Not content with just blowing smoke rings of you-know-what,
Welsh Stoner Metallers ACRIMONY are now busy blowing critics
and fans away with their second album, "Tumuli Shroomaroom".
Nick Terry talked to bassist Mead, though neither claim to
remember much of the conversation that follows.....
Let's not beat around the (marijuana) bush. God knows, Acrimony wouldn't. When I first call up Mead, bassplayer with the Welsh Stoner Doomsters, we run rapidly aground on a drugs double entendre. I hasten to assure him that we'll no doubt be talking more about that in a minute.
"Oh, I do hope so," he lilts, eyes no doubt lightening up at the prospect. And with good reason.
"Cannabis is my wife!" Mead claims. "Smoking is my sex. Obviously, it helps if you smoke vast quantities of cannabis if you make this kind of music. To us, it's as big an influence; it's just like another instrument. It gives extra feeling to the vibe."
Vibe, for once, is the operative word. Acrimony's second album "Tumuli Shroomaroom" has already won full-mark plaudits from Terrorizer a few months back, when it was due for release via the band's original label Godhead. Now, with a license to Peaceville being rush-released, more rave reviews are already following in our footsteps. I casually mention to Mead the notion that Acrimony might well.be the British Kyuss. Though "honoured", he's also concerned "that people think we sound like them. They're more classic US rock than us, whereas we're shamanic mushroom Metal. We try to bring in a Motorhead/Hawkwind vibe in, a dirtier vibe. We've got the same jamming vibe as a band like the Black Crowes, but we're much heavier."
But what's with this shamanic mushroom concept?
"Well, we worry about people thinking we're flower power, but we've all got interests in ancient uses of drugs, so it just comes out naturally for us, those tribal and Celtic influences. It's what we know about and what we're into. When you get stoned, to start thinking..."
Now, there are those that may argue that the appearence of an Acrimony feature in these pages once nore is long overdue. However, one barrier has been the band's near-total inactivity, enforced on the group by the instability of their original label Godhead's rela- tionship with the Italian label Flying.
"Basically," Mead explains, "they f***ing pulled the funding out of Godhead, and they didn't have much money to do anything. We were ready to put the album out before Christmas, so when the license came through to Peaceville, it was a godsend. Roadrunner and Earache were also interested, I hear, though I don't have much to do with the business side. It's easier for us to have a label in Britain - it was a long way to go over to Italy... But it's a total doss being on Peaceville, especially with them having had the old-school Doom [the band, not the style - NT] records and Axegrinder stuff, and now with the Blood Divine and Anathema; they're good guys and good bands."
More seriously, though, the virtual demise of Godhead has meant a huge hole has been torn open in the support given to the tiny but vocal Doom scene. Not only Acrimony, but labelmates Solstice, plus bands such as Electric Wizard and Orange Goblin have all had releases helf up as a consequence. And given the average Stoner band's disinclination to tour too much, this could have had disastrous effects on the style's profile.
"F***, man!" Mead exclaims, "we,ve only had three gigs in the last year. I mean, that's The Wizard you're thinking of who keep on missing gigs. We may be f***ed when we get on stage, but playing is more important that getting wrecked, y'know. But we always felt that you can't really tour with nothing to offer people in the way of a record. I mean, two years ago, we did a 22 date UK tour, and we might as well have gone to the kids' houses to play!
"Doom's kinda fallen apart as a style, though," Mead opines. "The classic Doom scene was drifting away, `cos I think people confuse it with total slowness and heaviness. The Epic Doom thing, like Solitude Aeturnus, has completely died; it never took off in the first place. I just think people are just put off by the sound of the word `Doom' - just the name. We wouldn't class ourselves as a Doom band, `cos we're kinda uplifting in a way. I mean, we do like Saint Vitus and Trouble, but I don't pay any attention much more to Metal. Acid Techno is where our hearts lie now. We got into that, `91-'92, went to raves when we got spun out by the Metal that was coming out at the time. Now we do a little DJing and mixing...'
Though, in a late item just in, it was not under the Criminal Justice Act that Acrimony were recently arrested. It wasn't repetitive beats, but repetitive bongs that got them into trouble, surprise, surprise! While walking down a country lane, the band and a photographer helping them do a shoot were spotted by police "acting very suspiciously" and were then stopped. Several hours later, and considerably the poorer in materials stashed away following a search, they were released with a warning...
