Friday, September 16, 2022

FOEHAMMER - Monumentum


FOEHAMMER: DC doom duo announces transcendent new double-album "Monumentum"; new track streaming now

Silent Pendulum Records announces the November 18th release of Monumentum, the new double-album by Foehammer.

Based in northern Virginia, Foehammer is the power-duo of guitarist/vocalist Jay Cardinell and drummer Ben Price. Founded in 2013 by Cardinell as a Black Sabbath cover band, Foehammer has evolved over the past decade into its current configuration – stripped of excess, Cardinell and Price operate as one, in harmony, conjuring underworldly sludge-doom that captivates and hypnotizes.

"Being from the Virginia suburbs just outside DC, my musical education in punk and metal came from going to shows in DC in the late 90’s, and I cut my teeth on the burgeoning grindcore, powerviolence and sludge music of the time," states Cardinell. "There were bands I saw in this period that would become major influences, such as Grief, Noothgrush, and Corrupted. It wasn’t until later in my 20's that I discovered Spirit Caravan and through that, the rest of the Maryland Doom scene, all of which together became part of the stew of influence that created Foehammer."

"After multiple iterations we've landed at a two-piece lineup simply because of the personal and songwriting chemistry," he explains. "We just want to create heavy music that we would want to listen to, with an emphasis on crushing riffs as well as exploring space and ambience in the music."

Progressing beyond the glacial pace of prior Foehammer releases, Monumentum is a thrilling album that rolls through a spectrum of tones and tempos. "We made an effort this time to branch away a bit from the strict, slow style we had previously adhered to, while trying to maintain the crushing and mesmerizing riffs that have become the band's trademarks," says Cardinell.

Indeed, Cardinell's sweet, sweet riffs still crush and mesmerize, and his deathly vocals still emanate as if from a subterranean crypt. But, propelled by Price's ace pounding, the band moves through blastbeats and headbangable grooves, smashing the limits of the funereal dirges for which it was known. The pair maneuvers deftly, carrying the listener along for the entire hour-long journey. Adding an additional new dimension to the music are elements of cosmic drone that appear throughout the album, like rays of light through cracks in the tomb.

Of the album's standout track, "The Disk," The Obelisk reports: “'The Disk' lumbers forth with timeless weight at its core and a deathsludge lurch to coincide... Its impact is near immediate in the stick-in-your-eye snare and massive, raw sounding crush that ensues, but it’s worth listening for the angularity that emerges in the last couple minutes as well."

Monumentum was engineered and mixed by Foehammer drummer Ben Price and mastered by James Plotkin (Sunn O))), Earth). It follows a self-titled demo (2014), a self-titled EP (2015, Australopithecus Records), and a double-album titled Second Sight (2018, Australopithecus Records).

"Lyrically the album pays tribute to a couple of my favorite authors, Ursula K LeGuin and Jorge Luis Borges," reveals Cardinell. "As well as sketches of a sort-of mythology or overarching story I have been building within Foehammer's lyrics, with threads connecting to all of our previous works. There is an unnamed main character who figures into several of our songs. Intrepid fans who read the lyrics may be able to connect the dots."

Stand by for news of the next Foehammer shows. In the past few years, the band has shared stages with a litany of crucial names: Thou, Bell Witch, Ilsa, Usnea, Primitive Man, Outer Heaven, and more.

Tracklist:
1) Orm Embar
2) Oblivion of Sand
3) The Disk
4) The Great Cortege I - Accession of the Elder
5) The Great Cortege II - Annointment of the Gift-Child

Lineup:
Jay Cardinell - guitar, vocals
Ben Price - drums

Photo by Ben Price
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