Green Druid: The Future Stands Still For No One

Hailing from across the Atlantic Ocean, in the city of Denver, Colorado, 2018, doom metallers GREEN DRUID released their critically acclaimed debut album, Ashen Blood. They captured the hearts of those who worshipped weighty riffs and enjoyed feeling like they were entranced in the murky depths of a bottomless pit. Since that date, the band have steadily been one of doom’s best kept secrets, until now. Having signed to Earache Records for their recently released follow-up album, At The Maw Of Ruin, they have made it clear that they will be heard with their message.

On announcing the album, the band said about the album’s concept, “in order to cleanse the rot from our planet, we as a species need to stop thinking so inward and have a ‘death of self’.” Like most doom, it appears to be fairly dismal, but we caught up with the band to talk further about just what the album stands for.

“The way I write is mostly just rooted in the emotional side of things. The emotion comes first and then I write a story or something with themes around that. A lot of this album comes from feeling helpless and desperate and seeing what’s happening around you and feeling like you have no control over it,” bassist Mikey Honiotes says. “A lot of stuff around like cleansing the rot from our planet and everything like that feels very much like there’s a human rock. I’m not one of these people who thinks we all need to die and go away, I mean I do like that manic idea, but I think we need to stop thinking so selfishly and stop acting like we own the planet, like we have a God given right to fuck up the environment, especially for financial reasons.”

It’s a pretty reasonable feeling to have in hindsight of things. Over recent years, we’ve become more aware of the damage that we, as a species, have inflicted on our planet and whilst some people are becoming more conscious of their choices, the majority are not. It’s then we are faced with the bleak reality that time won’t stop just for us to fix what we have done, so action needs to be taken now.

When it comes to answers however, GREEN DRUID are clear that they don’t have any themselves, and aren’t here to preach to the choir. For them it is about getting out their own personal frustrations from the world, and only hope that some people will listen and take note that something has to change.

“None of us like to preach about anything, we don’t consider ourselves a political band or anything like that. We’re talking about these things now because they’re relevant to what’s happening in our lives and in our headspaces. None of us really pretend to have any answer for this stuff and I think that’s why we kind of get at that a little bit in the record,”

Honiotes continues, “I don’t have any answers or what should be done. I just know what I want to see out of people and when people really disappoint me with their actions, that’s the kind of stuff I want to stop being. Just people like not having compassion for people, it’s not that hard but when you’ve got people that are superficial, we have people out there protesting because they can’t get haircuts and all these material things that they think they need in their lives and I just don’t believe it. I wish people would chill out first of all, and figure out what’s really important to them. For me, what I get out of this music, is what I want a lot of people to get out of this music. Sometimes this feeling of nihilism but also hopeless, I don’t have answers but I just need to scream about it.”

Upon talking, each member of GREEN DRUID sits in agreement with Honiotes, and it becomes recognisable that this isn’t about preaching to any choir about how they are better for acknowledging what’s going on in the world. They’re just like everyone else, and in desperate hopes that people will learn more about what to do in order to help undo, or stop the damage we are doing.

Doom is a genre that fills you with a darkened void in the pit of your stomach, but in this instance, the subject matter that the band have tackled is what makes the dread linger longer than it needs to. They keep themselves to themselves, and very rarely put themselves into the spotlight of social media, focusing on their sound as opposed to what they post. Their reserved attitude is something that helps them communicate on how they feel better within the music, and that is something that definitely shows on At The Maw Of Ruin.

GREEN DRUID are here to be taken seriously in a genre that sometimes gets overlooked in that region. They’re here to make some noise and hopefully wake some people up, but at the same time, create something that is cathartic not just for them, but for listeners. Our world may seem like all hope is lost, but we can only hope that with more band’s around like these Denver-doomers, change will come.

At The Maw Of Ruin is out now via Earache Records. 

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