#drukner

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

Artwork by NMAAR

Two rising stars from the brutal Copenhagen scene are making the ripples of their earth-shaking sound felt 'round the globe with a powerful new half-and-half. On one side: DRUKNER. The four-piece stoner-doom pact of Palle Skovhede (guitars, vocals), Mikkel Rishøj (guitars, soundscapes), Kåre Lindberg (bass), and Theodor Reumert (drums) sprung to life in 2015, releasing their self-titled debut the following year. These guys have a way of taking your classic doom riff and mutating it with fresh, imaginative variations and I've been waiting to see what they'd do next after dropping the impressive three-tracker.

On the other side: GAIA. The band first met my ears about five years ago with the well-received LP, 'Reality Field' (2014). True to their rep for cosmically heavy, guitar-driven doom with noise and space influences, the trio Kriller Andersen (guitar, vox), Morten Bastkjær Jensen (bass), and Mark Bjørn Jensen (drums) issued 'A Cure for Time' (2016) two years later and then a split with Sønderjylland ne're-do-wells Slowjoint.

Drukner

Both bands have found outlets on the Virkelighedsfjern label, which is debuting the split LP as their first release of the New Year. Interestingly, I found out they don't like to refer to the record as sides A and B. Rather, "in our anti-heroic and somewhat nihilistic spirit," they explain, "we called one side B and the other side 2."

Drukner kicks off the dank, downtuned collaboration with a trifecta of badass: "Discordia I," "Grotteolmen," and "Discordia II" -- all of which are sung in Danish (Gaia takes a similar tact). In my review of Doublestone's 'Devil's Own/Djævlens Egn' (2017), I noted how refreshing it is that bands are more and more singing in their native tongue, rather than English. Now, that does present some challenges in understanding the lyrics, but somehow it adds to the overall aesthetic of the song.

I asked Palle from Drukner to translate one of the songs for me, just for the hell of it. "It will sound a bit strange," he told me, "due to Danish common expressions and a plethora of different synonyms, but you’ll get the general idea." Here are the lyrics from 'Discordia I' (which Doomed & Stoned will be treating you to today):

Meteor An unstoppable force Thundering closer and closer to the earth

A Volcano Hissing with molten rock No refuge when it erupts

A monsoon Rips up everything by the roots In a storm that destroys everything

And the ocean That which gave us life Rages up in fury And takes it back again

No Salvation

As you can see, much of the lyrical content reinforces the disquieted nature of the music, which seems always tossed to and fro by the fickle waves of life's journey. Drukner has a way of tapping that depressive nerve inside that allows me to relate deeply to each track (especially "Discordia II"). Ever since I hearing Saint Vitus live so many years ago, I knew there was something special about doom that makes it perfect food for the pensive soul. Drukner adds some welcome color to my plate, conjuring gloomy textures that dance slowly like drugged imps on the devil's tritone. Palle, Kåre, Theodor, and Mikkel are seamlessly in sync here, constructing an emotionally charged atmosphere that grows more and more potent by the minute. It's something you can really lost in, if not completely absorbed by.

Gaia

The Gaia side is characterized by some downright arresting drumming. Mark Jensen's obsessive beats are determined to rap at the door of hell until it yield's to Gaia's mounting fury. The strategic repetition of riffs is accompanied by psychotic feedback and pedal effects that gradually build in intensity, sending the listener on a twisted, drunken tour of negativity, regret and, ultimately, exhilaration. The band says it best: "The hypnotic is fused with a druggy, intense, caveman-like playing." The lyrics are similarly grave, describing "the claustrophobic feeling of living in a society where everything seems to be Falling apart."

I was reminded in many ways of the slow burn vexation of Godflesh as I listened to "Earthbound" and "Out of the Well," though Gaia's guitars are far more unhinged, with Kriller working those strings like some kind of freaky sonic weapon fretting, bending, and shooting tremolos like searing lasers that cut straight through the ceiling. Add to this raspy vocals echoing like a lonesome figure shouting at the cold, dark sky and we feel as though we are verging on the brink of madness, though never quite breaking. Somehow, this makes the vibe more dangerous, because insanity is lurking just one step away. I have to especially give praise to Morten's bass playing, which is at times so immense that you have to stop whatever you're busy with just to sit and gawk at it in amazement.

Cover Art by NMAAR

Both bands had their tracks recorded, mixed, and mastered by Tobias Munk Tønder at Angry Music Studios in Copenhagen. "He’s an OG in the Danish hardcore scene," Drukner tells me, "who used to play in Hexis and is now in a doom sludge band called Foreshadower."

