ALBUM REVIEW: Dorthia Cottrell – Death Folk Country


 

There is a rich tradition of Doom musicians releasing stripped-back acoustic affairs as the likes of Scott Weinrich, Tony Reed, and Mike Scheidt can attest to. Windhand‘s Dorthia Cottrell is no exception and Death Folk Country (Relapse Records) marks her second solo effort to date following a self-titled debut in 2015.

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Dorthia Cottrell (Windhand) Shares a New Single and Video “Family Annihilator” – New Album Incoming


 

Prolific singer Dorthia Cottrell (Windhand) will release her new solo album, Death Folk Country, via Relapse Records on April 21st, 2023. Check out her new single and video, Directed by Richard Francis Howard, for the track “Family Annihilator” and pre-order the album at the links below.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Thomas V. Jäger – A Solitary Plan – RidingEasy Records


As cool as it’s been to see some of doom’s most iconic figures go acoustic lately, sometimes it’s even more exciting when fresher faces try their hands at the style. Thomas V. Jäger is one such example, stepping beyond his duties as Monolord’s vocalist/guitarist to release a full-length solo album. It’s an especially interesting transition when you consider that band’s heightened melodicism on 2019’s No Comfort, and this album pushes the idea to even more introspective ends.Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Frayle – 1692


Despite an apparent reluctance to classify herself as a white witch Gwyn Strang, vocalist for Cleveland Doom / Post quintet Frayle, identifies as a spiritual being in touch with strong forces, and debut album 1692 (Aqualamb Records/Lay Bare Recordings) comes with a rather plush book explaining ancient magick among other things. It’s a daring opening gambit, complete with album title surely referring to the Salem witch trials, but does the accompanying music live up to this?

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Lighting Bolt, Pig Destroyer, Goatwhore, TR/ST, Alcest, Panopticon booked for Austin Terror Fest


Austin Terror Fest has announced their full lineup for 2019! Lighting Bolt, Pig Destroyer, Goatwhore, TR/ST (Canada), Alcest (France), Panopticon, Bongzilla, Bongripper, Church of Misery (Japan), Full of Hell, Dalek, Black Cobra, Street Sects, Unearthly Trance, Dorthia Cottrell, Machine Girl, Pyrrhon, Genocide Pact, Dreadnought, Crowhurst, Echo Beds, Temple Of Angels, Mountain Of Smoke, Terminator 2, Deep Cross, and Taverner. Austin Terror Fest (ATF) takes place Friday, June 7 through Sunday, June 9 in Austin, Texas, Three-day GA badges are on sale now for $150 through ATF’s Official Facebook Event page, below.

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Interview with Dorthia Cottrell of Windhand


Anyone who has been following the doom scene for the past decade is familiar with Windhand. The staple doom band hailing from Richmond, Virginia has dropped banger after banger and released powerful record after powerful record. Vocalist Dorthia Cottrell has been busy this whole time, as she not only heads up the band but also plays as a solo artist. I caught up with my old friend about all things Windhand and how she’s been doing. Continue reading


Windhand – Eternal Return


Much of personal significance has happened to the members of Virginia Doom troupe Windhand since third album Grief’s Infernal Flower (Relapse) dropped in 2015: the resignation of co-founder and guitarist Asechiah Bogdan, after which the band has remained a quartet; the death of a friend close to the band; and the birth of guitarist Garrett Morris’ child. Given the joy and despair surrounding such events, it’s understandable the new full-length Eternal Return (Relapse) is a different beast from the droning sound usually expected.Continue reading


Windhand – Grief’s Infernal Flower


windhand

“Go on and do something good for me now…”

Merely to read the above line evokes Film Noir or a seedy novel. Yet, from the mouth of Dorthia Cottrell, it is a resigned, dreamy incantation to the skies. The hookline to ‘Two Urns’, the opening track from Richmond Doom quintet Windhand’s third album Grief’s Infernal Flower (Relapse), drifts across the band’s trademark fuzzing, mind-crushing furrow like a mellow breeze.

This new venture possesses even more of the languid infectiousness evident on second album Soma (Relapse Records): Garrett Morris’ and Asechiah Bogdan’s riffs deceptively fluid and versatile; Ryan Wolfe’s cascading stickwork simplistic yet mind-blowing. It could almost be anachronistic yet sounds so vital, blending elements from the edgy Indie-Folk of Kristin Hersh with the Proto-power of Sabbath and the violent boundings of Soundgarden. As the bewitching centrepiece, full of mystic escapism, it’s easy to fix on Cottrell as the figurehead: yet the trance-like delivery is merely the most noticeable element of a unit as one, fully invested in its resonant creation.

The ensuing ‘Forest Clouds’ appears indolent yet gradually gains natural emotion and shuddering power: a slow, pulsing groove, made all the more seductive by those rising, subtly roared intonations and phenomenal rolls and fills from Wolfe. Despite the overriding Occult feel, these lazy, crushing waltzes reek of the insouciant yet bilious depression of Grunge, from that occasionally zoned-out drawl to the grimy riffs and plaintive, oscillating solos. The mournful acoustics of Soma reappear also: the intro to the dropped-out, Nirvana-like fuzz of ‘Crypt Key’ paving the way for the gorgeous, tragic smokiness of ‘Sparrow’ and heartbreaking closer ‘Aition’.

