Some weeks back, a package arrived at my door. The dogs freaked out (I don’t get as many visits from the postman as you might think). I suspected it was vinyl, but I hadn’t ordered any at the time, so this was something of a surprise. I opened it up to find a record titled, No Legacy, a compilation of Southern and Northern California metal – Volume I, no less. Numbered 36 out of a limited run of 500. Most promos I get for review come at me digitally, which I don’t mind at all, but if there’s one thing you can do to get me to press pause on my busy day, it’s to give me something I have to answer the door for, open up, and handle with these ol’ hooves of mine. 180 gram black vinyl is what we got here, great feel to it, and when I fired up the turntable, the record sounded every bit as good as it looked.

Clearly someone had put a lot of work into this product. That someone was Erik Kluiber, known to me from Gypsyhawk fame. I met Erik four years at a bar called Black Forest in Eugene, Oregon, where I filmed the band doing a wicked set that opened, quite epically, with the theme from Game of Thrones. It’d been a while since we’d talked, so this seemed like a good time as any to track him down and find out what was up with this fascinating new project, his thoughts on the recording industry, and the meaning of metal. Stick around at the conclusion for my thoughts on the music.

An Interview With Erik Kluiber

You’ve been a part of the Cali scene for what seems like forever, though I know you’re originally from Detroit. Now you’re plugged in, play in a handful of bands, and have started a record label called No Legacy. What’s the story behind this new compilation?

I moved to Los Angeles in 2009. During my time here, I’ve been in two signed underground rock metal bands, White Wizzard and Gypsyhawk, and now I play in Void Vator and Ironaut. I have been privileged to see what goes on inside the music scene and meet a lot of people in the industry during these years. There’s still a lot of excitement surrounding the established acts within the industry. It’s sex, drugs, rock and roll. Things go down for those VIP tickets and backstage passes, they’re like gold. People fuck and fight for the status that comes with being associated with the big names. On the other hand, down in the club scene, it’s crickets. I never saw any of those industry motherfuckers there. They all want to be seen, but I never saw them in the real scene and that’s not what metal was ever about for me. I always thought metal was against phony celebrity worship bullshit.

People fuck and fight for the status…that’s not what metal was ever about for me.

I’m with you there. Celebrity has a way of killing authenticity.

Club shows are my forte. Clubs are where I prefer to see bands and that’s where I like to hang out. Sometimes I’m playing the shows and other times I’m just drinking, but damn-near every time I look around I think, “There should be way more fucking people here.” You look back at footage of those early ‘80s to even the '00s club shows and they are packed beyond capacity with raging maniacs and people going ape shit. Now, it’s like everyone forgot about up and coming original music and flipped over to tribute bands or just seeing Ozzfest once a year. The talent is still here in the club scene, you just gotta know who the good bands are. The sound is better now, too. Underground club sound used to be a loud mush undefined, ringing warble at 130dB. Technology keeps improving the game so fast and so cheap, it’s now possible for every club to have good sound in their budget – if they can find a decent sound engineer.

It’s a shame that there isn’t more attention focused on the underground bands that play the club scene now, but the industry types are all busy wheeling and dealing backstage passes for lipstick favors to next year’s Ozzfest or this year’s upcoming NAMM show. So I said, “Fuck it, I’m going to make a vinyl comp album DIY style. I don’t know how, but I know an artist, a mastering guy, and a shit ton of good bands. I’ll put out a record that showcases the talent of these bands I know here in California, it’ll be cool, people will check it out, and maybe they’ll get what metal is supposed to be about again.”

Are you happy with the way that vision manifested, from concept to design to production?

I wanted to make an album that people would listen to and be impressed by – both the collectable packaging and the quality of the bands featured on the vinyl. My goal is for someone to listen to the album a few times and become a fan of a new band that they never heard before on the record. We all know how jaded we are, we all know how hard it is to impress anyone of us today. That’s why I invested in the 180 gram vinyl for the best sound quality and had Michael Hateley of Lotus Mastering master the record. I wanted it to sound really good. I invested in printing the lyrics, liner notes, and photos on the record sleeve to inspire someone to feel like there is something of value and read along, like the old days. Ryan Bartlett’s artwork is cool, it’s a whole package, and maybe, just maybe, if we pulled out all the stops, people would be intrigued enough to give this album a chance and an honest spin. No Legacy is limited to 500 copies. 500 copies is a short run, but in today’s reality, that’s a lot of records for any of our bands to be on and if they all move, that’s a lot of potential new sets of ears that might dig what they hear.

Whoever is in charge of modern rock radio programming needs to die, as well…

“No Legacy” – what does that mean?

