The new track from The Black Chord, “Quake Meat,” can be heard now over at metalblade.com/astra. The Black Chord will be available in North America on March 27. Astra will be hosting an album release show in San Diego on March 16. The show will be at The Casbah with Dead Meadow, The Loons and Joy. The show will also feature visuals by Operation: Mindblown. For more info, check out astratheband.com.

Blood Ceremony live at Roadburn 2011:
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/ondemand/45369911#ondemand.45369911

Thanks as always to Walter from Roadburn for letting me host the link. Blood Ceremony‘s Roadburn set was mixed by Danny Gras of Gomer Pyle and Space Jam Records.

The Anniversary show itself saw Cathedral basically play two concerts. The first, captured on the first disc here, brought back the original two-guitar lineup for a full front-to-back performance of their 1991 classic, Forest of Equilibrium. The second was Cathedral’s current incarnation – Dorian and guitarist Garry “Gaz” Jennings being the remaining founding members – doing a selection from the rest of the band’s discography. Disc one is an hour and disc two is just under 80 minutes, so the sheer amount of material on Anniversary is staggering, and for someone unfamiliar with the band, probably too intimidating to take on completely blind – but one doesn’t release something like Anniversary for the casual fan. Anniversary is for those who’ve stuck with the band through the highs and lows, or for the late comers whose appreciation for Cathedral is seen in the band’s influence on doom both British and worldwide. And as much as they’ve come to personify the band over the years, to hear Dorian and Jennings joined by guitarist Adam Lehan, bassist Mark Griffiths and drummer Mike Smail for a full run-through of Forest of Equilibrium is a fitting way to celebrate Cathedral’s time together, though the sound between the studio versions and their late-2010 live interpretations is more than a little different. Dorian’s vocals – though he’s obviously performed much of this material all along – have developed considerably since 1991, and though he’s always been more of a frontman than a technically-minded singer, his range and use of cleaner vocals can easily be heard progressing from album to album. Forest of Equilibrium was never going to be what it is on the record itself, but whether it’s “Commiserating the Celebration (of Life)” or the show highlights “Serpent Eve” and “Equilibrium,” Cathedral as They Were do the album justice and leave a high mark for Cathedral as They Are to live up to.

How much of a break was taken in between the sets at Islington Academy, I don’t know, but the band was smart to break them up on the resulting live album. The current Cathedral lineup of Dorian, Jennings, bassist/synthist Leo Smee (since replaced by Scott Carlson) and drummer Brian Dixon, who joined in 1994, offer 12 cuts from across the remaining Cathedral albums, focusing mostly on The Ethereal Mirror and The Carnival Bizarre, and completely excluding anything recorded between 1996-2005. That period covers the albums Supernatural Birth Machine (1996), Caravan Beyond Redemption (1998), Endtyme (2001) and The VIIth Coming (2002), which are widely regarded as where Cathedral most strayed from the doom that was their strength. Still, for an anniversary gig, to discount four of the total nine (to date) albums seems unfair, but I guess they wanted to give the fans what they wanted, and it’s easy to understand the arguments on that side as well. They do include tracks from 2005’s The Garden of Unearthly Delights – “Upon Azrael’s Wings” and the upbeat late highlight “Corpsecycle” – and 2010’s The Guessing Game, going so far as to open with a sped-up rendition of the proggy “Funeral of Dreams” from the latter that seems to give the song a completely new (and engaging) personality. “Funeral of Dreams” is the only inclusion from the two-disc The Guessing Game, and the rest is The Ethereal Mirror and The Carnival Bizarre, but for “Cosmic Funeral,” which comes from both 1994 EPs, Statik Majik and Cosmic Requiem, and “The Last Spire Pt. 1 (Entrance),” which one can only assume is the organ invocation that will begin the next album.

Those performances are as keyed in as one might expect from a band who knows it’s a special night, and the show boasts all the trappings of a Cathedral set. One can almost hear Dorian put the mic in his mouth and do the Frankenstein walk during “Night of Seagulls,” and the encore of “Vampire Sun” and – of course – “Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)” are as fitting a conclusion to such a massive undertaking as one could hope for. In a way, it’s astonishing that Cathedral could include so much in Anniversary and still leave out almost half of their work, but their focus on the positives of their career is nothing I’m about to hold against them, particularly as a fan of the band. Anniversary, again, is not for beginners. As novel as the idea of a full performance of Forest of Equilibrium is, it’s better heard by those with some level of familiarity with the original studio album. The second disc could actually serve as a decent primer for non-Forest Cathedral essentials, but the way Anniversary is packaged, you don’t get one without the other, and even that is more suited to the choir than those looking to be baptized. Still, as an exaltation of one of doom’s formative acts, Anniversary meets any expectation that could possibly be put on it, and shows Cathedral going into their (allegedly) final record with momentum worthy of their name.

