The West Coast is exploding with heavy bands right now all of whom have recently put out top notch records, these bands include, Witch Mountain (Whose t-shirt I am currently wearing), Agalloch, Ash Borer, Blackwitch Pudding and more. Yet for me, there is one rarely mentioned rising act who people should really start taking note of, I am speaking of the almighty Bloodmoon. With two records under their collective belts, these guys are only rising in popularity and talent. Through a deep knowledge of the scene, innovative marketing and a huge cloud of pot smoke, Bloodmoon have been able to climb the ladder of doom and black metal bands in their region, all while preaching a message that goes into the beyond, a band who is truly voidbound.
The origins of the band are murky at times. Once described as “two friends and a stranger making music together” Bloodmoon has an incredible ethos behind them. Asides from being inspired by shamanic wanderings, these guys essentially write their music through jamming, giving the entire thing a very open and engaging feel. The mix of dynamics is refreshingly direct and gives new power to classics like Come Whatever Storm (Which is a tribute to Chuck Schuldiner). Jason Goldie is a master of the drums and a pioneer in the mysterious Moeller method. Pat Mullholland has been reknown for having some of the most interesting and heavy bass lines on the scene. Meanwhile, Peter Tomis dropped out of high school to learn Death’s Sound of Perseverance album in full, need I say more? The line-up is the stuff of legends, and it has set Bloodmoon as a force ready to climb to the top.
Now, I’ve been friends with Bloodmoon frontman Peter Tomis for almost two years now, and since then he has become very much a mentor to me. As a doom metal fanatic I go to a lot of shows in my home city of Paris, and I am regularly shocked with how many friends he has in doom bands passing through. This is just one example of how Bloodmoon have been able to cultivate an incredible dedication to the genre in order to bring more people to listen to their good words. Another illustration of the magic of Bloodmoon lies in the bands who they play with, Tomis is a show booker, and the band helped to create a DIY venue in their hometown of San Luis Obispo. Through this, Bloodmoon has been able to play with noted acts like Agalloch and High On Fire. This has only helped to push the bands inevitable rise to popularity ever forward.
Perhaps the most important element in making Bloodmoon what they are today has been their seminal second album Voidbound which brings us from the black metal oriented and slightly more traditional approach of Orenda into a doomier and oftentimes more experimental context. It opens up with the seventeen minute long Voidbound which brings the listener into a brave new world and establishes this strange new context that Bloodmoon seem to be working in. These guys have broken rules and made new ones, all to create one the West Coast’s best bands. They are poster children of the DIYculture that has started to take this scene. More than that, they understand the beautiful spirituality that makes some of this music so special. Lines like “Awaken with the vision of your presence in a dream, Take the path that seems to fit for time grows shorter still, Diving higher, flying down, embracing the unreal, We are but the constructs of an ever turning wheel” prove that there is much more going on here than just the music.
So, Bloodmoon drive ever forward, masters of their own reality, worshipping Death and Black Sabbath without ever really imitating them. Fans are often left overcome, in awe of the triumphant trudge of this band. You see, Bloodmoon are not afraid to carve out their own niche. With a similar ethos to bands like Eagle Twin or Windhand, the fact that they don’t sound quit like anybody else doesn’t bother them, in fact, it only drives them forward. Combining so many elements it boggles the mind, Bloodmoon seem fit to capture the hearts and imaginations of fans across the globe. Falling into the strange void they have created for us to explore is a pleasure and is solid proof that this band is going somewhere. Now that they’re starting to get label backing and increased international interest their rumored upcoming split could very well push them to tour the East coast, and soon even Europe.
Perhaps Peter put it best when he said “The ultimate goal for me is this, I don’t want money or anything like that. I just want to be able to sit at home in my studio and work on music all day.The ultimate goal is just to have a home studio where we can record everything ourselves which will make the one album a year goal a lot easier. I just don’t want to work a normal job. I know it’s hard to use music as your only source of income but if there is anything that I have to say about it. I want it to get to a point where we wake up, meet up at the studio, work on our music, better ourselves, do band business for the rest of the day and just repeat. Go on tour whenever we can and play live. We just love doing this. It’s something that each of us has spent a good deal of time on. We’ve all been musicians for 10+ years. We’ve spent so much time on it it’s become an addiction, an obsession.. I’ll be sitting at work thinking about all the riffs that I haven’t translated to guitar yet. That I need to keep looping in my head until I can get to my guitar to play it. The ultimate goal is to always be in a spot every day so that when this idea pops into my head I can immediately stop what I’m doing and start working on that idea.”
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