Portland’s Drouth formed in 2012, originally under the name Contemp before changing their moniker following the release of their 2014 EP Skinwalker. The band stirred the local scene with their potent mixture of black metal, death metal, doom, and crust, and went on to release another EP, Vast, Loathsome (2015) and two albums Knives, Labyrinths, Mirrors (2017) and Excerpts From a Dread Liturgy (2020). Their follow up, The Teeth of Time was recorded and mixed with legendary engineer Billy Anderson (Neurosis, Cattle Decapitation) and mastered by Justin Weis (Agalloch, Hammers of Misfortune) and features five tracks of vicious, melodically adventurous black/death metal spread across 40 unrelenting minutes.
It was my pleasure to chat with the band with their upcoming album “The Teeth Of Time” to be out on May 16 Via Warfare Records.
Your 3rd Full length album “The Teeth Of Time” to be out on May 16, Would you like to tell me on the songwriting and production behind the album?
“The Teeth of Time” was written over the course of several years, with the earliest riffs coming together quickly after “Excerpts From a Dread Liturgy” was released in 2020 and the latest riffs coming together just a few weeks before we went into the studio. We did the initial tracking in about four days with Billy Anderson at Hallowed Halls Studio here in Portland, and then we spent the next few months mixing and mastering. We even made a special trip to San Francisco to record guest vocals with our friend Laurie Sue Shanaman. It was a lot of work to get everything together, but we feel like the extra time was worth it as this is the most dynamic Drouth album to date.
Was there a concept behind The Teeth Of Time, and would you like to tell me on the cover art theme?
The largest theme is entropy—just the impermanence of human existence and the inevitability of the past and present. Our lifetimes are utterly insignificant in the face of the cosmos.
5 Epic Blackened Death Metal Song, With your signature style, Keeping the classic touch of Black/Death with an epic outcome, how do you feel about the work behind The Teeth Of Time?
We’re very proud of how the album came out. Our music is sonically dense with a lot of frenetic energy coming from the drums and vocals, so we spent a lot of time in post-production making sure all the details could shine through. That’s mostly where the “epic” part comes in—we pay a lot of attention to dynamics and want the songs to have emotional payoffs.
You have released Lyric Video for False Grail, are there plans for an official music video?
We’ve definitely talked about doing a more elaborate music video, but logistically, our attention is focused elsewhere at the moment. We do have a video featuring the album art on the way for the second single, it’s probably available as you’re reading this.
5 Years since 2020’s Excerpts From A Dead Liturgy, and the first with Bassist Matt Solis, how do you feel about the addition of a new bassist to the band?
Matt has been a really valuable addition. He adds a lot of layers to the arrangements and he played an equal part figuring out the compositions as we were writing the album. He fits in very seamlessly, he’s a true professional.
Do you have a release day plan?
“The Teeth of Time” officially releases on May 16 and we’re playing a record release show in Seattle the next day. Seattle is basically a second home for us, so we’re excited to celebrate the album release with our good friends.
Are there any big touring plans for the year?
We’ll be touring for about three weeks in June, starting here in Portland and hitting spots like Chicago, Austin and Los Angeles along the way. It has been several years since we’ve been to some of these cities, and some we’re even playing for the first time, so we’re definitely looking forward to the experience.
Forming in 2012 how has the journey with Drouth been so far?
We formed in 2012 as Contempt with vocalist/guitarist Matt Stikker and otherwise a completely different lineup, and only became Drouth in 2014 once Pat Fiorentino joined on drums. There’s been a natural progression through different lineups but we feel it’s just gotten better and better while we’ve been able to maintain our own identity.
Would you like to share some highlight moments for the band?
Playing fests like Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle and Litha Cascadia in rural Washington have been real highlights for us. We’ve played great shows in California and Texas in the last couple of years as well. It makes it worthwhile anytime we can go on the road and people are truly excited to see us.
What’s next for Drouth?
After the tour in June, we’ll get back to writing more new music for another full-length release. We already have a couple of songs that are pretty close to being musically complete, so that will be our focus once “The Teeth of Time” is out there in the world and we come back from the road.
Finally any message for the fans?
Thanks for checking out our music, we really appreciate it! You can order “The Teeth of Time” and some album-specific merch (including a full-size poster of the cover artwork) directly from us on our bandcamp page.
Hurl Your Thunderbolt Even Unto Death
False Grail
The Teeth of Time
Through a Glass
Exult, Ye Flagellant
The Band
Matt Stikker – Vocals/Guitars
John Edwards – Guitars
Matt Solis – Bass