Cathedral, “A Funeral Request” Live:

Cathedral on Thee Facebooks

Rise Above Records

1:54AM – I guess technically it’s Saturday morning, but when Firebird is covering Humble Pie, the technicalities don’t mean crap. For absolutely no reason whatsoever that I can discern, I’ve had this song stuck in my head all week, so it seemed a decent way to finish it off. Kind of a random, weird-ass week anyway, with the faux-press release from Black Pyramid, the reunion of Black Sabbath, etc.

I’ve been battling a cold all week — quite literally, the whole time — but am starting to come out of it and, if the timing following some social-type obligations tomorrow works out, I’ll be hitting up the Brighton Bar in Long Branch to see The Brought Low and Infernal Overdrive. I don’t know if I’ll review it, but it’s one of several shows I’ll be at in the next week (Fu Manchu, Premonition 13, and Judas frickin’ Priest come to mind most immediately), so it should be fun one way or the other.

Also: There will be a new podcast this weekend.

I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I say it’s going to be the first of the two-parter 2011 year in review. Or maybe I am giving something away. Anyhow, there it is.

Aside from that, this coming week I’ll also post my interview with Nick DiSalvo from Elder and hopefully find some time to do an album review or two in between all those shows. I’ll also update on the HeavyPink sales and have some new streaming audio from the side-project of Monster Magnet‘s rhythm section, Riotgod. Much good to come, as ever.

Until then, I hope you have a great and safe weekend. I’ll see you on the forum and back here Monday for more riff worship. Doom on.

If you’ll recall, Ghost was supposed to tour a couple months back with Enslaved and Alcest, and couldn’t get their visas. One can only hope the dark lords of Homeland Security grant them passage this time around. Here’s the news:

Mysterious Swedish buzz band Ghost has announced that it will embark on its first ever North American headlining tour in January, 2012. Ghost cult leader “Papa Emeritus” (who takes the stage in the form of “a satanic pope”) and his anonymous ghouls will team up with doom rockers Blood Ceremony and Ancient VVisdom for a two week trek dubbed the “13 Dates of Doom” tour that will launch on January 18 in New York City.

“It is with an evil haunting chuckle that we are announcing that we are finally coming to North America,” states Ghost‘s Papa Emeritus. ”In the name of Satan, we will conduct thirteen rituals in thirteen different cities throughout the United States and Canada and now we are summoning all of our devotees to partake in these blasphemous eves of black magic.”

The itinerary for the Ghost/Blood Ceremony/Ancient VVisdom winter North American tour is as follows:
 01/18 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
 01/19 Washington, D.C. Rock N Roll Hotel
 01/20 Boston, MA Middle East (downstairs)
 01/21 Montreal, QC Corona Theatre
 01/22 Toronto, ON The Mod Club
 01/24 Chicago, IL Bottom Lounge
 01/25 Saint Paul, MN Station 4
 01/27 Denver, CO Marquis Theatre
 01/28 Salt Lake City, UT The Vertigo (The Complex)
 01/30 Seattle, WA El Corazon
 01/31 Portland, OR Hawthorne Theater
 02/01 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill
 02/02 Los Angeles, CA The Roxy

The Gates of Slumber

Balance that with a depth of songwriting that made cuts like “To the Rack with Them” and “The Scourge ov Drvnkenness” as effective on a structural level as they were in terms of ambience, and flat-out, The Wretch just ruled. Simon, Paradis and bassist Jason McCash were able to keep the barbaric feel of their prior to albums while also inflicting their melancholy on listeners, and of all the doom I’ve heard so far into 2011, none of it has been quite as doomed as The Gates of Slumber. It’s not just about being loud, or just being heavy, but it’s the downtrodden spirit driving the songs.

That feeling can’t be faked, can’t be a put-on, can’t be bullshit. You’re either in it or you’re not, and The Gates of Slumber pulled it off with a sincerity and honesty that was matched by the fact that the material also rocked. The Wretch has plenty of time to prove its merits over extended listens in 2011, but more than that, I expect its timeless doom will satisfy for years to come. If you haven’t heard it yet, it’s not too late.

Nonetheless, although I’ve been woefully show-up-and-drink early to the last three or four shows I’ve been to, I missed Natur, so apologies to them (and no, Google, I did not mean “nature”). I entered the fray as the Jex Thoth (of Jex Thoth)-fronted Sabbath Assembly were getting ready to roll out their set of alternately Christian and Satanic hymns. Ms. Thoth herself did not take the stage until the set actually started, so her vocal level was a little off at the very beginning, but it was quickly righted, and the crowd was soon enamored.

