Tag Archives: James Conway

Scars of Tomorrow – Failed Transmissions

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When metalcore came along at the turn of the century to wash away the juvenile dross of nu-metal there was much rejoicing. After all, what could go wrong with bands delivering their own interpretation of Slaughter of the Soul’s legacy? Quite a lot in fact as the scene quickly reached saturation point with a seemingly endless parade of silly-haired whippersnappers recycling the same old riffs and same tired themes.

 

Orange County quintet Scars of Tomorrow never ascended above the D-grade despite releasing five albums in as many years on Victory Records between 2002 and 2006. After originally disbanding in 2007, they have reformed and recorded a new album, Failed Transmissions (Artery). The question is, if they weren’t good enough when the scene was in full swing what relevance do they have now?

 

The answer is none.

 

Absence has not made the heart grow fonder and Scars of Tomorrow have not learnt any lessons in their time off. They are still ploughing the exact same furrow they had exhausted of all resources back in 2006, offering up a thoroughly generic and uninspiring selection of Norma Jean-aping riffs combined with the odd It Dies Today-esque melodic flourish and of course, breakdown after goddamn breakdown in case you had forgotten that metalcore bands of this ilk wish they were tough enough to be part of the hardcore scene.

 

Featuring no memorable, heartstring-tugging choruses, riffs of any power, presence or anything approaching their own identity, the existence of this record is a mystery, for it serves no purpose. Metalcore is dead and buried, the kids have moved on to new and fresher things, and the members of Scars of Tomorrow should be devoting their time into producing music with half an ounce of relevance to today and not just assuming that a half-hour rehash of their old sound will be enough after so long away.

 

Utterly pointless and shockingly complacent.

 

3.0/10.0

Scars of Tommorow on Facebook

 

JAMES CONWAY

 


Nachtmystium – The World We Left Behind

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nachtmystium album cover

 

Despite single-handedly dragging Nachtmystium from the benighted depths of the US black metal scene to their current position as one of its biggest names, it has not been an easy ride for mainman Blake Judd. Years spent battling drug addiction appeared to have paid their price with Judd announcing last year that The World We Left Behind (Century Media) would be Nachtmystium’s final recording. Howeve,r a recent change of heart means that the band is once again an active entity with Judd seemingly ready to lay his demons to rest and build on Nachtmystium’s successful merging of BM aesthetics with Pink Floyd-influenced prog and post-punk elements that has won them so many admirers. It’s a winning formula and one that Judd has further explored on this new album after the back to basics approach of 2012’s punishing Silencing Machine.

 

Despite the band’s status, first track ‘Intrusion’ seems to be more of a collection of rehearsal room riffs than anything resembling an actual song, more of a warm up exercise that somehow ended up on the finished product. Thankfully the Nachtmystium we know and love announces itself in style with ‘Fireheart’; a hip-shaking post-punk number chock full of jangling melodies that employs several downright catchy riffs that Joy Division might have written had they been around long enough to hear Deathcrush (Posercorpse). A few weird yet restrained keyboards nicely supplement the riffs and driving chorus before the mid-paced introspection of ‘Voyager’ takes things down to more downbeat levels with Judd doing plenty of soul searching in the morose lyrics.

 

The first appearance of the scalding black metal of the early days is in the eight minute plus assault of ‘Into the Endless Abyss’ which perfectly melds the aggression and iciness of the Norwegian second wave with the depressive elements that are the trademark of USBM. Keyboards nip like wasps rather than drowning the riffs in synth rendering the track a cathartic yet challenging experience, proving Judd still knows how to turn on the hate when required. However, modern Nachtmystium is more about atmosphere than pace these days as the churning riff and sheer gloom of ‘In the Absence of Existence’ lets you know when the band are at their most crushing.

