Bell Witch: The Beginning Of The Cycle

Even in a genre dedicated to doing things low and slow, BELL WITCH stand head and shoulders above the pack. 2017’s Mirror Reaper moved at a pace measurable in aeons rather than minutes, a single 83-plus minute composition that captured the minds of not just funeral doom aficionados but those in the wider metal sphere too, even if only for its sheer audacity. Naturally, the only next step the duo could take was to write something even longer; enter Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate, and a slew of questions we had as to how exactly they approached writing this brand new conceptual triptych.

“We were scheduled to go and record at a studio in March 2020,” bassist and vocalist Dylan Desmond remembers. Not exactly great timing given the events of that month; with everything around them closing, they got a call from the owner of their practice space to pack up, or have their gear locked in for a then-indeterminate period of time. Instead, they cancelled their planned recording and opted to develop their ideas even further. Originally planning to write each album in the cycle in order, they instead mapped out the entire trilogy in one go.

Perhaps one of many people’s first questions would be; how can you write a single, 80+ minute song; not only that but having done it, do they feel forced to repeat it? “Everyone’s gonna feel a sense of expectation,” Dylan explains, “but Jesse [Shreibman, drums/vocals/organ/synth] don’t really give a shit about that. In some regards an 80 minute song isn’t really that different from an 80 minute album in four songs, or eight songs.” Jesse agrees with him, noting “there’s a really organic feeling to what we’re doing now.”

When they made previous album Mirror Reaper, “it wasn’t originally planned to be one giant song,” Jesse recalls. “We originally planned on having these separate movements, but as we kept writing and composing, it went from seven parts, to three, then two. At the end, we said, no, it’s just one song, and it was a real gamble putting that out.” Despite this, doom fans latched onto its grand ambition and stunning emotional depth as it eulogised former drummer Adrian Guerra after his untimely passing in 2016. In that, BELL WITCH found themselves freed of the yoke of traditional structures even further.

Perhaps the biggest difference then, is now that they know they can do it, is experimenting even further and bringing new sounds to the table, or reinforcing existing ones with more air time. As Jesse explains, “we put a lot more synthesisers on this record, and we also showcased the organ more.” Dylan expands on this; “we were learning how to bring the organ in, asking how does this new character fit into the whole?” The “more organ” point is immediately apparent; The Clandestine Gate opens with an eight-minute organ dirge, well before any other instruments even dare enter the fray.

Most bands would baulk at attempting something of Mirror Reaper’s scale alone. Most bands aren’t BELL WITCH, with a deep-seated desire to explore the space between notes, between life and death; this is even more apparent on The Clandestine Gate. The band have already confirmed this is part of a conceptual triptych, one they’ve planned outlines for the remaining two parts. Not only will they flow together as one whole, but it will also come full circle, with the end of Part 3 leading into Part 1.

“Clandestine Gate is modelled to be the beginning of a cycle,” Dylan explains, “though a cycle inherently has no beginning or end. So we’re at Dawn right now, and we approached it in that everything here will keep building, getting bigger and keep spreading out into the next piece.” In its simplest form, Future’s Shadow, as a trilogy, represents the cycle of a day, but it’s also informed in many ways by the ideas of eternal recurrence discussed at length by many thinkers, especially Friedrich Nietzsche. That idea, as they discovered during the creation of the album, speaks to something the band have always tried to do.

That thread initially was realised after Dylan read Nietzsche’s The Gay Science. “I think Nietzsche was trying to say was, what do you do differently right now if you have the option, if there’s such a thing as an option. [The Gay Science] has that axiom [of the eternal recurrence] in it, and we realised this is what we’ve been writing music about all along.” While some might take it as a negative, that nothing we do can be changed, and everything repeats on the same lines, they’re not so certain, posing the question, “can we be different from parents, can our kids be different from us? Everyone likes to think so, but sometimes it’s proven otherwise.”

As Dylan explains further of their exploring cycles, “the idea with the band has always been focused on a limbo or purgatory. If we looked at the three records in this cycle as a past, present and future, they could all be interchangeable in some regard, and the purgatory would be the present.” Jesse again picks up on the thought, explaining why the triptych is such a powerful motif; “it always has a homage to birth, life and death. But if there’s death, where’s decomposition? Is it rebirth, is that purgatory? The unknowing, that’s where all the good stuff is and that’s where BELL WITCH lives.”

The thought of playing it live has, of course, occurred to them, as on the Mirror Reaper tour cycle they were sometimes forced to play only certain sections depending on set length, and it’s the same again here. but there a new challenge too, in finding ways to involve all the new instruments, while never using backing tracks. “I’m still figuring it out,” grins Jesse, “we have a completely different setup of synthesisers and I have to control it all with my feet.” A challenge, to be sure, but one they’re happy to take up having managed to play the album in its entirety at this year’s Roadburn Festival.

Looking forward, they’ve already discussed playing it in full again in the future; “it was a much easier conversation,” Dylan says of their call. “We said, we could do it, and I kind of love that, it’s like we’re expanding. It’s challenging on an individual level, and what are we doing if we’re not trying to challenge ourselves.” He grins suddenly. “Do I sound like a motivational speaker? I’m not trying to sound like a motivational speaker.”

Ultimately, they know this is a challenge and a significant time investment for listeners, but it’s one that’s wholly worth the effort. And, with them looking forward, once all three parts are out, they’re very open to finding new ways to explore these sonic territories further such as visually, or in other formats. For now, though, it’s enough to them to have people listening to and experiencing the art they’ve made. “It’s a beginning, a dawn of sorts,” Dylan offers, but in its sprawling mass, there’s meaning enough to fill a lifetime of human experiences and learning.

The Clandestine Gate: Part 1 is out now via Profound Lore.

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