Windhand is routinely compared to doom genre leaders Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus. Setting themselves apart from those burly leather bruisers is vocalist Dorthia Cottrell, her ritualistic vocals bowling over long-established greats. Their debut title Soma earned much praise, nabbing Rolling Stone’s #3 in their 20 Best Metal Albums last year. Despite what looks like a rusted on doom tag, earlier this year in Spin magazine, guitarist Garrett Morris said he “doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as doom band.” Why not?
“The place we’ve gained influence from and where we derive riffs from, it’s all rock’n’roll,” Wolfe says. “We pull influences from the Rolling Stones, and you can throw that back to the blues. The Grateful Dead is a huge influence on me, so is Led Zeppelin. I think ‘doom’ is just a contrived label. Nowadays anybody can be doom. If you want to be that, it’s fine. But really, it’s just rock’n’roll. I listen to rock’n’roll. I don’t listen to doom.”
Windhand like keeping things loose. So loose, some songs are a hit-and-miss affair. It doesn’t bother Wolfe, playing right into his cheeky nature. “Nothing is intentional in this band,” he says, dripping in down South drawl. “It just happens, from my point of view, anyway. Sometimes we’ll sit and write a song, there’s a lot of jamming. A lot of pot smoking,” he chuckles, “and a lot of let’s just see what the fuck happens when we play this riff. When I hear a riff or a song, the way I approach it is that I’ll play every beat and note that’s possible to play. Then I figure out what one feels right.”
Despite recording, mastering and locking tracks away, what’s heard on vinyl or CD is seldom the final cut. Windhand aren’t completely sold on songs being “complete.” Fans hanging out for carbon-copy reproductions on tour soon realise that’s not Windhand’s thing.
“There are things that happen on the road. We stumbled upon a part and I kept it. This was after we had recorded the track. I don’t play it as we did on the recording. It’s totally different. There are other versions of a few songs we’ve done. Unfortunate for people who want [to hear] the song as we did it on the record, but I’m glad I found it. Some songs are definitive, but others are open to interpretation. We jam live. It’s strictly by luck and fortune some songs end up the way they are.”
Wolfe’s drumming style is as freewheeling as their approach to music. It’s not surprising he fits right into Windhand. Anything quicker than sludge wouldn’t work, since Wolfe, “can’t play fast.”
“I’m physically unable to play that fast. I don’t know if it happened by chance or luck or on purpose, but stopped being able to play fast years ago. Then I started playing in Windhand and I started to realise, ‘Oh, so there’s technique involved,’” he laughs. “I should learn how to be a real drummer. I try really hard and study really hard. When I do, it sucks. When I shut up and close my eyes, it works out pretty well.”
Wolfe’s flown into Austin, Texas having met up with some friends ahead of a show. After some gigs in the US, they’ll be flying out for a full Australian and New Zealand tour. There’s no shortage of supports, with doom/sludge/stoner rock devotees Summonus, Clagg, Horsehunter and Lizzard Wizzard joining them on select dates. Australia and New Zealand will be new experiences for Ryan and band.
“I’m still nervous. I don’t know what the fuck to expect,” says Wolfe about the tour. “I’m extremely giddy about it. I’m giddy because we got this opportunity to come down there. We’ve heard nothing but insanely amazing things about it. I’m stoked, I’m honoured.”
Small seeds of an Oceania tour were planted in Windhand’s mind by Lizzard Wizzard, with whom they’ll soon share the stage. “Lizzard Wizzard wrote us an email during one of our tours in Europe,” Wolfe says. “They asked us if they’d do a split with them. Now it’s come full circle that we’re gonna’ play a show with them, it’s pretty crazy. It really is a small world.”
A smaller world still is the Southern United States’ doom scene. Acts like Down, Eyehategod and Pentagram are torch bearers for the sound, influencing countless other Southern. Akin to regional sounds such as Gothenburg, Sweden’s melodic death metal scene and the San Francisco Bay Area’s thrash scene, what makes the South the go-to place for everything slow n’ heavy?
“I don’t know what it is,” Wolfe says thoughtfully. “I’m curious about it myself. Maybe it’s the fucking heat? The sweltering humidity? God, it’s brutal down here. It’s atrocious. But, that kinda’ music, it breeds down there. I’m from there and I still don’t fuckin’ know.”
BY TOM VALCANIS
