the negatives of having little studio time in as positive a light as possible.

I think you got a good balance sound-wise out of that. The sound is warm, but still modern. It doesn’t sound like a throwback.

We didn’t have really the means nor the technology to make a real throwback album, nor would it have necessarily suited the kind of music that we play. I think we’re much more modern, and it would sound very affected, very fake, if we were to try to make a record that sounded like Black Sabbath’s self-titled or something. We weren’t out to do that, either.

Was there some change in the songwriting process that preceded bringing out the different sound in the recording?

The songwriting process has always sort of remained the same. I think I may have dialed back the creative input from the other guys on the new material, just because of sort of spacial issues. The other guys live in Boston and I’ve always been out of the area. A lot of the songwriting for that album was done when I was also in Germany, 2007-2008, so it was a lot more of an independent process for me, giving half or three-quarters-developed ideas to the guys and then us all playing around with them to see what we could come up with, how we could polish it. And you know, that undergoes numerous revisions, but if anything, it was a little bit more independent, I guess.

It’s interesting, because I wanted to ask you about your technique as far as soloing goes. There are so many runs on the guitar that made it onto the album, and some feel written out and some feel more spontaneous. When you’re writing those songs by yourself, do you work on those solos at that time, or do they come later?

The actual solos usually always develop in the context of us jamming or playing shows or something. There are a lot of solo-esque riffs, where the guitar is playing sort of a repetitive pattern, but it’s more complex in contrast to the plodding bass or drums that are in the background. Those are very written out. I’m speaking to parts like the end of the title-track – there’s sort of a long run with more complex guitar work. But the solos. Even on the recording, there are some elements of spontaneity and improvisation with those. I have formulas that I use as a framework, but it’s always boring to see the same show twice, so we kind of took that mentality with us to the studio. We never play any song live just like it is on the recording, and I hope we keep it that way too.

Do you have some idea of directions you’d want to go from Dead Roots Stirring? Do you have new material? It’s been so long since you recorded.

Right, it has. We’re actually in the process of working on two new songs, which will become a hopefully new release materializing next year. There’s no official word on that, but the sort of developments in sound away from the self-titled release, more dynamic, more melodic, more interesting, some people say more psychedelic – to note the more positive adjectives – that’s the direction I see us continuing down. That’s certainly reflected in the new material we’ve been working on. I guess it’s sort of a cliché to say something like, “Looking both backward and forward.” Backward to more subtle classic influences, but also forward to be more progressive and break out of what can be very formulaic patterns found in a lot of stoner rock or stoner metal or whathaveyou.

Are you conscious of developing your own identity as you go forward with songwriting?

If you’re speaking in terms of a band identity, it’s sort of the over-arching goal. I feel like we made great progress in finding something like more of our own sound, but there’s always going to be comparisons drawn, and I think that’s very fair. Hell, to a certain point, that’s also very flattering, when we get comparisons to bands that we’re very inspired by and very much love. But if we could at the same time forge our own name, where people aren’t necessarily tempted to draw back to the first name that somebody reminds them of, I think that’d be great to try and come up with something that hasn’t been done before, create our sound, completely. I think we’re still a ways from that, but we’re definitely conscious of it.

And you feel like the new material is moving more towards that?

Yes, I do. And part of me says there’s just new influences, and those influences are coming out, as opposed to the older ones, but part of it is definitely developing our own sound.

What are some of those new influences?

I think the biggest joint favorite band that comes out in this is Colour Haze. For me, they’ve been one of my favorite bands for years, even back when we were writing stuff for the self-titled. Or even another band that’s very influential in a strange way is Dungen, from Sweden, who don’t play anything close to stoner rock. But these bands can really evoke something what you might call “heavy” without having to dial the distortion to 10 and fall back on many fuzz pedals and playing as loudly as possible. They’re melodic and they’re extremely powerful, but in maybe more subtle or emotional ways. That’s to give a broad definition. Those are the bands that have really influenced the methodology or the philosophy behind the new direction.

It’s awesome that you mentioned Colour Haze. In listening to the album, it’s almost intangible, the way that’s worked in there, but it is. I guess in some of the guitar, you can hear it, and in the low end and the bass, there’s that warmth to it, just touching on what they do.

Likewise, I’m glad to hear from someone who’s familiar with the band, because they don’t get the respect and the reverence that they should. They were an influence, but we hope to not be too derivative, and yeah, you’re absolutely right, the sheer warmth of their music without overdoing anything – they’re just masters in songwriting, as far as I’m concerned, and I’ve had the good fortune of seeing them live a couple times, and that’s also sort of a magical experience. Trying not to sound too much like a fanboy here, but I’m a convert.

Do you guys have any tour plans?

Touring is, aside from the new material, our number one priority. We’re planning on getting further out west. Not a national tour or anything of that scope, but we’d like to do something like two weeks this summer. I’m sort of the factor in holding us back right now. I’m finishing up my degree and I have neither time nor money to hit the road right now, but this summer, we’re definitely going to try to cover as much ground as possible. Planning for that is actually already in the preliminary stage.

Will you record with Clay again?

I don’t think so. We haven’t really talked about it too much, because our material isn’t that far. It was a great experience, but we’ve been thinking about even trying to self-record and self-produce again. There’s something nice about having all say in the creative process and having as much time as possible. Another possibility is Justin Pizzoferrato, who mixed the last album. He’s also based out of Western Massachusetts, but he’s building a studio right now. He’s done recording work with Dinosaur Jr., Witch, that kind of circle. He did an awesome job on the mixing. While we’re satisfied with everything Clay’s done, we feel like his work also really brought out the best elements of the recording. He’s a possibility for someone we might record with. He does a lot of analog recording as well, and I’d mentioned that’s not necessarily what we’re going for, but he’s also got a great know-how of the subtleties. It’s definitely not like a simple mix. It’s not something I would do on a home recorder. Working with educated professionals makes me realize my ignorance of sound, as much as I may like to think I know something about it.

Elder on Thee Facebooks

MeteorCity

Black Pyramid‘s II full-length was also released by MeteorCity this Black Friday weekend. More info on that here.

The latest had it that the album was going to come out next year as a posthumous release, and then the band was done. Now today, I get this email:

[NOTE: The email I (and many others) got was bullshit and has been removed at the respectful request of the label. I'm leaving this post here so that the comments don't also get deleted.]

Luca in Italy
Dan in California
Mikko in Finland
Erik in Colorado
Eric in Michigan

There you have it. I need to pick up some bigger envelopes and do it up with bubble-wrap and whatnot (can’t take any chances with vinyl, quality pressing though it is), and I should be able to get these out in the next day or two, so if you see your name above — there were a couple Californian Dans, but I don’t want to give out anyone’s last name, so I’ll drop an email — keep an eye out. They should be there shortly.

Thanks again to Play the Assassin Records (Facebook here, Bandcamp here) for donating the picture discs to the cause, and to Moth Eater and Black Thai for putting together a killer split. Congratulations again to the winners and hopefully we’ll be able to do more of this kind of thing in the future, so stay tuned.