Features

	Three Days of Darkness Listener`s Guide
	Written by: Arzgarth on 8/16/2004 7:04:11 PM
One of two Labor Day weekend festivals, Three Days of Darkness is the West Coast`s answer to the question, "Who are the best heavy bands out there?" While we couldn`t get information on all the acts, this is a fairly encompassing guide to the bands playing at the festival. - Arz
The Three Days of Darkness Festival , held in San Francisco, promises to be one of the best showcases for doom and metal this year. From classic acts like Goatsnake, to new bands like Night After Night, to once disbanded groups like Old Grandad, there’s a little bit of everything for fans of the heavy. But not everyone is familiar with each and every band on the lineup. So we put together this guide in the hopes that it will fill in some of the blanks and get you a little more prepared for a weekend of unique and great music, straight from the underground to your soul. Friday, September 3 Elbo Room Acid King Website: www.acidking.com <> Ethereal vocals, drawn out classic riffs – Acid King are about creating mood doom. Lori’s singing is a cry from the spectral plane, yet the band’s sound overall is firmly entrenched on this mortal coil. Recent Recording: Busse Woods reissue (Small Stone, 2004) Sounds Like: a less spacey Sons of Otis merged with Blue Cheer Bottom Website: www.bottommusic.com <> “Bottom” is an apt description of this band’s sound. It’s thick and bottom-heavy, with a bass rumble that’s guaranteed to vibrate your guts. A little bit of doom, a little bit of rock, and a lot of attitude define the Bottom sound. Recent Recording: Feels so Good When You`re Gone (Man’s Ruin, 2001) Sounds Like: L7, Lost Goat YOB Website: www.yobdoom.com <> If Goatsnake are the sound of classic doom, then YOB are the sound of new doom. They take the menace of death metal with the drawn out riffs of doom and create something that can only be described as “beautiful and majestic.” Recent Recording: Catharsis (Abstract Sounds, 2003) Sounds Like: Electric Wizard, Sleep Dirty Power Website: www.dirtypower.net <> You like hard rock? The fist in the air, pedal to the metal kind? Then Dirty Power are your new favorite band. Expect a lot of energy, no-frills rock, and possibly a Judas Priest cover. Recent Recording: Self Titled (Dead Teenager, 2002) Sounds Like: Classic Aerosmith, MC5, Thin Lizzy, Soundgarden Night After Night Website: No band website available <> Night After Night celebrate rock in all its excess. Don’t expect profound lyrics – they deal out the type of innuendo that AC/DC consider too obvious and crude, and the type of rock that KISS can only dream about. Recent Recording: Self Titled demo (self released, 2004) Sounds Like: Thin Lizzy, KISS Saturday, September 4 Elbo Room Southern Lord Presents Goatsnake Website: No band website available <> With Pete Stahl’s emotive, powerful vocals, Greg Anderson’s brutal doom riffs, and the recently added Scott Reeder on bass, Goatsnake pretty much set the bar for traditional doom. “Legend” status isn’t gained easily, but Goatsnake make it seem effortless. Recent Recording: Trampled Under Hoof (Southern Lord Records, 2004) Sounds Like: Doom perfection Khanate Website: No band website available <> “Khanate`s sound is so indigestible because they like to torture their audience with doom and noise and heaviness and slowness, but they refuse to provide catharsis.” (Josh27, StonerRock.com) Recent Recording: Things Viral (Southern Lord, 2003) Sounds Like: SunnO))), Burning Witch, and Blind Idiot God Thrones Website: No band website available <> Thrones, Joe Preston’s (Melvins, Earth) one-man crew of doom, “pursue a minimalist and subversive approach to noise making, assembling glimmers and scraps into songs that grow organically from nothing into rock creatures that don’t mean to kill you but you’d better get the fuck out of their way, OK?” (rockbites.org) Recent Recording: Self Titled 12” (Kill Rock Stars) Sounds Like: insanity Graves at Sea Website: www.gravesatsea.com <> Graves at Sea are slow, sludgey and doomy, with a near-indecipherable rasp for vocals. If “grim” had a soundtrack, it’d be performed by Graves at Sea. Recent Recording: Self Titled 7” (Southern Lord, 2004) Sounds Like: Buzzoven and Facedowninshit Lair of the Minotaur Website: www.geocities.com/lairoftheminotaur <> Featuring the drummer from instrumental masters Pelican, Lair of the Minotaur bring bloody, buzzsaw riffs with a healthy appreciation for thrash greats of old. You want loud? You want educational? Lair of the Minotaur’s Self Titled EP, covering the gorier aspects of Greek Mythology, have both. Recent Recording: Self Titled EP reissue (Southern Lord, September 2004) Sounds Like: EyeHateGod, High on Fire Sunday, September 5 Studio Z High on Fire Website: highonfire.net <> The undisputed masters of colossal, skull crushingly