Lately, I’ve been revisiting an album I reviewed earlier this summer, ‘Present Serpent’ (2021) by Moscow mayhem makers MOANHAND. At the time I encountered it, I was slowly emerging from a dark cocoon of depression that overlapped with the already stressful events of pandemic. Let’s just say that Moanhand was choice music to my ears, with a knack for striking just the right emotional chord with me from song-to-song. I admire a band that can truly commiserate with the depth and breadth of human emotion.

So how does the longplay hold up four months later? Quite well, actually! Turns out, you don’t have to be downcast to enjoy it, either. And to prove my point, Doomed & Stoned is debuting the band’s brand new vid, “Serpent Soul (a Tale of Angels’ Slaughter).” The earnest vocals, caustic outbursts, windy tremeloes, searching riffs, and driving energy are most effective against the backdrop of turning leaves, most of which have fallen as nature hunkers down for the foreboding winter months ahead. You could couple these forlorn songs with standards from Black Cobra, Warning, Pallbearer, and Monolord, but the album also settles in quite nicely as a straight listen from edge to center. I hope even more people will discover the band as they catch up on their year-end listening.

What’s special about this music video is that we get to see the composer Roman Filatov in action. Joined by drummer Sergey Dridiger, the two make quite a formidable pair and the performance is brimming with fierce energy . Nicely filmed and recorded by Igor Butz. Our Halloween gift to you!

Give ear…

SOME BUZZ

After the summer release of crushing debut album Present Serpent that was noted by Metal Hammer, Decibel, Doomed & Stoned, Metal Injection, Doom Charts, The Obelisk and other key-medias, Moanhand’s captain Roman Filatov teamed up with drummer Sergey Dridiger to spread these serpent vibes live. In between their quickly organized gigs in Moscow this autumn, the duo returned to Pentagram House Studio to film their furious live performance of the track Serpent Soul (A Tale of Angels’ Slaughter).“

Following the obsession with multimedia double releases in 2019 with Plague Sessions EP, Moanhand once again presents to audiences audio and visual sides of its dreamy and violent slow metal art.

This live-track will be released on Bandcamp and all digital platforms on November 1. Performed live at Pentagram House Studio, Moscow, Russia at the end of September 2021. Filmed, edited, recorded & mixed by Igor Butz

This is a momentous occasion for people around the world who appreciate Stoner Doom Metal and its hybrid forms. The Russian Train to Elsewhere has been solid all along. Then, on May 21, 2021, they played live at Peak Sound Endless Misery Doom Fest, revealing their new lineup to the public. And it’s absolutely astonishing.

On June 9th they released the audio as a bootleg. Lead guitarist Maria K. “Gerard” integral to the band all along, now debuts the recording of her vocals, which intertwine with the lead vocalist, Anna Utopian, who also plays keyboards and stepped in to replace the previous vocalist. On drums we have M'aiq the Liar, Olga on the rhythm guitar that keeps me going and going with this band, and on bass, Anton “Vargtimmen” Bryukov. Their previous singer, Denis Generalov, is no longer with the band. We’ll miss him and always appreciate his massive contribution to the previous demo and album. I’m glad to see that in the wake of his moving onward, the band didn’t falter. In fact, this new era of Train to Elsewhere is electrifying.

Their sound is hypnotic and contemplatively atmospheric. The excellent drums are pared down to the essentials, as the best Doom drums are. The slow lullaby groove takes us into the imaginative liminal world of Nod as if we’re on a sleeper car bumping over the metal tracks, hypnagogic images combining the forest landscape outside the window with the mind inside. They play everything at a slow, minimalistic, heavy pace, never giving into the egotistical show of shredding to demonstrate just how fast they can play meaningless notes. No, conversely, every note matters.

Anna Utopian’s expressive vocals are consistently strong and delicious, beautifully doing justice to the intense lyrics while she creates Eastern atmospherics on the keyboards. Rarely does any Metal band have so much female representation within it. All the women in this band come across as authentic, being purely themselves as much as the men are, which can be a challenging project, considering the objectified roles they are so regularly expected to play on stage in that particular genre. There are no distracting displays here.

This ability to be genuine is not surprising with this low-key band, though, as they are not about surface level of life. Instead, the music provokes profound speculations and nuanced states of consciousness. It was Anton’s articulate brilliance in interviews that first locked me into their work.

When Maria sings, I stop moving completely. Until she’s done. Only utter stillness will allow the cilia in my ears to vibrate with the kind of desperate attention they require when encountering my favorite female vocalist. I wasn’t expecting that. No one told me. But I’m telling you, Stoner Doom fans. You must listen to this band that has something to say, and you must prepare yourself for Maria’s one of a kind voice. Words don’t do it justice. It’s the low beneath low. Her throat allows everything through, not just part of the frequency of life. All of it. The inflections indicate so much nobility in the depths of life that surely no one could take living for granted again.

First, I’d like to ask about that slow groove that’s consistent through the songs. I’m curious how the different band members feel that movement within their bodies. As a loop circulating through the body, a sway side-to-side (like bumping over train tracks underneath), a sleepwalking headbang, a standing spiral? Perhaps the way they feel the groove move through their bodies changes song to song.

