Solace, Orodruin, While Heaven Wept and Snake Dance Added to Days of the Doomed II
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 16th, 2012 by H.P. Taskmaster
That Days of the Doomed II poster is starting to get awfully crowded. Over the weekend, the Mercyful Mike Smith, the organizer of the fest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, announced that While Heaven Wept and a reunited Solace (I think we all saw it coming) would be taking part, and today brings two more additions: Orodruin and Snake Dance.
And so an impressive bill gets even more impressive. Here’s the full update from Smith himself:
It is an absolute honor to announce to all of you that the mighty While Heaven Wept will be performing at the second installment of Days of the Doomed Fest this June in Kenosha, WI!!! I’d like to share with you the official statement I received from the band:
“We’re extremely happy to announce that we will be appearing at the Days of the Doomed II festival in June 2012! We’d actually been in discussions with Mike [Smith, fest organizer] even prior to the first edition, so this has been a long time coming indeed! While there was a time when we faced some challenges in making this happen, ultimately the planets have aligned! We look forward to sharing the stage with all of our old friends and bringing the music of While Heaven Wept to the Midwest for the first time! Don’t miss this event as it is the culmination of many years of “homegrown” doom metal events in the USA reaching a level of maturity and passion previously unseen!”
I also have the pleasure of announcing that the masters of heaviness and volume known as Solace will also be making the trek to Days Of The Doomed Fest II! Prepare for ear damage!!!
Want more? Back by popular demand! Rochester, NY, doom mongers Orodruin will be returning to pummel all of you!
One last announcement! I’m happy to introduce Chicago‘s stoner/doom rockers Snake Dance as the fest’s official openers on Friday!
In other fest news, I have been informed by Henry Vasquez that Blood of the Sun will be forced to pull out of Days of the Doomed due to his commitment with Saint Vitus. This is 100 percent understandable, and I wish Henry and the legendary Saint Vitus all the best on their 2012 tour!
And don’t forget the “Raffle of Doom” is in full swing!!! $5.00 gets you a shot at winning some seriously killer loot!!! Visit the official Days Of The Doomed Fest site (www.daysofthedoomed.com) for a full listing of what’s up for grabs!
Tickets are on sale now, and will move fast! Visit www.daysofthedoomed.com to purchase tickets, and to get all the updates on Days of the Doomed Fest II!




This past December, a mere two days after Xmas, I did an
Loud, riffy and full of the à la mode style of heavy found in bands like Torche, the Wausau, Wisconsin, trio Romero debut with a raucous self-released 7″ called Solitaire. Those who pay attention to such things will note guitarist/vocalist Jeffrey “Madman” Mundt (I don’t know if anyone actually calls him that, but as a fan of Barton Fink, one can hope) is a former drummer of Naked Aggression, but more pivotal to Romero‘s sound than anyone’s past is the grooving riffage, the heavy crashes of drummer/vocalist Ben Brooks and the rumble of Josh Stanchik, which turns an already engaging finale of the first and title-track into a moment of genuine asskickery. Romero will probably be familiar to those acquainted with modern stoner metal, but in both “Solitaire” and “El Sentido Morboso,” they prove they’re definitely worth a look at either
over 20 states over the course of 50 shows in the first half of 2010 while putting tens of thousands of miles on their late 90′s Dodge van.
I guess I’d never seen Williamsburg on a Friday night before. I would’ve thought at some point I must have, but as I rolled down Bedford Ave. and bore witness to the hedonistic hipster fashion show — like something out of Valley of the Dolls, but sucky and pretending to be environmentally conscious at the same time — I swear I’ve never seen anything like it. Next-gen aristocrats everywhere pretending to be edgy for each other. The whole place smelled like sex, alcohol and axle grease. Get me the fuck out.
meantime; here I’ll point out that my terror was all the worse in my surroundings because I wasn’t drinking). The “stage” was basically just the end of the room in the basement, which, as far as I’m concerned, rules. If there’s one redeeming value about a small show in New York, whether it’s at Lit Lounge, the Delancey, or back at Club Midway when they put on shows — and at countless others, I don’t doubt — is that the show is downstairs while the assholes are upstairs. I’ll take that every time.
make the night. Not too many frills in his playing, but a steady hand and some enticing fills that did well accenting Steve Murphy‘s vocals, which also felt more confident over the songs.
Notable apart from its hour-plus length for being the first recorded output of the post-Bongzilla project Aquilonian, who’ve been threatening for a while now with MySpace samples and teases of the like, this split CD between them and Ohio sludge demons Sollubi (whose previous At War with Decency full-length might just have been victorious in its conflict) is two tracks — one from each band, each over a half-hour long — that seems to create an economy all its own. If you’ve ever thought of buying music in terms of “bang for your buck,” I fail to see a better option than getting two short LP-length offerings from these bands. Most splits feel like throwaway tracks. This feels like home.
to employ here, and it works to similar effect. The simplicity of their groove is essential, and even when the track breaks down at about 24 minutes in, it is all the more satisfying when it picks up again to finish with some of its most active guitar/drum interplay.
Raucous riff and roll from the Midwest isn’t something that comes across my desk every day, so when Must Destroy, the third album from Madison, Wisconsin, trio Droids Attack landed, robot-laden artwork facing up, I was immediately interested. Not only did the record live up to song titles like “The Great Wall of ‘Gina” and “Koko Beware,” but it proved to operate on a deeper level than just that surface goofiness as well. A win all around.
The Obelisk is
Share it with a loved one.
album, Must Destroy, which is out now on Crustacean Records (


