INTERVIEW: Bell Witch @ Meat Locker, Montclair, NJ (8/11/2017)

By: Mark Ambrose

Seattle’s funeral doom duo Bell Witch endured tragedy that would end practically any other band.  After the departure and tragic death of founding drummer Adrian Guerra, bassist Dylan Desmond teamed with drummer Jesse Shreibman (also a close friend of Guerra’s) to create an 83 minute, single song elegy that has topped critical lists throughout 2017: “Mirror Reaper”. Featuring some of the last recordings of Guerra’s vocals, and key contributions from honorary member Erik Moggridge (Aerial Ruin), “Mirror Reaper” is a monumental, historic record.  Dylan took some time to talk in detail about creating the album, from the cover art to recreating half the song for a live setting, right before a moving, sepulchral show at Montclair’s Meatlocker.  We also got to discuss touring and the live plans for Bell Witch in 2018.  Bell Witch will be touring Europe starting in March, with Monarch and Aerial Ruin.

How are you translating Mirror Reaper for live performance?  Are you integrating any of the older material?

Dylan: For this tour we’re not doing any of the older stuff.  Basically we’re doing the beginning of “Mirror Reaper”, up to about the 47 minute mark – right before the section before it basically drops and Erik Moggridge would come in.  So we’re doing about the first half of it.  Which is kind of easy because it is quite familiar to us now.

How did you bring Erik into the process of creating the record?

Similar to how we did “Four Phantoms”, we had a chart out of where we wanted the song to go.  Once we had a section we determined was where we wanted him to be, we made a really rough demo of what we had, sent it to him and said, “Hey, here’s what we got.  Here’s what we think you should sing.  He’s what the lyrical content is about.  Kind of go wild.”  Erik is really good at really fast, almost improving, like poetry.  He’s incredible and has a beautiful voice.  He whips stuff up really quick.  He’s always blown me away.  Aerial Ruin keeps getting better and he keeps adding to it.

It’s a particularly intense and poignant passage in the record.  I know there are also recordings of Adrian on Mirror Reaper.  Where did you pull those sections from?

Those tracks come from the fourth track on “Four Phantoms”.  We were in the studio and Adrian was doing a vocal take.  We’d go back and listen and bicker about it – one of us would want to redo it a different way.  But when we went back for “Mirror Reaper” there was a lot of old tracks to pull from.  We told Billy (Anderson, recording and mixing on “Four Phantoms” and “Mirror Reaper”) what we were looking for and he pulled out the files and we went through and listened to them.  The last track had a lot of them.  Basically what we were looking for was a combination of highs and lows – high screams and low growls.  A good salt and pepper mix of everything.  We got some of that and Billy worked his magic to piece them together and it was dead on.  Billy was so great to work with.

Adrian’s passing shocked and really affected a lot of people – I’m sure you guys most of all.  And the record isn’t maudlin but must be very personal.  How is the process of reliving some of that on tour?

It’s interesting… It’s easier because Jesse (Shriebman – drums, organ and vocals) and I have known each other for song long.  And Jesse and Adrian knew each other for a really long time too.  We were all really close.  That makes it easier.  When Adrian died, it would have been one thing if the new drummer playing with me was someone who didn’t know him.  That would have been odd and had that been the case, the band could have fizzled out.  It could have dissolved and whatever.  But for Jesse… it was really hard for him too.  When he and I started coming back to him and said, “We need to finish the song we started before this happened,” I felt a lot of motivation for this to be a very special thing.  Jesse felt the exact same way and we pushed each other at it.

You and Jesse have established your rapport as a band at this point.  What do you do in your downtime?

We listen to a lot of music in the van.  I work from my computer so if I have free time I jump into that.  We kinda shoot the shit a lot.  Jesse especially makes a lot of bad puns and that turns into a little game.

How has tour been with the guys in Primitive Man?

Great.  I mean those guys are so easygoing.  We’ve learned that with more people showing up it can be stressful but those guys are so mellow and laid back.  No bullshit that we have to deal with.  And they’re a great band.  It’s a great pairing where they’re exploring the death metal side of things and we’re exploring the atmospheric, funeral side.  There are so many parallels and so many offshoots.

