doom metal Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

The Skull “The Endless Road Turns Dark”

sfilzen — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 18:36:04 +0000

The Skull “The Endless Road Turns Dark” 2018. Tee Pee Records, limited edition grey with black splatter vinyl. One of the unexpected side benefits of teaching yoga has been meeting fellow music-minded folks who occasionally gift me with records. This record is one of those gifts: The Skull is a doom metal band from Chicago with a psychedelic edge. They formed in 2012, founded by former Trouble members Eric Wagner, Ron Holzner and Jeff Olson, and were joined by Sacred Dawn’s Lothar Keller and Michael Carpenter. According to their bio on Discogs, “The band’s original purpose was to perform Trouble’s early material (they took their moniker from the name of Trouble’s second LP) but eventually decided to moved forward with original material.” They released two LP’s, their first For Those Which Are Asleep (2014) and The Endless Road Turns Dark. Singer Eric Wagner died in 2021 from Covid at the age of 62. My friend/student gave me this LP because of a chat we had about a local darkly post punk band (Convert) that integrates elements of metal, doom and otherwise.

I have very little knowledge about the doom metal genre so I’m pretty much listening to and commenting on this LP in a vacuum. That said, I think I like it! Lots and lots of Black Sabbath sounds: pretty much the riff from “Iron Man” tweaked into different melodies. Not tempos – it’s all sludge. I’d say elements of grunge as well but I have a feeling the doom metal folks might come after me with that comparison (though I did just do a Wiki search on Eric Wagner and he did collaborate with Dave Grohl in 2004 on the song “My Tortured Soul“). I hear lots of 80’s era Soundgarden, especially on tracks like “The Longing.” My top tracks, besides “The Longing” are the title track “The Endless Road Turns Dark” and “Breathing Underwater” – both are very Sabbath-esque.

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Black Sabbath “Master of Reality”

sfilzen — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 19:28:42 +0000

Black Sabbath “Master of Reality” released 50 years ago today, July 21st, 1971. Iconic heavy, heavy doom metal, Master of Reality is recognized by those that recognize such things as the first stoner rock album. It hit #8 in the US and #5 in the UK. The well-known story about the heavier sound is that guitarist Tony Iommi downtuned his guitar to make playing less painful after the tips of two of his fingers were severed in a factory accident. The rest is dark, dark history. The other great backstory is in regards to the creation of the stoner rock genre: when recording, Iommi’s coughing fit after inhaling a giant joint was captured on tape, that coughing fit was then included at the start of the lead track “Sweet Leaf” which is, of course, about pot. It’s a great track and now a stoner anthem. Black Sabbath released at least a couple of singles from Master of Reality: “After Forever” was a single before the LP’s release, but it failed to chart (too bad, it’s also great); they also released “Solitude” as a single, also a chart failure. Though not a single, the closing track “Into the Void” is hailed by many other musicians as their favorite Sabbath tune ever, including folks like James Hetfield, Eddie Van Halen and Soundgarden.

Our copy has the title Master of Reality embossed in black making it utterly useless in photographs. “In his autobiography Iommi describes the cover as “Slightly Spinal Tap-ish, only well before Spinal Tap.” (Wiki) Later represses have the title in un-embossed gray, not nearly as cool but a helluva lot easier to read.

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Black Sabbath “Black Sabbath”

sfilzen — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 18:10:03 +0000

Black Sabbath “Black Sabbath” released 50 years ago today, February 13th, 1970. So I guess Happy 50th, Heavy Metal! (This is, of course, debatable but Black Sabbath is widely recognized as the first metal album and its title track “Black Sabbath” the first doom metal song. Also – yes, I know this isn’t an original LP from 1970 so no need to tell me 🙄) Black Sabbath went to #8 in the UK and #23 in the US, showing that a lot of youth were pretty sick of the happy-hippie flower power days of the 60′s and looking for something much, much darker. While the album incorporates a lot of rock-n-roll blues riffs and sounds (ie the blues harmonica, played by Ozzy Osbourne, in “The Wizard” – Cream was a big influence on Butler in particular) and elements of psychedelia and Tolkien-esque themes (guitarist Tony Iommi was in Jethro Tull for a bit; “The Wizard” is inspired by Gandalf) popular in the 60′s, Black Sabbath took those elements and twisted them into something dark and menacing with Iommi’s unique guitar playing (literally metal on metal) and punctuated with Geezer’s bass playing which he explains saying, “Back then the bass player was supposed to do all these melodic runs, but I didn’t know how to do that because I’d been a guitarist, so all I did was follow Tony’s riff. That made the sound heavier.“ Our copy is the US release which differs from the UK version: the US B-side has “Wicked World” and “A Bit of Finger/ Sleeping Village/ Warning” while the UK’s B-side has a cover of “Evil Woman” (originally by Crow), “Sleeping Village” and “Warning” (originally by Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation). (reblog of myself from July 2019)