Maria: We’ve never rehearsed our on-stage choreography or something like that. It comes naturally from our perception of the music. I can say, I like the heavy, powerful low-tune sound of traditional Doom. I like the sound of our guitars, amplified and enhanced with stage gear, going through bodies of musicians and audience. I think the sound should fill all the possible space it can, changing it in its special way.

Anton: For our band it’s very individual, some of us stay more or less still, others move to the music, whichever is more comfortable. It’s an interesting question because movement to music and dance is a very early part of human culture in a way it’s ritualistic. Although we never rehearsed stage movement it’s interesting to see the connection with the audience in that light. It’s great when some people dance to our music and move to it.

Anna: Generally, when I’m playing on stage or rehearsing at the studio, I feel some kind of special energy coming through my body. Especially when I sing. I begin to feel very inspired and optimistic about everything around me. I don’t really rehearse my on-stage choreography; I just have some clear ideas about what I have to do on some of our songs. So most of the time I just improvise my on-stage movements. Also I enjoy having that special connection with the audience, it’s an unforgettable experience, especially, when you’re playing on stage and see the people dancing to your songs and even starting to sing any of your songs that you’re playing. That’s when the magic happens for me.

Olga: I felt this only after I became part of the band – the feeling of the unified space with a group of people. When I listen to our music I can almost see how our melodies combine with each other, winding and supporting each other. Seems like their directions and weight are not less material than stage equipment. And our bodies move with the space movement. In this context I like “The Path” most of all – it resonated with me first and still makes me sway to its rhythm emerging in my subconscious in everyday life. I like both versions of it – with Denis and with Anna on vocals, which feel very different.

I love that about the unified space and the melodies themselves playing a tangible role within it. And the rhythm arising from the subconscious. And Anna feels energy coming through her – I feel a tangible effect from that! What scales are you most fond of? Is that part of the particular Folk element of your Doom that creates that tonality? Are there any folk melodies that influence any of the songs? In what ways does your location influence you?

Maria: I’m fond of northern folk, especially Finno-Ugric music, also I try to look at our music from different dimensions, adding Eastern tonality (Arabic, Turkish, Jewish music), as well as blues riffs, chromatic and classical minor scales, influences from Southern and Eastern European folk tradition… Our “Nortern Summer” is a reminiscence to native Karelian folk tunes, and “Mothir” is our adaptation of Icelandic folk song.

Anton: The idea of our project was to express through the language of Traditional Doom some of our folk influences. Yet we are not a folk band in a traditional sense of the word; we try to incorporate those melodies a bit more delicately, but they are very important.

As for the location it has a great influence on us from the vast forests to the existential gloomy culture and literature, we are shaped by this as musicians. As for Finnish folk it is an important part of our culture which sometimes flies under the radar when people are talking about Russia. For instance, Russian poets of the XIXth century with their gloomy and even Gnostic outlook on existence are a big influence for the Russian language texts of our first album.

Anna: I feel inspired by nature. I like spending some time in the forest. In terms of music, I usually prefer songs in minor scales; I like songs that sound not so depressing, but emotional. For example, I like adding some French coldwave sound to our music, as well as some blues rock.

Olga: Here I agree with Anton. The country’s history defined the distinct visual component of our surroundings, inspired by the folklore ideas and concepts we faced from early childhood, it nurtured in our minds the tendency to reflect and the idea of complicated intricacy of life, even its wholeness in imperfection. Maria shapes those images in multilayered sincerity, bringing the ideas into reality.

What is the composition and arranging like for these songs? Do they ever arise from improv jams? Is it mostly one person’s vision per tune? Do the words or riffs tend to come first? Are you most interested in getting across specific meaning through the lyrics or in something else, like creating a subtle mood that goes beyond words?

Maria: Most music comes from improvisations and jams. Sometimes it happens that I bring raw material – several riffs and text – and we try to combine them into a song and repeat it till it seems ready. Also, we have some texts and some jam records that could fit together – so, why not make a song out of them. The needed mood appears when the song is almost ready and we try to play it slower or heavier or faster, add keyboards and guitar solo elements – that comes out of practice.

Anton: My personal contribution is mostly the bass parts in terms of composition, that’s all I do. But sometimes I can advise the band to play slower and heavier, as well as bring in some references from the underground doom scene. Also, I write some of the English-language lyrics like our title track from the debut album Samhain, which has been influenced by folk horror films like The Wickerman (1973) and British classical poetry.

Olga: Most of all I value the moment when the composition is almost finished, when the main direction is defined, but the result can be changed in unexpected ways with new fragments. Then the experiments begin, making us closer to realization of the plot, and I like the way each of us adds his sound to the final feel of the composition and atmosphere.

I like that you call it a plot. Stories really do arise from the subtle nuances within the music itself, whether there are lyrics or not. What emotional process would you hope listeners go through with these paganism-referencing songs? Is there something subconscious about the ancient primal archetypes that can serve people even if they don’t think about those mythologies in their ordinary lives?

Maria: Every song has its own references, atmosphere and path to lead the listener through. Of course, when the full song structure appears in your head, it’s a powerful inspirational impulse.