heavy metal. Matt Pike, from the legendary Sleep, eschews the rambling pot-induced epics for a Motorhead assault of riff upon riff upon riff upon riff. The band’s been on tour for seemingly forever, and despite a recent change in bass players, should prove to be a tight, formidable unit that will pummel your soul into dust. Recent Recording: Surrounded by Thieves (Relapse, 2002) Sounds Like: Motorhead, Kill ‘Em All Metallica, Black Flag Old Grandad Website: No band website available <> “A noted stoner infused death metal band founded by erstwhile Epidemic guitarist Erik Moggridge, bass player Max Barnett and former Brood, Warfare D.C., and Machine Head drummer Will Carroll.” (Rockdetector.com). The band had disbanded for a few years, but they’ve come back together to bring their doom ‘n’ roll to the masses once again. Recent Recording: The Last Upper (Mia NY) Sounds Like: Fu Manchu meets Sepultura, Entombed Asva Website: No band website available <> Featuring members of Burning Witch and featuring Trey from Mr. Bungle, Asva are one of the new leaders in heavy drone. Based on their split picture disc with Burning Witch, expect atmospheric sounds of doom. Recent Recording: Split picture disc with Burning Witch (Dos Fatales Records, 2004) Sounds Like: SUNN O))) Asunder Website: No band website available <> Europeand-flavored doom, but without the clichéd trappings that give most bands in that genre an unfortunate coating of silly. Asunder play long, drawn out songs that break the ten-minute barrier but provide plenty of atmosphere. Recent Recording: Under the Vast Indifference of the Same Sky (Life is Abuse, 2004) Sounds Like: Reverend Bizarre, Morgion Cephalic Carnage Website: No band website available <> "Cephalic Carnage describe their music as Rocky Mountain hydro-grind, which is as good of a way as any to describe this Denver band`s blastbeat-filled fusion of jazz, grindcore, and death metal." (Revolver) Recent Recording: Lucid Interval (Relapse, 2002) Sounds Like: Therion, Isis, Entombed Misery Index Website: www.unkindesign.com/miseryindex <> From Dying Fetus (and Baltimore, MD) comes Misery Index. They describe their sound as “intense elements of metal with a distinct grind approach, added with a touch of hardcore and extreme punk attitude and passion, thus pushing the limits of metal with an insane mix of regressive thrashing rhythms, corrupting breakdowns and energetic ferocity.” Recent Recording: Retaliate (Nuclear Blast, 2003) Sounds Like: Dying Fetus, Mastodon Impaled Website: www.impaled.info <> Too much of one thing is never good, so Impaled are on the line-up to add some death metal to an otherwise doom-heavy weekend. They’ve got gore and guts and all the hallmarks of good death metal, including riffs played at inhumanly fast speeds and vocals that make you wonder if the singer’s possessed by some sort of goat-pig demon. Recent Recording: Medical Waste (Necropolis, 2003) Sounds Like: Carnage, Cannibal Corpse SubArachnoid Space Website: www.subarachnoid.com <> StonerRock.com’s Rob Wrong says of SubArachnoid Space, “If you like psychedelic space rock, then you`ve come to the right place. SubArachnoid Space have a nice ambient sound that sort of expresses itself by swelling and having sudden mood changes.” Recent Recording: Also Rising (Strange Attractors, 2003) Sounds Like: Slint, early Pink Floyd, Isis Brainoil Website: No band website available <> Sludge, but with more of a tempo and an emphasis on riffs, this three-piece bring together the better elements of sludge and hardcore punk. Recent Recording: Self Titled (Life is Abuse, 2003) Sounds Like: Weedeater, Buzzoven, EyeHateGod Wolves in the Throne Room No information available at press time High Tone Son of a Bitch Website: www.htsob.com <> Featuring members of Neurosis, Christ on Parade, and Cruevo, High Tone Son of a Bitch are about good, down tuned rock. They’ve been described as being comparable to everything from Judas Priest to Kyuss to Trouble, so expect plenty of classic riffs and a shit ton of energy. Recent Recording: Better You than Me (Shifty, 2003) Sounds Like: Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Spirit Caravan, Dozer Drink the Bleach Website: No band website available <> Drink the Bleach are comprised of former members of Cutthroats 9, Totimoshi, Floating Goat, and Nappy Time Junction, and are described as being extremely heavy and fast, with alternating guitar leads and off timing, mixed with sharp breaks into swampy slow sludge, and three-way vocals. Recent Recording: Self Titled demo (self released) Sounds Like: Mastodon, Buzzoven - John Pegoraro
The Three Days of Darkness Festival takes place over Labor Day weekend, from Friday, September 3 to Sunday, September 5. CDs, T-shirts, and LPs from many of the bands discussed in this feature are available for purchase from our All That`s Heavy Online Music Store.