Amid the lockdowns in 2021, Nathan Verschoor (Uada) came together with Jeff Wilson (Chrome Waves, Deeper Graves, ex-Nachmystium) and Heath Rave (Lotus Thrones, ex-Wolvhammer) to collaborate on a project that would eventually use the nomenclature of ALTARS OF THE MOON. This union coalesced in Brahmastra, a two-track, twenty-eight-minute exploration into a more psychedelic and darker corner of doom metal than the trio’s main projects were known for. Released through Disorder Recordings, Brahmastra took the tone of Tiamat’s Wildhoney through a cloudy afternoon of hemlock tea and the mushrooms we’re told to stay away from as children. It was a truly miserable affair.
Now, two years later, the collective reconvenes, this time joined by Alan Cassidy (The Black Dahlia Murder) on drums to create the second chapter of ALTARS OF THE MOON, with the newly completed The Colossus And The Widow. An unclassifiable morass of doom and gloom, this thirty-five-minute excursion shows the group continuing to evolve their sonic monolith as time edges on.
With nine new songs, the record was engineered by Nate Verschoor at Hrimhjarta Studio and Jeff Wilson at Disorder Recordings, with Verschoor handling the design and layout, and Wilson handling the final mix and mastering. Additionally, the record features visitations of saxophone from Bruce Lamont (Yakuza) and trumpet from Mac Gollehon (Duran Duran, David Bowie) to dive deeper into misery with The Colossus And The Widow.
With the debut of “The Signal,” Everything Is Noise writes in part, “Generally, shoegaze and post-black metal crossover tends to maximize expression and dynamics, which comes as no surprise given the history of the greats from either sect of that combination. But ALTARS OF THE MOON have a particularly powerful track here that resonates like an impactful speech or sermon, building upon itself just before fading out at the outro of the song. ‘The Signal’ carries a hypnotic aura about it, one I could see pairing incredibly well with visuals or theatrics, but even without – you’ll likely find the hairs on the back of your neck raising by the 2 minute and 48 second mark of the duration. Time feels like it’s slowing down while this song is going, and I mean that in the best way possible. But interestingly enough, this (and likely much of their music) tends to center around bleak observations of the vanity and ignorance of humanity, or more specifically modern society in general, as Heath Rave so passionately points out.”
Rave writes, “Are you surprised that in a sewer sphere of 7.8 billion upright-walking viruses there are still a few who think that some higher beings have any sort of negligible interest in our planet consuming anthropology? If only we’d be so lucky to get wiped out of existence by the mouth of a sentient anomaly. Nope. You’re gonna get up again tomorrow, drink your coffee, take your meds and shuffle along. Ground control to major bummer.”
