Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Aldebaran/ Sod Hauler Split LP


IR007 - Aldebaran / Sod Hauler "Split LP"
First press - 330 on Black Vinyl
Second Press - 200 on White Vinyl
Released November 1st, 2005

The first release I put out was the 4 song CD for Sod Hauler. It did alright. We went on a 10 day tour, played with Yob, and I made a bunch of connections for distribution. But the record still only did alright. Right after the first tour, Aaron left the band to move back to SD with his wife. It took a long time to find Aaron's replacement in Adam. He was more into the funeral doom, whereas Mark and Josh had more love for the Sleep/ Yob stoner sound. But it was a great match. His influence would be shown more prominently on Sod Hauler's 2006 demo, before he left the band.

This LP to me represents a very focussed time for them. From the straight up metal of Krom, to the speedy stoner rock of Mean 18 to the mid paced blackend death of Dragon's Blood. The additional guitar work on that final song was a studio addition by Adam. Otherwise the song had been in place since the first tour. It was always a favorite of mine. It was recorded at Ironwood Studios and mixed at Milk Studios I believe.

We toured that before it was released, first meeting up with Aldebaran in Portland, then playing with Abomidable Iron Sloth in Chico and hooking up with Graves at Sea for a handful of shows before finishing up with a show with Yob in Eugene. You could not have asked for a better tour.

I met Aldebaran through Splatterhouse, who I had released an LP for previously. Tim from Splatterhouse/ Parasitic Records had started this band, and they played their first show with Sod Hauler on a one off trip to Portland. I then brought them up to play a one off show here in Seattle at 2nd Ave. Pizza. So putting this LP together made sense.

They recorded with Mike Lastra at Smegma Studios in Portland, the studio where some of my favorite NW record were recorded. They presented me with a 17 minute track of black sludge. It was amazing. We then got Jason V from Fall of the Bastards/ Splatterhouse/ Abandon etc. etc. to do the album art. He worked on it during the final Bastards tour and somewhere along the line lost it. So what you see is actually the second draft.

Once again, this was mastered at RFI. And I think it is a great record.

Enjoy
http://moshpittragedy.com/inimical/info-ash.php

Bonus: Here is a demo version of Sod hauler's self titled song. I recorded it at the Art Institute as my final project. It is pretty rough in places and much longer than the final version that made it to the CD. It is great, basically two songs about two topics that work very well together. And if anyone doubted that their blackend doom tendancies were not there from the beginning, there is an unfinished song called 7 Years sitting on a two inch real in my closet. It has both falsetto and black metal type vocals. It was very interesting. I wish we had finished it.

Sod Hauler: The early years
http://www.mediafire.com/?yhevammmind

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