Can you explain the process of deciding on the cover artwork by Mariusz Lewandowski?  It’s so phenomenal but practically everything about him right now online is in Polish.

We were saying, “Who should we talk to?”  Paolo Girardi did “Four Phantoms” and I love the work that he did and working with him.  He’s such a cool guy.  We were ready to talk to him again but then decided to do a little research and look around to see if there was anything that was going to just smack us in the face.  And we came across Mariusz and it definitely smacked us in the face.  We were saying, “This is outrageous.  This is so good.”  So we contacted him and he’s not a native English speaker so we started e-mailing back and forth.  We sent him the last record and he said, “I’ve always wanted to do a record cover and I’ve never done one.  I like this!”  We told him what the record was about.  We still had the working title “As Above, So Below.”  But we had a bunch of lyrics about mirrors, so we thought maybe that’s a cool image.  If we have the mirror as a centerpiece, a gray area between life and death, a reflection.  We sent him that and he sent us the artwork and just blew us away.  It was very easy and he was great.  I hope to meet him someday!

What’s ahead for next year?

We’re going to play Roadburn in April and we’ll play “Mirror Reaper” from start to finish.  Erik is going to join us and play an Aerial Ruin set also.  We’ll do some touring in Europe surrounding that.  As soon as we get some downtime we’ll start working on some new stuff.  We have 20-30 minutes that didn’t work into Mirror Reaper.  We figured we could save it for later.  We have a lot of those we can start digging into.

Do you think you’ll go back to a couple different themes, broken into multiple songs, on the next record?

I don’t think we’ll do the single song thing again.  The process proved to be very difficult.  The writing process was tough, the recording process was tough.  That being said I don’t think we’ll ever write short songs.  I’d be surprised if we got below the ten minute mark.

The End

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Bell Witch - "Mirror Reaper"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full length

Date Released: 20/10/2017

Label: Profound Lore Records

With "Mirror Reaper," the music conveys the reflection back of life and of death; literally that the Grim Reaper is a facsimile of the cycle of life. As with anything Bell Witch, though, such a realization is not engaged with in a fashion that rips at the pain of loss or terror, but rather builds into a deeper, though no less excoriating, meditation on the passage of time

"Mirror Reaper" CD//DD//LP track listing

1. Mirror Reaper

The Review:

The spastic beauty of doom is its blithe but authentic rejection of protocol, even in metal, which itself defies popular music at every turn. Doom is storied for its winding, intricate songs. Doom feels brainier (or nerdier) than what you anticipate, with the number of concept albums about esoterica, space or obscure literature, mythology or history very likely disproportionate to the rest of the genre. And, in the immortal words of Beyonce, when others say speed it up, doom just goes slower.

There is something so beautifully faithful and just-don't-give-a-fuck about that investment in one's own imagination. We all say we'll be artists, but how many of us truly stay that way and how many unconsciously try to fit into the molds we're presented? You may adore thrash metal's technique, grindcore's brief injections of aggression and death metal's roar, but you love doom for being what it is. It simply lurches on, siring even denser progeny such as funeral doom, mainstream acceptance and fake love be damned.

2017 needs Bell Witch. In a year where conflict, culture and politics seem bigger and bigger, the Seattle band's new "Mirror Reaper" feels fitting. It is exactly one track, 83 minutes, 16 seconds in length.

An entire album being a single track is unusual, but not unheard of. Olympia black metal outfit Fauna released the 63-minute "The Rain" in 2006 and then "The Hunt" in 2007, with its only song showing out at nearly 80 minutes. Chicago doom metal act Bongripper debuted in 2006 with its "The Great Barrier Reefer" concluding at just a bit over 79 minutes on the clock. A few other bands, such as Japanese metal collective Boris and Finnish folk metal group Moonsorrow, have done multiple epic songs well into the 50-minute range. Bell Witch itself is no stranger to such a mystique. Its 2015 release, "Four Phantoms," came in at four cuts and around one hour, with two songs wrapping at 22 minutes apiece. However, as they say in the lad mags, size does not matter. You're listening for whether "Mirror Reaper" can bring you this uncurbed promise, and deliver.

