Diary of Doom

Chapter 102 - Godmaker

It has been a long time coming, but NY favorites Godmaker have finally graced Diary of Doom with their presence. Professional noise-maker Pete Ross and unintentional peg-legged pirate Jon Lane address all manner of things Godmaker centric and not, such as learning music via threat, Portishead fights, catharsis, chugga squee origins, elusive second guitarists, why Hull is the standard for good metal, music as religion, Kirk Windstein stamp of approval, trolling with Marvin Gaye, Icing and the many forms of bad alcohol, big ass hammers, and poking your intestines back in. 

Godmaker has their only show on 2021 coming up on October 30th at Trans Pecos in support of Burning Tongue, Lo-Pan, and Sasquatch, so come on out and get loosey on Goosey Night! Tickets here.

Support Godmaker and if you still want a hammer, you can get one of those too!

Track featured is their cover of Pink Floyd's "In the Flesh?" from The Wall.

Chapter 101 - Clothesline

Dylan met up with Clothesline during one of their pre-practice rituals at Lucky 13 Saloon. Finally coming out of pandemic hibernation, Davis, John, and Jake are working on new tunes and along the way, they discuss their first concerts (supervised and unsupervised), show us specifically on the doll where the air-guitaring happened, a "Mission from 'Arry", almost dying via BMW wreck, wrestling, and getting Dave Richmond to uphold the drummer rule.

Also enjoy the assorted background sounds of Lucky 13, including a decent-sized shouting match around the 24-minute mark (we quieted most of it down, but some barking came through).

Support Clothesline

Clothesline has a show at Arrogant Swine on October 23rd, which also happens to be the final Eternal Black show ever! If you're around, come on out to send the boys off. We love Ken and Hal for putting together the killer intro and logo, and Joe is cool too. Tickets here.

Track featured is "Showdown"

Chapter 100 Retrospective

Well, we're finally here. What started out as a bi-weekly, zero-budget podcast hosted by an awkward stoner has evolved into a still mostly zero-budget podcast, still hosted by a somewhat less awkward stoner. But in all seriousness, it's been a wild, interesting ride. I've been able to meet and chat with people from Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Australia. I've discovered countless hours of new music. I've done crossovers and worked with people that without this platform (and the growing circle of friends) I would have never done. I made mistakes and fowled up more than once. And I would like to think I've grown as a person and understand my platform and voice better.

For the 100th chapter, I've brought back returning guest August West to do exactly what this podcast does best: smoke weed and ramble. Amongst a lot of reflection, we also ruminate on Sephora shipments, a tenuous connection to Comic Book Men, tackling the pandemic one chapter at a time, where exactly Curb Your Enthusiasm falls on the spectrum of stoner comedies, the best protection against sound: air, forcing celebrities to listen to doom, Genghis Tron on top of a mountain, and how to say Cave In.

The intro music for this chapter was put together by Matt C. White and the closing music is the DOD theme presented in full for the first time, presented by Ken Wohlrob of Eternal Black and Joe Kelly of Suburban Elvis Studios.

Thank you to everyone else who has been involved in some capacity, whether it was as a guest, artist, merch maker, or for helping me out along the way. 

Chapter 99 - Brenna Leath - Crystal Spiders

We are on the eve of 100 chapters of Diary of Doom, but before we get there, we got Brenna Leath from the Crystal Spiders (as well as Lightning Born) to stop by for the penultimate episode. The Crystal Spiders have a new album out now and we talk about what it was like making it (plus a whole mess of other songs) during the vacuum of the pandemic, as well as a year of tribute albums, using her voice to write a song for Mike Dean approval, discovering rock through burned CDs from her bad high school boyfriends, not Googling death metal lyrics, Bagel Bite hooks, the deeper meaning behind their song "Maelstorm", possibly picking a convenient time to get pregnant, being camera shy, and 90s southern trash occult pop culture album covers.

And by this time, Brenna will have become a proud mama, so many congratulations!

Support Crystal Spiders

Track featured is "En Medias Res" off Morieres, now available for purchase!

