Patriarchs In Black‘s third studio album, Visioning, is out now via Metalville Records, and they’ve also released new single and video ‘Before I Go’.
‘Before I Go’ features Karl Agell (COC Blind/Lie Heavy) on vocals and Dog Eat Dog bassist Dave Neabore. The video was created by Jay Bones and you can check it out here.
“Karl has sang for us on all three of our albums and Johnny and I love working with Karl as well as Dave” Lorenzo stated. “I’ve only met with Karl in person a handful of times, but we go back to 1992 when he jumped up on stage to perform ‘Snowblind’ with Non-Fiction in Raleigh.Karl’s voice has only gotten better since then.”
Former Type O Negative and Danzig drummer Johnny Kelly and guitarist riff writer Dan Lorenzo formed Patriarchs In Black at the end of 2021. The project included well known guests on vocals and bass including Karl Agell (COC Blind/Lie Heavy), Jimmy Gnecco and Dewey Bragg (Kill Devil Hill/Bill Ward) among others.
Their debut single ‘Demon of Regret’ came out January 2022 and the full album Reach For The Scars in July that year. They followed that with the My Veneration album in October 2023, featuring multiple guest vocalists and bassists as the current album in development.
Glorenzo has written a dozen new songs for the new album, and commented: “It’s so fun and not putting too much pressure on singers to come up with one or two amazing lyrics and melodies a year. I write a lot of riffs/music,” and that the album was coming together “very easily”.
Previously, they released the single ‘A Few Good Men’. Guitarist Dan Lorenzo said of the song: “I wrote ‘A Few Good Men’ with Kelly Abe. It’s the quickest song on the album. Kelly wrote the lyrics.”
Kelly Abe followed with: “’A Few Good Men’ is a homage to the small group of true brothers we have in our lives, who are there for the long haul at times that matter most. It’s a commentary on fair-weather friends, acknowledging that camaraderie is easy when times are good, but over time you come to realize that only true brothers show up when it’s inconvenient: Camaraderie is fodder on a proper day, for all the friends who spring to leave dismay.”
Available digitally, you can check out the video for the single here at RAMzine.
It followed previous single ‘Welcome To Hell Again‘, about which Lorenzo commented: “As soon as I wrote the music to ‘Welcome To Hell Again’ I knew I wanted to have Kelly Abe and DMC collaborate on the lyrics and vocals. I had just written a song with DMC for his next solo album he’s calling Teriffic.”
About his lyrics DMC said: “I’m basically saying it’s a choice to live in hell! We sometimes create our own hell. Regardless of what’s going on, we can speak life or death and positivity or negativity. The spirit I spit is how I live my life. How can carry myself. I’m basically telling the devil and evil to bring their best! I can handle whatever they bring at me! I love working with Patriarchs In Black because they’re great musicians and I love the content of their songs. A lot of emotional stuff I can relate to.”
You can check out the video to the new single here at RAMzine.
Beside drummer Johnny Kelly, the record features assorted great singers and bass players, like Dave Neabore (Dog Eat Dog), Karl Agell (Corrosion Of Confirmity), Eric Morgan (A Pale Horse Named Death), Mark Sunshine (Riotgod), Jason McMaster (Watchtower), Kyle Thomas (Exhorder).
The songs on Visioning combine elements of classic doom metal with modern sounds as well as excursions into hardcore/crossover. The album was mixed and mastered at JROD Productions by Jon Cioicari.
Previously, they released ‘What Do They Know?’ as a single from the new album.
Guitarist Dan Lorenzo said of the song: “I hope everybody loves this song as much as we do. I wrote the music and Mark Sunshine wrote the lyrics and melody. When I wrote the music, I wrote the verse and the chorus simultaneously and I knew I needed a third part for the song. So what I do is I play along with the click track and I just do what comes naturally.
“The third part of the song was so simplistic and I wondered why I wrote something that wouldn’t be that interesting. Then I decided to try some harmonies and add those to the notes, and I feel like I came up with something that I’ve never done before. Multiple guitar harmonies. Of course Johnny Kelly is on drums and on bass guitar is Iron Lou who is really big in the Maryland doom scene.
“Lou has been a really big Hades and non-fiction fan for many years and he told me he can now die a happy man after playing on one of my songs. Sunshine did his usual incredible original lyrics and melody line and I’m so happy with this.”
