Photos: Windhand, Mourning Cloak, Satan's Satyrs

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On October 19, Windhand played at Legitimate Business, a recording studio in Greensboro, North Carolina, that also hosts occasional shows. Though Windhand has a new record out, Soma, the set list was heavy on older material. The show was also guest Mourning Cloak‘s album release show. They’re slow, sludgy, and spacey — kind of like a slowed-down Zoroaster. Satan’s Satyrs, an MC5-ish fuzzed-out rock band from Herndon, Virginia, opened the show.

Soma, Windhand’s second album and first for Relapse Records, is getting a lot of attention. It’s a beautiful combination of singer Dorthia Cottrell’s haunting and powerful pipes and a huge dual guitar attack. The bass never stops, moving in undulating waves throughout the doom and gloom. They say they don’t want to be pigeonholed as a doom band, but when you close an album with a 30-minute mournful slowburner named for the house owned by Aleister Crowley, “Boleskine,” it’s hard to avoid that. Still, they have managed to sneak in some varied textures, though overall, thanks to Cottrell’s wailing, the tone is more mournful than anything else.

Windhand has been touring incessantly to promote Soma, and it was just announced that they will be performing at Maryland Deathfest 2014. Next week they’re done with the States and head to European for the next leg of their tour. Then, we get them back with High On Fire (have you heard their new song? It kills) and Kvelertak, plus a group of shows in the southwest with Power Trip and Mammoth Grinder.

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Satan’s Satyrs

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Mourning Cloak

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Windhand

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