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Black Sabbath “Black Sabbath”

sfilzen — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 14:31:43 +0000

Black Sabbath “Black Sabbath” 1970. Today, July 17th, is Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler’s 70th birthday (b. Terence Butler, 1949). Black Sabbath, the band’s debut LP, is widely credited as the first true heavy metal album and the opening title track the first doom metal song. Black Sabbath went to #8 in the UK and #23 in the US, showing that a lot of youth were pretty sick of the happy-hippie flower power days of the 60′s and looking for something much, much darker. While the album incorporates a lot of rock-n-roll blues riffs and sounds (ie the blues harmonica, played by Ozzy Osbourne, in “The Wizard” – Cream was a big influence on Butler in particular) and elements of psychedelia and Tolkien-esque themes (guitarist Tony Iommi was in Jethro Tull for a bit; “The Wizard” is inspired by Gandalf) popular in the 60′s, Black Sabbath took those elements and twisted them into something dark and menacing with Iommi’s unique guitar playing (literally metal on metal) and punctuated with Geezer’s bass playing which he explains saying, “Back then the bass player was supposed to do all these melodic runs, but I didn’t know how to do that because I’d been a guitarist, so all I did was follow Tony’s riff. That made the sound heavier.“ Our copy is the US release which differs from the UK version: the US B-side has “Wicked World” and “A Bit of Finger/ Sleeping Village/ Warning” while the UK’s B-side has a cover of “Evil Woman” (originally by Crow), “Sleeping Village” and “Warning” (originally by Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation).

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Sleep “Live at Third Man Records”

sfilzen — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 20:24:58 +0000

Sleep “Live at Third Man Records” 2019. Recorded live at Third Man on December 12, 2018, this box set is Third Man’s latest Vault subscription release (no. 39) and it’s a monster. A 10-song, 4 colored LP package, complete with poster and Sleep patch from the doom metal/stoner rock underground legends, a band whose patron saints are “marijuana and Black Sabbath” (Allmusic). I’ve honestly never listened to Sleep before, not being into doom metal or pot (though I occasionally dabble in some Black Sabbath) but they were all the rage last year when they toured for their 2018 album (on Third Man) The Sciences, which was their first release since the problematic LP Dopesmoker (from Allmusic, in ‘95: “After almost two years of writing and rewriting material for their next album (to be named Dopesmoker, not surprisingly) amidst abundant weed consumption, the trio finally delivered its long-awaited epic, now named Jerusalem, to London Records. But to the label’s surprise, Jerusalem comprised a single 60-minute magnum opus to marijuana that the band refused to edit or split up into sections under any circumstances. A complete deadlock ensued, tying up both parties in red tape for another two years. Finally, having smoked their entire cash advance through their bongs, Sleep decided to break up rather than surrender the album. Guitarist Matt Pike went on to form a new, more energetic heavy metal band called High on Fire, while drummer Chris Haikus eventually reunited with founding guitarist (and now ordained monk) Justin Marler in the Sabians. In the meantime, an unauthorized version of Jerusalem was quietly released by Rise Above Records [in 1999], but it wasn’t until 2003 that a supposedly authentic and fully endorsed version of Dopesmoker finally reached record store shelves, seemingly bringing the convoluted Sleep saga to a close at last.”)

With a name like Sleep and songs like the epic “Dopesmoker” (which is so long it had to be split between two records) and “Marijuanaut’s Theme,” the band and its music completely earns the label stoner rock. It’s the middle of the afternoon on a weekday and I’m already feeling a little fuzzy-headed and thinking about taking a nap after listening to the first few sides. It’s a good thing I didn’t go see them when they were in town last year, I definitely would have literally slept through the entire concert (a talent I’m not exactly proud of but have employed often, most recently at King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard, the Black Angels and Ministry). I’m finding it mostly monotonous – not bad, really, but I think you need to be actually high to get into the hazed-out groove. I can’t even pick a top track because I’ve just totally zoned out during each. But the packaging, as always for Third Man, is excellent and the vinyl top quality.

Side A: “Leagues Beneath” Side B: “Dopesmoker” (Part One)

Side C: “Dopesmoker (Part Two) and “Holy Mountain” Side D: “The Clarity” and “Aquarian”

Side E: “Sonic Titan” Side F: “Marijuanaut’s Theme” and “Giza Butler”

Side G: “The Botanist” and “Dragonaut”

Side H is blank (pictured in the top photo of this post)

The poster included in the package is a blown-up reprint of the flyer for the performance at Third Man.

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