HRR 273 / BURN 004
PROCESSION - Death and Judgement 10" EP
Ltd 500 copies, insert
- Death and Judgement
- Nightsky (SCALD cover)
September 31st, 2012
Doom gods Procession are to follow their latest album ”Destroyers of the Faith“ with a new 10" single featuring the two songs ”Death and Judgement“ and “Nightsky“. “Destroyers of the Faith” achieved quite a lot for Procession as vocalist/guitarist Felipe Plaza explains: “It was acclaimed as the doom metal release of 2010 by several zines and fans of the genre, which lead to our second European tour and festivals during 2011. We played around 20 gigs during the winter and a few festivals, including Rock Hard (Germany), Up The Hammers (Greece), Hole In The Sky (Norway) and Muskelrock (Sweden).” The vinyl record of “Destroyers of the Faith” is into its third pressing, so commercially it was quite a success as well. Felipe stays modest: “Well, let's stick to reality, we're talking doom metal here … it ain't like we'll ever end up selling 10,000 copies or something like that. Even in times when everything is sort of over-rated, or to say so, heavy metal bands get the chance to grow 'bigger' again, doom metal is probably the ONLY genre that stays kinda hidden, the audience is still 'smaller' than in any other genre and it's also a sign that bands should stay with firm with their feet on ground and don't get blinded by the lights of a temporary hype. 3,000 'Destroyers of the Faith' vinyls is what we've probably sold so far, it's good enough!”
I personally think that “Destroyers of the Faith” was one of the outstanding traditional doom metal albums of the year 2011. Just a great album. It reminded me a lot of classic Candlemass. Felipe agrees: “Candlemass is indeed a huge inspiration of ours, in terms of the huge sound approach and stories from old times with a particular sense of pessimism and desolation. But we also try and add influences from several other genres (musical and soundwise as well), which probably separates us a little from the rest of newer acts, in a genre where you don't see much innovation but the constant repetition of the old structures/sound, plus the image clichés … We want it HEAVY and DARK, and sometimes sitting at home only listening to Pentagram and Sabbath and thinking 'vintage' ain't enough … does that makes us better than the rest? Not sure … but it does make Procession a special thing for us, it's pretty much 'ourselves' poured in devotion onto the music we make with our goods and evils, our fast and slows, our bright and darks. And, as fans of the genre, it's something we appreciate from that perspective, too.“
Reactions to “Destroyers of the Faith” have been 99% positive, a fact Felipe is not that surprised about: “Rock Hard and Heavy really liked it, I also remember the words from Sweden Rock Magazine: '… a devastating fist in the face to anyone who wants to remove METAL from doom metal.' I guess they got it right. I reckon the most relevant 'bad' reviews were the ones we did ourselves, when we sat down, listened to the whole thing and said: 'next time we need to fix this or that …'”
Procession's new record on High Roller Records/Burn Records is a 10" single. Felipe knows all about the vinyl: “After a couple months working on them, we finished the two songs to be part of the 'Death and Judgement' 10". We recorded almost everything by ourselves (but the bass lines, which Claudio did himself in Chile) and stuff is being currently mixed/mastered by Patrick at Temple of Disharmony, who's been becoming pretty much known recently by his monstrous work on vinyl mastering for the likes of Asphyx, Grave Miasma, Necrophobic, Necros Christos, Venenum, Resistance etc. The main idea behind this release is to give people a taste of what the new album is gonna sound like, with an advance version of 'Death and Judgement' on Side A and also pay a little to tribute to Agyl and Scald from Russia. So we recorded our own version of the underground epic doom metal classic 'Nightsky' on Side B to commemorate 15 years since Agyl's early departure and to remind people that back in 1996, five unpretentious Russian musicians recorded one of the best doom metal albums of all time and it is our mission to keep that legacy alive. The result is pretty much the HEAVIEST and DARKEST doom metal release of the year, so don't miss it.”
According to Felipe some work on the new Procession album has also been done already: “Sort of … the title is 'To Reap Heavens Apart' and it is probably our most (conceptually) ambitious work to date. We're locking ourselves into the studio in October/November to finish details, arrangements and finally record. We'll be ticking around 45 minutes in six songs of pure obscure slow HEAVY METAL without compromise. Doom Metal is DEATH, and DEATH is forever …”
Matthias Mader
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