Los Angeles, California-based atmospheric funeral doom outfit QAALM, featuring former members of Act Of Defiance, Harassor, and Seven Sisters Of Sleep, will unleash their devastating Resilience & Despair full-length debut via Toronto, Ontario- based Hypaethral Records on April 15th.
Despite their collective lineage, no musical comparison can be made to QAALM, who have forged a sound unlike any of the member’s previous efforts. Combining the crushing heaviness of sludge, the melancholic harmonies of funeral doom, with the atmosphere and intensity of black metal, QAALM manifests a gloomy, depressive, and unique interpretation of the doom metal genre like no other.
Issues guitarist and principal songwriter Henry Derek Elis of Resilience & Despair, “This album represents the perfect storm of emotions. In some respects, it’s hopeful and the contrast of heavy guitars and majestic melodies are a companion to the mournful clean passages and atmospheric drones within. It’s a sonic landscape that I’ve flirted with for many years and it’s a joy to have helped create a band such as QAALM to fulfill that void. Resilience & Despair is a record that should be experienced as a whole. It’s an epic journey into the cruel uncertainty of life and at the same time a symbol of strength amidst adversity.”
Wrote Decibel Magazine of the band’s first single, a truncated version of “Existence Asunder” released late last year, “The song is a lurching mammoth of Neurosis proportions, with a scorched ambience of blackened doom. The heart of the song is a gloomy, ominous churn of distorted noise. But as the song unfolds there are brighter splashes of melody. Four minutes in, clean guitars create a new chapter where the lead guitars are unchained to soar from the tar pit. It’s an expressive and suspenseful track even at half the length that will appear on the crushing upcoming album. Very few debut records have this clearness of vision and a sound this thick and relentless.”
Resilience & Despair was captured at at Red Light Studios in Los Angeles 2020/2021, engineered and mixed by Steve White, and mastered by Maor Appelbaum.
The record will be released on limited edition 2xLP (on Smoke Swirl, Silver, and Black variants) and digitally via Hypaethral Records and on CD and cassette via Trepanation Recordings. Find preorders at THIS LOCATION. Fans of Neurosis, Corrupted, Asunder, Mournful Congregation, and Isis, pay heed.