The title is called No Legacy, because this album features exclusively contemporary up-and-coming bands in the underground California heavy music scene. From my perspective, the heavy metal movement has shifted over to an unhealthy focus predominantly fixated on established legacy acts. Easily 90% of everything I read in the metal media is about bands that were popular when or before I graduated from high school way back in 1993. Metal has become all about the brands, instead of the bands. Many of these legacy acts do not deserve the attention they receive and need to go away, because they are hurting the genre. It’s like the board game Monopoly. It’s a classic game and everyone knows what it is and I’m sure it’s still one of the top sellers year after year. We all sort of love that game from our childhood, but it’s boring as hell and it sucks and there are way better games out there now. Nostalgia has its place in music, but catering to the establishment legacy acts is a sellout move and goes against what metal and rock 'n’ roll should be about. Whoever is in charge of modern rock radio programming needs to die, as well, because they are not helping things at all, but that’s a whole different story.

How did you choose which bands you wanted to include in your magic mix of mayhem?

I met all of the bands on No Legacy by sharing the stage with them at club shows across California. When you do regional shows as a touring, independent band, you get to the venue early and stay until it’s over. I hear and see hundreds of bands every year and the good ones stand out. I try to keep track of and stay in touch with the good ones. In 2017, I had this idea of the compilation album in my head. I would approach bands that made an impression on me the night I played with them and asked them if this idea of a compilation album was something that they would be interested in participating in. I was surprised on the immediate positive feedback. All of the bands I approached liked the idea of a compilation album. They reminisced about albums like Metal Massacre from decades ago and understood the fan crossover potential. I also think they trusted me because I had met them over the years through touring and playing shows together in every band I was in at the time.

You went straight for the vinyl with this one and, I must say, it is a beautiful thing to behold.

Vinyl has been a collectable rage for many years now. For many music fans, vinyl is the only format they’re interested in when it comes to collecting music. That being said, vinyl is more complex, expensive, and time consuming to release. Many of the bands on the No Legacy comp had always wanted to release their own vinyl album, but couldn’t afford to do so. All of us working together made it realistic to release a song on vinyl and move our individual portion of the 500 total units pressed.

Metal has become all about the brands, instead of the bands.

Why vinyl exclusively and not on another formats, too, like CD?

I wouldn’t put out a compilation CD in these times because there is no intrigue. With a vinyl album, it looks good and fans of a particular band like to pick up to albums to support their team and see how their boys stack up compared to the “competition.” I think that there is a friendly competition vibe that surrounds it. The vinyl album has value, whereas a compilation CD? Meh, just listen to the bands on YouTube, at that point. CDs do still have a place at the merch table, but a CD’s purpose now is a cheap collectable for a fan to buy of an individual band and get signed for five or ten bucks.

I’ve always had vinyl albums to sell when I was in White Wizzard and Gypsyhawk, especially, but I had never put one out DIY. It was a challenge and I learned a lot in the process. I had good people to work with, having Ryan Bartlett doing the graphic design and artwork, Michael Hateley doing the mastering, who I’ve worked with for years with Ironaut, and Justin from Pirates Press was extremely helpful. Justin was there to make sure every detail was covered from start to finish and, all in all, the whole process wrapped up quicker than I expected once I got all the materials together on my end.

So Pirates Press turned out to be a good choice for your vinyl pressing needs.

Yes. I heard good things about them through Grand Lord High Master. I feel like their name has always been around, although I wasn’t producing albums at the time. I worked with a guy named Justin and we went back and forth a lot to make sure that I didn’t miss anything in the process. He put his time in the project to see it through properly. There were some questions on the forms that neither I nor the mastering engineer was familiar with and Justin helped us. The results are perfect and once I got the materials in and Okayed the test pressings, the records were manufactured and shipped from Czech Republic much quicker than I thought it would be. The hardest part of the process was getting the materials turned in from the bands. Everyone was cool, but musicians are the worst when it comes to doing things in a timely fashion.

What’s the story behind Ryan’s Bartlett’s album art?

I met Ryan when Ironaut did a show at the Dollhut in Anaheim with Livin Alive. Ironaut was still an instrumental band back then and Ryan had just designed Livin Alive’s new logo t-shirts, which had a thrashy, Thin Lizzy feel. I hit it off with Ryan and he’s done a lot of work Ironaut and Void Vator over the years. When I approached him about the compilation album he was extra excited, because I wanted to get his work out on a vinyl album cover. He also did all the layout graphic design work on the inside record sleeve.

Ryan had a piece of art lying around and he and I worked together with some ideas of how we could take this picture he had of a typical heavy metal skeleton figure and make it something bigger. That’s what I like about Ryan, is that we can work together and try a few ideas. We seem to be able to communicate and try things out without committing to one idea. We tried different colors and borders. I asked that the State of California be included and we worked out that fossilized piece in the center. He came up with the cosmic effect around the skeleton. We went back and forth a lot on the front and back cover and inside to give the album the best representation it could. He also came up with my No Legacy logo, which I’m really happy with. Yeah, he’s a great dude.

No Legacy: How It Stacks Up

Track Listing:

1. Ironaut - Sick Stupid Lies
2. Disastroid - New Day
3. Madrost - Scorned
4. Astral Cult - Drowning
5. Void Vator - No Return
6. Aboleth - No Good
7. Grand Lord High Master - Sludge
8. Hazzard’s Cure - Starvation
9. Tzmani - Final Hour

What do I think about this mad beast of a metal monster truck, roaring across the length of The Golden State? Well, first, I appreciate the No Legacy much more knowing the story behind it. The fact that these bands were vetted through hard time on the road says something about the care put into this collection. Eric’s right, compilations are a lot of work – like exhausting work – and while Doomed & Stoned tends to go for breadth in our scene comps, there’s something attractive to me about one that shows restraint.