I missed them at Roadburn, and having enjoyed the Restored to One album I bought there, wanted very much to catch the songs live. From the many harmonized vocal layers on the record, I almost expected there to be two singers, but Thoth, backed mostly by singularly-named guitarist Mike — though also occasionally by bassist Dan Shuman — held it down on her own with an impressive range and no shortage of sexualized occult lure. Whatever works. As their set of songs about gods and devils and usually both (you might say they’re “restoring them to one”) wore on, audience conversation gradually got louder until toward the end, in a particularly quiet section, even with drummer Dave “Xtian” Nuss backing, Thoth could barely be heard above the din.

It’s hard for me to imagine that’s just a New York thing. I mean, “asshole” is universal, right? My ethic has always been that if someone is on stage — especially if they’re quiet — you shut the fuck up. Nothing you have to say is so important that it can’t wait, and if it is, fucking whisper. You’ve got your fancy-ass phone out anyway, send a text! I wasn’t exactly blown away by Sabbath Assembly‘s stage show (there wasn’t one), but is 40 minutes of solid attention really too much to ask from an audience of adults? Shit, you came to the show. Watch the fucking show. It must be really hard to be so much of a somebody that you have to talk through someone else’s performance.

When Sabbath Assembly were done, Ghost made us all wait. And we waited. Impatiently. There were some amp troubles on stage (an Orange was switched out for a Marshall), and the dude next to me, who I did not know, kept announcing in my ear how hot it was — correct in everything but his volume — and the guy in front was Mr. I’m-Gonna-Toss-My-Hair-To-Get-It-Off-My-Neck-Because-It’s-Hot-And-It’s-Gonna-Be-All-Over-You-Because-That’s-How-Tight-The-Room-Is-And-I-Don’t-Give-A-Fuck-Because-I’m-An-Inconsiderate-Dick, which only made matters less pleasant. Everyone there had a camera. I didn’t even have to use my flash to take pictures of Evil Pope Guy when Ghost finally took the stage from the side door of the venue — all the others lit the room up just fine.

They played just about all of their Opus Eponymous album, and though the vocals were a little off-key, it was 150 degrees in there and the dude was decked out in plastic prosthetic face makeup and a full robe, so it’s understandable. The backing tracks covered most of it, anyway, and the crowd’s singing along held up a lot of the bargain. Ghost‘s songs are catchy and memorable — “Elizabeth” was a highlight, as were “Stand by Him” and “Death Knell” — and the audience was fervent in their appreciation. Hands raised in Satanic testimony, a crowd surfer, a general rush toward the stage from the start, and I backed out. Too old and too tired by then to deal with any of that shit, I stood off to the side (where I could actually see!) and knew I was in the right spot when Brian “I signed Mercyful Fate” Slagel of Metal Blade came and planted himself nearby. I did my best not to gush.

The Opus Eponymous material alone wasn’t enough to fill out an hour of Ghost‘s time, so they threw in a cover of The Beatles‘ George Harrison-penned Abbey Road classic “Here Comes the Sun,” changing the line “…And it’s alright” to “…And he’s alright” to fit with their devil-worshiping modus operandi. It was clever and they knew it, but that didn’t lessen the enjoyment any. Closing out the night with an anthemic rendition of “Ritual,” Evil Pope Guy (sorry, but when you wear the hat and don’t have a name, you take what you get) proceeded to hold communion at the front of the stage after the song, feeding the crowd what he called, “The cadaver of Christ.” Good fun.

I was beat when I walked in and only more so at the end, so I shuffled with the masses out of Webster Hall, walked over to the next block where I’d parked and made my way into and out of traffic en route to the Holland Tunnel and back home, the strains of “Elizabeth” and Sabbath Assembly‘s “We Give Our Lives” duking it out for which was most stuck in my head. Two days later, the battle rages on.

More pics after the jump.

Sabbath Assembly

Ghost

As such, I knew that in asking Simon to compile a list of his five favorite Vitus tunes, he’d come back with some interesting choices, and sure enough, I wasn’t disappointed. Here are his picks, complete with accompanying audio:

5. “The Troll”

“I’ve been down so long, I cannot see, anyway out of me…” What more needs to be said, really? The grizzled riffing and the tale of a depressive man locked in a feedback loop. The second verse explains why the loop exists; the third brings it home: “Bats and worms are my friends; they’ll stick with me till the end… down here I am my own man…” and a nihilistic Chandler tremolo solo. Wino‘s vocal performance on this song is one of his best. Basically a blues jam which Vitus did a lot, only it’s way fucked up. I identify with the lyrics so god damned much sometimes. It pains me.

