INTERVIEW WITH DOOMSOWER

1.First of all i have to say thanks for doing this interview.Lets get started by you telling us about when the band started and how did it all happen ?
Yeah no problem! It’s an honor to be doing this interview. Well the band officially “started” in august of 2008. My drummer and myself met in late spring of 2008 and we started jamming around that time too. We soon picked up a Black Sabbath tribute cd entitled “Hell Rules 2”. The first song on that album was Snowblind being covered by Evoken. They slowed the damn song down! From then on we knew we had to play slow. So we just dug deeper and deeper into doom and discovered how great of a genre it is and how we need to play it. We haven’t looked back since.


2.Your music is Doom of course but is there a particular brand of Doom you put across. I mean sub-genres are popping up everywhere,Pagan,Death,Viking,Psychedelic etc etc.
We consider ourselves doom. That’s it. We play slow; we play fast, midpaced, etc. Our first demo is lyrically similar to Sabbath because it more or less warns against evil. The new stuff we’ve been writing is pretty pagan/heathen though.
So I guess you could say we’re all over!

3.You put across a lot of different emotions within your songs. What inspires you to produce this kind of tortured anguish ?
Some words can’t be just sung ya know? For instance in our song, “Angel of Doom”…the last two lines are “Fight for nothing! You are nothing!” If I just sung those like say Saint Vitus or even like Candlemass, the message would be completely different.


4.You have played some killer shows with some killer bands. Any gigs stand out for you?
Well besides playing alongside some awesome local Portland bands, we opened up for The Gates of Slumber and Demiricous. That was amazing. Mainly because The Gates of Slumber is a huge influence on us. I like their old school approach to things too. A bunch of nice dudes as well. And next month we’re actually opening up for Tyr, Suidakra, and Alestorm for the Pagan Knights tour. Not doom bands but hey, they’ve toured the world and to open for them is an amazing feeling.


5.According to your Myspace page the band remains unsigned. Have you had any interest from labels to put something out soon ?
We’ve been in discussion with Christ Vomit Tapes in Texas to release some tapes but other than that, nothing else. I think it’s mainly because we don’t follow the scene these days, you know thrash or breakdown bullshit. We were just born too late.


6.Oregon, not too far from where i live. Hows the scene going there at the moment? Is there plenty of places to play? I have been to few gigs in Portland but is there any other happening areas around the state ?
There are two main doom bands in the area that I can think of and they are Roanoke and Aldebaran. They’re both really good bands and good guys too. I think there are a few other doom bands here but none too big. The majority do like Sleep-esque droney kinda stuff though. But there is quite a bit of venues to play at. Plenty of bars too. And surprisingly there are other places to play in Oregon. You got Eugene, Salem, Medford, Bend, the college towns of course. So it’s not like we’re limited to just Portland. And seattle is a just a few hours away so hopefully we can do like a mini-tour come summer time.


7.Reverend Bizarre sound like they may be a influence, am i pretty close with this thought?
Reverend who? Haha Well our name is a Reverend Bizarre song. The song “Doomsower” is probably one of their more catchy/up-tempo songs and we just love it.
Well we love all of reverend bizarre but then again, what doom-head doesn’t?

8.What bands have been your favorite bands growing up, i know most people have some skeletons in the closet when it comes to music.
Well I am 19 and Kalvin is only 17, so in essence we’re still growing up. I personally didn’t get into music until about my freshmen year of school. So you know, the whole mainstream metal crap blah blah blah was in my cd player. But then I started to get into more extreme forms of music and eventually I fell in love with doom. I actually prefer the old school over anything else. Old Priest, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Van Halen’s first albums, the NWOBHM stuff is great too. Got it all on original vinyl as well. But I have a huge love for Black metal or bands like Destroyer 666. That aggression can’t be beat. The band Primordial is another one of my favorite bands as well. Probably the best vocalist ever.


9.Whats on the horizon with the band, future gigs, recordings and so on ?
We’re currently in the process of recording a new demo. We have all of the songs ready it’s just a matter of sittin down and recording them. Like I said earlier, we’re playing on the Pagan Knights show here in Portland with Tyr, Suidakra, and Alestorm, so that should be great for us. I look forward to meeting new people and spreading the doom. Come summertime we will hopefully travel some more. We’re also in correspondence with The Doom Shall Rise festival in Germany and hopefully we can do that in 2010 or 2011.


10.Has the band been on any compilation CD's that people can check you out on ?
The Doom Metal Alliance is releasing (not sure when) a tribute cd to Sabbath. We’re doing the song Black Sabbath on that. But other than that no. Just our demo and the wonderful world of the internet.


11.Any thoughts on the current Doom Scene,seems to me its getting bigger all the time.Where do you see the scene in say 5 years ?
Like any scene there are good bands and bad bands. I personally am not too interested in newer bands. Mainly because there aren’t too many “new” doom bands; Moss and Elder are the only newer bands I can really think of. Too many bands do drone stuff and frankly….10 minutes of feedback is not doom. That’s not a riff. Doom is about the riffs. Tony Iommi didn’t stand in front of his amp for 20 minutes and then call it a day. He crafted these amazing riffs that influenced thousands of people. So that’s what I try to do is make crushing riffs. Granted playing with feedback is good, but too much is not.



12.Thanks for your time,any final words to those Doomheads out there ?
Be sure to check us out online (www. myspace. com/ovdoom). Doom metal is the purest form of metal. It’s rock n roll. No moshing, bang your fucking head and pump your fists in the air. Also if anyone is in a band or going to start one, know who came before you. Too many bands are influenced by shitty newer bands. If you have shitty influences, you’ll probably suck yourself. Haha Also, just go buy all the old Sabbath albums. Get some Blue Cheer crankin up….then listen to some Vitus after a few beers….you’ll be set for life. Thanks for the interview and doom on!

-Justin Doom of Doomsower