Diary of Doom

Chapter 152 - Diary Deep Dive - Ep. 5 - Blind Idiot God

After watching Freaked! and deciding it had the greatest theme song of all time, Dylan invited Jeremy Hunt from experimental noise rock band, Qoheleth, back on to discuss one of the coolest bands on the planet, Blind Idiot God. They're not exactly doom metal, but they fit very comfortably into the lexicon of heavy, underground music. From their collaborations with John Zorn to getting down with the dub, they delve into why this band rules as well as a possible Undertow conspiracy theory and if anyone actually refers to them as BIG.

They close out by seeing if Jeremy really is "The One" that Skillet is singing about in their song... "The One."

You can check out Qoheleth's music over at their Bandcamp page. 

Albums Covered:

Blind Idiot God (1987)

Undertow (1988)

Cyclotron (1992)

Before Ever After (2015)

Note: this episode was originally released on Patreon on May 1st, 2022.

Chapter 151 - The Magician Reversed

The card has been drawn by a single hand. The hand of one Nick Bain aka The Magician Reversed. Pulling across the board from goth and doom to the occult and the influence of tarot, Nick juggles it all as the sole force behind this musical endeavor. With his debut album, And Deeper Still, out earlier this year, Nick delves into the metaphysical nature of his music and what it all means, showing praise for Justin Broadrick, Esoteric, and Portal, as well as getting banned from Napster for downloading Metallica, broadening his horizons with album review submissions, the oh so controversial backing tracks, reckoning with his cover band days (and the song he hated to play), and the trickiness of funeral doom.

Support The Magician Reversed

Track featured is "The Incantation" off And Deeper Still, out now!

Chapter 150 - King Buffalo

Well, shit, here we are, just a week or two after the actual anniversary of launching the Diary of Doom podcast, and we've got ourselves to chapter 150! It's been three years since then. I'm sitting here, thinking: Why on Earth did you think launching a podcast right before Thanksgiving was a good idea? Brilliant move there. But, self-deprecation aside, the fact that I am at 150 of anything is still pretty cool. For that, I have to thank everybody who has tuned in for the ride so far as well as all of the guests who were willing to be hectored with poorly articulated questions for an hour and anybody who helped contribute to fleshing out the podcast.

To help celebrate, we've got Sean McVay from heavy psych masters King Buffalo joining us. King Buffalo has been nothing short of busy for the last few years, making the absolute best use of time by releasing a trio of records and juggling tours along with buckets of new songs to break out on the road. Sean guides us from the days of being just a humble Clutch fan to actually joining the Elephant Riders themselves on tour, along with how the Mortal Kombat soundtrack broke him in, when he found the distortion button, turning a keyboard spot into a guitar spot, clearing out old record stock with All Them Witches, possibly playing in Batman's cave and definitely playing Burning Man, stan for Third Eye Blind, and the similarities of fishing and music. 

Support King Buffalo

Track featured is "Mammoth" off their latest release, Regenerator.

Thanks to Mona Miluski over at All Noir and J.J. Koczan from The Obelisk for helping to set this up.

No new chapter next week since it is Turkey Day weekend. We'll be back at the start of December!

Chapter 149 - Diary Deep Dive Ep. 4 - Earthless

Dylan welcomes his longtime podcasting buddy Mike Crandall of Jim's BBQ POD to make his DOD debut as they try to appeal to old wooks while they talk about Earthless. Mike and Dylan go way back as Kevin Smith fans and delve into some of their joint excursions including a Monster Energy drink festival, Waffle House, getting diarrhea of doom at Dark Lord Day, and bitch about bitching about festival lineups.

Albums Covered:

Sonic Prayer (2005)

Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky (2007)

Live at Roadburn (2008)

From the Ages (2013)

Acid Crusher/Mount Swan (2016)

Black Heaven (2018)

Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (2022)

Dylan closes out by subjecting Mike to another round of Finding Jesus with Skillet with "Heaven in My Veins" in which John Cooper says he needs it, whatever IT is.

You can check out more of Mike's podcast endeavors at Jim's BBQ Pod, w.W.o. (Wrestling World Order Podcast), and Willing Snackrifice.

Note: this episode was originally released on Patreon on April 1st, 2022.

Chapter 148 - Ruby the Hatchet

We've got Jersey in the house! Sultry singer Jillian Taylor of NJ/Philly rockers Ruby the Hatchet joins us in the doom cave to chat about their recently released album, Fear is a Cruel Master. Naturally, Dylan can't help himself from getting Jillian's opinions on all things Jersey and Philly (potholes, Gritty, pork roll, you know, the usual fare), but thankfully they do talk about other things like when to burp on stage, Fleetwood Mac being heavy as shit, creeping clouds of fear, cults, duets, a dubious fecal-focused rap project from a certain Boston-based psyche rock band, and making a cameo in the Dio doc, Dreamers Never Die.

