CRUZ DEL SUR MUSIC Invades DOOM OVER VIENNA Festival

October 30, 2018October 29, 2018 Enrico

When it launched in 2006, Doom Over Vienna was a small festival that featured five bands in one evening — hardly the staggering multi-day adventures Europe typically offers metalheads. But, like any festival worth its salt, it continued to grow to the point where organizers had to tack on a second day in 2012, cementing it as the European autumn doom destination. For the 13^th installment, set to take place November 9-10 at Viper Room Vienna, Doom Over Vienna will have a decidedly distinct flair when three of Cruz Del Sur Music’s best doom bands, APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE, HANDS OF ORLAC and KING HEAVY, partake in the festivities.

Festival organizer Jürgen Dickstein says the decision-making process for Doom Over Vienna is a difficult one since he’s often flooded with requests from bands to play the festival. “For our festival, I’m always in search for something special, something that has its unique sides and edges and something that touches me in one way or the other, whether it be from songwriting, sound or taking a special approach to music. Also, a rather important point is that I mainly choose bands that did not or very seldom play in Vienna or Austria, so we always had a lot of bands who played at our festival the first time outside their country, first time in Austria/Vienna or over here for the first time since quite a while. So, it’s always a longer process of finding a lineup completed by bands that I want to play, also considering the circumstances of a very low festival budget, which makes it hard to book all the bands you want to have here.”

Jürgen was familiar with all three Cruz Del Sur bands prior to booking them for Doom Over Vienna. APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE are already festival veterans, having played the 2016 installment. He caught HANDS OF ORLAC at Dublin Doom Days and Doom Over Scania and has seen KING HEAVY at Malta Doom and Escape Metalcorner, making it an easy choice to bring all three over for 2018. “I’ve known the label for a long time as Cruz Del Sur always has fantastic bands in its stable,” says Jürgen. “So, I have quite some records of this label at home! I’m very happy it’s three of them playing this year as well. Additionally, it’s an honor [Cruz Del Sur owner] Enrico will be at the festival this year — I’m looking forward to meeting him in Vienna.”

Doom Over Vienna 2016 marked APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE’s first-ever appearance on European soil. Since then, they’ve released their new LP, “From Gold To Ash”, which was hailed by Angry Metal Guy as “an album full of riffs, melancholy and a complete lack of pretension.” Drummer Corey Webb says festival-goers should expect a raw and unfiltered version of APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE, who, heading into 2019, will head back into the rehearsal room to work on new songs in addition to more festival dates.

“I think having a bit of familiarity with the club and the arrangements will be beneficial, actually,” he says. “There are so many other great bands that we are also looking forward to seeing and this year, we will have a bit more time to see the city, which will be great. The setlist is shaping up to include a good amount of material from the new album, but there are also a couple of surprises from the early days, including a song that we have only performed live a handful of times in this band’s existence. Anyone who has spent a bit of time with the new album knows that it is heavy in an emotional way as well as sonically, which translates very well in a live setting. Expect to be doomed!”

HANDS OF ORLAC are still supporting their well-received 2017 split with THE WANDERING MIDGET and have since added a fifth member to their lineup. The band was originally asked to play Doom Over Vienna a few years ago, but were unable to do so due to their relocation to Sweden. However, bassist The Templar says the band are eagerly awaiting their appearance, after which, they’ll resume work on their third full-length album.

“We’ve waited impatiently until we got invited again,” he notes. “It’s going to be great to see so many good bands, old friends and be at one of the top doom metal festivals in the world. Since we’re now playing as a five-piece, we’ll play some new material. It’s a different sounding band compared to the recent and far past times. But according to our three leading rules, the show is going to be horror-filled, heavy and mind-affecting as it is supposed to be.”

With their new “Guardian Demons” album still fresh in the minds of the doom scene, KING HEAVY is looking to follow in the footsteps of fellow Chilean bands who have played Doom Over Vienna like POEMA ARCANUS. Bassist Daniel Pérez Saa says KING HEAVY has prepared a special set for the festival, with heavy emphasis on “Guardian Demons” as well as their previous studio offerings. Heading into 2019, Saa says KING HEAVY has already started thinking about a new album, but will continue to spread their word of doom across Europe.

“It’s an honor to be a part of the festival,” he says. “We’re eager to share the stage with bands close to us like IRON VOID, who we toured with in 2015. We’re also excited to play alongside APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE and MIRROR OF DECEPTION, among others. We are a band that is very concerned about our performance onstage. Our sound has grown to devastating levels of late, something we noticed during our recent dates in Chile. Without a doubt we are a band that excels in the live setting and I think that shows in our attitude and sound.”

APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE to release “From Gold To Ash” on Feb 23, 2018

January 8, 2018 EnricoLeave a comment

The doom bell tolls roughly every four years for Indiana’s Apostle Of Solitude. Formed in 2004 by former The Gates Of Slumber drummer Chuck Brown, the band followed their 2008 “Sincerest Misery” debut with “Last Sunrise” in 2010, then, in between two splits and a demo, released “Of Woe And Wounds” in 2014, which also served as their first album for Italy’s Cruz Del Sur Music. Just in time, Apostle Of Solitude greets the legions of doom in early 2018 with their fourth studio album, “From Gold To Ash”.

Recorded in September 2017 at Russian Recording in Bloomington, Indiana with studio owner and engineer Mike Bridavsky, “From Gold To Ash” offers seven songs of ambitious and equally aching doom. Largely defined by the heartfelt and emotive vocals of Brown, “From Gold To Ash” covers a wide spectrum of doom, from thundering gallops, mid-tempo bashers to reflective, melodic romps. With songs as voluminous as this, it’s no surprise the songwriting process for Apostle Of Solitude (who are rounded out by guitarist Steve Janiak, bassist Mike Naish and drummer Corey Webb) is one of deliberation and utmost care.

“Some of the origins of these new songs started not long after the last record was released,” says Brown. “And yeah, it’s a pretty collaborative effort when we get to the final version of the song. Oftentimes, I will bring in a rough idea and arrangement of something and then we mess around with it together and try different arrangements, transitions, tempos, etc., and eventually settle on what it turns out to be collectively. Vocals are a bit different. Sometimes myself or Steve have things in mind that we want to do separately and sometimes we work on them together. Just varies from song to song.”

“From Gold To Ash” starts with the savage and gritty guitar chugs of “Overlord”, and gradually starts to take shape with the Sabbath thunder-clap of “Ruination Be Thy Name”, a cut that features some of Brown’s most elaborate singing to date. After the soft peddles found on interlude “Autumn Moon”, the slow-crawl guitar harmonies of “Keeping The Lighthouse” and dominating lurch of “My Heart Is Leaving Here” find Apostle Of Solitude playing at near-funeral doom tempos. The sorrow continues with “Monochrome (Discontent)” and “Grey Farewell”, where Brown unfurls soulful, yet melancholic vocal lines, which, according to the singer, was a point of emphasis during songwriting sessions.

“There was definitely a concerted effort to have ample vocal harmonies throughout the songs,” he notes. “We’re all big fans of artists that capitalize on the depth it adds to music when using vocal harmonies. For the most part, what we attempt to do from song-to-song or album-to-album is just improve upon something that we did prior and stay creative and not be too afraid to try something new and most importantly, be content that we worked hard and were genuine in doing so.”

Upon the release of “From Gold To Ash”, Apostle Of Solitude plan on hitting the road in the United States and Europe.

“From Gold To Ash” will be released on Compact Disc, Gatefold LP, Limited Gatefold LP and Digital by Cruz Del Sur Music on Feb 23,2018.

VINYL PRE-ORDER:

COMPACT DISC PRE-ORDER:

APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE To Hit Studio In September

September 5, 2017 EnricoLeave a comment

American doom titans APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE are slated to enter Russian Recording Studios in Bloomington, Indiana in mid-September to record the follow-up to 2014’s “Of Woe And Wounds”. Studio owner and engineer Mike Bridavsky (MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC COMPANY, M WARD, LIL BUB) will handle production duties. The album is slated for a March 2018 release via Italy’s Cruz Del Sur Music.

Comments guitarist/vocalist Chuck Brown: “Previous APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE records have been rather lengthy in duration, ranging from 60 to 70 minutes-plus. We’ve made a purposeful decision to make this next record slightly shorter, looking to clock in around the 45-minute mark. With the recording process being rather expensive and time-consuming, this time around, we wanted to afford ourselves more time to focus on getting things the way we want them to be rather than having to settle because of money or time constraints.

“Once the record is out in 2018, we’re all very much looking forward to going out on the road both at home in the U.S. and most definitely back to Europe again.”

“Of Woe And Wounds” was APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE’s third full-length overall and first for Cruz Del Sur Music. The Sludgelord said “Of Woe And Wounds” “Puts everyone on notice just how good they are going to need to be after hearing this one,” while Metal Temple said the album “Is the strongest of doses, the elite of the elite, and is so heavy that their music should come with some kind of a warning label.”