Anton: I would like to add that myths are powerful archetypes in our subconscious. We like to work with that because the modern world is not concerned with authentic myth and we want to help the listeners experience them. Of course, the interpretation of the myth is psychologically different for every individual but there are important patterns.

For example, facing death and mortality has been approached differently in different cultures. And aesthetically the pagan myth is very poetic and it fascinates me. The main themes of the lyrics are the recognition of one’s mortality and different aspects of death – on “The Path,” mystical dark field of pre-Christian pagan tradition in “Samhain” and “Mothir,” Gnosticism in “Ashes,” omens and symbolism in “Silent Guard,” romanticism in “Where you live,” and pagan beauty of nature in “Northern Summer.” The title track “Samhain” was inspired by a cult folk horror film The Wicker Man (1973) while also referencing the original pagan roots of Halloween – Samhain.

Olga: The concept of mythology and paganism is the great mirror for the human soul, referring to times, when there were fewer concrete facts and the whole world consisted of trembling windings of human fears and desires.

“Trembling winding of human fears and desires.” I love that. Back before we could fact check everything in a search engine, reality was more amorphous, full of outrageous possibilities, eccentric cutting-edge experiments. Would you like to tell us about Sigil of Time? Is there a mentally different approach to folk music in that one? Some of you are able to participate in that band. Does it feel like a new compartment of the self opening up, like a new realm of a room that you can inhabit? How is that room decorated differently than the room in which Train to Elsewhere sleeps and dreams?

Maria: First material was recorded about ten years ago as my solo project, then we collaborated with Anton for a rather long time – but never released it till spring 2020. In this project I can release my vision that cannot be expressed with a heavy band. Usually, I create meditative multi-instrumentalist soundscapes in a much more intuitive way; most of them are instrumentals or vocals that don’t carry any lyrics. Often the recordings wait for some time to be reviewed and even corrected a bit before releasing. Anton records a bass line and manages different synthetic and noise parts. To talk about the room: it’s for chamber music and solitary thoughts.

Anton: Sigil of Time was mostly our experiments with post-industrial dark ambient and dark folk music as well as some field recordings. We didn’t plan to release it to the public but our label Kryrart Records encouraged us to share our music with the world. It’s more of an abstract stream of consciousness inspired by dreams and visions but some lyrics and melodies which ended up in Train to Elsewhere were first composed for Sigil of Time so the two are interconnected.

What were the mechanical methods you used to get the post-industrial effects? That’s intriguing: I’d be curious to hear about any specific dream or vision that inspired a song.

Maria: Sigil of Time is mostly based on acoustic instruments (especially guitars), as we could mention earlier. We use it for recording guitar pedals and post-production with different kinds of distortion and delay, octavers and reversed echoes, also adding such things as different samples, raw analog synthesizer sound… In different periods of time Sigil had a tendency to explore various sources, while anthologies unite tracks from earlier times.

Usually, a song starts from the feeling of total clarity, when the idea of lyrics meets the image of musical sketch, giving a whole plan of what to do. It changes several times while recording, usually each part is improvisation, keeping only several repeating moments. Mixing inserts its corrections, and when the song is almost ready, I leave it for several days, returning to it later with minimal changes.

Anton: As for Train to Elsewhere we use techniques common for recording traditional doom metal. Maybe one thing that sets us apart is that we use the sounds of the amps and their built-in distortion power rather than custom distortion pedals for pedal boards. We want to capture a primal raw sound of early rock and metal. About dreams – before writing the lyrics to Samhain I saw a dream in which I was in a vast endless autumn forest as far as I could see. The forest seemed very old, even ancient; later the dream inspired me to write the lyrics to Samhain.

We would like to thank you for these wonderful interesting questions, it was great answering them. We’re very glad and honored you enjoyed our music so much.

Though MOANHAND has been active since at least 2016, it was only this year that I became aware of multiinstrumentalist Roman Filatov’s stirring experimental doom-sludge project. To call it a project feels like a slight, for ‘Present Serpent’ (2021) is a revelation. And I don’t cast such remarks lightly.

The six-chapter epic coils like a rattler warning you of impending doom ahead if you dare tread further. “Serpent Soul (A Tale of Angels’ Slaughter)” features swift, strumming chords that feel like they could be a dozen peeved Ophidia looking for a fresh ankle to bite. There’s no escaping once these fangs dig in, either. Might as well settle in and see what happens next, for not all serpents kill. This adder bears a tale indeed, carried by a compelling mix of mournfully appealing clean singing and caustic, venomous vocals that made me think of Enslaved as their wickedest.

“The Charmthrower” goes straight for the jugular with harsh shrieks of pained emotion. This one is perfect for your next spiritual catharsis. Unbelievably, there is a salve to this course track with a soulful, healing vibe that I shall happily compare to Apostle of Solitude. I’ve yet to comment on the dark floor of doom riffage and dire drumming that has given this track its sturdy foundation. The instrumental theme is beyond moving and opens Moanhands telltale devil vs. angel crooning, complete with a most haunting chorus. Tastefully, the song dissipates not with a fade, but with acoustic reprise of the beautifully dismal central motif.

