Doom over Leipzig Festival 2015

"It is happening again. It is happening ... again!"

UT CONNEWITZ and SWANSEA CONSTELLATION present

DOOM OVER LEIPZIG FESTIVAL 2015
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B A N D S (in alphabetical order)

AMENRA
(Kortrijk, Belgium – Neurot (USA) / Hypertension (BeNeLux) / Consouling Sounds (BE) / Init Records (USA))

+ Date: Saturday, April 11 | Location: UT Connewitz

Amenra deliver dark, heavy Post-Hardcore in the vein of Neurosis. Intense, heartfelt and atmospheric, rich with entrancing riffs, thunderous low tones, high impact percussion and cutthroat vocals, injected with a dose of religious iconography; it all coalesces into a beautiful, pitch black cumulation of overwhelming sound.

Amenra will also perform their special acoustic set "Afterlife" besides their "normal" set.

+ http://www.churchofra.com/
+ http://www.ritualofra.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/churchofra
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ACID WITCH
(Detroit, Michigan, USA – Hells Headbangers)

+ Date: Thursday, April 9 | Location: UT Connewitz

Acid Witch was formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 2007. The band's musical style draws from many genres of music including death metal, doom metal, psychedelic music and horror films and their soundtracks such as the music of John Carpenter's Halloween.

Prepare yourself for a psychedelic trip of doom, which holds its own special hint off horror and cheesiness. This is one trip you don’t want to be left out of.

+ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Acid-Witch/146053698843172
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BOTANIST
(San Francisco, California, USA – Flenser Records)

+ Date: Thursday, April 9 | Location: UT Connewitz

The songs of Botanist are told from the perspective of The Botanist, a crazed man of science who lives in self-imposed exile, as far away from Humanity and its crimes against Nature as possible. In his sanctuary of fantasy and wonder, which he calls the Verdant Realm, he surrounds himself with plants and flowers, finding solace in the company of the Natural world, and envisioning the destruction of man. There, seated upon his throne of Veltheimia, The Botanist awaits the time of humanity's self-eradication, which will allow plants to make the Earth green once again.

+ http://www.botanist.nu/
+ http://verdant-realm-botanist.bandcamp.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/Verdant.Realm.Botanist
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EAGLE TWIN
(Salt Lake City, Utah, USA – Southern Lord Records)

+ Date: Friday, April 10 | Location: UT Connewitz

A two headed eagle with octopus tentacles. 2 men sound as 20. Tyler Smith has become very good at hitting things really hard. Gentry Densley multitasks, playing stringed instruments he builds into something not quite guitar or bass but all through a wall massive tube amps. The two men sound as one as they come together with a love of all things heavy. Its doom blues roots rock backing a new mythology of epic old testament proportions. Born from crow, Eagle Twin says, “I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls” Job 30:29

+ http://eagletwin.bandcamp.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/eagletwinmusic
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FLOOR
(Miami, Florida, USA – Season of Mist)

+ Date: Friday, April 10 | Location: UT Connewitz

Floor was formed in 1992 by Steve Brooks (guitar), Anthony Vialon (bass), and Betty Monteavaro (drums). Jeff Sousa became the drummer in late 1993, and Steve and Anthony switched to just having two low-tuned guitars with no bassist. Several vinyl-only 7'' EPs were released until their first break in 1996. They reformed with a new line-up for one show in 1997 with Henry Wilson on drums and practiced only occasionally until 2001. This time they finally released their first full-length album, self-titled "Floor", before splitting in 2003. Steve Brooks went on to form the band Torche. Henry Wilson went on to form the bands Dove and House of Lightning. Reunited in 2010, with the release of the "Below & Beyond Box Set", and began touring again. In March 2013 Floor reunited again and announced its intention to tour and release a new album through Season of Mist. The fourth studio album "Oblation" has been released on April 29th, 2014.

+ http://officialfloor.bandcamp.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/floorofficial
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HELMS ALEE
(Seattle, Washington, USA – Sargent House)

+ Date: Wednesday, April 8 | Location: UT Connewitz

Helms Alee's music is exactly the sort of mutant, fantastic hybrid that used to only occasionally erupt out of small, isolated scenes, uninformed by trends of the day instead inspired by the band's own collective contributions. The Seattle trio's unique amalgam of metal, art rock, pop and punk is charmingly reminiscent of the fertile creativity that groups once had before the Internet seemed to instruct bands to only copy one another. Helms Alee's third album, Sleepwalking Sailors sounds like many styles combined into one, and none of it concerned with any notion other than creating vital, urgent and uniquely characteristic music.

