Elder Druid - Golgotha (Album Review)

Release date: January 17th 2020. Label: Self Released. Format: CD/DD

Golgotha - Tracklisting

1. Sleeping Giant

2. Golgotha

3. Sentinel

4. Vincere Vel Mori

5. Dreadnought

6. Paegan Dawn of Anubis

7. The Archmage

Members

Gregg McDowell - Vocals

Jake Wallace - Guitar

Mikey Scott - Guitar

Dale Hughes - Bass, Fender Rhodes, Theremin

Brien Gillen - Drums

Review

Northern Ireland Sludge/Doom Rockers Elder Druid are back with their new album Golgotha and like the title suggests the band have gone under a Blackened Doom transformation since their acclaimed debut album Carmina Satanae from 2017. Golgotha features a nastier style of Occult based Doom/Sludge Metal and the album has a dark potent outlook on life.

This can take a few moments to fully get used to but the riffs are heavy and plentiful from start to finish with the band playing the right balance between heavy and light moments for a more experimental approach to their music.

Opening song – Sleeping Giant – is a daring blend of Doom/Sludge Metal with a Blackened Metal style atmosphere that oozes menace from the start. The vocals from Gregg are quite evil and I was surprised to hear how aggressive and dark Gregg goes with his vocals. Sure they were dark on the last album but not as sinister as this. So top marks for the band bringing the “DOOM” atmosphere to the party with this song. It perfectly sets the scene for the rest of the album to follow.

Second song – Golgotha – starts off casually with a few drum beats before a heavy evil FUZZ based guitar joins the ranks. The song carries on the depressive style of Doom/Sludge Metal as the band take influence from some of the heaviest Doom Metal bands currently out there such as CONAN in places. The music is down-tuned but with the added aggressive Sludge Metal grooves allowing Elder Druid to perfect their nightmarish vision.

Third song – Sentinel – is an instrumental song where the band bring Ambient and Psychedelic sounds to the album and it’s quite cool to hear. Elder Druid play some fantastic progressive guitar solos on this song and it made me want to hear more of this style of instrumental music from the band.

Fourth song- Vincere Vel Mori – is Elder Druid in full DOOM METAL mode with some of the harshest lyrics contained on the album. The vocals from Gregg are scary and aggressive yet again but it’s the music that’s the main standout with precise bleak grooves creating a gloomy and unforgiving environment. The song does change direction from time to time but that’s a good thing for Elder Druid to try different things with their music. This is easily one of the best songs on the album.

Elder Druid carry on the bleak journey with the final 4 songs. As the tone becomes heavier and nastier in places with a few cool progressive passages along the way. The standout songs from the 2^nd half has to be Dreadnought and Paegan Dawn Of Anubis.

Golgotha is one lean, mean and aggressive album that will give you a few nightmares along the way. Elder Druid should be proud of this album. As this is a daring album that makes no apologies for it’s uncompromising bleak vision. This is what at true Doom/Sludge Metal album should do and Elder Druid have accomplished that feat.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Elder Druid for the promo. Golgotha will be available to buy on CD/DD from Jan 17th 2020.

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp

An Interview With Jake Wallace: Discussing PLAIN LIVING PROMOTIONS and CRYPT OF THE RIFF Musical Festival

Jake Wallace (Guitarist from ELDER DRUID) contacted me recently to discuss his new venture. Jake has just started new promotions company called PLAIN LIVING PROMOTIONS.

Plain Living Promotions have just announced their first ever One Day Music Festival called – CRYPT OF THE RIFF – which we will discuss in great detail in the interview below.

CRYPT OF THE RIFF will be held in Belfast on Friday May 18^th 2018. You can see from the poster below that the festival has a great line-up.

So let's see how Jake got this crazy idea to run a promotions company and to put on a one day music festival.

Hi Jake. How are things with you today.

Things are great Steve. Christmas is in a few days and I'm patiently waiting on a new Flying V landing on my doorstep!

We are here to talk about the new festival that your new promotions company – Plain Living Promotions is organising. How did this all come about. Why did you decide to form a promotions company.