4. “Shadow of a Skeleton”

Okay, so a lot of “fans” have a real problem with the C.O.D. record. Well, I have a problem with those fans. Attention posers: not one weak track on this record. In fact, in many ways this record is, in my eyes, a return to the feeling and production values of the early days, only with the addition of some guitar harmonies. And oh yeah, one of the best singers in the history of metal is wailing all over this record. This song has a bulldozer riff that just boggles the mind and makes me want to ruin my neck; Armando‘s drumming is fucking brutal; classic lyrics about a fucking reanimated skeleton coming after your ass…. what more do you want?!

3. “The End of the End”

I am totally obsessed with this riff. The best song Wino ever sang on in my opinion, and the best one that Vitus did with him! I love the pitch shifted vocals and the syncopated drumming. The environmentally aware/anti-nuclear power/war lyrics paint a potent and timeless picture that is just awesome. I love that it has no chorus as well, only the beak down that leads to the solo. Vitus had this weird habit of saving off their most potent songs for EPs… which was a dirty trick, I think! But I love it. Thirsty and Miserable is a must have just because of this song, and Walking Dead speaks for itself.

2. “Darkness”

There is something about this open wah guitar tone that makes me want to throw things at the wall. The circular riff and Reager‘s demon wail. So goddamn good. And then the bass and drum break with Mark Adams taking it for a walk. The Iron Maiden influence is so clear here! It’s just a potent and short burst of energy. I do have to say that The first three releases by Saint Vitus had some real unique magic to them that just can not be equaled by anyone.

1. “The Psychopath”

Essentially, what we have here is a fairly standard blues formula, but goddamn if it isn’t totally taken in the most obscure and odd direction. Chandler is abusing his wah pedal the whole fucking time. Reager’s, owning it… again. How people can not like his voice is so strange to me, but whatever. A song about the M.K. Ultra experiments gone awry. But the real treat here is the main solo break. There are a few leads that really stick out for me, and this is my favorite. Four minutes into the song it starts, nice and melodic… and Chandler is not given credit for that! If Kurt Cobain is a genius then Dave Chandler needs a thousand times that credit. At 5:40, the airplane flanged shred turns into these sick and emotive bends that always give me the chills. It’s a shame that “metal” people in 1984 were totally too weak to have possibly gotten this band. But then things worked out pretty fucking well…. You can spend your life thinking about thing things that could have been. Fact is there were a thousand limp thrash bands and horrid butt “metal” bands out there, but only one Saint Vitus. And 31 years later nobody but nobody cares about Seduce or Viking or whatever… not even the dudes who were in the fucking bands. Saint Vitus ruled them then and rules them now.

So, needless to say, when the chance popped up to once again speak to Ward about Orange Goblin‘s first American tour in half a decade and the recent release of a five-disc CD box set comprising all of their catalogue but the aforementioned 2007 offering, my only hope was that I came out of it with something usable. Third time, as they say, is the charm.

Orange Goblin in about a week’s time are set to begin that run of US dates, with Indianapolis trad doomers The Gates of Slumber and Brooklyn psychedelic outfit Naam in tow. It might seem like odd timing for a band to tour four years after their last album came out, but as Ward — who’s joined in Orange Goblin by guitarist Joe Hoare, bassist Martyn Millard and drummer Chris Turner — explains in the interview, there was a little while there where they weren’t sure they were going to do anything at all, let alone travel across an ocean for a tour. Given that and the semi-ironic collapse of Sanctuary Records, I’m not about to argue.

Ward, who stands a full 18 meters in height (perhaps I exaggerate), is one of the most imposing frontmen in doom while on stage, but over the phone, he was both cordial and accommodating in our discussion of Orange Goblin‘s new beginnings, their recording plans for their long-awaited next album, coming back to the States, when Rise Above Records might do a round of vinyl reissues, life’s simple pleasures and much more. We talked about the band’s love of Pabst Blue Ribbon and their upcoming performance at Maryland Deathfest, where they’ll be joining the likes of Cathedral, Neurosis, Coroner and Voivod on one of 2011′s most eclectic bills.

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

Tell me how the tour came about? What was behind the decision to come back to the States now?

Well, it’s something we’ve wanted to do for years, ever since the last tour, which was 2006.

With Scissorfight.

Yeah, that’s it. Obviously, we recorded an album after that and it would have been nice to come back to promote Healing Through Fire, but for some reason or another, it just never materialized. All of us are no spring chickens anymore. We all have families to look after and jobs to do. Getting the time off to go tour America isn’t as easy as it used to be, and we just felt that this year we kind of owe it to our fans over there as much as to ourselves. We’re thinking this could be the last time. We don’t know how much longer the band’s gonna be going on, and that sort of thing. It was just a group decision. We all said, “Definitely, 2011, let’s do it and go back.” The people at Tone Deaf Touring have been very keen, very supportive and very helpful in getting us over there and making everything work. In the past, we’ve been over there, but we haven’t arranged visas and that sort of thing, we just sort of snuck in the back door. This time, we’ve done it all properly and we’re gonna be legal and above board.