Who are these bands? Half the fun behind a release like this is getting to know them organically, on the record’s own terms. Let it spin a couple times and wash over you.

Some highlights for me included the opening number by Ironaut (a band I’ve been a champion for a while now). This is one of Erik Kluiber’s current projects, and one he’s quite proud of, as a matter of fact. “Sick Stupid Lies” gets our head banging right away with a nice pace and a tone that is at once urgent and dreadful. The most enjoyable part for me is the trill work that accents the main riff (I imagine it’s as addictive to play as it was to listen to). As in the glory days of heavy metal, the solo is back, though hardly a retread of what you’ve heard before. This is evolution, baby.

Disastroid is a San Francisco trio that has its own eclectic blend of grungy, sludgy rock going on, with muscle car stoner rhythms and proggy mods to this beast that alone make it a worthy ride. But it’s those oh-so-pleasing vocal harmonies that make listening to “New Day” that take those wheels off the ground, sailing you into the sunrise with a nice high.

Danger ahead: this road is about to get rocky. For you doomers and stoners out there, we’re moving into tech-death territory with the colossal Madrost. It’s hard not to get excited when the Lake Forest four pull out all the wizardry, matching machine-precision beats with a swirling blast of radioactive riffage of “Scorned.”

Astral Cult brings us back to the soil for gritty, Sabbath-touched doom blended with QOTSA-style stoner rock, grounded by a gorgeous, dark bass tone, grungy vocals, and effective psychedelic contrasts. The Folsom foursome are really on a roll with “Drowning,” nestled right in a sweet spot here on this comp. I imagine experiencing Astral Cult performance must be a dimension shifting experience and I do hope I get the pleasure further into the year.

This is my first time hearing Void Vator, Erik’s other band, who describe themselves as “a high energy rock band with the metal stylings of Megadeth mixed with the radio hooks of the Foo Fighters.” I suppose those are good points of reference, and you can throw some Monster Magnet influence in there, too. Really, Void Vator just sounds like a fun, adrenaline-charged band that I’d expect to see opening one of the travelling Rockstar Energy Drink metal fests. “No Return” is a good introduction to their sound, which by all rights would be going mainstream in the heyday of radio.

With members sourced from The Ultra Electric Mega Galactic and Sulfur, Aboleth is a grower for sure. Those raspy vocals we here in “No Good” belong to the lovely Brigitte Roka, who sounds for all the world like a whiskey drinking, chain smoking Janis Joplin, an impression reinforced with the bluesy leads of Collyn McCoy’s, who loves to play dirty with those Delta slides (like their LA cohorts, The Great Sadness). This is the kind of band that you’d want to come out for on a cold, dark Monday night when you have to work the next day.

Grand Lord High Master is next up to bat, described as “one of Los Angeles’ weirdest” by Metal Assault. “Sludge” shrieks and squeals like a true representative of southern sludge metal, enhanced by the clarity of strong drumming and bass play and some really, really mean vox. You’ll definitely get a please Pantera aftertaste to this this burner. That said, any of the comparisons I’ve been making up to now are merely a writer’s grasp for something to get your ears anchored to until you’ve gotten your footing and can accept the band on its own terms.

In full disclosure, the comp did start to get a little sluggish for me right at the point of Hazzard’s Cure , whose hazy “Starvation” could have perhaps been better placed nearer to Aboleth (but what do I know?). A compilation isn’t just about compatibility it is about contrast. Certainly, Hazzard’s Cure is a mean bastard and a hard one to pin down stylistically (they’ve been described as “San Francisco Speed Doom,” it that helps). The problem here isn’t with the song; it’s with the recording the band submitted, which is a little too muddy for my taste. This is where I feel like I’m listening to one of those old comps, 'Deep Six’ (1986) from C/Z Records, which despite some questionable sonics, introduced us to the likes of Melvins and Soundgarden.

The pace picks up, as well as the acoustical quality of the recording (which has been generally stellar throughout) in the album closer, “Final Hour,” a forlorn four-minute track from San Diego’s Tzmani. The songs features some beautiful leads and guitar harmonies that remind us that there are some definitely motifs of traditional metal and developments in modern metal that are worth holding on to.

So what kind of rating would I give this bad boy? Well, I made an executive decision a long time ago that Doomed & Stoned wasn’t going to give numbers, stars, or any other kind of scale ratings. The reason is simple: we don’t have time to listen to a lot of music, even less time to review it. We’re aiming to share the music and the stories of the heavy underground, so we’d rather put the emphasis there than to tell you what you should think about it or give a quick soundbite to the PR folks, as much as we appreciate what they’re doing. Look, I either like a record or I don’t and if I review it I like it.

The verdict?   Billy likes it.     My recommendation?   Give ear…