Basically, the company is myself and Tyrell Black from Electric Octopus. We're both from the same town, not far from Belfast, and we were both doing our own things in regards to Elder Druid and Electric Octopus. We're both big fans of stoner rock, doom, psych, all the good stuff and we thought there wasn't really a specific promoter in Belfast who'd solely deal with these genres.

Was it an easy decision to make to form a promotions company.

It was actually. If we have an idea or a mad plan, it just gets set in motion without too much thought and that’s pretty much what happened here. Thoughts become things.

Did you receive any helpful tips and advice from your pals who do this kind of work already. What advice did they provide you.

Yeah, we have a lot of friends in bands who've been in touch wanting to get involved in a Plain Living Promotions show and I just think it takes something like what we're doing to bring all these killer bands to the surface and show the world what Belfast has in its arsenal. A few stoner rock/doom websites have been sharing our name around as well so its cool to see support from all over the place.

What are the aims and objectives for the promotions company.

The main plan at the minute is to carry out our one-day festival in May 2018. Most of our efforts are going towards making that a successful event and hopefully running them more frequently in the future. Aside from that, we intend to organise shows for local stoner/doom/psych bands and build a sense of community. We also intend to use it as a means of bringing some bigger bands over and giving local bands support slots that they wouldn't normally get in Belfast.

You have plans to put on a new one-day festival called Crypt Of The Riff. Can you give more details when and where it's being held. And who is appearing on the bill.

Crypt of the Riff is going to be a one-day festival on Friday 18th May in Bar Sub in Belfast. Bar Sub is part of the university students union and is an awesome underground bar. We've been planning something like this for a while but we just needed to get a date far enough in advance to make sure everything goes to plan.

The lineup is: Garganjua, Hornets, Elder Druid, zhOra, Molarbear, Two Tales of Woe, So Much For The Sun and Goatschlager.

How did you decide on which bands to appear on the bill. You have a killer line-up so far.

The bands on the bill are all just some of our favourite bands from Northern Ireland. It’s a really good mix of styles but everyone stays true to the heavy riff. We've a great mixing pot of doom, stoner, sludge and hardcore on the bill.

How hard has it been arranging this festival.

It hasn't been too bad. We know all the guys in the bands well and it was a matter of sending out a few messages and securing a date/venue. Keeping it to one day is probably wise for our first fest and we'll know for future after this one is wrapped up.

Will you be promoting anymore gigs before the festival. Or are you seeing how this one goes first.

This will be our first proper event but we have some things lined up for later in 2018.

We have to talk to you about Elder Druid and the fantastic album you released earlier this year. Carmina Satanae. (Apologies I haven't reviewed this yet. I will be very soon). That album received some great reviews. Were you happy with the initial response the album has received so far.

Thanks very much man. Yeah, we got a great a response to the album. The first couple live EPs and our debut EP kind of set the scene for people getting into the band so I think Carmina Satanae really packed a punch as the progression is fairly evident.

What was recording the album like. As this album has a heavier and angrier feel compared to your debut EP – Magicka.

We recorded the album with Niall Doran from Start Together Studios in Belfast. He's an absolute dream to work with and, as a huge fan of doom, he knew exactly what we needed or didn't need. It was a fairly fluid process from start to finish. We recorded live this time and it doesn't really need justified. Click tracks just don't work for our style of playing and the live atmosphere really gels everything together much better.

Was that the intention to release something different to your debut EP.

I wouldn't say it was too different. It was just a progression of what we were working on and a more refined product compared to the earlier stuff. Tone is a very big thing and that goes without saying so that was an important factor as we wanted this to sound as huge as possible.

How are things within the Elder Druid camp. Are you guys making plans for more gigs and tours in 2018. Anything you like to share with our readers.