Parker Chandler’s pulverising notes add weight to the calming heaviness of ‘Hyperion’ while the crawling terror of the epic ‘Hesperus’, packing a sinister punch to dwarf Electric Wizard and with some deliciously drifting harmonies, develops a nasty quality which surprisingly suits the sound. The similarly lengthy ‘Kingfisher’, meanwhile, features switching rhythms and melodies evocative of The Wounded Kings: the howling, pedal-affected solos and atmospheric ambience reflecting the Devon fivesome’s invention.

At over 70 minutes long this is a typically ambitious Windhand offering. It is also undeniably ‘them’ yet something has happened here; an unsettling event or rite of passage, propelling this captivating outfit to the stars without drastically changing their identity. In doing so it has enabled the band to create its most sombre, hypnotic, emotive and supreme piece of work.

 

8.5/10

PAUL QUINN


Hopscotch Music Festival Confirm Line Up


hopscotch fest 2015

Hopscotch Music Festival, dubbed “America’s (Secretly) Best Festival” and “the premiere experimental and underground festival in America,” returns September 10-12, 2015, to downtown Raleigh, NC at Raleigh City Plaza. Confirmed artists performing include:

Ace Henderson
Acid Chaperone
Advaeta
American Aquarium
Ameriglow
Bandages
Battles
Big Ups
Birds of Avalon
Black Clouds
Blaxxx
Booher
Boulevards
Breathers
Brief Lives
Bully
Cakes Da Killa
Carlitta Durand
Cashmere Cat
Chaz French
Chelsea Wolfe
Choked Out
Chulo
Clark
Cloud Becomes Your Hand
Dad & Dad
Daniel Romano
Deerhunter
DJ Earl
Dorthia Cottrell
Drippy Inputs
Dwight Yoakam
Echo Courts
Elisa Ambrogio
Escher
EYEHATEGOD
Eyes Low
Father
FAULTS
Flock of Dimes
Fórn
Godflesh
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
GoldLink
Grand Champeen
Grandma Sparrow
Hank Wood & The Hammerheads
Hanz
HeCTA
Ian William Craig
Jake Xerxes Fussell
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma
Jenks Miller & Rose Cross NC
Jenny Hval
Jessica Pratt
John Chantler
Jubilee
Keath Mead
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
Las Rosas
Lawrence English
Le1F
Leapling
Less Western
Leverage Models
Lilac Shadows
Lizzo
Lost Trail
Loud Boyz
Lud
Luxe Posh
Lydia Loveless
Mac McCaughan
Mamiffer
Mary Lattimore & Jeff Zeigler
May Erwin
Microkingdom
Mitski
Moenda
Moon Duo
Morbids
Mumdance
Must Be The Holy Ghost
Naked Naps
Natalie Prass and the Spacebomb Orchestra
Nathan Golub
Natural Causes
New Music Raleigh: Music by Oscar Bettison and Evan Ziporyn
Nick James
No Love
Nocando
Nots
Obey City
OBN IIIs
Old Man Gloom
Oulipo
Outer Spaces
Owen Pallett
Patois Counselors
Peacers
Phil Cook presents Southland Mission
Pile
Pill
Porches
Prurient
Pusha T
River Whyless
Roky Erickson
Sannhet
Sarah Louise
Secret Boyfriend
Sheer Mag
Shitty Boots
Silent Lunch
SkyBlew
SMLH
Solar Halos
Some Army
Soon
Steve Gunn & The Black
Twig Pickers
Tashi Dorji
The Vibekillers
thefacesblur
Tombs
TV on the Radio
Tycho
TZYVYX
Wahyas
Warehouse
Wildhoney
Wizard Rifle
Wovenhand
WYMYNS PRYSYN
X
Yandrew
Zack Mexico
Zeena Parkins
Zs


Demon Eye Releasing Tempora Infernalia on May 8th


Demon Eye. Photo Credit: Don Oneil

Demon Eye. Photo Credit: Don Oneil

Raleigh, NC proto meallers Demon Eye is releasing their new album Tempora Infernalia on May 8, 2015 via Soulseller Records. The album was recorded at Seriously Adequate Studios in Carrboro, NC.

Tempora Infernalia Track listing:

01: End of Days
02: Listen to the Darkness
03: I’ll Be Creeping
04: See the Signs
05: Poison Garden
06: In the World, Not of It
07: Black Winds
08: Give Up the Ghost
09: Please, Father
10: Sons of Man

demon eye tempora infernalia

DEMON EYE tour dates:

May 09: Lincoln Theatre – Raleigh, NC (Mastodon / Clutch / Graveyard after party)
Jun 13: Amityville Music Hall – Amityville, NY (as part of the Eye of the Stoned Goat Festival w/ Mos Generator, The Golden Grass, etc.)
Jun 26: Snug Harbor – Charlotte, NC
Jun 27: Pour House Music Hall – Raleigh, NC (Tempora Infernalia record release show)
Aug 22: Strange Matter – Richmond, VA (w/ Dorthia Cottrell of Windhand & Horsehead)

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