Bell Witch has few peers in funeral doom. Chances are Bell Witch is why you listen to this music in the first place. 2011's "Longing" is still praised as one of the great albums in the field. "Four Phantoms" has been called one of the subgenre's best recordings ever. In 2016, 36-year-old Adrian Guerra, the group's founding member as well as drummer/vocalist, died suddenly. His shadow over "Four Phantoms" and formulation of the Bell Witch aesthetic is long. One has to ponder how much Guerra's contributions may leave a hole in the band's return since his passing.

Mixed by Billy Anderson, who's done production for Neurosis and Sleep (coincidentally, Anderson worked on the California performer's 63-minute "Dopesmoker" in 2003), "Mirror Reaper" is planted in etymology related to the words of Hermes Trismegistus, the Greek representation of Hermes and Thoth, and the Hermeticism on which said writings are based. Trismegistus' Emerald Tablet, believed to have been composed between the sixth and eighth centuries, forwards core Hermetic philosophy. The Emerald Tablet would influence Renaissance alchemy as well as the thinking of C. S. Jung and Isaac Newton. For "Mirror Reaper" an Emerald Tablet concept, brought forward in Newton's translation and that in "Aureliae Occultae Philosophorum," is woven throughout. The idea of 'as above, so below' is one of duality – sun/moon, life/death and so forth. Driven by such grandiose ideas – which have literally occupied thousands of books, faith practices and hearts – it should not be all that shocking that "Mirror Reaper" is what it is.

Bell Witch has explored the visage of ghosts, life and death throughout its career. Consistently the band has taken a more cerebral approach in these themes. With "Mirror Reaper," the music conveys the reflection back of life and of death; literally that the Grim Reaper is a facsimile of the cycle of life. As with anything Bell Witch, though, such a realization is not engaged with in a fashion that rips at the pain of loss or terror, but rather builds into a deeper, though no less excoriating, meditation on the passage of time. Under Anderson's hand, as well as the support of vocalist Erik Moggridge, what could become a bloated, verbose exercise in something this ambitious becomes an achievement.

The arrangement of the piece takes subtle and yet exquisite turns. The transition from the 24th minute to the 32nd minute or so; minute 55 into the hour; and the song's final 10 minutes are among funeral doom's best examples of plangency. In a touching tribute, the late Guerra lives on in the form of previously unused vocals from the "Four Phantoms" sessions included in a movement within "Mirror Reaper." Such is perhaps one of the most wrenching parts of the song because it takes the metaphysical storytelling out in favor of real life and real death. The new core duo of founding member Dylan Desmond and drummer Jesse Shreibman include Guerra honorably. They also make it clear in "Mirror Reaper" that Bell Witch is prepared to start a new, compelling chapter.

"Mirror Reaper” is available here:

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Blood of Sokar - "Blood of Sokar"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full length

Date Released: 25/08/ 2017

Label: Lighten Up Sounds

From the opening song, "Cælestibus," cresting into "Hallucinatus," there is an unfathomable well of torment and apoplexy. The music's dirge only heaps dirt upon the exasperation that sets in. Blood of Sokar's thick bass and sludge-infested guitar lines virtually guarantee this temperament will not cease.  This Seattle-based act, which transcends funeral doom and blackened doom, delivers exactly the kind of recording that fear is made of.

 

“Blood of Sokar “CS//DD track listing:

1. Cælestibus

2. Hallucinatus

3. Hecatomb

4. Mortem Ventum

The Review:

One of the most disturbing horror films of the last few years, depending on who you ask, was 2015's “Baskin”. The New York Times called the Turkish movie, "a buffet for gore enthusiasts, without ever totally losing its elegance — unless your definition of that word could never encompass a graphic disembowelment or an unexpected stabbing of an eye." It is in truth quite a brutal fantasy, filled with mythic monsters and a curious tale, and quite a lot of violence.

Without spoiling it – and if you like the harsher brands of horror signified by the New French Extremity era of works like “Martyrs” and “Dans Ma Peau/In My Skin”, “Baskin” may be for you – there is a moment when the motion picture's protagonists approach the Ottoman Era building that once housed a police station. It is just the moment before Hell truly breaks loose.

If that moment of “Baskin”, where feet unknowingly tread upon this ignoble place, had a soundtrack, Blood of Sokar's self-titled debut would be it.