We’re all alive and kicking man. We've got a couple English shows planned for March when we play Manchester on the 16^th and Camden on the 17^th. We're playing with Ten Ton Slug, Mage and Master Charger in Manchester then it’s the St Patrick's Day Irish Invasion in Camden on the 17^th with Ten Ton Slug, Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters and Mount Soma. We've got some plans for an Irish tour as well in September 2018 with a certain band of fuzzmen.

What have been your high points and low points with the band.

High points for the band would be getting to travel and play gigs in southern Ireland and England in 2017. That’s essentially the best part of it. Getting to take music you wrote in your bedroom to another country and play in front of total strangers is a very fulfilling thing. Siege of Limerick and Emerald Haze were both awesome festivals this year too. The lowest point for me personally was being unable to play our gig in Camden on the last day of our tour after cutting up my hand but the body heals and I'll be back in March.

Are you all involved with different musical projects or is this your main band.

Dale is the only one of us who is in a proper full-time band outside of Elder Druid. He plays bass in Electric Octopus with Tyrell. We're all very good mates and jam together now and again. We've dreamed up about 200 side projects that haven't yet come to fruition but I'll not speak too soon.

How hard is it for Elder Druid stand-out from the crowd. Or do you not worry about things like that.

One of the main things people talk about is the style of vocals. Gregg's aggressive style vocals might seem a little different given our style of music but I think it works really great. There's such a huge amount of energy on stage and it feels empowering to get these types of songs out of you. At the same time, we aren't worried about standing out. If we get to play heavy riffs and see parts of the world we wouldn't normally see, why would you care about standing out?

Before you go, do you have anything to say to your fans.

Cheers to everyone who got behind the Carmina Satanae album and to everyone who has supported Elder Druid from the beginning. Cheers to everyone getting behind Electric Octopus and allowing them to take the jam world by storm and cheers to everyone for getting behind Plain Living Promotions and Crypt of the Riff Festival. The scene is Belfast is alive and stronger than ever.

Thanks for doing this. All the best with your promotions company, the festival and with the band as well.

Thanks Steve!

Words by Steve Howe and Jake Wallace

Thanks to Jake for doing this interview.

Crypt Of The Riff Links:

Facebook Event Page | Tickets

Plain Living Promotions Links:

Facebook

Elder Druid Links:

Facebook | BandCamp

An Interview With Jake Wallace From ELDER DRUID

Northern Ireland Doom/Sludge Rockers - Elder Druid - have came a long way since they released their last EP - Magicka - back in Sept 2016. The EP was released by Black Bow Records (Jon from CONAN's record label) and the band have received acclaim within the Doom/Sudge/Stoner Metal Community.

I interviewed Jake last year which you can read here. Elder Druid have just announced they will be recording their debut album soon. I wanted to find out more about the album and what Elder Druid will have in store for us.

I'm happy to report that Jake Wallace (Lead Guitars) has agreed to talk to me about the new album.

Hi Jake, Thanks for doing this interview. How are things with you today?

Hi Steve, no problem at all cheers for having me! Things are very good. Just preparing to head off on our first mini-tour of England in a couple days time.

You’re about to go into the studio for the recording of your new album.

Yes, we’re booked into Start Together Studios in Belfast with Niall Doran on the 18/19/20 August to record our first full length studio album.

Can you tell people what to expect from the album and when will it be released?

This album is a culmination of everything we’ve done so far. Over the past few years we have written around 15 or so tracks and this album will be the best 8 tracks from that time. The album will comprise of 2 tracks we've previously recorded on our last EP ‘Magicka’ and 6 brand new ones that haven’t been recorded at all yet. It will released around late September/October 2017.

Are you releasing the album yourselves or do you have a label interested in releasing it?

As it stands, we are releasing the album ourselves although we have a few labels in mind.

You have Niall Doran from Start Together Studios recording the album. Was it an easy choice to go with those guys as they’ve recorded some cool bands such as Slomatics and Nomadic Rituals?

Yeah absolutely. Niall was the first guy to ever buy an Elder Druid t-shirt and we’ve lost count of the number of people he has recommended us to. The studio itself is absolutely incredible and the fact that Niall is such a huge doom fan himself makes the process even better. When you hear how heavy albums like ‘Estron” by Slomatics or ‘Marking the Day’ by Nomadic Rituals are, it just seems like a no-brainer to be recording our album here.