And you’re doing Maryland Death Fest, too.

That was kind of the starting block that set the whole thing in motion. As soon as we got the offer in for that. The offer there was great, and it’s a real iconic festival to do these days. It’s one of the biggest in the metal world, and to be invited is an honor for us. So we didn’t want to turn that down, and like I say, we used that as the building block for the whole tour, really. We said, “If we’re gonna do Maryland, we might as well do a whole tour while we’re there.” And as I say, Tone Deaf have been great booking the whole tour. It works out perfectly for us, so we’re really happy to be part of Maryland Deathfest this year.  I think the lineup is insanely strong. Every year is great and this year seems better than ever, so we’re really looking forward to it.

There’s a lot of doom this year, too.

Yeah, I think the name “Deathfest” can be a little bit misleading. There’s obviously a lot of death metal and grind and black metal bands, and the likes, but as you say, there’s also a really heavy strength in it of doom and alternatives to what you’d expect at a death metal festival. Even bands like Kylesa are something different. Then you’ve got ourselves, Cathedral, Corrosion of Conformity. There’s a little bit of something for everyone, I think. “Deathfest” doesn’t really cover the whole spectrum.

Have you played with The Gates of Slumber before, or is the tour the first time?

No, we’ve never played with Gates of Slumber before. I mean, we know them through when they’ve been in London, hanging out with them, and we also know the new drummer, Clyde [Paradis], from when he was in Sourvein. I think we’re two very different kinds of bands, but not a million miles apart. I think it’s a really good sort of mixture between ourselves and Gates of Slumber, so it’s an interesting bill for people. As I say, we’ve met the guys before, we’ve socialized with them, so I know we all get on. There’s gonna be a lot of good fun and hard drinking getting done on the tour, so we’re looking forward to it.

Was it Tone Deaf that put you two together on the tour?

It was Tone Deaf pretty much. They gave a short list of bands that we could have gone out with, we picked a few that we’d like to work with. It was a case of, because we’re traveling over there, we need someone who can help us out with backline, and equipment and that sort of thing, and the Gates of Slumber guys have been really cool about everything and helped us out a great deal. We really appreciate what they’ve done for us, so yeah, it’s kind of a package thing that Tone Deaf have put together, and I think the two bands are a real good contrast of styles, almost within the same genre, but different ends of it. It’s gonna be interesting, and it’s gonna be a good time.

Have you heard their new record?

I haven’t. I’ve heard a couple of the tracks off it, and one of those was a YouTube thing from this year’s Roadburn, and I don’t think someone recording it on a mobile phone is really gonna do it justice, but the actual recorded tracks I’ve heard are amazing. I think that band just gets better and better. I first got into them – I think it wasn’t until Conqueror came out that I first became really aware of them – and then with the Hymns of Blood and Thunder album, they really stepped up a deal, and now, The Wretch, I think they’ve gone even further. It’s gonna keep us on our toes every night, having to follow them. We’re happy to have bands of their ability that force us to up our game each night.

Like you said before, 2006 was the last time you guys toured over here, and you did Planet Caravan in 2009, is there anything you’re looking forward to about just being back in the US?

We’ve sort of got our little things that we all look forward to over there, even silly things like certain beers and certain places to eat and stuff like that that we’re really looking forward to. But most of all, we’re just looking forward to going out and seeing friends and fans that we haven’t had a chance to play to for a long time, and hopefully a few years down the line, our fanbase will have grown a bit. I think it’ll be interesting to see whether the crowds improve and all that sort of thing. See if we’ve garnered any more interest in America since the last time.

What beers are you looking forward to?

Believe it or not, we really like the PBR tallboys. You just cannot get Pabst Blue Ribbon over in Europe, so we haven’t had it since the last time we were there. We’re really looking forward to getting stuck into those. We’re a simple band with simple pleasures.

How did the box set come about?

[Cathedral frontman and Rise Above Records owner] Lee Dorrian suggested it initially, and I was keen on the idea, but I wanted to hold off a little while, because in 2007, the last album came out, and I think Lee first brought the idea of the box set around 2008, and we said, “Well, if we re-release the back catalog now, it takes away a little bit of the latest album, and it also gives the impression that we’re saying, ‘that’s it, we’re done, here’s what we did in our career.’” But this year, I think the time was right. There’s been a long enough gap since the last Orange Goblin product, and we just all decided it was something we were keen to do. We’ve been getting a lot of messages through the MySpace and websites and things from people saying they couldn’t find certain albums because they aren’t available anymore or are out of circulation. So I think it was about time to re-release them so people that weren’t even into us the first time around can buy those records. Frequencies From Planet 10 was 1997, 14 years ago, and you get kids now who come up to us at shows, 19-20 years old, going, “Yeah, I was only five when that record came out.” All of a sudden we feel like the bands our dads listened to (laughs). Makes you feel old. We had an instance of that recently, where our drummer was out at the merch stand after a show, and some kid came up to him and said, “You’re amazing, you’re really cool.” And Chris was like, “Oh, thanks so much,” and the kid was like, “Yeah, my dad got me into Orange Goblin. They’re his favorite band,” and Chris was like, “Go away.” But yeah, I suppose it’s to be expected now.

