Nothing is worse than the emotional burden of hurt, loss, betrayal, and grief. It is often overwhelming, consuming thoughts and giving rise to depression and physical distress that can last for months, years, even a lifetime. Music comes as a welcome respite, as it not only identifies with our pain but offers an outlet for mourning, insight, perhaps even healing.

Thus, death-doom was born, a melding of death metal with doom metal that began with groundbreaking acts such as Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, Katatonia, and Draconian in the 1990s and continues strong well into the second decade of the new century. A hallmark of this style is slowed down tempos, gruff vocals, double kick drumming, and plaintive guitars, with the genre expanding into melodic realms as well. To onlookers it may seem harsh, morose, even distasteful. However, to those in the throes of misery it can come as a welcome salve to the soul.

Today, we introduce you to the grim New Hampshire blackened death-doom crew VIGIL, which rose from the ashes of another Kingston area band: Onera.

Justin Christian (bass, guitar) and Craig Simas (guitar, synth) have aimed not only for a heavier direction than their previous project, but also something “beautiful and emotional.” Dave Petillo (vox), Joe Davis (bass), and Brandon Phinney (drums) round out the formidable ensemble on the band’s debut EP, ’…And The Void Stared Back’ (2024), which Doomed & Stoned is premiering.

“One of the original building blocks of Vigil was to be as heavy as we could,” the band says, “This led to the decision to have two bass players. As the songs started to take shape and each member was putting their own touches to the arrangements, we realized quickly that we succeeded in our goal. Combining that with our love for post-rock, thrash, and progressive metal, Vigil is a showpiece for all our influences filtered through our ears, hands, and emotions. We take the listener down a dark road of sorrow and anger.”

The four-track affair begins strong with one of my favorites of the record, “Descend To Extinction” – a song that puts our mortality into perspective.

You must all face
The truth of life
We end in spite
Of our strife
All must pay
A toll sometime
Let our being
Be a moment in time

A sanguine guitar lead greets, interlaced with dire growls personifying our great common enemy: Death. Juxtaposed to this is a melodic chorus with appealing vocal harmonies that address the cold, hard reality of human suffering. At 4:22 there is some arresting riffwork that harkens back to the metal glory days of the ‘80s. It feels as if the rushing winds of Fate are sweeping us away. The song closes with a return to the dissonant rhythms and the bittersweet riff of the start.

Next comes the “Words of a Dying Man”. Rainy repeated chords set the stage and are soon contrasted with contemplative picking, spacey synthesizer, and dark octaves on the piano. This is accompanied by gnarling vocals and that both snarl and whisper. Emphatic bass and drums shake us awake from this dream state, and downtuned guitars embrace a return to reality.

After this, we’re visited by “Erosion of the Soul”. Gut-wrenching black metal vocals are reminscent of Enslaved and the tension increases with strumming chord progressions, tremeloes, and aggressive drumming. You can really feel the rumble of the dual basses here.

The pain you gave me rots inside
I cannot tell you
I can’t believe
The hatred still living blind
I can’t let it breed inside
Spirits live fighting Right inside my head

“Convulse Ways From A World Beyond” finishes us off with a wild hailstorm of drumming, chugging groove rhythms, and flashes of dissonance, interrupted by some doomy moments on guitar that are genuinely moving. Twin guitars offer sorrowful strains that intersect and contrast. Solitary bass lines usher us to the EP’s closing moments.

Vigil’s …And The Void Stared Back is available on compact disc, with singles available for download (get 'em here). Stick it on a playlist with Serpentine Path, Heavy Death, and Hooded Menace, and Marche Funèbre.

Give ear…

New sounds from New Hampshire now, as dark rocking Manchester four-piece CRONE VISIONS presents “Possession.” It’s the first single from ‘Mystic Delusions of Astral Travel’ (2022), the Queen City troupe’s intriguingly titled second EP.