Is the album going to be a different sound from your previous EPs? Or will it have a similar sound?

I feel like this is by far our heaviest music to date. It just took time to flesh everything out to the point where we were all totally comfortable playing the newer material. We’ve been gigging the new material extensively and it has been going down very well at all of our shows. We’re just about to embark on our first mini-tour of England where we’ll be playing 3 shows in Sheffield, Mansfield & Camden so that gives us even more time to see how people react to the new stuff. There isn’t really a consistent theme or concept with the new album as opposed to the magical themes of ‘Magicka’. The general theme for this album is just heavy fucking riffs.

Do you have plans to release the album on physical formats such as CD, cassette or vinyl?

Yeah we’ll definitely be releasing the album on CD and hopefully vinyl too.

What have been your high points and low points being with Elder Druid or your musical career in general?

That’s an interesting one. High points so far would be getting our debut studio EP released on Black Bow Records. We’re all huge fans of Conan and that label and to get your debut EP released by one of your idols was quite something. Also getting to play at Canalaphonic Festival in Dublin last September was a great feeling. Mainly the opportunities we’ve been getting for gigs across the UK and being invited to this year’s Siege of Limerick festival in the Republic of Ireland. The only low points we’ve had are when we’re tuned down to ridiculously heavy tunings.

Looking back on your musical career so far, is there anything you would change? Or any funny stories that have happened on your musical journey?

I can’t imagine changing anything in terms of Elder Druid. We’re a very consistent band and when we have a plan, we get there without too many distractions or problems. I feel like we’ve achieved quite a lot in the short time we’ve been an active band and there are a lot of opportunities out there in the world of stoner doom, ready to be seized.

In terms of funny stories, our relationship with the band ‘Wizzerd’ from Montana (USA) is quite a tale. We received a message from one of their members saying that they were “blazed and long boarding through their town at 3am listening to Elder Druid’’ so we struck up some correspondence and around a year later, two of the guys flew over to Ireland to hang and jam with us before we all went to Desertfest London. That was a trip. From one Facebook message over a year ago to jamming out and witnessing bands such as Sleep, Slo Burn and Bongzilla in London with these dudes. We have some plans in the works to get over to their neck of the woods so keep your eyes peeled for a Druid invasion, America.

Before you go, do you have anything to say to your fans?

I’d just like to say thank you to yourself Steve, and many other outlets and publications within the stoner/doom/sludge community because without you guys, a lot of bands like us would be totally unheard of. The greatest blessing about this type of music is the rock solid community around us all and it’s so fucking cool to see a scene where everyone just wants to help and jam out to some slow, heavy riffs. So thank you to the writers, reviewers, journalists and to the fans. We really appreciate all the support and we’ll continue making heavy music until our bodies give way. Cheers!

Words by Steve Howe and Jake Wallace

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp

Elder Druid - Magicka (EP Review)

Release date: October 15^th 2016. Label: Black Bow Records. Format: CD/DD

Magicka – Tracklisting

1.Rogue Mystic 05:54

2.The Ides of March 06:57

3.The Warlock 07:46

4.Scarab 05:07

5.Reigning Hell 07:21

Band Members:

Gregg McDowell - Vocals,

Jake Wallace - Lead Guitar,

Mikey Scott - Rhythm Guitar,

Dale Hughes - Bass Guitar,

Brien Gillen - Drums

Review:

Northern Ireland's Elder Druid are starting to make waves within the Doom/Sludge/Stoner community with their debut EP – Magicka. A 5 song EP that merges Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal riffs with elements of LOUD FUZZ. Gregg's vocals take a few moments to get used to but for the most part Gregg delivers the goods with his pissed off growls.

Opening track – Rogue Mystic – opens Magicka with a sense of purpose with the music being driven from heavy down-tuned based riffs. Elder Druid really like their FUZZ. As this song is built upon trippy psychedelic fuzz based noises with the Sludgy grooves giving this a more contemporary modern Stoner Metal vibe.