Is there any chance of doing a vinyl version of the box set?

Yeah. It isn’t a case of “any chance.” That’s definitely happening. I think Lee just wanted to let the dust settle on the release of the box set. We’ll also be selling them as individual albums, so you don’t have to buy all five as well. You can buy one disc if there’s one missing from your collection and that sort of thing. But yeah, the vinyl is definitely gonna happen sometime this year. We’re gonna concentrate on the first two, initially, because The Big Black and Thieving From the House of God were released on vinyl back when they first came out. I think in America it was The Music Cartel, if memory serves me right, that did them. So it’s primarily Frequencies, Time Traveling Blues, and Coup de Grace that we want to issue first, and Lee’s looking to do a super deluxe, heavy vinyl, gatefold packaging, printed lyrics and sleeve notes and all that sort of thing, so definitely nice collector’s items.

What about Healing Through Fire? Is there any chance of a reissue of that, or since it’s a different label, is it a different situation?

Yeah, it’s a different label, which doesn’t really operate anymore, so it’s always gonna be difficult. It’s something I would like to do, because again, it’s up to the stage now where people are contacting the band going, “Where can I get this album? It’s not available anywhere,” and I’m hassling the people we used to deal with who’ve moved onto labels like Universal now, and obviously we’re the small fish in the huge pond at Universal. They don’t really worry about what we need. We haven’t got dealt with yet, but hopefully in time someone’ll take pity and sort it out, or at least give someone else the rights to reissue it and put it out on a different label.

It’s a shame to have it get lost in the shuffle. It was a good album.

I still think it’s the best thing we’ve ever done. I’m proud of everything in our catalogue, but that album, probably because it’s the latest, which is a very typical thing to say, but I love it. The good thing for this US tour is it’s actually the first time we’re going to get the opportunity to play the material from Healing Through Fire for the American audience, apart from that one Planet Caravan show. For the tour, we’re going to go out and play four or five songs off that record the crowd might not have heard before.

How would you rank the other albums? You said Healing Through Fire was your favorite. What do you think of the other ones?

I love them all. There’s certain moments on every one of them. If you look at our set list these days and what you can expect in America is a little bit of something from every album. There’s no album that we’re going to do totally. I could listen to Frequencies From Planet 10 and really enjoy large parts of it, but there are some bits that make me cringe. But whatever, you shrug your shoulders and put it down to the exuberance of youth. We were all really young and really excited and happy we had landed a record deal and given the opportunity to record in a real studio. You learn from mistakes and throughout your career, you move on from one thing to the next. The one thing I am happy about in our catalogue is that no two albums are really the same. There’s always been a transition or a development in style along the way, from the first one, which was kind of doomy meets psychedelic, the second one was more biker rock, the third one was that psych/space doom sort of thing, the fourth one we had more of a punk influence, and then Thieving From the House of God I think was a mixture of all the previous styles, say. Nothing’s ever been stale and boring for us. It’s always been nice to try these things, and we’re working towards a new album this year, and it’s exciting again, because we’re just doing whatever the hell we like. There’s no set patterns of what we do. We don’t say, “It has to sound like this.” We’re just going to go with the flow and see what comes up.

That’s actually something I wanted to ask you about, the different styles on different albums. As you go into writing again, is that something you consciously are aware of, making it sound different from the past?

No. With this one, I think it’s been so long since we actually sat down with the objective of writing a record that we’ve almost forgotten what to do. It’s like going back to the start of our careers again and really having fun with it. We’ve had, what, five years now of messing around with ideas and knocking about riffs. There’s a whole plethora of ideas there, and now we’re just sifting through it and putting it together, and it’s like sitting around, doing a really cool jigsaw puzzles of all of our ideas that we’ve had. I’m really looking forward to getting these songs crafted and finished and honed and trying to start recording in August.

Do you know yet where you’re going to record?

