Druids’ third album, Cycles of Mobeum, tells the tale of Warpia and her home planet Mobeum (so named as a nod to the French comic book artist Moebius, whose work is a major influence on the sound of the record). The doom/sludge metal trio from Des Moines that Band Bombshell calls “thrilling” are preparing to release the 8-song full length on June 3rd from Sump Pump Records, with cover artwork by Mark Facey.
Druids, who have opened for Baroness, Toxic Holocaust, Kylesa and Skeletonwitch, began as a couple of friends in Pella, Iowa absorbing the output of metal behemoths like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Mastodon, eventually forming Druids in 2008 as the duo of Luke Rauch (guitar, vocals) and Keith Rich (drums, vocals). The pair added Rauch’s younger brother Drew (bass, vocals) following the release of their first album, Pray For Water, in 2009.
Druids’ debut was released first as a limited edition CD on Ruleogy Records and later that year on cassette by Ea, Lord of the Tapes, before the album was re-released on CD by Austrian label PsychDOOMelic Records with a reissue on LP by Don’t Shoot Records. Druids put out their follow-up album, The Sound of Meditation, in their present form of a trio in 2013.
“There was a strong reaction to The Sound of Meditation that we didn't expect,” recalls Drew Rauch. “So that response really drove us. Right after we released it, we started writing the new album.” The beginnings of the writing process involved the Rauch brothers getting together every weekend and hashing out ideas while bingeing on sci-fi movies. Once the album began taking shape, they headed to Wabi Sound in Des Moines. “We went into the studio knowing that we were going to take our time with it and that we didn't have a strict deadline. We tried a lot of new things for this album.” Cycles of Mobeum, recorded and mixed by Phil Young at Wabi Sound and mastered by Carl Saff (Earthless, Coliseum, Urge Overkill), will be out on June 3rd on CD and vinyl formats on Sump Pump Records. Druids’ first appearance on a Sump Pump Records release came in 2014 when they were included on a compilation, detailed at Diffuser.fm. Druids will be hitting the road for a July tour, including sets at 80/35 festival and QC Metal Fest.
Cycles of Mobeum Track Listing:
01 The Grand Sleeve of Time
02 Firemares
03 Dreams of a Surface
04 Trial by Stone
05 Moon Systems
06 Halo
07 Oscillator
08 Warpia
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