Elder Druid sound like they were influenced by Sabbath, Kyuss, Slomatics and Truckfighters in parts. Yeah, interesting combination but that tells you what to expect on Magicka. Tracks such as The Ides of March, The Warlock and Scarab show a band with huge potential and who deliver the goods from the very start.

The guitar work from Jake and Mikey is another highlight with both of them creating powerful heavy doom and gloom riffs to build the FUZZ upon. Though I have to say it's the drumming and bass guitar work of Dale and Brien that impressed the me most. As they keep the mood vibrant and fresh. Elder Druid are a very tight unit indeed as Magicka becomes a much better experience with each repeated listen.

The production of the EP is handled by Andy Shields from Heavy Rock crew – Hornets. Andy has did a great job here as the whole sound and feel of the EP is fantastic. Magicka has quite a gloomy based feel towards the end especially on the final track – Reigning Hell.

If you haven't acquainted yourself with Elder Druid then this is the best possible time as Magicka will leave you in a deep hynotic trance. Elder Druid are perhaps one of the best upcoming bands to emerge from the Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal scene in 2016. If this is classed as their debut EP then I can't wait to hear their full length record.

You need more evidence to check these guys out. Black Bow Records will be releasing Magicka digitally from October 15^th 2016. If getting your EP released by Jon Paul Davis from the mighty CONAN own record label is not recommendation enough then I don't know what is...

You know what to do.

Words by Steve Howe

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp

MAGICKAL TIMES: An Interview with Jake Wallace from ELDER DRUID

Elder Druid are a Doom/Sludge/Stoner Rock band from Ballymena, Northern Ireland. I've been keeping a close eye on this band as some the songs they've been posting on their BandCamp Page have been first rate.

Elder Druid are about to release their debut EP – Magicka on Sept 23^rd 2016. I wanted to catch up with the band before they release Magicka, to see what they have in store for us with their debut EP.

From the sounds of it, the EP is going to be HEAVY AS HELL. I recently caught up with Jake Wallace (Lead Guitars) from Elder Druid to see how things are going with the band and what the future holds for the band. Read on for more info......

Hi Jake, Thanks for doing this interview. How are things with you today?

Things are good man, the elusive sun has made an appearance and the weekend is beginning.

Can you give people a brief overview of how the band came together and where it is today?

A few years back we were compiling a list of words that we liked and it just so happened that the words ‘Elder’ and ‘Druid’ came up and we thought it sounded like a good band name. The band hadn’t actually even been thought about before this so I guess this was the conception. Today, we’re about to release our first studio EP, ‘Magicka’, and doing a few shows in the North and South of Ireland.

How would you describe your music in your own words?

I’d say it’s a fairly even mix of stoner rock and sludge/doom, we’ve tried to fuse both genres so that it doesn’t lean too heavily to one side.

Why did you choose the name Elder Druid for your band. Any specific meaning?

As I mentioned, it was a pretty basic story! We just decided to make a list of unusual words or words that we thought were interesting for whatever reason. ‘Elder’ probably had something to do with The Elder Scrolls game series and I have no idea where ‘Druid’ came from. We imagined what an Elder Druid would look like and it set the visual imagery which laid the foundations of what we wanted to sound like.

You’re about to release your new EP in September. Can you give more details on what the EP is about and what people can expect from this?

The EP is entitled ‘Magicka’. The 5 tracks we recorded all incorporate the themes of fantasy, magic, the occult and big fucking wizards! The visual imagery has always been pretty clear because of the lyrical themes and the riffs go hand-in-hand. People can expect some big doom riffs and a lyrical adventure through our minds.

Was it an easy or hard EP to record for? Are you apprehensive with this being your proper debut release?