We’ll record it in London, a studio that we discovered last year, when we recorded a Black Sabbath cover for Metal Hammer magazine. It’s completely digital. There’s no sort of retro sound there. We’re not really one of these bands that are fussed about that, we just want it to sound as good as we can possibly make it to our liking, and this studio offers us that. Also, we’re going to record over a series of weeks, rather than 14 days solid, so that we can go away and come back and start fresh and it suits everybody’s schedule. There’s no big-name producer or anything like that. We wanted to work with Billy Anderson again, and people like Sanford Parker we’ve spoken to, and all these guys are producers we admire, but as I say, having to have a certain schedule and do it over a certain time-period, then it’s inconvenient for us to fly someone over here from America and pay for them to stay here for two months (laughs). There’s no reason why we can’t plan for the next record, if there is going to be one, to work with Sanford – or there was talk of working with Nico [Elgstrand] from Entombed – he’s very keen to do something. There’s a list as long as your arm of producers it would be nice to work with and studios where you’d like to go, but realistically, you’re never going to do 90 percent of them, so we had to make a decision for this album, and we’ve made it.

And the label situation… It would be out through Rise Above?

It wouldn’t be Rise Above. We’re signed to Candlelight, and this is a deal that we actually did with Candlelight three years ago, and we haven’t delivered anything for them (laughs) still now until this year. It’s all new to us, and this goes back to it’s exciting again, it’s almost like starting anew. Candlelight’s shown remarkable patience with us. A deal on the table for three years and we still haven’t delivered an album. We went through a period a couple years ago where it was like, “Is this the end of the band?” and they really helped us make the decision not to quit, and said, “Don’t worry about how long it’s going to take. Take your time until it feels right and let us know and we’re with you all the way.” Now it’s got to the stage where we’re close to being ready to go into the studio, and they’ve backed up their promises. The money’s there, the studio’s paid for, that sort of thing, so they’ve been really good with us and I’m looking forward to working with them on the marketing and promotions side of things as well.

Lucky you weren’t working with someone calling for heavy deadlines and that kind of stuff.

Yeah, you hear these stereotypical things of, “I don’t want the record label to interfere with the artistic side of things and just let the band get on with it,” but they’re really just like that. I have nothing but good things to say about them so far.

And I saw you guys are doing a couple summer festivals too. Are you still adding more, or is that schedule pretty much set?

I think we’re just doing whatever seems right. There’s been a hell of a lot of offers to do big festivals in Europe this summer, but it’s at the stage where next year we’re going to have an album to promote, and it’d be a lot more worthwhile for not only us, but for the audience, to do it next year. Whereas this year there’s been a few things that Sonisphere that we’re playing in England. It’s one of those things that we couldn’t say no. It’s the first Big Four show in the UK, and when you get invited to be on a bill with Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth, you don’t say no. So we’re gonna do that one, and there’s a few others, and then, next year, once the album comes out, I think we’ve marked a 2012 release, and a whole summer of festivals and stuff. Erik [Jarvis] from Tone Deaf is talking about trying to set something up in Australia and New Zealand next year, and we’ve had approaches from people in Southeast Asia, places like Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, India, so it goes back to being a restart again. It’s all really exciting and we’re doing things we never thought we’d get to achieve.

Have you guys ever been down that way before?

Nope, never. We’ve been to Japan before, and obviously all over Europe and America, but we never got as far that way as Australia.

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Candlelight Records

Rise Above Records

[Special thanks to John "Arzgarth" Pegoraro for the vinyl question and note on album rankings]

Doubtless the addition of Paradis as replacement for “Iron” Bob Fouts (now of Apostle of Solitude) is part of what has allowed The Gates of Slumber to make a stylistic turn from the barbaric metal of their last two breakthrough offerings, Hymns of Blood and Thunder (2009) and Conqueror (2008), and Simon himself agrees in his liner notes. Paradis handles the slow material excellently, accenting the riffs and playing off McCash’s bass with both power and fluidity, and given his apparently propensity for touring, I’d be hard pressed to call him anything less than a perfect fit for what The Gates of Slumber are doing on The Wretch. As someone who had to see the band live before really understanding the appeal of their albums, it was always the doom side of their sound I enjoyed the most (big surprise), and so the eight songs here, even the shorter, faster cuts like “To the Rack with Them” and “Coven of Cain,” are a welcome shift toward the downtempo, beyond the melancholic and into the truly depressive.

For Simon and McCash, that’s the aforementioned return to form, but it’s worth noting that although The Wretch may tread ground The Gates of Slumber have covered before (as have many others), the album is hardly more redundant than is called for. Simon pulls out his best Wino impression on the “I Bleed Black”-esque opener “Bastards Born,” but rather than think of it is a ripoff or something being passed off as original, it’s so obvious an homage and so clearly heartfelt in its tribute that I’m completely along for the ride from the start. And for what it’s worth, The Wretch sounds fantastic. The album was produced by Jaime Gomez Arellano at Orgone Studio in London, and there’s just the right balance of separation between the instruments and cohesion of the album as a whole. McCash’s bass tone is a constant high point – again, something that factors in right away on “Bastards Born” – and Simon’s vocals are balanced well in the mix, clearly displaying his growth as a singer, but not at the cost of pulling attention away from the Iommian riffage on “The Scourge ov Drunkenness.”