Featuring an appearance by Charlie the Snake

Support Ruby the Hatchet

Tracker featured is "Soothsayer" off their new album, Fear is a Cruel Master, available now!

Chapter 147 - ExpiatoriA

Thirty-five years ago, somewhere in Italy, a dark ritual was held and ExpiatoriA was ushered into this world. Thirty-five years later, the restless spirit of the band rises again, this time to release its first-ever actual album. In this chapter of the Diary, Dylan sits down with Edoardo Napoli, guitarist in the latest lineup for ExpiatoriA, who explains how the band got back together and what it was like to be recruited into it as a fan first, plus hiding the devil's music from his nona, the Italian metal scene waking up, why we're all sinners, and a different view of horror.

Support ExpiatoriaA

Track featured is "When Darkness Falls" off of their upcoming release, Shadows, their first album in 35 years as a band! It comes out on November 4th.

Special thanks to Enrico Meloni from Ikitan (Chapter 94 of the podcast) for setting this up!

Chapter 146 - Diary Deep Dive Ep. 3 - REZN

In this episode of divin' deep, we're joining the Satanic Temple of Gucci and getting sexy with REZN. Ivana DeCaro makes her return to delve into the Chicago psyche rock band's discog as well as other nonsense like Skyrim being a broke-ass game, Steve-O's 40-foot balls, Mikael Akerfeels, and garish 00's movies.

Albums covered:

Let It Burn (2017)

Calm Black Water (2018)

Chaotic Divine (2020)

Dylan and Ivana also attempt to find Jesus with Skillet, in which they suffer through "The Thirst is Taking Over" where it really sounds like frontman John Cooper wants to fuck God.

Note: This episode was originally released on Patreon on March 1st, 2022.

Chapter 145 - Andy Patterson

A fixture of the Salt Lake City music scene, Andy Patterson has been active in music production behind the controls at his studio, The Boar's Nest, and making his own brand of heavy since the 90s, starting off by going on tour with Iceburn and then drumming in previous bands SubRosa and Insect Ark. His latest outfit, The Otolith, sees him reunited with fellow members of SubRosa and their debut record comes out very soon. You could not find a more fitting nickname than "The Loud Guy" for Andy, when it comes to his music and production anyway (Spoiler alert: he's pretty mild-mannered). Dylan and Andy explore his origins as a musician and get deep into the nitty gritty of his tried-and-true production approaches, plus getting a drum kit by searching for Satan, playing eight sets as the mayor of Crucial Fest, recognizing a genuine take versus a perfect one, Frankensteining the Iceburn remasters, how to really say Cirith Ungol, bailing out Visigoth at Fire in the Mountains, chasing the dragon for horror movies, and recounts his lost year of 2020. And of course, we talk about SLC Punk!

Support The Otolith over at Blues Funeral Recordings

Track featured is "Hubris" off their upcoming debut, Folium Limina, out on October 21st!

 

Chapter 144 - Ugly

We are featuring our friends over at Satanik Royalty Records again, this time with their first non-Seattle-located and freshly signed band, Ugly. Bassist and vocalist Brandon Hay phones in from the dubiously pronounced Prescott, AZ (is it Press-Kit or Press-Scott?) to talk about his epic run of exploring punk, crust, and grind in his early days and ultimately crossing paths with the NW hesher legend Freiburger. Brandon elaborates on the trial-and-error origins of forming a small town band (involving a transient member of Graf Orlock) and how Ugly has evolved since its inception, as well as how it all comes back to GWAR once again, winding up in a band with one of his all-time influences, unexpected Jack Johnson jams, reverse engineer songwriting, whether he's a Luddite or not, if they feel obligated to like every band from their home state, and aspirations to be the heaviest band in the Tri-Walmart Area. Stick around for some bonus Maryland Deathfest chatter at the end too.

Support Ugly, who has a new album coming out in 2023.

Track featured is "Grateful" off Ugly's split with Life's Torment

Thanks to Freiburger and Satanik Royalty Records for helping to set this interview up!

NOTE: This episode has a lot of garbled echo on my end, so apologies for the unfortunate listening experience!

Chapter 143 - Conan

With a new record out and 20 years' worth of caveman battle doom under his belt, the only sign of slowing down for Conan's Jon Davis is his riffs. Fresh off from a trek to Poland, Jon guides us through his history of crafting one of doom's heaviest bands, from when they were initially known as Here Lies the Body to now with the release of Evidence of Immortality. During his chat with Dylan, they cover all sorts of topics including a cock-emblazoned guitar cab, counter fit cassettes, seeing Sepultura, L7, and Nirvanna on The Word, posh jacket power chord lessons, why they've only adapted one actual Conan story, gettin' high and killin' crabs in Skyrim, and Tony Roberts' wickedly fitting artwork.

Support Conan on their Bandcamp and Big Cartel shop

Track featured is "Levitation Hoax" off Evidence of Immortality, available now for purchase!