 

The title track has a defiantly playful nature, merging epic synths with the most basic of drumbeats and another of those killer mid-paced riffs that seems to come so naturally to Judd. The melodies are as achingly sad as ever of course. However, it’s on the final track ‘Epitaph for a Dying Star’ that everything gels perfectly with the gorgeous, ethereal female vocals, soaring melodies and utterly crushing post-metal riff that drives the whole thing confirming just how lucky we are that Judd has postponed his retirement.

 

The World We Left Behind would have been a brilliant epitaph to a fantastic band but it now takes on a new perspective as something Judd can build on in the future, provided he keeps his demons in check. Or maybe he should let them off the leash entirely? Either way, Nachtmystium are back at the top of the pile and long may they glower down from there.

 

8.5/10

Nachtmystium on Facebook

 

JAMES CONWAY

 

 

 


Mortals – Cursed To See The Future

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While most bands from Brooklyn should be viewed with caution given the possibility they may be a hipster plot to infiltrate the metal scene, at least according to a certain breed of metal ‘fan’, in the case of power-trio Mortals one should preferably don body armour and a hard hat lest you be flattened in the wake of their thunderous, bulldozing assault. Once their sophomore full-length release Cursed To See The Future (Relapse) starts to move, it barely lets up in single bloody-minded intensity over the course of forty-seven pulverising minutes.

 

Blending the feral, filth-flecked riffage of Mayhem at their most ugliest with the battering ram impact of crusty US types High on Fire and Lair of the Minotaur, Cursed To See The Future takes the Route One approach in terms of pace and structure; it’s quick, nasty and aggressive with minimal concessions to melody, akin to being repeatedly pounded over the head with a bone by a rabid caveman under a full moon. In short, it’s a wholly Neanderthal, unsubtle manner of playing and for the most part it’s utterly exhilarating as the frenzied attack of opening track ‘View From a Tower’ demonstrates while the more mid-paced, shifting grooves of ‘The Summoning’ remind you just how punishing sludge can be.

 

All three musicians are exemplary throughout with the triumphant drumming of Caryn Havlik deserving special praise while the venomous screech of Lesley Wolf lends an air of demonic intensity to proceedings that just makes everything that bit more evil sounding. One complaint is that some of the longer songs tend to drag at nearly ten minutes but with the overall assault being so devastating you’ll likely be too busy trying to catch your breath to care.

 

This is one band for the future we could do with seeing more from.

 

7.5/10.0

 

Mortals on Facebook

 

JAMES CONWAY

 

 


One Hit Wonders (Fifteen Killer Albums) – Part II

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Demilich –Nespithe (Necropolis, 1993)

After all the noise being made about the giants of Sweden and the USA, it’s about time the Finns got a look in. Although don’t look too closely as you may not escape with your sanity intact after any length of time exposed to Nespithe, the single album by Kuopio’s Demilich, a quartet who decided to take death metal, dissect it in the most painful and morbid ways possible before reassembling it with alien technologies. The riffs and guitar lines make Voïvod sound like AC/DC, so complex, mangled and downright weird are the time signatures. The percussion and bass guitar are restless and almost jazz like, and as for the bizarre, almost burped vocals (recorded with no effects) and long-winded sci-fi themed lyrics, no one apart from the band had any idea what was going on. Too weird to live, Demilich, have reformed and split several times since the release of this thirty-nine minute monument to madness and maybe, just maybe it’s for the best.

 

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diSEMBOWELMENT – Transcendence Into the Peripheral (Relapse, 1993)

Surely the North of England, with its bleak moors, freezing temperatures and morbid ethos was the perfect setting for doom/death, especially when you take into account the impact of the Peaceville Northern Doom Trinity of My Dying Bride, Anathema and Paradise Lost, right? Well you’d be dead wrong, for the finest example of that genre, then and ever, crawled out of the Australian bush twenty years ago in the form of diSEMBOWELMENT, who with the utterly peerless Transcendence Into the Peripheral mashed death metal and doom together not in some harmonious accord, but more like a berserk Victor Frankenstein drunk on the horror of his own creation. Nightmarish, drawn out doom sections sap your energy and will before rabid grind-speed blasting parts appear out of nowhere to pin you to the wall and spit blood in your face before retreating back into the darkness, while the sinister melodies and tortured moaning vocals do their best to make things even worse. An endurance test that few make to the end of, Transcendence Into the Peripheral proved that location meant jack if you hated yourself enough to begin with.