+ http://sargenthouse.com/HelmsAlee
+ http://helmsalee.bandcamp.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/HelmsAlee
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KAYO DOT
(New York City, New York, USA – Flenser Records)

+ Date: Thursday, April 9 | Location: UT Connewitz

Led by founding member Toby Driver (also of Secret Chiefs 3), Kayo Dot emerged in Boston, MA in 2002 from the ashes of metal group Maudlin of the Well. Since then, Driver has led Kayo Dot through several lineup changes and dramatic stylistic shifts: from traditional metal, to atmospheric, avant-garde metal; and now with their new album "Coffins on Io", the bats-in-your-belfry hard rock of Sisters of Mercy meets Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, Scritti Politti and early Roxy Music.
In 2013, Kayo Dot demarcated the beginning of a sonic change by releasing their critically acclaimed conceptual double-album "Hubardo". Undeniably experimental, but largely unclassifiable, "Hubardo" received rave reviews: Sputnik Music ranked it among their best albums of 2013, and CVLT Nation called it, “mesmerizing avant garde blackened doom,” and a “towering achievement.”

+ http://www.kayodot.net/
+ http://kayodot.bandcamp.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/kayodot.official
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LORD WEEKS
(Messancy, Belgium – DIY)

+ Date: Saturday, April 11 | Location: Galerie KUB

Inspired by musicians like Swans and David Lynch, this is a work for the people who like a little bit of doom and gloom in their acoustic music, names like Timber Timbre and maybe even Nick Cave also come to mind. This is like sitting on a swing as an adult, one half of you wants the sky to kiss your boots while the other half is like: "Fuck, I'm too old for this." Ruined nostalgia or something like that.

+ http://lordweeks.bandcamp.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/lordweeksmusic
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MINSK
(Peoria, Chicago, Sebastopol, USA – Neurot Recordings / Relapse Records / At A Loss Recordings / Bird Dialect)

+ Date: Friday, April 10 | Location: UT Connewitz

Scattered between the sleepy city of Peoria and metropolis of Chicago, Illinois, and drawing inspiration from a remote Belarusian city that has been burned to the ground only to be rebuilt like a phoenix rising from its own ashes, MINSK is an enigmatic collection of opposites. The music is at once modern, organic, and other-worldly; songs are stirring sonic journeys channeling the rhythms of the earth and the resonance of the human voice with the synthetic sounds of machines, amplifiers, chaos, and effects. Founded in Peoria in 2002, Minsk has been cultivating sonic exploration and deeply spiritual and emotional outpourings since its inception.

+ http://minskband.bandcamp.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/Minsk
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MONARCH!
(Bayonne, France / St. Augustine, Florida, USA – At A Loss Recordings)

+ Date: Saturday, April 11 | Location: UT Connewitz

In the words of Monarch!, let it be said!

»Monarch! unleash a slow motion avalanche of impossibly glacial, blackened sludge and hypnotic feedback, each song a series of epic tarpit riffage stretched out eternally over lumbering drums and the cavernous rumble of speaker cabinets. Over these yawning expanses of black void appears the demonic, throat-shredding shrieks and ghostly singing of Emilie, whose petite appearance belies one of the harshest throats in the underground Doom spectrum. Beyond heavy. Monarch!’s mega-crawling ambient doom / drone / sludge follows in the grand tradition of fellow tarpit adventurers Melvins, Corrupted, Noothgrush, and Black Sabbath, and accompany their music with an iconoclastic design style that decorates their material with deceptively cute imagery drawing from the collective influence of Sanrio, Japanese animation, European graffiti, weirdo hardcore, and skateboard culture.«

+ http://www.myspace.com/monarchuberalles
+ http://monarchuberalles.bandcamp.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Monarch/121146434822
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RUSSIAN CIRCLES
(Chicago, Illinois, USA – Sargent House)