Lonely acoustic strings strum crisply over a ghostly melodic line. An electric switch is turned on and the volume surges with vigorous metallic charge. “Black candles lit and I shut my eyes,” Morgan heralds eerily over drizzly guitars. “Smoke rolls in, as I gasp for air.” Her vocals are given ample space on this recording, so that they sometimes seem to surround us. “Can you hear it, the distant drumming?”

Crone Visions tells Doomed & Stoned readers:

“Possession” is the tale of a pact made with dark forces, an exchange made to satisfy desires beyond their ability to obtain. However, all deals have their price, and this bargain has a high one; to surrender one’s body and soul to evil.

The song finishes unusually. Instead of the usual bridge back to a chorus, we are swept away by an extended guitar passage care of Eric Sauter (also with area band Magnatar). His axe swings through the ominous midnight fog with determination, taking us all the way to a damning conclusion.

There is something surreal and dreadful about the atmosphere that Crone Visions invokes. The band calls it Gothic Dreamdoom. Earlier in the year, they gave us an ultra-dank dreamscape “Sin(k),” which followed an impressive debut in 'Devour’ (2021).

As the gloom of October settles in, autumn winds will surely bear more. In the meanwhile, “Possession” will fit just fine on a playlist with Magnatar, Castle, Black Cobra, Young Hunter, and Ancient VVisdom. Look for Mystic Delusions of Astral Travel on Seeing Red Records.

Give ear…

There’s some study floating around on the internets that has concluded most people solidify their musical interests – including a set number of bands – by the mid-20s. From personal experience, I can say this is largely true. I will always be drawn to my staple of Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Nine Inch Nails. Yet I’ve never truly stopped searching for new sounds that speak to me. This requires a willingness to wade through the morass of releases bombarding the heavy music community on the daily. Often it takes 100 albums before I find a band that’s doing something different or at least filling out a tried and true form with heart and soul.

New Hampshire four-piece MAGNATAR struck me immediately as a band that’s striving to see what’s just beyond view of the naked eye. Their sound is continually pushing forward with bold sweeping gestures. One could almost characterize it as monstrous, but truthfully it is both beast and beauty. There are moments on ‘Crushed’ (2022) when the vents are opened up and all hell is cast through them. Other songs on the album usher us through valleys of wonder (“Crown of Thorns”), mountains of disturbing mystery (“Crushed”), and apocalyptic landscapes dotted with meteoric craters (“Even Horizon”).

Today, Doomed & Stoned is hosting the world premiere of the first single from this 8-track epic. “Dragged Across the Surface of the Sun” is like a grand announcement: we’re now approaching the sun; prepare for the dragging. The jutting rhythmic structure meted out by John Funk (drums) and Andrews Pagliuca (bass) reminds me of Meshuggah, with their machine-like precision. But this is doomed sludge, so the unhurried tempo really allows us to soak in those massive reverberating chords and revel in the fuming tremolos that greet us two minutes in.

Eric Sauter’s vocals are mean 'n’ dirty (he also produced the record, giving ample space for atmosphere). Inching closer towards a chorus, his roars are contrasted with secondary vocals that are clean, soaring, and emotive. The combined tone of Eric Sauter and Colin Ward’s guitars conjure Monolord levels of heaviness that’ll please a big slice of this readership.

Says the band:

The whole album is about a long relationship I was in that turned physically abusive from their side. It’s a trip through the slow burn of having one’s dignity broken down piece by piece, feeling trapped and unable to escape the life you’re living in as you mistake abuse as love. It also highlights watching someone you love succumb to addiction and lose complete control of themselves, seeing the darkest most evil parts of humans through those combined experiences.

“Dragged” is a journey through the state of being emotionally and physically abused, the inability to see the harm being caused to you while you try to find the love in it

We can anticipate Magnatar’s debut LP Crushed to drop on June 3rd c/o Seeing Red Records. I’m envisioning this on a playlist with Yob, Neurosis, Helms Alee, Ken Mode, Torche, King Bastard, and Terminus.

