Emerging Maine-Hermit-like from the vast desert wastelands of the American Southwest, the anthropomorphized musical group/beast that is Old Man Gloom has announced its plans to unleash on the world: not a decades-long reign of stolen candy and baked goods, but a new album called The Ape of God on Profound Lore, out November 11. Those massive thuds you hear in the distance? They are but footsteps, harbingers of the coming storm. The man, old and gloomy though he may be, is possessed of perseverance. The Ape of God is a follow-up to 2012’s NO which was itself an end to nearly a decade of silence from the gloomy man, beset, no-doubt by arthritis, whose career began in 1999 on debut Meditations in B.
Thought it is expedient to speak of Old Man Gloom as if he is one individual, capable of crushing cities under his heel, it is not purely accurate. Indeed, not unlike our Lord in heaven, he is a multi-partite entity, consisting of the strengths of four men: Aaron Turner (Isis/Mamiffer/Hydra Head Records), Nate Newton (Converge/Doomriders), Caleb Scofield (Cave In), and Santos Montano. Many might argue that a fifth man, Kurt Ballou of Converge, constitutes a fifth axis of existence for the malaise-ridden senior citizen, as he has long provided production for the band. Those that desire a preemptive glimpse into their auditory reckoning, might do well to gaze upon the below-embedded SoundCloud player containing the track “The Lash.”
The Ape of God tracklist:
01. Fist of Fury
02. The Lash
03. Predators
04. Shoulder Meat
05. Simia Die
06. Never Enter
07. Promise
08. Aarows to Our Hearts
• Old Man Gloom: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Old-Man-Gloom/41173493966
• Profound Lore: http://www.profoundlorerecords.com