Chapter 98 - Psychic Hit

We are chatting with Oakland, CA's Psychic Hit in this week's chapter. Having just released their debut, Dre and Justin dive into their secret origins and how the band has been blossoming out, as well as being reared on the 36 Chambers, getting "Entranced by the Sad Wings of Destiny", talk about Metallica (again!), what's really in their name, trading in jorts for bell-bottoms, pulling out all the stops for their album photoshoot, how the Oakland scene boosts up its members, Kadavar's genial nature, bucket list shows to play, reflect on a year of social injustice (but also some progress), weird band merch, and playing with Los Dug Dug's.

Support Psychic Hit

Track featured is "Livin' On" off of their debut, Solutio, available now for purchase!

Chapter 97 - GUHTS

Joining us for this week's chapter are Scott and Amber of the new heavy music collective GUHTS. You are probably familiar with their main band, Witchkiss, but they're taking their musical inspirations to a whole new level now. While discussing how the project came together and expanding the size and sound down the road, we also talk about still wanting to be Blondie, Stevie Nicks' ferrets on leashes, grandpa's unturned guitar, cranky artists in need of silence, understanding each other emotionally and creatively to navigate a healthy marriage, and being lifelong friends with Jesse from Bask.

Support GUHTS

Track featured is "The Mirror" off their debut EP, blood feather, available now!

Chapter 96 - Red Beard Wall

Let me tell you something folks, our guest this week has such a fine Texas accent, I could listen to him read the Yellow Pages and it would be relaxing. Aaron Wall, the bearded mastermind behind Red Beard Wall, joins us to discuss his latest release as well as a whole mess of other shit including when his hometown churches banned MTV, those bands that change the game, how doom is a chopped and screwed version of heavy metal, winning a Doomed & Stoned contest to record an album, the power of the scream, the pros and cons of having a big beard on tour, being supported by the realist mother fuckers ever, and music that gives you the stink face.

Support Red Beard Wall. Their latest album, 3, is now available for purchase.

Track featured is "Waste" off of 3.

Chapter 95 - Onyric Joy

We are on continuing on with our unplanned Mediterranean theme this week with our friends in Onyric Joy. Hailing from Barcelona, members Edu, Victor, and Alvar chime in on where Spain falls in the psyche rock fandom, starting out in local punk and hip-hop scenes, major prog influences, showing up to audition with no pedals or amps, pulling off some much-needed shows (which you can watch here), why they like to keep things a little bit lighter, and one crazy horse of a bass.

Support Onyric Joy and they will have a new split out with Dos Brujos out on September 24th.

Track featured is "Dunes Under A Deceased Sun" off of Tales from the First Light

Chapter 94 - Ikitan

Dialing in all the way from Genoa, Italy, we warmly welcome Ikitan to the Diary. Seriously, look at them, they're clearly freezing their butts off. That's because they made their debut appearance by playing on top of an abandoned military fort. Luca, Frik, and Enrico get into how they got there as well as talking about the Italian prog-rock explosion, Goblin, going from high school rock band to instrumental psyche, how they found themselves following an unplanned 2020 theme for their first release, their Simpsons inspired artwork, guitar heads from Bali, and the mysterious Duna Jam.

Support Ikitan

The track featured is a portion of their debut performance captured Live at Forte Geremia. You can watch the whole performance on their YouTube channel.

Chapter 93 - Alyssa Herman (Foto Phortress)

Long-time Portland area photographer, Alyssa Herrman, joins us for this week's chapter. You probably know her work through her photography handle Foto Phortress and over the years, Alyssa has been given the opportunities to shoot staples of the heavy music scene, such as Sleep, Neurosis, Acid King, Boris, Candlemass, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden. During our chat, we talk about how her dad was in proto-metal act Mondo Bando, documenting her husband's band got her into shooting shows, what really makes a good photo, photographing Snoop Dogg, problematic lighting, eating burritos with Les Claypool, Iron Maiden's photo usher, bucket list achievements and dreams, being involved with NW Terror Fest and Stumpfest, and the emotional journey she went through putting together her photography book Yob: The Raw Within.

Photo by Aaron Edge

You can check out more of Alyssa's work on her website, as well as get copies of Yob: The Raw Within over at their Big Cartel site. And be sure to follow her on Instagram as well.