 

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Thergothon – Stream From the Heavens (Avantgarde, 1994)

Just when you thought that metal couldn’t get any slower or depressive sounding, along came a trio of Finns who had other ideas, all of them in different shades of black. They were known as Thergothon, and with the forty minutes of anguish and drawn-out misery they committed to tape in the beginning of 1994, they not only explored more of the abyss than ever before, but created an entire new genre; funeral doom. Characterised by one-note downstrokes, haunting, ethereal keyboards and vocals alternating between diseased death grunts and stark clean-sung laments, the music captured was so wrist-slashingly bleak it’s no surprise that the band called it a day soon after. The host of imitators spawned was inevitable, but none yet have come close to capturing the barren, disfigured beauty on offer here.

 

Mysticum - In the Streams of Inferno

 

Mysticum – In the Streams of Inferno (Full Moon, 1996)

Black metal was in a tight spot in the late 90s with the old guard past their best and the new school more interested in vampires and bloodsucking than darkness and extremity so thank fuck for bands such as Norway’s Mysticum who decided that the way forward was to look to the future. However, this was a nightmarish, militaristic future of deadly guitar riffs, merciless programming in place of live drums and an aesthetic that was just as grim as anything the Helvete brigade could ever conceive of. In short, Cyber-Black Metal was born, and were it not for the utterly shoddy efforts of the bands that followed in Mysticum’s wake, the black metal landscape would look very different today. Doubt the quality of this recording? Then head over to the band’s website where it’s free for all to hear.

 

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Floodgate – Penalty (Roadrunner, 1996)

If you thought that Down were the only stoner/doom band with a singer recruited from a thrash/groove act that mattered, then you’ve obviously never heard Floodgate, and shame on you. Featuring the mightily refined and recognisable pipes of Exhorder’s Kyle Thomas, Penalty is a timeless classic that will appeal to anyone with a passing interest in rock and metal. The songwriting is stellar, with the effortlessly catchy grooves of ‘Through My Days Into My Nights’ and the loose, flowing rhythms of ‘Shivering’ lodging into your brain for days afterwards. Heavy without being abrasive and always enjoyable, it’s a tragedy and a mystery that Floodgate only ever recorded one album given the talents and resources at their disposal. As it is, we only have Penalty but it’s a record that keeps on giving and will never let you down, and for that we should be thankful.

 

 

 

Read Part I here…

 

JAMES CONWAY


One Hit Wonders (Fifteen Killer Albums) – Part I

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As any fool who follows the metal scene can tell you, there’s one hell of a lot of albums out there to listen to. New bands are emerging at an unprecedented rate, the old guard you thought long-dead are reforming quicker than you can say “Greatest Hits Tour” and bands that really should just lay down and die are instead locked into a seemingly never-ending cycle of record/tour/record, regardless of whether their fans have had enough. Grave Digger, Illdisposed and Paganizer have released forty albums between them. Does anyone own any of them?  Thought not…

 

So, what about the bands who released just one full-length before disappearing into obscurity? What impact have these single-figured artists had on our beloved scene? The answer is quite a bit. More than quite a bit, in fact… With that in mind Ghost Cult is proud to present the fifteen essential albums by bands that only gave us one opportunity to hear their wares.

 

Read on and see if you agree.

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Repulsion – Horrified (Necrosis, 1989) 

Once regarded as the fastest band in the world, along with being one of the innovators of grindcore along with Napalm Death and Terrorizer, Flint, Michigan trio Repulsion released Horrified in 1989 to a largely unsuspecting public. Its light-speed, hideously ugly legacy has endured to this day, with the band still headlining festival stages on the strength of this one 29-minute recording. Featuring some of the most frantic, caustic riffage ever captured, along with suitably sickening lyrics and of course, that iconic goofy zombie on the front cover, Horrified is an extreme metal classic that you will never get tired of spinning. If you don’t lose your shit when the riff to ‘Black Breath’ begins you probably aren’t human.