On Friday, February 9th, Drukner and Gaia will release the new album digitally on the Orchard and Relative Records labels and on vinyl via their own independent labels Virkelighedsfjern and GFY Records. The physical edition consists of 290 numbered LPs with all covers silk screen printed by the bands themselves, a long-standing tradition with all of their merch. You can pre-order the album right here, right now.

Today, Doomed & Stoned is giving you a first listen to two cuts from the five-song split, which drops at week's end. From Side B, here is Drukner's 'Discordia I,' followed by Gaia's 'Out of the Well' from the record's side 2.

Give ear...

COPENHAGEN HEAVY

Interview with Palle Skovhede of Drukner and Kriller Andersen of Gaia

How did this particular split come about? Did the bands previously know and play with one another?

Palle: We only knew of each other through the Grapevine, from keeping up with what’s going on in our local scene. I went alone one night to a show that GAIA played with three other Danish bands in the realms of doom that I hadn’t heard yet -- Heathe, Alkymist and REH.

Kriller: Good memory.

Palle: Gaia immediately caught my attention with their insanely fat and heavy live sound and relentless trancy riffing, and perhaps most of all, a vibe and attitude that I found spoke to me at a more personal level than I’d felt in a long while. I introduced myself after the show and let them know that I really dug their style. Some weeks later Kriller called me up and asked me if we wanted to do a split with them. We found that the attitudes, tastes and tempers of both bands matched very well and the whole thing came about in a really natural way. Working closely together on this for almost a year we’ve become very good friends and we even ended up sharing a practice space together, which is awesome and makes everything super easy and allows us to have an insane amount of gear to fuck around with.

Kriller: Yeah, we had planned to release three splits in one year. Now a little over a year has passed and this split with Drukner will be the second one. Anyway, we thought we had found bands to do the splits with, but the arrangements fell through. We had just been speaking with Palle about doing something together. So it made a lot of sense to us to ask Drukner if they wanted to do a split. We liked what we had heard from Drukner and on top of that -- they seemed really nice. We have gotten to know each other well through all the work we have put into the split and we found out that they are. Now I just can’t wait to play some show together. The first will be our release party.

Palle Skovhede of Drukner

Was there a particular vision behind each band's contribution? Are the songs meant to complement each other in any way?

Kriller: The two sides only complement each other in the way that we share some ideals when it comes to sound and style. We didn’t discuss any ideas between the bands before recording. The two songs on Gaia’s side is inspired by the Russian futurist Nicolai Fedorov – who had the idea that all mankind’s problems could be reduced to one problem – mortality. If that problem could be solved, we wouldn’t need to fight over resources and such things. Of course, the problem of overpopulation would arise. He had a solution to that though -- populate other planets! That idea has helped guide our songs. The sound of the songs we wanted to be a bit more aggressive this time around. The amps were insanely loud when we recorded and even though people say that it sounds like the feedback is very controlled it didn’t always feel that way.

Drukner by drukner

What are your local heavy music scenes like? Is the doom-sludge-stoner sound well-received there?

Palle: The heavy scene in Copenhagen, and Denmark in general, is in pretty good health these days. A lot of newer groups are killing it and raising the bar for both dedication and musicianship. People seem to genuinely be into the heavier things, and although Black and Death bands are probably the most popular and celebrated, I also see more attention towards Doom and Sludge and everything slow and down tuned. Although, I have to say, starting out, the “stoner” element, was not advantage for us (speaking for Drukner), in terms of getting gigs and getting a foot in the door in the Copenhagen heavy metal scene. I feel like we’ve managed to sneak our way in, and after landing a good bunch of local support gigs for bigger international acts, and joining forces with Gaia and other ‘outsiders’ of the genre, we are actually quite content now. It seems like finally we are enough people doing this kind of thing, that it’s starting to feel like an actual scene or community, which hasn’t been such a common thing here.

Kriller: Yeah, it has been really hard. The way to get things going is by doing something together. Which is what this split is about. The shows supporting this release will also feature Bethmoora from Copenhagen and in doing that together we hope to gather some attention for all of us. Hopefully we will be doing more of this in the future and have the opportunity to include more bands.

Kriller Andersen of Gaia

What themes most inspired you while writing these songs?