Whatever speed the song, The Wretch maintains its heft, and clocking in at a well-rounded 55:55 (who’s counting?), it can be a lot to take in a single sitting. Seriously. Even if you go in for traditional doom and gloom, there’s a lot about The Gates of Slumber’s material here that’s just hard to take. There isn’t so much a monstrous plod to the grooving progressions as there is a hopeless skulk. It comes in the second half of “The Scourge ov Drunkenness” (does it ever) after the opener and is contrasted by the more rocking “To the Rack with Them,” but it’s never completely gone from the atmosphere of the album. Paradis seems to keep that feel to his playing despite any tempo changes, and where some drummers might inject needless fills into transitional riffs and start-stops, he sits back and allows Simon and McCash’s contributions the necessary breathing room. “To the Rack with Them” is all the more effective owing to this. The song is neither showy nor silly, and it seems to be coming to a halt in each alternating riff cycle of its verse, so that even with the quicker tempo, it maintains its downer sensibility.

Simon’s solo in “To the Rack with Them” is among the best on The Wretch, but “Day of Farewell” might be the album’s highest achievement of all. Working at a mostly middle pace, the song is an agonizing seven-plus minutes of sliced-open spiritual emptiness, beginning with the lines, “I grow tired of this world/I know all there is to know,” and only getting more wretched (appropriately enough) from there. Aside from being Simon’s vocal highlight, McCash’s bass again helps push it over the edge, and Paradis puts emphasis on his crash to exact a kind of chaos in the build that only enhances the sonic turbulence. It’s a doomer’s doom, for sure, and ends with massive guitar/bass chugging that in itself is enough to make me watch to catch The Gates of Slumber live on this album cycle. As the culmination of The Wretch’s first four tracks, it’s also the most successful.

“Castle of the Devil” continues the doomed mood with a lumbering misery set to meter by Paradis’ rumbling bass drum and accented with lead flourishes over a quiet, minimalist verse, soon contrasted with the loud, desperate chorus, more memorable than catchy if only for its snail’s pace and the potential implication of something upbeat or lighthearted that comes with the latter word. Simon finds room to lead a jam with a bluesy solo while McCash rides out an early Sabbath groove with Paradis beneath. The song picks up again to close with its chorus, setting up the faster, “Neon Knights”-referencing “Coven of Cain,” which in the context of what follows is like the last look at light before it dies forever. In a way, the song shows a certain maturity on the part of The Gates of Slumber as a unit, because right where they needed a fast song most, they put one. To have gone right from “Castle of the Devil” to the title-track might have sent The Wretch over the edge into an inaccessible abyss, but with “Coven of Cain,” it becomes clear that audience is still a consideration no matter how far into the depths the trio is plunging. They’re still songwriters, still making an album. It’s not just about self-indulgence.

That’s not to say self-indulgence doesn’t play a role on The Wretch, as it should on any record worth a damn, but The Gates of Slumber do more than just get themselves off in these songs. Even as “The Wretch” decays into a long section of guitar noise, McCash keeps it grounded with a pulsating bass note, reminding listeners that yes, indeed, there’s a song happening here somewhere. “The Wretch” is an appropriate cut to name the album for, echoing the Saint Vitus mentality of the opener and “Day of Farewell” and making 12:44 closer “Iron and Fire” seem active by comparison. The two companion songs echo much of the sensibility of The Wretch, with the more personally-themed lyrics penned by Simon and the epic poetry coming from McCash, who paraphrases the Roman emperor Nero’s exclamation as he watched his own grave being dug out on “Iron and Fire” with the lines, “What an artist is dying in me/What the world loses with me/What is this galloping towards me,” playing off one what’s surely the apex of the track and maybe of the album as a whole, before once more riding out a suitably lamenting groove.

Formidable in its lyrical and musical aesthetic, consistent even through its changes and built on a foundation of memorable songwriting, I see no reason why The Wretch shouldn’t be remembered as one of 2011’s strongest albums at the end of the year and well beyond. The Gates of Slumber – if this indeed is some kind of return – have made it a triumphant one. Like the best of traditional doom, The Wretch has a presence all its own, and is able to affect the mood of the listener, more or less dragging you down with it as it goes. The back of the CD jewel case (and one assumes the vinyl as well) boasts the acronym “C.O.T.D.” in reference to “Circle of True Doom,” and I imagine the congregation should be much pleased, as should the band itself.

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Rise Above Records