It wasn’t as difficult as we first expected as we’ve been playing 3 of the tracks over the past year or so. The main challenge was getting the last two songs as tight as possible before we went into the studio. The whole process was made a hell of a lot easier as Andy Shields (Hornets) was the man in charge of the studio time. His patience and attitude was instrumental in allowing us to create exactly what we envisioned. We’re probably more excited than apprehensive about the release because as of yet, we haven’t heard the final product so it’s good to finally get something worthwhile recorded and released.

What inspires you all when writing and recording music?

We’re obviously inspired by all the greats of the stoner rock/doom metal world, bands like Kyuss, Sleep, Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard, Down & High on Fire. It is quite hard to pinpoint exactly where our influences stem from, it is more a collective thing that has been built up over time. Another huge inspiration for us is other bands from Northern Ireland playing the same kind of music as us. I don’t think any of us had any idea that there were so many bands contributing to this scene and it’s great to share a collective appreciate and respect for stoner rock/doom metal.

The artwork is very cool indeed. Who designed the artwork and how much involvement did you have with the final design?

Cheers Steve, the original illustrator of the ‘Smoke Demon’ was Alfi Andy, a guy from Indonesia who got in touch with the band a number of months ago. We printed the design on t-shirts not long after we bought it from him and then decided to base our EP artwork on it. We wanted something that would accurately convey what we were going for so I did some Photoshop work with the ‘Smoke Demon’ and came up with the final design.

Will you be releasing this EP yourself or via an Independent Label?

We’ll be releasing the EP ourselves. Our official launch is on Friday 23rd September where we play a show in our hometown. We’ll have physical copies for sale on CD, as well as digitally via Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify etc.

The Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal community has given you a warm reception over the last twelve months or so. Has that surprised you the way people have taken to your band?

Yeah it’s always a surprise to know that there are people from all corners of the world listening to and digging our music. The whole community is very different from other genres, there is a huge degree of mutual respect and bands really help each other out when they can. There have been a number of people that have done write-ups or reviews on our music and they’ve been a huge help in getting our name out and about.

You’re from Northern Ireland and it seems Northern Ireland has a superb upcoming Doom/Stoner Metal scene with great bands such as Slomatics and yourselves. What is the scene actually like over there. Do you get to a chance to perform regular gigs?

The scene is actually great, I don’t think any of us really knew the extent of it until we started playing as Elder Druid. Obviously Slomatics are the godfathers of doom in Northern Ireland and everyone in the scene looks up to them. There are a huge number of bands we’ve played with that deserve recognition so we’ll name-drop a few here: Molarbear, Goatschlager, Korvid, Maw, Nomadic Rituals and Hornets (the band Andy who recorded our EP is from). We perform regular gigs in our hometown of Ballymena and we’ve played across the country in Belfast, Portrush and Draperstown. We’re heading down to Dublin at the end of this month to play along with some of big bands from Southern Ireland including Two Tales of Woe, Ten Ton Slug & Mother Mooch.

What’s the song-writing dynamic in the band. Is it a group collective or down to one individual?

It usually always begins with a riff. Either myself or Mikey will bring a riff to the guys and we’ll work from there. We usually figure out a general structure and get the guitar parts down. Then Dale lays down some bass, Brien lays down some drums and once the music is down, Gregg goes off and works on one of his psychedelic tales through the occult.

What are the long term plans for the band. Do you plan to play more gigs in support of your new EP. Or even play a few dates in the UK. Or release a full length album.

We intend to play a few more gigs around Northern Ireland after we release the EP and then hopefully get over to England for our first time. We’ve some friends based in London, Brighton, Liverpool and Gregg is based in Leeds for part of the year so a UK tour is definitely on the cards eventually. I’d say a full length album would be our objective for this time next year.

Thanks for doing this interview. Best of luck with your EP. Can’t wait to hear it. Do you have anything to say to your fans before you go?

Just want to say cheers to you Steve and Outlaws of the Sun for taking the time to have a chat with us. Cheers to Andy Shields for being a true wizard in the studio and cheers to everyone who has got behind us so far, hopefully the EP will go down as well as we imagine.

Words by Steve Howe and Jake Wallace

Links

Facebook | BandCamp