Next we take on “Nightwings” and we’re flying right into Khemmis and Warning territory, with a ballad of august glory, accented by lilting vocal harmonies and supreme skills on the strings. The song presents with a warmth and sympathy uncharacteristic even for choice melodic doom.

“Endless Embrace” is another number that wears heart on sleeve. This far into the album, the more stoic among us may have had just about had our fill of “feeling” – enough to trigger one of those Alien chestbusters that’s been aching to rip right through your rib cage. But don’t give up on the song quite yet, beloved Doomer, for it holds a bounty of menacing treasure further along in the cavernous second-half.

“Raw Blessings” steps out at a true Pallbearer’s pace, this time with a searing guitar solo (with gorgeous tone) as prelude to the lyrics. I can really appreciate the basswork here, probably because it’s slow enough for me to really take notice of and be gripped by its wallshaking force.

Our doomed excursion finishes grandly with “The Boomerang of Serpents,” which was another one of the singles. If you haven’t put two and two together by now, there is a certain meditation we’ve been having on these sleek, limbless reptiles. And if you reflect for long enough, there’s plenty of metaphor to be had throughout the album. How telling that the snake has so fastened itself to human poetry, myth, folklore, and religious texts.

The tenor here is at once grim and urgent, with devilishly downtuned bass and guitar strings doubling in effect to rumble right through your gut. There is little respite to be found in the lungs of singer/songwriter Roman Filatov this time. This is a churning den of disquiet. The vipers are striking with passion, composed equal parts of spiteful rage and deeply troubling sorrow. Few tracks have so accurately captured the mood of doom as to arrive on my personal “Depressed As Fuck” playlist, but this one has done it. I can’t even think of a more striking emotional passage than the last three minutes of this song.

Moanhand’s Present Serpent is a keeper, alive with poignant feeling, heart-rending affectation, and inspired heights of grandeur. For me, at least, it was a profoundly moving experience taken in from beginning to end (and in repeated listening sessions). It will go high on my Top 25 submissions to the Doom Charts council toward month’s end, and with any luck will hold steady in Doomed & Stoned’s HeavyBest of 2021. Roman is a sensitive musician and an accomplished vocalist. Here’s hoping that circumstances will usher him to a stage near us in the future.

Look for the record to drop on Friday, June 18th on CD, cassette tape, and digital format via Burning Shine Records (get it here). For the hours leading up to its release, Doomed & Stoned is giving you this exclusive listen.

Give ear…

Some Buzz

Hailing from Moscow, musician/songwriter Roman Filatov is the one-man intermediary of rising metal behemoth, Moanhand.

Created in 2016 as a vehicle for Filatov to flex his musical muscle and classically tempered mind, he has since gone on to produce an imposing catalogue in recent years. Always under the radar and autonomous-in-action, his talents have culminated most recently in the release of Plague Sessions, an EP recorded live at Pentagram House Studio, in 2019.

But 2021 sees the arrival of his biggest project yet.

“I’ve always tried to avoid putting myself into boxes when making music,” explained Filatov recently. “Present Serpent is definitely a hybrid of genres. It’s not just a doom, sludge or stoner album. There are a lot of different influences from black/death metal, post-metal, classical and even pop music. It’s as melodic as it is brutal.”

Written, arranged, performed and programmed by Filatov himself, there’s no question that as an album, Present Serpent is the apex of an almighty creative offering, and a truly dynamic piece of work that demands your attention.

Present Serpent will be officially released on 18th June 2021 on Burning Shine.

Formed in Moscow circa 2004, Russian quartet MONTEZUMA’S REVENGE are not only a formidable and highly impressive sludge rock machine, they’re also quite possibly one of the best kept secrets of the heavy underground.

For the past decade-and-a-half, the band has released a steady stream of stellar stoner-sludge sound, sharing stages with Crowbar, Mastodon, Red Fang, and many more. Now, the band turns their attention to a new album ’S.W.I.M’ (2021) and you’re about to experience the world premiere of its first single and music video, “Sleeping Beauty.”

Launching an attack with a slow swirling hammer blow of riffs and transcendental doom, “Sleeping Beauty” is actually a reimagining of a recording done earlier by the band in 2011. The subject matter concerns an ethereal snow maiden who is gifted with the dubious ability to freeze anything she touches. Weighted like a pendulum swinging menacingly between celestial rock and relentless stoner metal, it is a distinct innovation on the band’s earlier sound.

“We’re not huge fans of covers for the sake of covers,” says guitarist Ilya Boots. “There’s never a shortage of new material but we’ve been playing this older song in our new line-up, and it’s slowly transgressed into an entirely different beast.”

He goes on to tell Doomed & Stoned:

The video was shot during the recording of the single in and around the DTH studios where we’ve been recording for many years. DTH sits in an old factory building in Moscow and it is a very special place for the band and many fellow underground musicians, so it was decided to put it on film.

The factory’s unique look comes from its construction, which began before the Soviet 1917 Revolution and continued after clashing robust imperial facades with stark boldness of early Soviet industrial constructivism. The factory used to produce old Soviet electrical appliances and is called Electrozavod (Electric Factory). What better place for music like ours?

The whole thing happened in the first few weeks of lockdown. It was probably us simply keeping busy for the sake of our own sanity. So we went into the studio to record the song, each of us laying our tracks separately, and then shot this little video with a super-small team and very light touch production.

