We still have some months before the end of the world, so there’s plenty of time to go through some awesome music done by musicians and bands in the roster of Drowning, a cool Danish underground label, or better “netlabel”. The label is run by music lover Danny Kreutzfeldt, features bands from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and also from Asia, is devoted to doom and drone as basic genres and distributes its releases as free digital downloads. Last year Sol, the awesome Danish one-man, eclectic doom-death act, released its latest album / tape, called Black Cloud Of Becoming, on Drowning. Other artists share their own experimentations in the fields of black metal, drone, doom, sludge and electronics via Drowning. This is the case for bands like Sick To The Back Teeth, Depriver, Pest Lives, Dead Black Arms and also Nernes/Skagen, Norwegian project involving Kjetil Nernes, guitarist in Arabrot and experimental artists Stian Skagen.
As of late Drowning featured a new project, Wyrm, devoted to producing some really cool drony spacey black vibes. Wyrm is a new project by Texas-based Bryan Ferguson, who may be not completely new to some of you who maybe know or read about his other cool, very heavy, obscure and hypnotic doom drone band, Bring Me The Head Of Orion, on Doommantia. The experience of Bring Me The Head Of Orion is finished and Wyrm is now the new active project. Wyrm’s debut release is out on Drowning label since the end of November 2011 and is called Paramount. Wymr’s sound here is maybe less punishing than in Bring Me The Head Of Orion, and actually it has been defined as “ kraut-doom droning black metal”. This debut is rich in spacey sounds and great atmospheres encompassing ambient, doom, black metal and some shoegaze.
Check out the cool debut release by Wyrm, and also check out the other cool bands and releases featured on this label, Drowning, definitely to be kept under one’s radar.
Drowning Label - main page here and all the releases (free d/l) here
Swamp Witch is an awesome animal …
Band’s name and loooong dreadlocks may hint to ladies involved, maybe dirty groovy bluesy tunes and/or some doped rasta gathering. But you just have to push “play” and you’ll discover your doooom: to plunge straight into hell!
But it is normal with witches: sometimes they look a bit different from the monster they actually are …
Swamp Witch is a young US band from Oakland, California, playing super heavy, occult, funeral, drony, raw, huge bass-driven sludge-doom sounds as if they were coming from ancient obscure rites in echoing caves and/or from far-off planets devoid of human presence.
Four guys, Ben, Jacob, Dirk and Jimmy, making a hell of a scary noise …
Their debut release, in tape format, is out on the US underground label Gay Scientist Recordings.
This is the same label spreading around the cool raging tunes by another band hosted here, Negative Standards.
Here are the rich release notes for Swamp Witch’s debut from the label’s webpage:
“The wait is over; let the weight fall: Swamp Witch's mighty Gnosis EP is now available on cassette from GSR.
Swamp Witch, whose members come from Oakland and California's Central Valley, have been steadily building the ranks of their burgeoning doom cult in recent months, gathering worshipers in a stream of smoke-choked live rites that recall the hedonistic frenzy of Ancient Greek mystery religions. Alongside modern doom lynchpins Corrupted, Moss, and Noothgrush, Swamp Witch tap into the warped legacy of psychedelic and progressive music, from classic groups Flower Traveling Band and King Crimson to contemporary explorers such as SubArachnoid Space. These influences fuse into a dense entanglement of trance-inducing riffs that spiral downwards before crumbling into murky, bongwater-black sludge.
Greg Wilkinson of Earhammer Studios once again applies his metallurgical skill to these enigmatic recordings, a meeting of minds (and amps) whose resulting heaviness has rarely been paralleled within the confines of Earth's atmosphere.”
Corrupted, Moss, Graves At Sea, Noothgrush, Fistula, ... plus some evil-sounding, drony space psychedelia … You’ve got an idea …
I would also add that listening to Swamp Witch is a gut-tearing experience which is not too distant from what you get while listening to the scary, super dark, evil drone/ambient sludge doom of Salem/Oregon-based Hell as well as while being tortured by the raw tunes by devils of the Black Twilight Circle.
Like being swallowed by a huge dense boiling vortex, or by the serpent invoked by the band …
Check one of the videos that are available on the band’s webpages or on webzines like Cult Nation (here) of the live performances by this crushing band.
Awesome stuff ...
The Swamp Witch Gnosis EP 2011 was released in early August 2011 and is available as limited edition tape cassette adorned by the cool creepy cover arts by artist Jacob R. They are offering these tapes for $6 PPD. Check the label at the link below or at gayscientistrecordings@gmail.com for distro pricing and international shipping rates.
Swamp Witch guys and GSR label are generous people. They offer the Gnosis EP tracks for free download.
But watch out as the tape release has some cool bonus in it.
As a matter of fact, the EP occupies the A-side of the tape cassette. The B-side has got some special bonus:
“In addition, for those of you who have always felt that metal simply does not "slap" enough, the b-side contains a recording exclusive to this release: the entirety of the Gnosis EP, chopped and screwed by Houston's legendary DJ Dreamz.
While any attempt at the fusion of doom and hip-hop will quite rightly raise a red flag for discerning listeners, a closer look (and listen) reveals numerous common threads linking these seemingly disparate sonic movements: an emphasis on thick, bass-heavy production, the cultivation of slowness for slowness' sake, and an unapologetic devotion to the use of mind-bending drugs for the cultivation of higher planes of consciousness.
Simply flip the tape, light a blunt, and celebrate the memory of the late DJ Screw the way he would have wanted it: with disgusting, detuned doom.”
Well, something different but cool indeed!
In any case, this EP is too short when you enjoy trips into a magmatic hell …
Check the Swamp Witch’s movements here Stream their tunes here Get the tape and try the "chopped and screwed doom" here
