4/23/2024 0 Comments Nate newton cave inThis is not simple music, and the band doesn't make it easy for itself or the listener. But excess and overload are a couple of OMG's assets. I can see people being turned off by NO's duration- nine songs in just over 56 minutes- and the more-is-more kitchen-sink approach to composition. At that point, they located another anthem before the boom and hiss (and AmRep sound) of "Rats", "Crescent"'s bizarro haunted acoustic meandering (reminiscent of a twangy Neurosis side project), and "Shuddering Earth", a 14-minute closer that cycles through all of the styles that came before it and then folds in a few other approaches. Then there's the extremely minimal "Shadowed Hand", eight minutes of low-level drone, feedback, and resonant western-tinged guitar strings that feels like recent Earth stripped to its barest core until the dynamic piano surges and almost-goth explosions at the six-minute mark. The explosive "The Forking Path", fronted by Scofield, locates a whiplash industrial S&M pace before unloading into soothing backward guitars and chimes. There's "To Carry the Flame" with its choir of angry dudes (and zany electro squiggles). But you do get some of the best hooks associated with any of these guys since the last Converge album. You never get a straight-up song, or one that follows an expected trajectory. I kept thinking about broken glass when first listening to NO, and the effect is a bit like a house of mirrors. The implosion bleeds into "Regain/Rejoin", a track led by Aaron Turner's gruff shouts and a catchy guitar part that that grows increasingly anthemic as the song around it dissolves. It's a bit like Christian Fennesz (and then Steve Reich) having his way with Metal Machine Music. The first proper song, the eight-minute "Common Species", feels like a more typical sludge anthem until it degrades into shards of feedback and howling that eventually morphs into clusters of a gentler, sparkling clatter. NO opens with two minutes of cavernous, drafty bass thumping and drone as part of a song called "Grand Inversion", a track that melds static, high-pitched white noise, and piped synthesizer into a kind of anti-introduction. Their "clarion call for those who are no longer willing to say yes to that which corrodes life, mind, heart, and soul," is individualistic, fucked up, and unrelentingly apocalyptic while remaining life-affirming. In that sense, and others, OMG feel more like a collective than the usual touring band (though tour they do). It's something, one might suppose, that they just wanted to do. Fitting for such a long gestation, we're told it's "the cumulative response to a lifetime of saying 'yes,' when just the opposite should have been said instead." NO wasn't guided by an album cycle, and these guys are very busy with their other projects. NO is OMG's fifth album, the first in eight years. Everyone screams or adds clean or distorted vocals, and there's also no shortage of electronics, pedals, unnamed noisemakers, and other "instruments" (sheet metal, toilets, shoes). They're joined by Caleb Scofield ( Cave In, Zozobra) on bass and Nate Newton ( Converge, Doomriders) on guitar. Co-founders Aaron Turner ( Isis, Mamiffer, Split Cranium) and Santos Montano handle vocals/guitars and drums, respectively. Instead, think of the band as longtime friends who happen to be members of other groups, because that's what lifers do. (Unlike Harvey Milk, they could still use some Ritalin.) You might be tempted to call OMG a "super group," but that's a ridiculous term in 2012, especially in the context of underground music. In addition to Turner, Old Man Gloom features Converge/Doomriders member Nate Newton, Cave In/Zozobra veteran Caleb Scofield, drummer Santos Montano and electronics mastermind Luke Scarola.Though, on average, younger than the guys in Harvey Milk, Old Man Gloom are also made up of dudes starting to find gray in their beards. The group also revealed the unfinished album artwork from the band's Aaron Turner, also of defunct avant metal crew Isis and founder of the band's former label home, Hydra Head.Ī series of sneak peeks of the art was delivered through Turner's Instagram account, revealing various twisted visages, and hashtags like "#shouldermeat," "#gloomaday" and "#sadvicious." You'll find the disturbing string of visuals down below. While details have yet to be shed on the release date, recording process or tracklisting, the album was confirmed by the band on Facebook today (August 29). Though a solid due date has yet to be delivered, the band's sixth album is called The Ape of God, and it arrives this November through Profound Lore. If you were wondering whether or not metal supergroup Old Man Gloom would deliver a follow-up to their doom-drenched 2012 set NO, it turns out the answer is yes, yes they will.
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