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TICKETS 🎟️ truewest.info/Witch2024On Sale Now!
This Event is All Ages
w/ Nox Novacula & Lana Del Rabies
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Nothing’s bigger than life, and Bell Witch captures this paradox. The Pacific Northwestern doom metal band has spent over a decade unraveling traditional song forms, pushing the limits of time and attention. Rather than seeking catharsis, their music moves at a glacial pace, creating a trance-like experience that exists outside of time. Their new album, The Clandestine Gate, expands these boundaries even further. Like 2017’s Mirror Reaper, it’s a single, 83-minute track that marks the first chapter of a planned album trilogy called Future’s Shadow. The trio will eventually loop together, creating an endless cycle symbolizing dawn, noon, and sundown.
The band—bassist Dylan Desmond and drummer Jesse Shreibman—began shaping Future’s Shadow while on tour with Neurosis and Mono. But when the pandemic hit, they were forced to slow down, resulting in a two-year creative process for The Clandestine Gate. This allowed the music to evolve into a more focused minimalism, with organ and synthesizer taking on more prominent roles.
The album begins with a slow-building organ passage before Desmond’s distorted bass kicks in. Vocally, the band experiments with more active, melodic lines, structured harmonies, and rhythmic growls. Their longtime producer Billy Anderson helped them balance these new elements.
The concept of eternal return, inspired by Nietzsche’s The Gay Science, plays a key role in The Clandestine Gate. Desmond explains, “Time doesn’t end and death doesn’t punctuate life, but both go on forever in an infinite loop.” This cyclical theme echoes through the music, as does the influence of filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, known for his slow, poetic storytelling. Bell Witch’s music mirrors Tarkovsky’s drawn-out, weighty visuals, making The Clandestine Gate a profound and somatic exploration of life’s eternal and fleeting nature. It’s the beginning and the end of a journey into Bell Witch’s macroscopic minimalism.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR 97202-2426, United States,Portland, Oregon
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