The Seattle-based act, which transcends funeral doom and blackened doom, delivers exactly the kind of recording that fear is made of. The heaviness screams and indecipherable vocals are stagnant as an abandoned structure with its own stories untold. You can feel those spirits cut right through you in a track like "Hecatomb," with its dissonant caws that at last merge into something sounding almost melodic. Hard to access, but rattling and memorable this debut is.

Over its four-song, 37-minute tale, Blood of Sokar tells a story that is largely one of your imagination. This is primarily because the recording's vocals are so thickly layered and droned out that your mind has to paint the picture. Such vocals are harder to pull off than you might think, simply because they form songs that are not the conflict-context-unity of your usual songwriting. The listener is challenged to see the song as a complete work, and to be part of the music as art. Lots of doom and black metal offer concept albums and stories behind and within their songs. This self-titled release is purely a tale you conjure. Hence it is difficult to recall a release that did this style very effectively since Diamanda Galas' 1993 masterpiece “Vena Cava”, a representation of the effects of dementia brought on by HIV (see Galas' 1991 live performance album “Plague Mass” as precursor to this story) or 1996's “Schrei X”, a homage to German avant garde music. Blood of Sokar nevertheless does an admirable and at many turns riveting take on this approach.

From the opening song, "Cælestibus," cresting into "Hallucinatus," there is an unfathomable well of torment and apoplexy. The music's dirge only heaps dirt upon the exasperation that sets in. Blood of Sokar's thick bass and sludge-infested guitar lines virtually guarantee this temperament will not cease.

Blood of Sokar is an overpowering new addition to funeral doom, and one that may just score a future nightmare.

“Blood of Sokar” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

Interview with He Whose Ox is Gored

It's my pleasure to be interviewing Lisa Mungo and Brian McClelland from Seattle's very own Doomgaze/Post-Hardcore/Post-Metal riffsters – He Whose Ox is Gored, who have been making a name for themselves over the last few years with their critically acclaimed EP's.

Their latest release – Nightshade – is starting to win them a lot of praise within the underground metal community. Their style of Sludge, Doom, Post-Hardcore, Post-Metal and Post-Rock will easily put you in a hypnotic trance.

The band are currently recording their début full length record to be released later this year. Before that I have been given the chance to catch up with this hugely talented genre-defying band and get the low down on their music and forthcoming début album.

So lets see what they have to say to us...

Q1 – Hi there. Thanks for doing this. How are things with you today.

LM. Great! Thanks for having us. We're just catching up on some last minute things before hitting the road for tour.

BM. Awesome. Catching up on some Game of Thrones and talking shit on Twitter, haha.

Q2 – Can you give a brief history of how the band came about and where it is today.

BM. Yeah, it's been kind of a journey. Lisa and I met in 2008 after we both moved to here for music. We started the band around 2009 after I had been working on demos for a while, playing some of Seattle's killer dives (Funhouse, Comet Tavern RIP). By 2010, we put out a couple smaller releases independently and started finding some textures we wanted to work with.

LM. We hit the road as much as we could, with a few lineup changes along the way. John O'Connell (drums) played with us on our OP AMPS II EP before joining Brothers of the Sonic Cloth with Tad Doyle for a while. Mike Sparks (bass) joined up about two years ago, but has been playing together with John in their band By Sunlight for years. When we decided to start working on our full-length, we called John up, and he jumped in full time to round out the current lineup.

Q3 – Lets talk about your fantastic band name. He Whose Ox is Gored. Where did that name came from. Any particular meaning to it.

BM. The name was given to us by the Wolfduggler. In another place and time. He came to show us the way.

LM. It's biblical, baby.

Q4 – Your sound is very hard to describe. A brutal blend of Sludge, Doom, Post-Metal and Post-Hardcore. Though your own description of Doomgaze only gives a slight glimpse of your music. How would you best describe your music.

BM. I'd say that's pretty good. We've always loved doomgaze because people understand there's some texture to it. A lot of the time, someone that hears the name without seeing us will assume it's metal, but will usually have some awesome descriptor that we could never come up with after catching us live. More often than not we just tell people it's heavy.

Q5 – Which bands and artists influenced you as musicians. Any particular bands or albums stand out.