I also had very clear references in my head. It was winter and lockdown, and I was sitting at home reading Mark Lanegan’s book ‘Sing Backwards and Weep’ and his collection of poems 'I Am the Wolf.’ It was like talking to someone who can really appreciate misery and decay. Then I came across one of his earlier videos for “Ugly Sunday.” Black and white, no discernible story, gloomy shots of mundane urban life in Seattle. And that all felt so familiar and inspired our shots of the factory, really. Our Director of Photography Kirill Frolov did an amazing job getting the best out of half a day with us in the studio.

“Sleeping Beauty” is a song that becomes more addictive everytime you hear it. Dark, slugging bass meets irradiated guitars and glorious, soaring vocal harmonies. It’s enough to whet our appetites for the rest of the material in store for us when Andrew Lockjaw Kontuzov (vox), Ilya Boots (guitar), Andrew “Astro” Gankin (bass), and Anton Yalovchuk (drums) cut loose their third LP this summer. The music video was produced by Montezuma’s Revenge and Kirill Frolov, along with the talented crew of Vasily Cobileanu (camera), Alexander Samulekin (gaffer), Sergey Leonchik (editor), and Vasily Cobileanu (additional effects).

’S.W.I.M.’ (follow-up to their phenomenal 2017 album, 'Them’) was recorded and mixed at DTH Studios by Andrew “Astro” Gankin and mastered by James Plotkin. The new record is staged for release on July 23rd via DTH Records and is a must for fans of Corrosion of Conformity, Orchid and Alice in Chains!

Give ear…

This week, we take a closer look at one of the bands featured in our new compilation, ‘Doomed & Stoned in Russia (Vol. 1)’ (2021), which was released in February. This is ИЛ from Moscow. Sometime after we reviewed their recent album 'Ересь’ (2020), we received news that the band had a music video in the works to accompany it. It seemed high time for us to get to know this fascinating four-piece doom collective better.

What is ИЛ’s origin story? In other words, how did the band start?

The band was founded in the summer of 2013 by the members of several Moscow doom/sludge metal bands, Predicted and Magnetic TarTrap, which subsequently disbanded. ИЛ (“IL”) in English is silt – mud from the swamp. The name gave us the original theme for our first releases, which were much like sounds from the swamps. From the original line-up, vocalist/guitarist Vlad and bassist Nikolay are still in the band.

It is interesting to note that the drummers in ИЛ changed and we have a funny story connected with the fact that instead of one Sergey Vinogradov, an artist from Tula, came another Sergey Vinogradov. With the second Sergey, by the way, we recorded our best albums Нечисть (“Nechist”) and Ересь (“Heresy”), and now he is again in our lineup.

Initially, the chosen direction was sludge-doom with an admixture of drone and noise, but later the band changed its sound to the side of doom metal with death and black metal influences. It is because we grew musically with ИЛ, as if ИЛ was a living organism telling us what to do.

Our current line-up has a second guitarist, Stas from a black metal band ТУГА (“Tuga”), which is very close to us in spirit and theme and shares our rehearsal space, too. Some of our past members played in grindcore bands and others organized drone festivals. It’s classic for ИЛ that everyone listens to different music, yet are connected together by some unusual forces.

What kind of instruments, pedals, amps, and other gear did you use on your most recent album?

Regarding the amps, we do not have strict preferences, but our tastes stop at the classic amplifiers: Marshall, Engl, and the russian Sovtek and AMT. On such devices we recorded our best releases and with them they will sound in the original way.

In terms of drum equipment, our drummer prefers Zildjian, but also likes Masterwork or Stagg. Also, the Yamaha pedal was a pleasant discovery for him. We play in a very low tuning, so our guitars and sound are appropriate, one of the guitars is a baritone.

Usually in Russian venues, you don’t have an opportunity to choose from what sound setup to play and you have to play on what is available, but we have learned to get the right sound in almost any situation. We are not “equip psychos” and we do not pray to the walls of Orange amplifiers.

Tell us about your most recent album — what are some of its themes and what inspired you to write the songs?

Many things inspired the theme of this album. First of all, it is the so-called Russian chthonic, Russian death, Russian witchcraft – all that is characteristic of the dark side of our history, our legends, and beliefs. We have found many books related to these things and absorbed those images from there, which brought us to a deeper understanding of these things. And in many of our texts, our own mystical experiences associated with the world veiled around us: endless forests, fathomless swamps, as you know Russia is rich in such places.

The album Heresy tells listeners about the path of a lyrical hero, who is lost in all this variety of horrors and nightmares accompanying Russian chthonic and implicitly striving for complete unnamed madness. As you see, his fate is depicted on the cover art of the album.

About the instrumental part, it is worth saying that we are fans of different genres of music, and each of those who compose it brings something of their own. On the one hand, we love doom metal in its stoner form, on the other hand black and death metal. The new album is closer to the last two genres, and we think it is good for us.

What are some of your other influences in the realm of music, art, literature, history, etc.?

