Cough was conceived in the fertile metal underground of Richmond, VA, USA, circa 2005. The newly-formed band sought to be the heaviest band ever from Richmond, and took inspiration from doom metal bands (Black Sabbath, Cathedral, Pentagram, Sleep, Electric Wizard, Goatsnake, etc.), grimy sludge (Grief, Eyehategod, Cavity) and early black metal (Bathory).
The band self-released an EP, The Kingdom, in 2007, and followed it quickly with their first proper full-length, Sigillum Luciferi, in 2008. Recorded with acclaimed producer Sanford Parker (Minsk, Rwake, Pelican, Nachtmystium), Sigillum Luciferi is an ugly, agonizing set of misanthropy set to music. Slight bits of psychedelia had wormed into the massive riffs and woven throughout the bands inhuman screams, making this one of the most promising pieces of doom metal to emerge from North America in quite some time.
Sporadic gigging followed the release before the band holed up in a Richmond warehouse to write the follow-up. Winter 2008 was brutal, the warehouse was filthy and unheated, and the band slowly labored forward with the writing between hospital visits and bouts of near-insanity. By winter 2009/2010, the band had signed to relapse records and returned to Chicago, IL, enlisting Parker once again to record the follow-up to Sigillum Luciferi.
That follow-up, their aptly-titled Relapse debut Ritual Abuse, delivers thoroughly massive, psychedelic doom. The album’s five epic tracks are impenetrable walls of sludge; at some points suffocating and claustrophobic, at others warped and hallucinogenic. Ritual Abuse is an impressive monolith of sound and volume, and one of the finest moments yet for 21st-century doom metal.
Upon its releases, the band embarked on two epic North American and European tours lasting almost four months, tours which would have broken lesser bands. No sooner did these road warriors return home than they hit the road with Buzzov•en and tattooed their uncompromising doom across L.A.’s vaunted Scion Rock Fest.
Parker Chandler - Bass, Vocal
An Introduction to the Black Arts (Split with The Wounded Kings) (2010)
Reflection of the Negative (Split with Windhand) (2013)
blakekathryn
andulkaphoto
pixelskylines
romaincrisis