Pitch Black Forecast…ever heard of them? If your answer is “No” then allow me to inform you to what you’ve been missing. You’ve been missing a savagely abrasive, leaden groove-laden Metal band from Cleveland, Ohio that could actually be described as a “supergroup”. Really, an honest-to-god supergroup and that term fits the bill in this case because Pitch Black Forecast resulted as a band after Jason Popson (A.K.A. singer J-Mann of masked act Mushroomhead got lined up with the drum deity we call “The Atomic Clock” Gene Hoglan of such great bands like Dark Angel, Death, Testament, Meldrum, Strapping Young Lad among others. The duo soon recruited former Integrity bassist Steve Rauckhorst (after recording their 2008 debut album “Absentee” with earlier bassist Craig Martini) and guitarists Rob Reinard and Tom Shaffner of local Cleveland faves NDE and Keratoma.
Working originally under the moniker of Absentee, the band did manage to record a debut album during 2007 that became titled “Absentee” as the band underwent a name change. That debut album featured manic, aggro-metal harshness benefited with the inhuman drumming assault provided by Hoglan and capped off by the ultra pissed off vocal stylings of Popson. It also featured guest appearances by Devin Townsend, Ringworm’s Human Furnace, Lamb of God’s Randall Blythe, and Avenged Sevenfold‘s M. Shadows. 2012 brought yet another release in the form of the 5 song EP “Burning In Water…Drowning In Flame” and then summer of 2014 brought news that Pitch Black Forecast would be releasing a compilation of previously-released songs remixed and re-tracked to become “closer” to the vision Popson desired from the start. The title of the album was revealed to be “As The World Burns” and was released on Oct. 21st of that same year and as an added bonus it includes a 4 song EP from Jason Popson’s post-industrial project Bitch Wrangler titled “Spitefuck”.
If you like harmfully face-ripping and outright angry as all hell metal then you should definitely get out from under the radar and take heed to Pitch Black Forecast.
By Staff Writer: Dragon
