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 Witchwill be touring Europe starting in March, with Monarchand 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 Ruinkeeps 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 Neurosisand 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 Sokarnevertheless 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