Old Man Gloom is a sludge metal/hardcore band, with many ambient, noise and soundscape elements; and more recently, displaying a sound infused with the pensive and atmospheric characteristics of post-metal but without forgoing their sludgecore/hardcore tendencies/roots.
Their early sound found them playing short sludgecore songs intertwined alike with drone/ambient/noise songs, an approach no one else thought of doing at the time. As the years they passed, they started composing some longer songs and reducing the ambient/noise bits with almost no drone until they arrived at their current sound which is an amalgamation of these three approaches: short hardcore songs, longer post-songs and ambient/noise bits. Their members have expressed they have never been in any other related projects that are as engaging, original or unique as Old Man Gloom is.
They originally formed in 1999 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States, but are now based in Massachusetts. The group was formed by Aaron Turner and Santos Montano. By the release of their first album (Meditations in B), Old Man Gloom expanded to include two new members, creating the following lineup:
Aaron Turner (Sumac, Isis, House of Low Culture, Mamiffer, Jodis): guitar, vocals
Nate Newton (Converge, Doomriders): guitar, vocals
Caleb Scofield (Cave In, Zozobra): bass, vocals
Santos Montano (Zozobra): drums
In 2001, a year after the release of Meditations in B, the band released two albums simultaneously: Seminar II: The Holy Rites of Primitivism Regressionism and Seminar III: Zozobra. For these records, Luke Scarola joined to use electronics. On Seminar II, Stephen Brodsky of Cave In wrote the lyrics for one song, and Agnostic Blunt (aka Jay Randall of Agoraphobic Nosebleed) also contributed on electronics. On August 24, 2004, Christmas was released. After an eight year silence, Old Man Gloom returned with NO in 2012, and in 2014 followed two more albums, both titled The Ape of God.
Scofield passed away in 2018. Stephen Brodsky, friend of the band and Scofield's Cave In bandmate, joined the band as an official member shortly after. In 2020 two albums were released simultaneously: Seminar VIII: Light Of Meaning and Seminar IX: Darkness of Being, together acting as a "sequel" to Meditations in B, their first album. Both albums feature Scott (Kelly from Neurosis) crooning.
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