Naturally, there were some influences here, we are inspired by Russian writers Pimen Karpov, who wrote about the terrible Russian sects (his books were actually burned by Synod of Russian orthodox church) and Kondratyev with his witchcraft novels. Collections of ancient Slavic curses and charms, which can hardly be found in paper form.

But of course we pay tribute in all of our releases, including this one, to Howard Phillips Lovecraft. We would even say that we sometimes alter his mysticism and pantheon in our own Russian way. He influenced our first band and continues to influence ИЛ, as well.

In videos and movies, we like surrealism: David Lynch, Jan Svankmajer, and Andrei Tarkovsky. Unfortunately, there are no good Lovecraft movies, but there are good board games with an atmosphere of his madness from FFG. Musically, we have been influenced by bands such as Winter, Electric Wizard, Cultes des Ghoules, Urfaust, Black Sabbath, Disembowelment, Cathedral, etc.

All of our art is drawn by one cool Russian artist: Vladimir Prokofiev. He understands as closely as possible the vision of our music and its design in visual terms, and creates his paintings under the impression of our descriptions and with all his skill. For example, five tarot cards (by the number of songs) are embedded in the vinyl of the Heresy album, each of which is drawn by him based on the text/

Tell us about your new music video. Was it difficult to do? What steps did you take to make your vision a reality?

We’ve wanted to make a video for several years now and, to be honest, this is our second attempt. We think it is a success! All the work on filming, editing, and release was taken over by our friend Alexandr Swed. We will not describe the plot of the video for you, but if you have read this interview to the end, you will surely find echoes of the things that we described when we talked about the sources of inspiration. We would like to give the floor to Alexandr so that he could talk a little about the process and his vision of the picture, as well as his production.

Alexandr: I believe that the main thing in any business is to burn with an idea and the desire to implement it. This is exactly the case when all the people involved in the production gave themselves completely to this project.

I am extremely grateful to everyone. Thinking over an idea, shooting, and editing is half the battle, but it is teamwork to implement everything in a high quality way.

I’m just starting my way into music videos. This is the fourth music video that I’ve shot, but everything before that was frankly so-so, and I hope ИЛ’s “Heresy” will become for me a starting point in the world of music videos.

Nowadays, it is not difficult to surprise with a beautiful picture, as there are much available film equipment, video editors, etc. And if your hands are not growing out of your ass, it is very difficult to get a bad picture. To hook with a plot, an idea, a video message – this will be more difficult. Therefore, I try to include the maximum of any idea even in reportage videos. I also often shoot videos with a historical bias, narrative, art, and so forth. Come and see.

One would think that with the Doomed & Stoned in Russia compilation just being released, one would be up to speed with what’s up and coming regarding the doomy goodness coming from the world’s largest country. Well, think again, because here comes PALE KEEPER. Formed in 2019 and hailing from Moscow, the trio released their self-titled debut EP a mere week after the release of what is arguably our most crushing compilation to date.

Pale Keeper managed to grab my attention right away with vocalist Mark Davydov’s old school guitar sound and ditto riff. After a while the rest of the band, drummer Denis Sulimkin, who’s also responsible for the synths on the record, and Denis Chelnokov on bass, join in to give the doom riff some extra oomph. It doesn’t take long though, before the track takes a turn to a more progressive sound, reminiscent to the likes of Pallbearer. It’s clear that these guys know how to write a dynamic doom track. If there’s one way to introduce your band, “Tower Lord” is the way to go.

On the second track, “Sylvan,” the band takes a turn towards a Pink Floydian ambient soundscape. It’s a well executed piece of music, transporting me towards the tundras in seconds, but it’s also a harsh break from the thing they started on “Tower Lord” and continue on the following “Getting High.”

This track immediately found it’s way into my (quite extensive) list of great doom tracks because of the absolutely neck-breaking intro. The over the top guitar solo is just icing on the cake. It also makes me more forgiving towards the “demon voices” throughout the track. These take some of the focus away from the musical skills which are portrayed here.

“Emerald Grave” is the darkest track on this EP, emitting some of that Windhandian sense of melodic dread. The band finishes things off with another instrumental track, “Placid,” which feels like a peaceful, almost optimistic finish of a dark and dreary debut.

The only comment I have on this record is that it’s a collection of songs that doesn’t feel like a coherent whole. Then again, EPs rarely do so. What the EP does do is showing us what a talented pack Pale Keeper is. They show that they know what makes a good song and have the skills to hit it home by combining elements without blatantly copying them. I hope they will continue down this path. I foresee great success for these guys if they flesh out their sound a bit more. Make sure to keep an eye out for them!

With prevalent cold weather and a rich history from per-christian folklore to the existentialism of Russian literature and the avant garde art movement of the 1920s Russia has a solid cultural background from which new forms of post-modernist art began to grow. Rock music in general began to shape itself in Russia in the late 1970s. But doom metal came into the country’s counter-culture in the very late 1980s.

The first few bands at that time played slow Sabbath-sounding heavy metal and epic doom, were not popular yet, but were on a way of becoming a foundation for the early doom-cult. When the ‘90s began russian doom-death and Gothic doom appeared. The scene was populated by the bands and projects inspired by the gloomy sounds of the european doom-death mainly linked to the Peaceville Trio sound. It was in the later half of the 2000s, when the more traditional sabbath-influenced sounds of stoner and sludge became part of the scene.

