Converge is an American metallic hardcore band formed by vocalist and artist Jacob Bannon and guitarist and producer Kurt Ballou in Salem, Massachusetts in 1990. While recording their landmark fourth album Jane Doe in 2001, the group became a four-piece with the departure of guitarist Aaron Dalbec and the addition of bassist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller. This lineup has remained intact since. The members have also been involved in various side-projects and collaborations, including the bands Supermachiner (Bannon), Old Man Gloom (Newton), and Mutoid Man (Koller). With their extremely aggressive and boundary-pushing sound, rooted in hardcore and heavy metal, they are pioneers of metalcore and its subgenre mathcore.
Darkest Hour is an American metal band from Washington, D.C., formed in 1995. Though failing to break through early in their tenure, the band has received acclaim for their albums Undoing Ruin, Deliver Us, and The Eternal Return. Deliver Us debuted at number 110 on the Billboard album charts, with sales of 6,600, and their more recent effort The Eternal Return garnered them an even higher position in the Billboard album charts at number 104. Their latest album Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora charted at 42 on the Billboard 200, a peak for the band, and it marked a stylistic shift in the band's discography.
Old Man Gloom is an extreme metal band originally formed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but now based in Massachusetts. The group, formed by Aaron Turner of Isis and Santos Montano, expanded to become a sort of supergroup in the Boston hardcore and metalcore scene.
Aaron Turner is an American musician, singer, graphic artist, and founder of label Hydra Head Records. He is most widely known for his role as guitarist and vocalist for the post-metal bands SUMAC and Isis, while also participating in several other bands and projects such as Old Man Gloom, Lotus Eaters and Split Cranium, a collaboration with Jussi Lehtisalo of Finnish band Circle who toured with Isis in 2009.
Venerable is the fourth studio album by Canadian noise rock band KEN mode, released on 15 March 2011 through Profound Lore on compact disc and Init Records on vinyl. Venerable won in the Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year category at the 2012 Juno Awards.
No is the fifth studio album by American rock band Old Man Gloom. Though the album saw a limited release during the group's May 2012 tours, it saw official wide release on June 26, 2012, through Hydra Head Records. No is Old Man Gloom's first studio release since 2004's Christmas.
Greymachine is an experimental music project founded in 2006. It is led by Godflesh and Jesu frontman Justin Broadrick. The act also features Isis frontman and guitarist Aaron Turner, Jesu bassist Diarmuid Dalton and Head of David bassist Dave Cochrane.
The Ape of God is the name of three different studio albums released by the American rock band Old Man Gloom—one of which was a "fake" album released promotionally to music critics and subsequently leaked online, and two of which were officially released to the public making up the band's sixth and seventh studio albums. The two publicly released albums were released on November 11, 2014, through Profound Lore Records (digital/CD) and SIGE Records (vinyl)—marking the first time since the band's inception that an album was not released through Tortuga Records and Hydra Head Records. The Ape of God albums were marketed and promoted as a single album for several months, but the weekend before its official release, it was revealed to actually be the name of two separate but identically titled studio albums and was also revealed that the version that some music critics had reviewed and leaked only featured edited-down versions of songs from both albums.
Sumac is an American/Canadian post-metal supergroup that formed in 2014. It features the Vancouver, British Columbia-based Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists), Seattle, Washington-based Brian Cook and Vashon, Washington-based Aaron Turner. Sumac released its debut album The Deal through Profound Lore Records in 2015.
Mamiffer is an American band based in Seattle, Washington. It started out as a solo project for former Pyramids and Everlovely Lightningheart member Faith Coloccia that later saw several session musicians and collaborators, most consistently Aaron Turner of Isis fame and who would later become Coloccia's husband. Turner and Coloccia also perform in House of Low Culture together. Mamiffer has released several albums, splits and collaborations through various record labels, most prominently through Turner's now-defunct Hydra Head Records and Turner and Coloccia's own SIGE Records. The band is known for its collaborations, including albums recorded with Locrian, Circle and Daniel Menche; and working with session/guest artists from bands including members of These Arms Are Snakes, Helms Alee, Sunn O))) and Wolves in the Throne Room.
Mare Decendrii is the second studio album by American post-rock band Mamiffer. It was released through SIGE records on March 15, 2011. The album was recorded at Studio Litho, Aleph Studio and London Bridge Studio in Seattle and mixed by Randall Dunn and Mell Dettmer. The album was mastered and produced by Mell Dettmer and Randall Dunn, respectively.
Statu Nascendi is the third studio album by American post-rock band Mamiffer. It was released through SIGE Records on November 18, 2014. The album was recorded and mixed live on November 16, 2013, then subsequently produced by Randall Dunn at Avast Studios in Seattle.
Faith Coloccia is an American artist and musician. She is most known as being the founding member and primary songwriter for the post-rock band Mamiffer. Coloccia has also been a member of Everlovely Lightningheart, Pyramids, House of Low Culture and Split Cranium. In 2009, she co-founded the independent record label SIGE Records with her husband Aaron Turner.
What One Becomes is the second studio album by American post-metal band Sumac. It was released on June 10, 2016 through Thrill Jockey. The album was recorded at The Unknown studio in Anacortes then mixed and produced by Kurt Ballou at GodCity Studio in Salem.
The World Unseen is the fourth studio album by American post-rock band Mamiffer. The album was announced in December 2015 streamed in late March 2016, and released through SIGE Records on April 1, 2016. The album was recorded mixed and produced by Randall Dunn at Avast! Studios in Seattle with final mastering by Jason Ward.
Bless Them That Curse You is a collaborative album between Locrian and Mamiffer. The first single off the album, "In Fulminic Blaze", was released digitally on January 5, 2012.
Love in Shadow is the third studio album by American post-metal band Sumac. It was released on September 21, 2018 through Thrill Jockey. Like the band's experimental collaboration with Keiji Haino earlier in 2018, much of the album was recorded improvisationally. Love in Shadow will be followed by a tour of the United States in early 2019.
American Dollar Bill – Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous to Look at Face On is a collaborative album between Japanese free improvisation/noise music artist Keiji Haino and American post-metal band Sumac. Serving as Haino's 86th and Sumac's third studio album, American Dollar Bill was released on February 23, 2018 through Thrill Jockey.
Crater is a collaborative studio album between American drone/noise artist Daniel Menche and the American post-rock band Mamiffer. The album was released on November 13, 2015 through SIGE Records, an independent label founded by Aaron Turner and Faith Coloccia of Mamiffer. Crater was created over the course of four years and was inspired by hikes through the Pacific Northwest. On those hikes, Turner, Coloccia and Menche collected field recordings of nature, which make up a portion of the music on Crater. About the collecting of these recordings, Turner said: "the process of making many field recordings together for this record while hiking and exploring nature, was a lot of fun—our mutual obsession with field recordings is one of the things that drew us together in the first place. The enjoyment of each others company in the process of making something together added a lot of meaning to the music itself, and made it all much more like play than work."
May You Be Held is the fourth studio album by Canadian-American metal band Sumac. The album was released on October 2, 2020 through Thrill Jockey, pushed back from its original release date of September 18. To promote the album, Sumac released the track "The Iron Chair" for online streaming in July 2020. Sumac asked Thrill Jockey to refrain from posting the album to the music streaming platform Spotify due to what the band referred to as CEO Daniel Ek's "pretty repugnant statements" made earlier in 2020 about artists not performing well on the site.
