Laudanum’s Malevolent Doom Crushes Souls

Oakland's Laudanum recently dropped a mammoth slab of bleak, atmospheric, soul-crushing doom in the form of 'The Coronation,' their debut full-length for 20 Buck Spin -- and also their first release to feature vocalist Nathan Misterek (ex-Graves at Sea). Riffs are few and far between on 'The Coronation' -- separated by lengthy, well-developed dissonant atmospheric noise passages -- but when they hit, they hit hard.

The majority of the noise was created and composed by guitarist Judd Hawk and bassist Greg Wilkinson at Greg's Earhammer Studios. "Our source material is created using field recordings, circuit bending and instrumentation," Hawk explained to Noisecreep. "Once we have a large enough palette of sounds, we dissect and manipulate those individual parts into some sort of a cohesive whole.

"We usually start with a very basic outline of what we are trying to create, and from there the piece slowly unfolds and takes on a life of its own. Other times we book studio time with the sole purpose of making instrumental noise and abstract riffage. [Drummer] Becky [Hawk] (who's married to Judd) and Nathan have added detail elements on their instruments and will probably expand more on future recordings."

'The Coronation' plays out not like a collection of songs, but as one cohesive composition. "From the start, we wanted to create a record that was a single unified piece," said Hawk. "Although I think these songs can stand on their own, they are really meant to be heard in the context of the whole. There are certain ideas that can only be accomplished through repetition and extended dynamics. There are many subtle details and buried ideas that will be revealed if you just crank this f---er up and give in to it!"

'The Coronation' is out now via 20 Buck Spin. You can also catch Laudanum live on the west coast in November.