In present times the scene is still divided into the more doom-death sounding bands, and also the Sabbath worshiping zealots of true doom, and everything in between — from Gothic doom’s mournful vigils to the dirges of the funeral doom bands.

The compilation our team had put together for the grand Billy Goate’s Doomed & Stoned series is a documentation of the Russian doom scene in all its glory past-present and future. Some bands on this compilation are the veterans of the doom metal movement dating back as early as the late 80’s, and some bands formed a few years ago.

The diversity and the honest energy of this music is present in both the more melancholic tracks and the raw doom blues of the traditional doom bands. Russian doom is many things – Gothic, psychedelic, cold and energetic. The existential themes present in Russian culture carried across to the lyrics of many of the songs.

The compilation would not be possible without the outstanding cover art by Alexey Sivitsky (IG: godlikeikons), depicting the Gamayun bird (a mythic creature of Russian folklore), sitting on a skull. The cover perfectly fits the atmosphere of the compilation, which includes bands from all over Russia from Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Yaroslavl to the cold lands of Siberia and other regions.

We hope that this compilation will introduce the audience to great new music.

BEHIND THE COMPILATION

Russian heavy music fans have long been known as some of the most passionate and dedicated in the world. I first became aware of the heavy underground scene through a band from Kostroma called Pressor, who had released a split album between Ukraine band Soom and Idaho-based Diazepam on the [addicted label] in December of 2013, just six months after Doomed and Stoned was founded.

Soon, I found myself with a profile on VK (Russia’s premiere social media site) and gradually making friends, including photographer Rita Fevraleva (vocalist of Fuzzthrone), whose photography captured the fervor of the Russian concert scene.

Doomed and Stoned was among the few Western music websites to cover such events as the annual Sludge Convention in 2016 and have been on top of the scene ever since, including documenting the first appearances of Elder, Acid King, and Eyehategod in Moscow.

And the rest is history.

Big thanks to all the bands who have participated in this effort to capture a snapshot of the scene – over 50 bands representing the Russian heavy underground’s past, present, and future! As with all the compilation in our series, this one places a heavy emphasis on doom metal and stoner rock, along with its related permutations (sludge, psychedelic, etc.).

Hellraiser is the earliest band of the lot, dating back to the USSR in 1989, whereas bands such as Gorod, Psilocybe Larvae, Rada & Ternovnik, The Morningside, and VIR’ were born in the early-to-mid '90s. The remaining bands were all founded in the past two decades, including such favorites as The Grand Astoria and The Re-Stoned.

We have elected to present this one in encyclopedic fashion, by order of the band’s first name. The hope is that you may curate your own favorite tracks into the perfect mix, personalized for you, and present the download free of charge. If you enjoy the music, click “info” next to each track for details on where you can follow and purchase albums from your favorite bands.

A huge debt of gratitude is due to the dynamic team of Anton Bryukov, Anton Kitaev, Alexey Kozlov, and Alexey Sivitsky for helping me through every step of the process in putting together this one-of-a-kind, herculean effort.

Thanks to you, the loyal listener, for your ongoing love and support. The compilation series, now in its 6th year, aims to document the groundswell of growth in the heavy underground, among both signed and unsigned bands, with the common denominator being their stylistic link back to the fathers of doom and the godfathers of metal, Black Sabbath.

-BillyGoat-
Editor in Chief
DOOMED & STONED

What can the Western man say about Russia?

What can we, fat on the spoils of capitalism and cultural hegemony, hope to comprehend about the continent-in-a-country that brought us Stalker, Solzhenitsyn, and the Skoptsy movement?

Winston Churchill once called it “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” A land apart, neighbouring 14 countries yet resembling none of them.

Russian art can feel equally impenetrable, a cloak of cultural dissonance descending over imperfect translations and alien references that make it feel at once bewildering and divine.

With this in mind, it will come as a relief to most listeners that the path tread by Moscow’s ИЛ (pronounced “IL”) is a somewhat more comfortable experience to our tender ears.

Of course, “tender” is a relative term when talking about a band that shrouds itself in as many bass frequencies and cavernous vocal lines as ИЛ do. But the fact remains that on ‘Ересь’ (2020), ИЛ are not pulling a Khanate, and the band never sacrifice songcraft for the blood-vomit sounds the album artwork would have you expect (artwork that is eerily similar in style to Longing by Bell Witch, which is still their best album by the way – fight me).

Hell, you could even call most of Ересь accessible.

This in no way detracts from the visceral impact of the album at all. In fact, ИЛ actually manage to strike that golden ratio of thick heaviness, taut melody, grim atmosphere, and infectious energy just right.

And as someone forced to hear many a band whose whole raison d'être is a slavish dedication to just one of those things, the considered mix of these vital elements is truly appreciated. Don’t believe me? Then believe the sight of my hands curling up to grasp those invisible oranges at the end of “Чёрная Мать.”

Brutality gives way to melody. Melody gives way to atmosphere. Atmosphere gives way to energy. And energy gets Ересь out of the soporific territory many doom releases find themselves in.

