US / THEM: THE WELL share socially-distanced "Sabbah" live performance video via Metal Injection

"Their most intimate, darkly personal record yet... Taking them out of the doom corner and giving it a raw, post-punk feel. "Raven" sounds like a Satanic, downtuned Steppenwolf, and frankly we can’t get enough." -- Kerrang!

"An intoxicating mix of stoner metal and occultist rock -- it’s dark n’ doomy, sure, but it’s also as catchy as fly paper coated in industrial strength glue." -- Metal Sucks

Austin trio The Well share a new "live in quarantine" video for "Sabbah" via Metal Injection from their powerful third album Death and Consolation. Watch and share "Sabbah" HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

About the video:

During a global pandemic, an American political revolt and a new world in quarantine, one has to consider fresh ways to view the production of videos and making and performing music in unchartered territory, unlike anything this generation has seen before. The Well tackled just that when faced with creating a video for their single "Sabbah" from their most recent release Death and Consolation. With a limited time frame and social distancing in full effect, The Well had to get creative, channeling a psychedelic dark experience through a very different means. Each member of the band (Ian Graham on guitar, Jason Sullivan on drums, and Lisa Alley on bass) recorded their parts individually with sound engineer, TV's Daniel, masked up in their practice space in Austin, Texas.

The next night, on a small outdoor set, each band member filmed their respective video parts solo, joined only by TV's Daniel as masked director and videographer. The scenes were then inter-woven together into a mesmerizing smokey psychedelic dreamscape using 3 cameras and projector lights to reconstruct the group experience. All said and done, this live version of "Sabbah" was recorded, mixed, shot and edited in a three day quarantine time turnaround, resulting in a unique and experimental piece of work that encapsulates the energy of The Well's live performance, despite being surrounded by nothing but uncertainty and detachment in the world around them.

About the band's most recent album:

Death and Consolation is without a doubt a weighty album title. And, The Well is among the heaviest heavy psych bands in existence. So when we say that there's even more darkness and intensity to the band's third album than previous efforts, take heed. It's a deep sea diving bell of enveloping heaviness and longing.

"This one is a little more personal," says guitarist/vocalist Ian Graham. "2018 was a strange, dark year. A lot of change going on in my life, there was a lot of depression and coming out of it over the last year. I wanted to call this Death and Consolation, because in life that's a constant."

While The Well continue to walk an intriguing line between authentic early 70s doom/heavy psych and frayed weirdness of dark folk - especially with their haunting unison male/female vocals - the new album also adds the stark vibe of post-punk acts like Joy Division and early The Cure. "I feel like this album is almost more gothic. We're big fans of post-punk," Graham says. There's also much less jamming, the songs are tight and concise. And, did we mention, heavy? The band tuned down a full step to C-standard tuning for this album, which gives the proceedings its monstrous sound.

Sonically, Death and Consolation picks up where The Well -- Graham, bassist/vocalist Lisa Alley and drummer Jason Sullivan -- left off with their widely heralded 2016 RidingEasy album Pagan Science. The band once again recorded with longtime producer/engineer Chico Jones at Estuary Studio in 2018, who has turned the knobs for all three of their albums (Jones engineered the band's debut album Samsara with producer Mark Deutrom [Melvins, Sunn0)))] in 2013.) Samsara, released late September 2014 was ranked the #1 debut album of 2014 by The Obelisk and Pagan Science among the Best of 2016 from the Doom Charts collective. Likewise, the band's intense -- some even say "possessed" -- live performances have earned them featured slots at Austin's Levitation Fest, as well as tours with Kadavar, All Them Witches, Black Tusk and more.

"This album might be a little less produced, because I didn't want to push technical stuff as much," Graham says. "I'm so scared of getting too complicated when getting better at guitar. This is still kind of punk rock."

Death and Consolation is available on LP, CD and download as of April 26th, 2019 via RidingEasy Records. Orders are available HERE.