+ Date: Wednesday, April 8 | Location: UT Connewitz

There are instrumental rock bands, and then there is Russian Circles. This Chicago-based trio has raised the bar incredibly high with several releases. The band charges out of the gate on this debut with a potent forcefulness that leaves many of their more seasoned, contemplative, and mathy peers sounding a bit hesitant and flaccid in comparison. This strength of spirit has quickly earned Russian Circles considerable recognition as a formidable live band, to such an extent that they are being requested as openers by high-profile acts such as Tool. It all comes down to the fact that Russian Circles has the inspiration to carve fresh material from a bedrock of spacious melody and crushing heaviness, the energetic dexterity to steer songs as big as mountains through hairpin rhythmic changes, and the superb musicianship necessary to deliver all of this with an elegant precision and natural momentum that plows straight into the listeners ears, causing a rapid back-and-forth swaying of the head, commonly known in medical terminology as rocking the fuck out.

+ http://www.russiancirclesband.com/
+ http://russiancircles.bandcamp.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/russiancirclesmusic
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SUBROSA
(Salt Lake City, Utah, USA – Profound Lore Records)

+ Date: Saturday, April 11 | Location: UT Connewitz

SubRosa is an experimental sludge-doom band from Salt Lake City, a city plagued by a tension of opposites. Within the SubRosa crucible, sludgy low-end and high volume lock arms with ultra-melodicism, folk and experimental elements delivered through the haunting ambience of two electric violins. The overall effect is emotional, eerie, bleak, and beautiful.

+ http://www.subrosa.cc/
+ http://subrosausa.bandcamp.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/SubrosaSLC
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TOMBSTONES
(Brandval, Norway – Soulseller Records)

+ Date: Thursday, April 9 | Location: UT Connewitz

Tombstones has been brewing on dirtier filth this time, and their new, third, studio album; “Red Skies and Dead Eyes” will tear holes in your ears and speakers. Norwegian doom has never been played with more confidence and style, and the riffs and grooves penetrate your soul like a demon from ancient caves.

+ https://www.facebook.com/tombstonesoslo
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UZALA
(Boise, Idaho, USA – King Of The Monsters Records)

+ Date: Friday, April 10 | Location: UT Connewitz

UZALA hails from the Mountain West of the USA, conceived and birthed in a Cold War fallout shelter in Idaho with a hunger for late sixties acid damaged rock and Celtic Frost riffs.

Drenched in fuzz, feedback, bombastic drumming and lyrical storytelling with heady melodies provided by chanteuse/rhythm guitarist Darcy Nutt. Her voice has been compared to Grace Slick by some, but there is more to her voice than just hookah smoking caterpillars and the pills that Mother gives you. There is a dark undercurrent to her voice, bewitching and entrancing, a siren song to lead you astray and cast your body to the rocks waiting below. All of this is shrouded by sinuous and muscular riffs delivered by Nutt and lead guitarist Chad Remains, punctuated by howls of feedback and guitar lead lines that twist in and around Nutt’s voice, underpinned and propelled lurchingly forward by monster skinsman Chuck Watkins (Ephemeros).

UZALA released their sophomore LP, Tales of Blood & Fire, in October 2013 via King of the Monsters Records. Recorded by the legendary Tad Doyle (TAD, Lumbar, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth) and mixed/mastered by Mell Dettmer (Earth, SUNNO))), Boris, Wolves in the Throne Room).

+ http://uzala.bandcamp.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/pages/UZALA/108093595875096
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YEAR OF NO LIGHT
(Bordeaux, France – Crucial Blast / Conspiracy / Music Fear Satan)

+ Date: Saturday, April 11 | Location: UT Connewitz

Yet one more band started after too many Belgian beers under the sun of the ending summer of 2001, Year of No Light slightly but undoubtly started to slide down to gloomier atmospheres as the inherent chaos of Bordeaux's caves and harshness of winter made their common work.

Year of No Light follows the path towards more somber psychedelics, creating its own blend of black metal, sludge, drone or any other influence marked with the seal of darkness.

Still no caps, no core neither stupid modern nihilism but instead an ambiguous electrical network of acting singularities, now ready to afford the collective metaphysical crash to come.

+ http://www.yearofnolight.com/
+ http://yearofnolight.bandcamp.com/
+ https://www.facebook.com/yearofnolight
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In the meantime check out the events of our concert collective SWANSEA CONSTELLATION:
+ https://www.facebook.com/SwanseaConstellation
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supported by Doom Metal Front Zine
+ http://www.doom-metal-front.de/
+ https://www.facebook.com/DoomMetalFront
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