 

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Carnage – Dark Recollections (Necrosis, 1990)

When you think of Swedish Death Metal the obvious names that spring to mind are Entombed, At the Gates and Dismember, but there is one often overlooked act whose contribution to the genre is utterly essential. They were Carnage, five spotty oiks from Stockholm whose sole release Dark Recollections was perhaps the purest embodiment of the Sunlight sound that all bands of the genre strived for; buzzsaw guitars, twisted melodies and indecipherable barked lyrics concerning violence and death. Given the whiff of grindcore that imbued the recording it was unsurprising that guitarist Mike Amott soon jumped ship to join Carcass while the rest of the band merged with the remnants of Dismember. However, the spirit of Dark Recollections was absorbed into that band, a more than fitting legacy for an album of such macabre excellence.

 

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Winter – Into Darkness (Future Shock, 1990)

Picture if you will, planet Earth devastated by a nuclear holocaust; a grey, rotting visage of sunless skies, obliterated cityscapes and blasted landscapes. Now imagine that some malign sorcery has resurrected the corpses of Celtic Frost to be this ruined world’s own house band, playing endlessly on only for the benefit of the endless piles of corpses that stretch to the blackened horizon. This is what Into Darkness by New York trio Winter sounds like. Arguably one of the most miserable, lifeless recordings of all time, this is a tortuous forty-six minute crawl through wretchedness via the medium of lethargic doom riffs, clattering percussion and gruff, indifferent vocals. You’re not meant to enjoy it and it’s no surprise Winter only managed one EP after committing this monstrosity to tape.

 

 

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God Macabre – The Winterlong (M.B.R., 1993)

Another Swedish death metal act that lasted all too briefly, that isn’t to say that Vålberg’s God Macabre didn’t have the talent, as anyone who has spent time with the short but sick The Winterlong will enthusiastically tell you. Far more morose and bitter sounding than most death metal albums that were being released at that time, their sole release may have only lasted twenty-seven minutes but the songs on offer had ‘timeless’ stamped all over them, blending catchy yet savage riffs with mournful melodies and an innate disgust and horror at life. Recently re-issued with the band reforming last year, now is the time for those unacquainted with this forgotten classic to recognise one of the most important bands in death metal, in Sweden or anywhere.

 

 

Disincarnate - Dreams of the Carrion Kind

 

Disincarnate – Dreams of the Carrion Kind (Roadrunner, 1993)

With death metal already beginning to show signs of creative stagnation in 1993, it took the twisted vision of one of the genre’s most talented and well-travelled soldiers to show that all was not lost and that where there was death there was life. Enter James Murphy, who after stints in Death and Obituary decided to take the lead, which he did with the utterly brilliant Dreams of the Carrion Kind under the Disincarnate name. If you thought Death had started to sacrifice songwriting in favour of technicality, found Obituary a tad dull and Suffocation a bit too over the top then your prayers were answered, for Murphy somehow managed to filter all the plus points and none of the weaknesses from those aforementioned bands into one of the darkest, endlessly fascinating and still inherently listenable Death Metal albums of all time. Their split was a tragedy that often comes with an excess of talent but news that the band has reformed is a hopeful sign that more people will soon become aware of Dreams of the Carrion Kind and the brilliance of James Murphy.

 

 

JAMES CONWAY

 


Sworn Enemy – Living on Borrowed Time

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If there’s one maxim that will always apply to the world of hardcore, it’s that it will never let you down. Long tied to notions of unity and loyalty, both within the actual music and surrounding scene, the bands who live by this creed know how to deliver the goods and rarely make mistakes. New York quartet Sworn Enemy are one such band and with their new release Living on Borrowed Time (Rock Ridge) they are eager to remind everyone what hardcore is all about.