Kriller: In Gaia we always talk a lot about where we want to take our songs. Then we take some very basic ideas and jam on them for a while until the song takes shape. This time around we had “Earthbound” first so we knew that we had about eight minutes for the second song – considering the limitations of vinyl and all. I like when we have that kind of pressure. We always work a little bit faster. Probably because we have to give up on the lengthiest ideas. Both the songs where build off the idea of building on something that was very simple and having the drums as a driving force. Mark really got to show that he is the one in control on these tracks. I guess those are the main themes. The lyrical themes I already described.

Palle: For us, what comes first are mostly the riffs, and then somewhere in the process of working those out, layering different roles and harmonies and what not, I’ll start to get an idea about the vocal rhythm and melody and start having some themes, and maybe a few lines here and there in my head that fit the vibe and temper of the song. We always finish them together.

To be specific, the songs Discordia I & II on the split are both about inescapable chaos, simply put. The general theme being a long line of every kind of natural disaster imaginable, and purposely offering no obvious means of salvation. I like to write open lyrics, and never be too obvious, but then I have my own things and our mutual thoughts deeply rooted in there. We invest as much personal energy as possible into our songs, which I believe makes the material stronger, whether people understand the underlying meanings or not. Both of the songs were finished before we named them.

I randomly came across an article about Discordianism, and read a lot about the different meanings of that word. In short: The worship of Eris – The goddess of Chaos/Discord, and secondly, a secret society of anti-theistic artists and intellectuals that formed a mock religion under that name, the dogma being accepting and surrendering to idea that chaos truly reigns, and nothing else is certain. That was more or less the exact theme of these songs, so those titles dropped right into our laps.

Reality Field by Gaia

Can you tell us something about the two songs that have been selected for debut?

Kriller: It’s called “Out of the Well” and it is about a person who realizes what is going on just as the struggle to leave the planet is starting. He goes from being pacified to engaging himself in the struggle. Everything is very chaotic though and we never really find out what happens. Only that he believes that he will never die. Sonically it is easily our most aggressive song. The beginning is very sludgy while the next part of the song as more kraut-rock inspired flow. It has a nice build I think and it’s a bit more to the point than the other one we have on the split. It also feels newer because we haven’t played it much live.

Palle: “Discordia I” is our “fastest” and shortest song, and I guess easier to get into, right off the bat. The other two, “Olmen” being all instrumental and “Discordia II” are better suited for paying a bit closer attention in a way. There are lots of little subtle details everywhere, that you won’t necessarily notice the first couple of spins. On that note, there is also a “little” something extra hidden within the LP version of this release, on the Drukner side.

Kriller: Yeah. Hidden in the cover.

What gear are you using to perform and record with?

Kriller: We use the same gear for recording and performing and I guess it’s pretty basic for this genre. I play a Sound City 120 and Morten uses an Orange Bass Terror. Our drums are old a beat up. We are in h-standard and have had some problems with blowing 10” speakers in the bass cabs. So now Morten only uses 16” speakers. I’m planning on recording on a solid state next time along with the tube amps. It does something a bit different with the sound. Some frequencies are less muddied and sometimes it makes it sound more ominous. Live we have more or less the same setup as Drukner, which is great for playing shows together.

Palle: I used my old early '70s Carlsbro 100 Top for the split and our first EP. Now retired and replaced by a Rockerverb 100 mkI. Kåre plays a Terror Bass, like Morten, but with an Ampeg 810. Mikkel has a beefy Russian Redbear 120 and both guitars go through a variety of Marshall B cabs. Theo has a nice old-school Bonham type kit with big and punchy cans and a fat snare. Our guitars are mostly stock and our boards are pretty basic. No fancy shit really, just as loud as possible on a tight budget.

In the studio with Tobias we utilized pretty much every cabinet he had available, and did a few dubs with his guitar and his peavey amp. Working with Tobias was fucking great. He’s the coolest dude and he too has a taste for sonic overkill and trying out every idea we all had. I don’t think I’ve ever played as stupidly loud, before or since.

Kriller: Yeah, this was our second time working with Tobias and definitely not the last. He is a very chill guy to be around which creates a nice atmosphere for recording. There is a lot to think about to begin with so having someone that makes you more relaxed helps the process along. And as Palle says, he understands how to make the amps sound great. He never asks you to turn it down, only up.

Are you planning to tour together to support this release?

Palle: Absolutely. We are can’t wait to get on the road with these songs, and celebrate our work. First thing is the release party in Copenhagen, and then two weeks later we’ll be on the road in Denmark for a couple of shows where we are bringing along our good friends and our favorite Danish doom band Bethmoora. After that we are trying to do a few gigs in Germany as well.

Kriller: Yeah, hopefully that will work out. Playing in Germany is great!

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