LM. King Crimson - In the Wake of Poseidon and ELO - El Dorado. Isis, John Carpenter. You know, jammers.

BM. Yeah, definitely John Carpenter. Lisa got me into the soundtrack stuff way more. Plus, there are a ton of Seattle bands that we've been listening to for years that really shaped what we do. Botch, These Arms are Snakes, Heiress.

Q6 – Your 2011 EP – Nightshade – is a brilliant EP. Loved it. I loved the different styles of music combine to take you on a weird and heavy psychedelic journey. Was that an easy EP to write and record for at the time.

LM. I love this EP for selfish reasons. Up until this point, Brian had a catalog of songs that were already written, but this was the first time we really got to reach out and explore a bit more as a team. We took a few risks with the atmospherics and manipulated vocals. It was subtle, but it definitely got the ball rolling towards where we wanted to go. That, and recording with Chris Common at Red Room, who has made some of our favorite records.

BM. That record was great. At the time, we had Travis Brenden (bass) and Patrick Huerta (drums) in the lineup, and those dudes are both awesome players as well. We definitely had a good vibes as we were writing the songs. We were all kind of living on shoestrings as a band, but that's one of those things that really pushes you as an artist to try new stuff and really go for it. And yeah, Chris Common is an encyclopedia of studio knowledge as well, so he helped us finally get some of the tone we were looking for.

Q7 – It's being released on Vinyl through Caffe Vita Records. How did that come about. Are you Vinyl fans yourselves.

LM. Mike from Caffe Vita has been helping out Seattle bands for years to get their records out, and I was working for him for a while. He'd been putting out bands like The Head & The Heart, Iska Dhaaf, and Tilson XOXO, and when he reached out to us, we were thrilled. Up until then, Nightshade was only available as a digital download.

BM. Yeah, he's been super cool. We got into vinyl and record collecting a while back, and it's been totally fun to go through and design the release and get it in your hands, you know. When we showed Mike what we had in mind, he was totally supportive. I love the whole limited edition collector's vibe of colored vinyl, and he was into the splatter designs and artwork we came up with so it worked out really well.

Q8 – You're currently recording your début full length record. Can you give us more information about the album. When will it be released and what people can expect from it.

BM. Yeah, it's taken a while for us to get the material where we wanted it, but we're super excited with the final product. Some tracks we've had for a long time, and some we wrote as we were in the studio, so there's good deal of variation between songs. There's more depth and texture since we've had some time to look at the structures and pick them through. We try to focus on pushing forward in the right ways instead of banging songs out, which can be frustrating sometimes, but sometimes you go back and think, I can't believe we made this thing, you know? It's great.

LM. Totally. One of the biggest factors has been Mike and John abstracting the rhythm section and really adding new elements to the sound. They're both phenomenal musicians and they have this chemistry from playing together for years that's so much fun to work with. They've really changed the sound in a very exciting way. Once we got the bulk of the ideas down, we started tracking with Robert Cheek (Tera Melos, Chelsea Wolfe) between Red Room and ExEx Audio, his studio. I tracked for a couple days with Randall Dunn (Sunn O)), Earth, Wolves in the Throne Room) over at Avast to get my hands on his collection of killer vintage synths, and then we headed back to Red Room to mix with Matt Bayles. It's been and incredible process. As of now, we're still working on a release date, but we'll have some news coming soon.

Q9 – What is the song-writing process in the band. Is it a group collective or is it down to one individual.

BM. The Wolfduggler writes all of our songs. He came to show us the way.

LM. To show us the way.

Q10 – You're from Seattle which is primarily known for the legendary Grunge Scene. Is it hard for a band like yourselves to perform regular gigs in Seattle or is their a wider rock/metal scene within Seattle for you to perform regular gigs.

BM. Not really. The grunge thing was huge in the mainstream, but people here have continued to make awesome music for years. Luckily, there's no shortage of rad and diverse bands.

LM. Totally. We're very fortunate to be in a scene that promotes experimentation, especially as a heavy band. There are a ton of people that work hard every day to help get the word out. From zines like Seattle/Portland Passive Aggressive, to blogs like Seattle Rock Guy, The Stranger's Lineout, to DIY venues, people are always finding new bands and throwing awesome shows.

