Hailing from Los Angeles, the land of the
unrelenting sun, Ancient
Altar’s combination of crushing doom and stirring melody packs a
weighty emotional punch that few bands can match. Since the release of their
last album “Dead Earth” nearly 3 years
ago, a devastating album featuring those classic Sabbath worship riffs, mixed with a side order of gnarly sludge and agonised vocals, Ancient Altar has gone through somewhat of overhaul
both in terms of their line up and their overall sound. The band is now a three piece featuring bassist Scott Carlson and guitar player
Barry Cavener splitting vocal duties, along with drummer Geoff Summers and
whilst the slow burning doom/sludge sound remains, their new record “Cosmic Purge/Foie Gras” released today hints at a more traditional doom
approach and even features more melodic vocal lines.
So after a 3 year absence, it is gives me great
pleasure to welcome Ancient
Altar back to THE
SLUDGELORD, as I recently hooked up with guitarist/vocalist Barry
Cavener and bass/vocalist Scott Carlson to chat shit, talk about their history,
influences, their new album and what the future holds for the band. Oh less we forget, before you dig into the
interview, you can also stream their new album “Cosmic Purge/Foie Gras” below.
You’re welcome.
Guys, welcome to
THE SLUDGELORD, the new album rules, but before we get to that. Can you give us
an insight into how you started playing music, leading up to the formation
of Ancient Altar?
Barry: We’ve all taken different paths to get us where we are, but as far
as the formation of Ancient Altar, it was birthed from the ashes of Iron Mtn. Scott, Bill, and myself had gotten to point where we felt Iron Mtn had reached its logical conclusion, so along with our drummer at the
time Tom, we started Ancient Altar.
After our first album and a tour, Bill moved to Seattle, we parted ways
with Tom, and Etay and Jesse joined the band. This is when things started to
pick up for us. We toured a bunch, recorded “Dead Earth” with Toshi Kasai, and had the opportunity to play
Psycho California. Building on the momentum from all of that, we made the trek
up to Oakland, CA to record with the Evil Wizard of Rock, Greg Wilkinson. It’s
during this 4 day session that we recorded what has become our latest album, “Cosmic Purge/Foie Gras”.
Since the recording, Jesse and Etay have moved on, we’re now a three
piece with the addition of Geoff Summers from Batillus on Drums, and we’re currently writing for our next album.
For folks
unfamiliar with your band, are there any bands on the scene past and present
that you would use as a reference point to describe your band, and who or what
continues to inspire you and push you to try new things?
Scott: Individually, we’d say that
Jesse is influenced by bands like Elder, Etay likes more of the straight ahead doom such as Corrupted, Barry is greatly influenced by Drive Like Jehu, and Scott counts Iron Maiden as one of his biggest influences.
In the past, people have compared us to Neurosis, Yob, and Kylesa. The direction that we’ve gone with this album and beyond is to
incorporate somewhat of a traditional doom element, specifically with Barry’s
vocals. For lack of a better reference,
think Candlemass. In terms of what brings about inspiration and desire to try something
new, that not only comes naturally to all of us, but also personnel changes
can’t help but to modify in terms of musical approach, sensibility, etc.
What can you tell
us about your new record “Cosmic Purge/Foie Gras” and where do you
feel it sits within the context of current doom scene?
Barry: Lyrically, the album comes from a place of helplessness as far as
humanity’s place in the universe. We struggle against ourselves and each other,
but the inevitability of the loss of control over our own lives is something
that we only think about in a passing sense. No one wants to talk about their
mortality, and grasping certain universal truths seems to be something that
people would rather ignore.
“Cosmic Purge” talks about the theoretical “Reverse Big Bang”, which to me represents a
complete cleansing of absolutely everything that has ever been, so that the
universe can start over again. It serves as a warning to pay attention to the
world around you, because it can end at a moment’s notice.
“Foie Gras” is about when we create something as a society and it turns on you. You
can view it from a Sci-fi point of view where we create an Artificial
Intelligence that ends up ruling over humanity, but I think it works extremely
well in the context of who and what we create as a society and how inevitably
it comes back to bite us in the ass. You can see this first hand in the
political monsters we as a society have created, and how they’ve turned on us.
To be perfectly honest, we don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about
how our music fits into the doom scene.
We’re just trying to make music that we feel strongly about, and if it
does or doesn’t work with a scene is secondary to feeling good about our
creative output. One thing we do appreciate about the doom scene currently
though is that the genre of doom is much less of a narrow definition than what
it used to be. Everyone from Khanate to SubRosa is
considered doom. It’s good to be
considered part of a genre with less dogma than some of the other types of
music out there.
Does anything
spring to mind when you think about the completion of your new record and
how is the mood in the camp at present?
Scott: We’re just excited for people to
finally hear this. It’s been a long, hard battle in many ways to get to where
we currently are. Personal issues, line up
issues, any various other factors have made it even more of an uphill battle
than it usually is, but that makes our resolve and commitment all the more important,
and the achievements even more satisfying than they’d normally be. Also, we’ve changed our sound quite a bit
since our last release, and we’re looking forward to having a more current
representation of our sound out there for people to hear.
Barry: We’re all really excited about the
prospects of what’s to come. We’re in
the middle of writing for our next album, we’re playing some amazing shows, and
we’ve got this album coming out that we’re really proud of
.
What stands out
as your overarching memory from the recording sessions?
Barry: The bonding experience of spending four days working on nothing
but the culmination of all of our hard work is the best memory, in addition to
getting out of town to record, and also spending so much time with Greg and his
wife Fern were all great aspects of the creation of this recording.
With you new
record in the bag, how is your schedule shaping up over the next 12 months?
Scott: We are currently working on new material, with hopes of recording
a new album before the end of the year, to be released next year. With the challenge of balancing members’
schedules, it sometimes makes shows and tours challenging, but as always we
plan to play locally and tour as much as is possible within the next year.
Finally, do you
have any last words?
Scott: We definitely want to say thanks to
anyone giving us a listen, and also a sincere thanks to THE SLUDGELORD for
always having our back, and for all the hard work they put into what they
do. Jesse and Etay, who are no longer in
the band but are still considered family, deserve a big amount of recognition
as well for what they did to get us to the point we’re at. Thanks to everyone who’s supported us up to
the point. Please buy our stuff. Being in a band is a money pit.
“Cosmic Purge/Foie Gras” is released on
their own label Transcendental Records and is available via their bandcamp here. A
vinyl release will be issued via Black Voodoo Records later this summer.
