*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State*
This month’s State is Oregon!
Ape Cave are a talented band from the musically rich city of Portland, Oregon. The band’s debut release was on May 31, 2015 in the form of an EP titled ‘Primordium’. It was engineered by Ryan Grunest and The Human and mixed/mastered by The Human at Human Studios. “Primordium” has been described as an eighteen minute long embarkment spanning over bountiful sonic landscapes – listeners will find themselves immersed in formidable singing, kaleidoscopic guitar solos and rigid rhythms. I have become addicted to their unique sound since hearing their latest release ‘Pillars of Evolution’. It was engineered/mixed by Fester at Haywire Studios and mastered by Stephan Hawkes at Interlace Audio. The band describes the album “Prepare to undertake a momentous odyssey through Kashmir’s bluffs, devastating Egyptian plains and volcanic panorama in Ape Cave’s LP ‘Pillars of Evolution.’ The psychedelic guitar work, roaring bass lines, thunderous percussion and dark vocals soaring to pyramidal heights are just a fraction of the elements that will leave listeners captivated. The tale of a wanderer experiencing an intensely hallucinogenic, trans-continental journey is yet to be unraveled.”
Ape Cave – ‘Pillars of Evolution’
The album dropped on January 1st, 2016 getting the year off to an amazing start. The album boasts a mixture of both doom and psychedelia throughout. In addition to being a great album in general it also made my Best of 2016 list coming in at number 8. The deep growl of singer Nathan Nielson helps showcase the darkness in their sound. The songs have this really theatrical type sound. Each note seems to be composed perfectly and would be an amazing soundtrack to some eerie film. It’s a mixture of both doom and psychedelia. The two styles really mutate into each other and what you get is a true original sound. The band doesn’t short you on instrumentation. A majority of the songs have killer instrumental parts that take hold of you and then when the vocals chime in it just seems that much more special. They don’t overdo anything, everything fits in the right place and is the correct dosage of what the song needs to kick ass. Ape Cave also released a video for the track “Ego Death” from ‘Pillars of Evolution’. The video was filmed by Karl Whinnery and Josh Whinnery of HKMusic. The video includes the band playing the song outdoors, and follows the lead character as he travels through a rural area experiencing various things. The lead character is freshly head shaven lead vocalist Nathan Nielson. The song has an overwhelmingly creepy tone that pairs well with the lead character. I’ve said before about their music that it would be a phenomenal soundtrack to a creepy thriller movie and it seems like the band has approached the video in that fashion. The band has been recording a new album titled ‘Language Of The Earth’ but they haven’t mentioned a release date as of yet. The artwork has been completed and was done by Chenthooran Nambiarooran. On this record the band has been working with producer Billy Anderson. Anderson has worked with huge names like The Melvins, Alabama Thunderpussy, Neurosis, Eye Hate God, and High On Fire just to name a few. If this is any indication of what we can expect from this upcoming album prepare to be blown away. Our friends over at Doomed & Stoned recently filmed a behind the scenes video of the recording of the album which you can see below.
‘Language Of The Earth’ Artwork by Chenthooran Nambiarooran
