A few weeks ago I witnessed the live performance of a fairly new Bay Area band called LAMENT CITYSCAPE. I had never heard of them and ran into their live performance by total chance here in Oakland. It’s not common to witness a drone-doom band in a live environment these days – drumless, painfully heavy, slow as fuck and so on – so when I realized what the deal was, and being a huge fan of extreme doom and the more experimental side of things, I sat down, made my self comfortable and enjoyed the ride. To my surprise I saw that this band, although still at its beginnings and still fairly unknown, pulled off the live challenge in a brilliant way, and their set, complete with visuals and all, was nothing short than staggering. So I approached Mike McClatchey – one of the guys beyond this project – to know more about the band, and talking to him I actually realized that this dude has at least three other active projects, all equally interesting and definitely worth checking out and also a very interesting past. A small but very intriguing world basically opened up for me in meeting this guy, and what I found was extremely interesting and exceptionally well crafted music from the uttermost obscure underground one could ever possibly imagine. Talking to Mike McClatchey I also learned that he records and produces everything he’s involved in himself, and that the dude was actually a founding member of Apiary the band that then changed its name to Early Graves, and that McClatchey even played guitar on the first Early Graves album – the now famous We: The Guillotine. Needless to say, McClatchey is a vet with out being one. He’s been out of the metal loop for a while and when a few years back got a craving for metal again, it manifested in a very introspective and shy kind of way, probably the reason why his music is still for the most part so obscure and completely unknown and also highly abstract and for the most part quite experimental.
McClatchey’s most active and prominent project is LAMENT CITYSCAPE, an extreme sludge/drone-doom project formed by McClatchey along with Scott Weiser and Dave Small that uses mammoth walls of feedback and ridiculous downtuning and volume to devastating effects. Fans of Sunn O))), Black Boned Angel, Halo, and the more extreme and weird Boris moments should definitely check this band out, they will be pleasantly surprised. The band just independently released their debut album – Mine Rats – on Bandcamp, and heck, this fat fucking pup is so steeped in feedback and volume it could trample your skull with the force and weight of a horde of charging elephants. Programmed scattered drums are the pulsing heart of this lava-like album, but what drapes it’s minimalist digital skeleton is an enormous apparatus of sonic flesh and skin which is made from enormous tides of blackened demonic feedback and horrific buzzing guitars. This project takes on a whole new meaning when approached with headphones and is something you could get lost into in seconds, making for a fine listening experience in the realm of ambient metal and atmospheric music in general and is certainly one of the best independently released drone/extreme doom albums I’ve heard all year.
McClatchey’s second active project is called DIPPED IN GOLD, and although still heavy as fuck and once again helplessly drenched in feedback and completely wrapped in depressed slowness as well, it takes on a more dreamy and somewhat lighter approach. This project is still rooted in drone metal but also brings on board many shoegaze and post-rock elements to play with, making it a way more accessible and melodic affair. Fans of Jesu, Asva, Godpseed You! Black Emperor, Nadja and even Isis and Mogwai will find the music of DIPPED IN GOLD extremely pleasing to their post-metal and post-rock inclined musical tastes. In this project McClatchey works with Matt Whelan, and here too programmed drums, synths, keys and a completely DIY home production environment dictate the guidelines for an extremely instinctual and experimental project with a very strong melodic connotation that paves the way for an overflowing of creative honesty and raw emotion. The soundscapes created by McClatchey and Whelan are stellar and some pretty memorable and crushing riffs dominate the work throughout. The entire album is also dominated by a completely helpless and inconsolable sad note that brings to mind the familiar and unmistakable craft of Justin Broadrick in his Jesu environment. DIPPED IN GOLD also have a recently released an album titled Overland available through Bandcamp and once again, this work too is completely self produced, funded and recorded by McClatchey himself.
The third project to McClatchey’s name is called THE CONCEAL and this time it’s a zero-bullshit, straight up brutal hardcore affair with which McClatchey has branched out to the more straightforward side of his metal inclinations to rediscover his hardcore roots and his metal beginnings. This should give you the idea of what kind of versatility and open minded working ethics McClatchey can tap into when he decides is time to get creative. THE CONCEAL is a vicious and malevolent hardcore affair completely drenched in rage and constantly coated by an unmistakable apocalyptic undertone. The project is comprised by McClatchey, Jake Wright and Ben Everett and in the band’s blistering and belligerent hardcore-punk attack you will find the best elements of both melodic/East Coast-styled hardcore punk in the vein of Modern Life is War and Give Up The Ghost and the more apocalyptic and negative vibes of neo-crust bands such as Planks, Alpinist and Cursed. You will also notice unmistakable post-punk and sludge elements in this bands music that will also bring bands like early Neusosis, Cave In and Breach into mind, showcasing how The Conceal can make the switch from being a hardcore band to being a post-hardcore band on a dime, and demonstrating of being an extremely versatile, creative and ambitious unit of musicians. This band’s debut album was also independently (of course) released on Bandcamp last year, and is one of the finest most recent statements in Bay Area hardcore and (of course once again) a criminally under-rated and unknown gem of a dark hardcore punk album.
Ryan Sanders
September 26, 2015 at 12:24 pm
Found a project called The Birthing Self with an album titled Knots Tied & Ink Dried that appears to be a product of Mike McClatchey, as well. Busy motherfucker!