 

In case you were wondering, hardcore in this case seems to be about sticking as rigidly to convention as physically possible. The early Slayer influences that peppered the bands’ early work have largely been flattened out in favour of adherence to a rigid, almost militaristically enforced formula of racing Sick of It All style riffs n’ chugs, divebombs and of course the ubiquitous breakdowns that give all the tough guys in the pit a chance to show off their kung-fu skills. Make no mistake, it’s a largely effective formula as tracks such as ‘Broken Hope’ and ‘No Mercy’ push all the required buttons with ease; they’re catchy, full of beans and will have you up and two-stepping in no time at all. But is that enough in this day and age?

 

Put simply, Sworn Enemy is the archetypal hardcore band. They have no interest in variety or innovation, they invoke images of muscled neighbourhood toughs posing with pitbulls, getting inked, jumping around in the pit as seen in early Agnostic Front videos. The lyrics are all about respect, staying true to yourself and similar well-worn clichés. The truth, as so often is “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” and the only thing broken here will be bones in the pit when the songs from this record are dropped live.

 

7/10

Sworn Enemy on Facebook

 

JAMES CONWAY

 


Yautja – Songs of Descent

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There must be something foul in the water of Nashville, Tennessee for whatever the three members of Yautja have been drinking seems to have done them all a nasty mischief. Featuring former members of Coliseum and Nameless Cults, Songs of Descent (Forcefield), the debut album concocted by this unholy trinity of musicians, is chock-full of nasty, punk aggro, fist-swinging grind fury and dissonant Melvins-indebted sludge heaviness. In short, it’s all over the place, tearing at the seams and seemingly ready to explode violently at any given moment. By and large, this works in the band’s favour.

 

Song lengths vary from the minute-long blasts of hatred such as ‘Concrete Tongue’ and ‘An Exit’ which sounds like a more ramshackle Nails playing with knives at their throats to the tortuous crawl through broken glass that is album-centrepiece ‘Faith Resigned’, a seven minute dirge that will have you reaching for the shotgun and pills in no time. Elsewhere, the sickeningly catchy groove of ‘Tar and Blindness’ upsets the apple cart with its juxtaposition of hip-shaking riffs and sheets of noise, made worse by some merciless and intrusive percussion courtesy of Tyler Coburn.

 

With all three members handling vocals and maintaining a tempo seemingly an afterthought, Songs of Descent is one of the most unpredictable and dangerous records committed to tape in a while. Living up to its title, this thirty-seven minute, multi-tentacled monstrosity is the soundtrack to a descent to hell and I still can’t decide if it should have been drowned at birth in the interest of public safety. So before Yautja are declared a health hazard it would be worthwhile to check out Songs of Descent although the intense bad vibes experienced may take some getting used to. Fuck it, embrace the hate.

 

 7.5 / 10

Yautja on Facebook

 

JAMES CONWAY

 


Hour of Penance – Regicide

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Despite being somewhat outflanked in recent years by the operatic bombast of fellow countrymen Fleshgod Apocalypse, who they have previously shared members with, Italian quartet Hour of Penance obviously have no intention of being left behind in the race for the throne of Italian Death Metal as new album Regicide (Prosthetic) emphatically demonstrates, for it is one of the most brutal and vicious releases you are likely to hear all year.

 

Still mightily pissed off with the Catholic Church, which again provides most of the fuel for the hatred captured on these eleven tracks, Hour of Penance go for the throat from the off with the savage double-whammy of ‘Reforging the Crowns’ and ‘Desecrated Souls’ which fly by in a barrage of blastbeats, gargantuan Hate Eternal –influenced riffs and throaty bellows courtesy of the utterly furious sounding Paolo Pieri. There’s not much in the way of subtlety and you wonder briefly if the intensity will be sustained throughout. But these worries are soon assuaged by the quality of the songwriting that begin to shine through like light through a stain glass window as in the venomous chugging of ‘Spears of Sacred Dogma’ and the more nuanced menace of ‘Sealed Into Ecstasy.’