Give ear…

SOME BUZZ

Since 2017, Magnatar have commanded their presence through high voltage amplified atmosphere. Assembled in the mountainous state of New Hampshire, the quad brings about a sound rife with hellish, off-metered dissonance and drone, introspective ambient passages, and a vocal style that transitions between harsh and hypnotic. After an EP release in 2017 & an extended single release in 2018, their debut album, 'Crushed’ (2022), is by far their most concentrated and fierce release to date.

Revolutionary. That’s what the people of Jonestown, a makeshift communal colony transplanted from a church in San Francisco deep into the steamy jungles of Guyana, thought of their way of life – and especially of their highly esteemed leader, The Reverend Jim Jones. The proper name for this 918-person strong camp was The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project and it obtained international notoriety before many of us were ever born to witness its terrible demise on November 18th, 1978.

The cult of Jim Jones began and ended in spectacular fashion, first with the revolutionary notion of reforming a culture rife with racism, inequality, and injustice, only to join the disillusionment of its leader to separate from that world entirely and form the ideal Kingdom of God upon earth. Many have attempted it throughout the centuries, few have had the fortitude to withstand the predatory prophets that tend to go power mad with the thought of controlling the lives of willing subjects. As you might know, especially if you’ve watched the moving 2006 documentary Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple or seen the Ti West’s convincing found footage horror film based upon its more sensational elements, Jonestown ended with the largest slaying of American men, women, and children before 9-11.

The mass suicide, predicated on the unyielding faith of Jim Jones’ followers, has naturally invited curiosity from musicians – most recognizably by Church of Misery in their album, ‘Greetings from Jonestown’ (2009). When I found out a newly formed New Hampshire band called DUST PROPHET was readying to release a song and music video based upon the events of Jonestown, I was quite curious and ultimately invited them to this site to premiere it.

Dust Prophet is the collective of singer Heather Lynn, bassist Sarah Wappler, guitarist Otto Kinzel, and drummer Marc Brennan. As they gear up for a 2019 record, they’re teasing out their vision – first with “The Big Lie” single and now with “Revolutionary Suicide.” Striking a notably darker tone than their predecessors, Dust Prophet’s composition begins with stern bass tones, met with acid-spiked psychedelic twang and a soft blend of voices, before picking up a more strident tone with railing Sabbathian guitars and singing that recalls Sabbath Assembly and hints at Blood Ceremony. “Your so close to heaven” are the words that conclude the song, implying that perhaps we’ve been hearing the inner voices of the unfortunate souls who were assured that drinking the poisoned Kool-Aid would be a most revolutionary act.

You’ll soon find the single here for download and should definitely keep your finger on the pulse of this band moving forward. Doom is alive and well in 2019 and Dust Prophet is leading the charge.

Give ear…

Some Buzz

The End Of All We Know Is Coming…

Heavy riffs, haunting vocals, fuzzy tones, weird sounds, monstrous beats…this is Dust Prophet. The fuzzed-out, doomed New Hampshire band’s new music video reminds of us the surreal events of Jonestown, bearing words of caution about the seductive sway of charismatic mad men.

Drawing inspiration from humanity’s fragile existence, as well as genre-defining bands like Black Sabbath, Kyuss, and Clutch, Dust Prophet is poised to take the stoner rock world by storm.

Hailing from Manchester, New Hampshire, Dust Prophet came together in 2018 as the project of longtime friends and musical collaborators Sarah Wappler (bass) and Otto Kinzel (guitar). Soon joined by fellow scene veterans Heather Lynn (vocals) and Marc Brennan (drums), the band shifted into high gear writing music.

They released their apocalyptic debut single “The Big Lie” in October 2018, putting them on the map with critics and listeners in the underground music scene. Recorded by Kinzel at his home studio, with post-production done by Massachusetts studios Amps vs. Ohms and New Alliance East, the song was spotlighted on The Obelisk as well as podcasts across the country.

With their next single “Revolutionary Suicide” coming out in January 2019 & premiering on Doomed & Stoned, Dust Prophet is on the fast track to notoriety – if the world doesn’t end first.