Hail Darkness is a female-fronted occult rock trio from the US, whose sound can be described as the bastard daughter of doom and psychedelia.
Founding member Joshua (bass) grew up in Phoenix where the first songs were recorded and produced around mid-2020, which resulted in the birth of Hail Darkness… along with main composer Jez on guitar and Emmet, also the band’s designer, on drums.
Hail Darkness moved to Jez’s home turf of South Carolina in the early days of the pandemic, setting up the home studio to begin an extensive three-year recording session recording up to four hours of material.
Initially, the goal was to recreate the vintage sound of their idols; T-Rex, Jefferson Airplane, Pentagram, Shocking Blue, Focus, Jes Franco soundtracks, Black Sabbath, Lucifer Rising, Mountain, Captain Beyond and many others… and mix with the sounds of their more modern favourites like Cathedral and Electric Wizard.
In the studio, Hail Darkness is accompanied by a host of multi-instrumentalist friends, also referred to as the Hail Darkness Coven, who help out with various instruments to create the expansive exotic psychedelic sound of Hail Darkness.
The album contains ten songs showing their musically diverse side, incorporating aspects of occult ‘70s rock, psychedelia, doom and folk to present the listener magical retro dark cosmic journey. Jez’s lyrics deal mostly with tongue-and-cheek occult, inspired by the old occult movies, with some serious winks to light and dark occult works and some personal insights and doodles.
(THE SLEEPING SHAMAN WEBZINE)
Limited 180g black vinyl.