 

Although this is a strictly route-one death metal album, Hour of Penance are a well-oiled machine that despite having no original members remaining, have honed their craft to near perfection in recent years. Despite being unlikely to ever headline festival stages they just won’t stop delivering when it comes to gut-wrenchingly heavy and furious sounding compositions that are akin to being throttled by a possessed priest in the midst of a swarm of apocalyptic ruination. Regicide continues that trend and offers no hope of salvation.

 

7.5/10

Hour of Penance on Facebook

JAMES CONWAY

 

 


Insomnium – Shadows of the Dying Sun  

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Losing a longstanding member of an established band is never easy but when the musician in question doubles as a chief songwriter, it’s a predicament that can be career ending. Luckily for Finnish gloom merchants Insomnium, the loss of Ville Vänni in 2011 proved only to be a minor inconvenience as a worthwhile replacement was soon found in Omnium Gatherum axeman Markus Vanhala, a man well-versed in sombre melodic death metal. It’s no surprise then that he’s a perfect addition to the band and makes his presence known on sixth album Shadows of the Dying Sun (Century Media).

 

Given that Insomnium do what they do so well, it’s a case of ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ and this maxim is strictly adhered to across the board, although there are some nods to the band’s early days such as the return of Niilo Sevänen’s darkly intoned spoken word utterances on a couple of tracks, lending the tracks an even more solemn air, if that were possible. But don’t for one second think they’re not enjoying themselves, as the avenues explored on Shadows of the Dying Sun are lengthy and inspired. It may be variations on a theme, but it’s a damn good theme.

 

The building thrill of opener ‘The Primeval Dark’ gets pulses racing with its clinical chugs and swirling keys while the mournful melodic-doom workout of ‘While We Sleep’ has a strong whiff of fellow Finns Amorphis with its sorrow-filled riffs and death roars. Elsewhere, the blistering attack of ‘Black Heart Rebellion’ shows that there’s still plenty of fire surging through the band members’ veins while the infectious ‘Ephemeral’ is a catchy modern metal song done to absolute perfection without a nuance of integrity sacrificed in the process.

 

Like a fine wine, Insomnium just get better with age and like anything of beauty, you never want to stop experiencing it. Make no mistake; Shadows of the Dying Sun hits the sweet spot.

 

8.5/10

Insomnium on Facebook

 

JAMES CONWAY

 

 


Holier Than Thou – David Nuss of Sabbath Assembly

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sabbath assembly album cover

 

Fascinated with the teachings and the hymns of Process Church of the Final Judgment, David Nuss founded Sabbath Assembly as a tribute to this underground, avant-garde, practically unknown sacred music. Since the Church worshiped both Christ and Lucifer equally, they were outcasted from society, even by other fringe religious movements, such as Scientology which they shared some history with. Because they were disbanded by the late 70s, the hymns were thought to be lost to antiquity until Nuss discovered them and interpreted them for his records. Ghost Cult scribe James Conway connected with Nuss for an interview and received an account of this history, a glimpse into their genius vision, and examined Sabbath Assembly’s new opus Quaternity (Svart) as well.

 

When did you first become aware of the Process Church of the Final Judgment?

 

In 2009 I met original Processian Timothy Wyllie who showed me an advance copy of his book Love Sex Fear Death about his time in the Process.

 

 

How did the music of the church first affect you when you first heard it?

There was no music to hear, only sheet music from the hymns. The hymns had never been recorded because they were thought of as liturgical, rather than commercial. So our idea is that these two could meet – not commercial in the sense that we’re raking in the dollars, but in that the songs could be presented in the public marketplace rather than exclusively.

 

 

Do you have any input from current members of the Church on the recording and writing process?

