Apostle Of Solitude – Sincerest Misery (Eyes Like Snow Records)
By Chris Barnes
November 14, 2008
Here we go. Shaking your fist at the sky, cursing unseen, deaf Gods Doom Metal. Waking up and looking at the IV line from your arm to the morphine drip hanging above your head Doom Metal. Realizing you just broke your hand after you retract it from hitting the wall Doom Metal. Nine-to-five clock in, clock out lifer dead-end job Doom Metal. The loner with the hoodie pulled over his head listening to Sabbath on his Ipod while the world whirls by Doom Metal. The real shit.
Since
2006 , I’ve admired
Apostle of Solitude’s ability to translate reality into music, free of gimmicks, posturing or commercial appeal. It’s no friggin’ picnic out there, that’s what they write about. That’s what they play. God knows there’s no money in it, so I’m thinking that’s what they live. “Do you know the pain of life?” sings Chuck B. “ I’ll show you all just how to die”.
There’s no doubt every single tune on
Sincerest Misery will shake the rafters with heavy, but the lyrics carry a
gravitas all their own. There’s no castles, kings, monsters, space, cars or weed. Instead, there are earth-shaking tales of single-minded religious zealots, alienation, internal demons, depression, obsession and the single-slowest song ever about fast-moving, heavily-armed aircraft.
That song, “Warbird”, is actually one of my favorites off
Sincerest Misery. Co-penned by Mr. Brown and bassist Brent McClellan, it starts off with a slo-mo stun bass tone that Cliff Burton would’ve been proud of, features a crushing steamroller guitar with a nice mid-tempo groove about four minutes in that sounds like a great Blood Farmers moment, except at ¾ speed and ends with Chuck screaming his head off. That kid gets wound up.
For pure crushing doom riff pleasure, there’s the tortured ode to obsession “Last Tears”, the gun-to-head-finger-on-trigger chestnut “A Slow Suicide” and myopic warrior for God tale “The Messenger”. One song that I’m afraid that might get overlooked is the amazing instrumental, “The Dark Tower”. At center, is a decidedly un-heavy, minor chord, 15th century-sounding riff that repeats over and over in various incarnations for a good six minutes. There’s some very tasteful percussion here from drummer Corey (who can hit like a mutha when he wants to), and you keep waiting for the cliché-ridden “heavy part” to kick in as counterweight. “The Dark Tower” is the Doom Metal version of a cock tease, as the band never takes the obvious path that millions of metal bands before them have taken. You know, the “soft-then-heavy” approach. They see fit to leave the payoff until the last minute, and it comes down like Thor’s hammer.
Less effective is the 8 minute “This Dustbowl Earth”. It’s interesting the first time around – what sounds to be like some sort of preacher going on about apocalypse underneath the band playing a heavily reverbed tune in the background. Frustratingly, the frequency of the preacher’s (or whoever he is) voice is just barely above the din playing behind him, so you can’t really make out what he’s saying, only a couple of words here and there. Grant it, it possibly could be my fucked-up hearing, but this one is a skipper after a time or two.
Ending on a positive note, is AoS’s un-listed, slowed-down interpretation of Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral”. This is definitely not a note-for-note cover, the band taking some poetic license to the original which is what every good band worth their salt
should do. Treat it like good Jazz. If I want to hear the original, I’ll go play it. Chuck does some unexpected things vocally, where if Ozzy went down an octave, Chuck goes up. If Ozzy emphasizes a phrase, Chuck may de-emphasize it or scream his head off. It’s a toss-up as to what he’ll do. But everybody loves to hear Chuck scream his head off.
In a weird way, I feel sort of a kinship with this band, having the opportunity to interview Chuck back in 2006 when they first released their first
EP. I feel proud that they stuck to their guns and formed creative chemistry like that found on
Sincerest Misery. There’s honesty here, from the arrangements to the lyrics and I appreciate this approach to making music more than any other. I mean, I like tales of Vikings like the next guy and a little Wagnerian bombast never hurt anyone, but it’s the honesty and reality that really counts when I take the time to spin a recording.
Apostle of Solitude is a bunch of Doom Metal fans making Doom Metal music for other Doom Metal fans, all their cards are on the table. I like that and I love the album.
Purchase Sincerest Misery and the Apostle of Solitude T-shirt at the Hellride Music Superstore
Listen to an MP3 of Last Tears
Read the Hellride review of Embraced By The Black
Visit the Apostle Of Solitude website at www.apostleofsolitude.com
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