Q11 – Though Seattle seems to have a wealth of outstanding Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metal bands to check out such as Lesbian, Ancient Warlocks, yourselves, Helms Alee, Princess, Serial Hawk and GIZA to name but a few. Have you toured with any of those bands. Can you recommend any more bands for our readers to check out.

BM. Definitely. Sandrider is a favorite around here, as well as Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, Occult SS, Wounded Giant, Breag Naofa, Grenades, Don Peyote, and Mercy Ties. Constant Lovers just put out a killer record called Experience Feelings on Good to Die, that's getting a lot of spins around here. Serial Hawk is like our brother band, too. Those guys do work, son. Keep an eye on them for sure.

Q12 – Do you perform gigs on a regular basis in your home town or do you have to travel further afield to perform regularly.

LM. We play when the moon is full and the shred wolves howl.

Q13 – What are you thoughts on the crowd-funding scene where bands and artists ask fans to help fund their latest album, tour or release. Are you fans of this medium. Would yourselves ever go down this route.

BM. If it works for the band, I'm for it. Here's the thing, big labels are dead, small labels are sometimes barely operating, and cloud services are screwing bands after years of free downloads. You know, just today, I did a calculation on Wolfbrigade's Comalive record. They had about a hundred thousand plays on Spotify, and according to the formula that Spotify publishes, those dudes made $630. What is that shit? I'd much rather give my money directly to a band that has a plan. That's the best feeling in the world! I'm not talking about some Amanda Palmer shit, where you make a million fucking dollars on Kickstarter and try to pay your cellist in drink tickets, fuck her for that, but if a band has a dedicated fanbase that wants to help an artist achieve a goal, then fucking right on, man. It didn't work for us when we tried to pay for this record, but hey, you win some you lose some, haha.

Q14 – What is your live set-up when performing on stage. Any advanced rigs or do you have a more straight forward set-up.

BM. Mike and John's rigs are pretty straight. Mike's rocking a V4 that Ben Verellen has brought back from the dead so many times, it could earn him the title of Amp Jesus. John's still working out his rototom setup, but we insisted he keep it after seeing his Rush cover band last weekend. My pedalboard has been lovingly nicknamed the Squirrel Cage from the array of wires extruding and an agitated and seemingly sentient presence in the band. Half of the time, I can't tell if Lisa is plugging in MIDI cables or moonlighting as a police dispatcher, but somehow it all works out.

LM. Yeah, haha. I'm auditioning for Daft Punk next week. Gotta work on my synth pyramid.

BM. Yeah you are.

Q15 – In 5 words or less, what is the live HE WHOSE OX IS GORED experience like.

LM. Our soundtrack to your armageddon.

BM. I was going to say, Terminator 2: Live in Person. That works, right?

LM. That works too, duder.

Q16 - If you could give any advice to people wanting to start a band what would it be.

LM. God luck and good speed.

BM. Have fucking fun, and don't look down. You told me that, girl.

LM. Yeah I did. It seems to work. Sort of, haha.

Q17 - Apart from the new album what else do you have in store over the next 12 months or so.

BM. We're finishing up a 7" called Rumours that'll be out on Bleeding Light Records in the fall. That one's going to be stuff we wrote after the record that's completely separate. We're also releasing a tape comp of our OP AMPS II/Nightshade EPs on Breathe Plastic Records in Europe in the next month or two. Preorders for that are up here.

OPAMPS II // NIGHTSHADE, by He Whose Ox Is Gored

Other than that, making pizza, getting more bro tatz, and booking more tours. Oh, and writing the next record.

Q18 – And finally, do you have anything to say to your fans.

LM. Yeah. We lost a friend and long-time fan recently. Our buddy Daniel Adam Driskill passed recently after a battle with cancer. He showed us how to live life and have fun in the face of death. He came out to so many shows around Seattle, he loved the scene. We appreciated all of his support over the years, and we wanted to share the joy and excitement for art that he shared with us. Thanks, Dan. You are one of one.

Thanks for doing this. Can't wait to hear your debut album when it's finally unleashed upon to the world.

Once again, thanks to Cat Jones at Southern Cross PR for arranging this interview.

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Written by Steve Howe