There are no ‘current members’ because the Church fell apart in the mid 70s, and most people who were members then are not very public about it now because of the negative press the Church received. Timothy Wyllie, who was in the Church from its inception til it morphed to be an entity called “The Foundation Faith,” was a kind of ‘spiritual advisor’ on our first album, Restored to One, as was Genesis P. Orridge on our second, Ye Are Gods. Then we started getting some critiques from a guy called Anthony D’Andrea who says he was in a Boston Chapter of the Church in the 70s. He said we weren’t playing the hymns ‘as they were’ back in the day’ – which I’m sure is true. We’re doing our interpretation! So he played a couple over the phone for us, and those became ‘Lucifer’ and ‘The Four Horsemen’ on our new album Quaternity.

sabbath assembly band

 

Can you explain a little about the fourth element; the nature of evil and how it relates to the Christian Holy Trinity?

I don’t think it does relate to the Trinity exactly. The founding Church fathers (they were all men) deliberately left aspects out of the formation of the original Christian doctrines and creeds. These guys were not psychologists creating a balanced and healthy way for people to live; rather they were creating an autocratic government that needed a ‘spiritual’ component for validation of authority. Christianity was more multi-faceted before these guys starting decided who was a heretic and who wasn’t, creating a faux “Orthodoxy.” The idea of four elements is much more pagan, that is close to how nature actually works – solar/lunar, masculine/feminine, four directions, four elements (air water fire earth). The 4 is more about balance and natural reality, rather than political manipulation.

 

 

How did the recording of Quaternity come about and how does it relate to your previous two releases?

This is the second recording with Jamie Myers. How has she fit into the band and how does her approach differ from previous vocalist Jex Thoth? (If at all)

 

This recording was specifically crafted for Jamie’s voice. She came in a bit late in the game on the Ye Are Gods recordings cuz the songs were already done, so she had to fit what was there. This time we built our sound around her; we are so grateful to have her in the band. We took months making demos and sending them back and forth to her (between New York City and Texas where she lives), not rushing anything, so we could craft each track carefully, giving them each a unique voice.

 

Restored to One, the album with Jex, was much more experimental in that she and I had been working with a huge variety of musicians in developing the songs, and the recording of the album was almost improvised with a couple of last minute hired-gun jazz musicians. And Jex was eager to get back to her own project. Now, Jamie and I are in this for the long haul, so we’re really working on a true band dynamic.

 

There are many guest performances on Quaternity. Can you describe how some of these came about?

Daron Beck has been Jamie’s friend and neighbor since they were kids, and we have both been long time admirers of his voice and his band Pinkish Black. Mat and Marja from Hexvessel are total cohorts in the world of ‘holy rock n roll” so including them was an obvious choice, which led to our subsequent tour.

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You have performed on stage with several metal bands despite your music having no obvious metallic sounds. What kind of reaction have you had from metal audiences?

Metalheads love Satan, so anytime we sing about Satan they are happy. And Jamie hates singing about Jesus so we don’t really do that much anymore, ha. Even though our music doesn’t sound metal exactly, she and our guitarist Kevin Hufnagel (Gorguts, Dysrhythmia) and I were all born and raised on distorted power chords and double bass, so we’d like to think the spirit of metal is in there. If you check out what’s “metal” going back the last nearly 40 years there’s a pretty big variety so we are thrilled to be part of it’s ongoing development.

Is there a limited number of hymns for you to adapt on further recordings or will you be able to continue Sabbath Assembly with music inspired by the Church or similar?

The next album is going to be all original tunes, inspired by our time working with the Church, but completely separate from it.

 

 

Do you have a dream artist or band to collaborate with, that you have yet to?

Honestly we’re done collaborating. Our unit is so tight right now that we don’t need any extra assistance.

What touring plans, if any do you have on tap for 2014?

We are touring Northern Europe in May, beginning at the Heavy Days of Doom Town fest in Copenhagen on May 4th. See you there!

 

 

Why should readers of Ghost Cult check out Sabbath Assembly?

Our goal is to create beautiful and uplifting music that supports all your angels and demons. The intention is to be affirming of wherever you’re at.

 

Sabbath Assembly on Facebook

 

JAMES CONWAY