That said, is this even doom? Or is it more on the sludge/death metal side of the spectrum as Encyclopaedia Metallum seems to think? And at this stage of the genres’ cross pollination, does it even matter?

With its earworm riffs and attention-holding dynamic shifts, Ересь is far from being the inscrutable riddle-mystery-enigma that Churchill warned of. To ears acquainted with heavy music this album may even sound downright catchy in parts. Satisfyingly catchy, it must be said.

So there you go people: an album that is both an enjoyable slab of Muscovite heft and a piece of Russian art you can enjoy without a Ph.D. and a migraine.

Here’s a big topic that I don’t address nearly enough. I’m going to tell you how to target your ads on social media. Understanding the core concepts behind advertisements on Facebook and Instagram is one of the most fundamentally important skills that you can teach yourself in 2019. Now, I know as well as many of you that this might not seem cool. I get it. Social media ads are sort of the devil. They are the reason Trump is president. They are the reason that you always see ads for made to order shirts for “Tough Guys who like Vikings born in November.” I get it. It’s frustrating.

However, there are a lot of easy ways to target your ads that are actually going to pay off for you in the long run, and that’s what we’re going to get into in this post. Moreover, we’re going to delve into something more fundamental: the logic that you need to deploy when figuring out how exactly you want to target your ads. We’re going to dig deep into why you should be hyper-targeting, and then guide you through the process of how to grow your advertising strategy in a meaningful way that will actually pay off. It’s gonna be a helluva ride.

The key to understanding all ads on Instagram and Facebook is that they are looking to find the cheapest possible click. In layman’s terms, this refers to your lowest common denominator fan. So, if you are trying to push ‘kvlt black metal’ you shouldn’t use the term ‘black metal’ as part of your targeting settings in Ads Manager. If you put ‘black metal’ in the targeting settings, you will get Cradle of Filth fans, when you were actually hoping to get the same people who like Darkthrone. Your ability to hyper-target is incredibly important when trying to reach that next level. At the end of the day, you can’t be marketing to who you want your fans to be. You need to be marketing to who your fans are. Yes, you may want all black metal fans to like your project, but right now, you’re a lot more likely to get clicks out of the dudes who are already in your niche.

The thing is, you’re not going for just the cheapest possible click – you’re going for the cheapest possible sale. It’s the conversion you should be focused on. This is why smart ad buyers employ a tailored approach towards how they target their audiences. For example, if you have a really big German audience, then go and run an ad in German. People like to feel catered to. They will feel especially catered to if you’re not a German-speaking band, but you make that effort anyway. The ads you run everywhere else in the world can be in English, but running the right one to that core fanbase is going to win. You need to be looking at the analytics, because you have those numbers available and aren’t taking as much advantage of them as you should be. I know this, because I have them available and I don’t do it as much as I should.

Another big part of hyper-targeting is getting granular on geographic and personal levels that are contextually relevant to your promotional campaign. For instance, let’s say you’re a band about to embark on a 30-show tour of Europe. You could do what foolish bands do, which is just run one big $150 ad and say “Hey, Europe, we’re coming for you.” Or, you could get the most bang for your buck, and run individualized ads targeted to each city you are playing. You could say, “Hey, Paris, we’re coming for you!”, “Hey Belgium, we’re coming for you”, and so on and so forth. You get it. Yet you don’t. Why? Because it’s a pain in the ass and you’re lazy. I get it, but here’s the thing. If fucking Kreator can shoot individualized advertisements for each and every of their dates on the Decibel tour, then you can run the same ad slightly edited across 30 different markets. It’s not hard. You genuinely care about this stuff, right? Right?!

Now, I’m not going to blow smoke up your ass. This shit can be super fucking hard. Not only can it be super fucking hard, but it’s also going to take a lot of work on your end. Constant experimentation and refinement of your target audiences is inherent to the process of making sure things are performing nicely. As a general rule, you want to be paying around 75 cents per click for audiences you are targeting on Facebook, and under a dollar per click on Instagram. A little higher is okay. Those numbers are by no means precise, and in a few months they might be wrong again – but I know a lot of you guys like having detailed info like this, so I’m doing my best to give it to you.

This is also part of why I like to run lots of smaller ads before I run bigger ones, and why I run a lot of smaller ads in general. It not only gives you the ability to target more effectively, but I’ve found that the sheer power that you get from constantly optimizing pays off more in the long run rather than taking a bunch of $50 shots in the dark. There are two kinds of people who take $50 shots in the dark: people who are bad at targeting ads, and people who actually buy their own drinks in Vegas. Both of these people are the result of bad planning, so don’t be like them.

I hope this makes sense as a general primer on targeting your social content. I know that it’s some pretty complex stuff, and I’ve experienced firsthand how overwhelming Ads Manager can be. That being said, once you know what you’re doing, it’s easy to run effective ads that are going to get you traction. Once you understand some of the basic concepts behind how these ads work, then you’re going to get a whole hell of a lot further. If you guys like this article, I can get even deeper since obviously this is only the beginning. Just realize that social media ads need to be targeted not at who you want your audience to be, but rather who your audience actually is. Because when it comes down to it, that audience is a lot bigger than you might expect.

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. Matt also co-hosts the Dumb & Dumbest podcast with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.