from the Apostle of Solitude Facebook page: “well, the Apostle / Pale Divine 2018 summer tour has finally come to an end. after 3,467 miles (and even more for Pale Divine) we must return to the land of the living. major thanks to our brothers in Pale Divine, everyone who came out, bought some merch, let us crash, booked a show, or shared the stage with us. good times, new friends, old friends, new venues, killer jams, record heat waves and much laughter made this trip a special and memorable one. CHEERS!”

2018 HOW THE WEST WAS DOOMED TOUR:

7/20 Lafayette LA – Freetown Boom Boom Room w Forming the Void & Doomstress
7/21 Houston TX – Dan Electro’s (1pm early show)
7/21 San Antonio TX – Faust Tavern
7/22 Austin TX – Beerland w Witchcryer
7/23 Dallas TX – Prophet Bar w Kin of Ettins, Space Ape & Stone Machine Electric
7/24 Fort Smith AR – Hero’s w RedWitch Johnny
7/25 Shreveport LA – Bear’s w 18th State
7/26 Memphis TN – Growlers w Admiral Longtooth
7/27 Indianapolis IN – State Street Pub w Desert Planet
7/28 Chicago IL – Reggie’s w deepspacepilots

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Apostle of Solitude are releasing a new music video today for the song “Ruination be thy Name”. Their critically acclaimed new album, “From Gold to Ash” was released in February on Italy’s premiere heavy metal label, Cruz Del Sur Music.

“From Gold to Ash” has been hailed as “a towering monster of melodic doom” at Nine Circles. The Obelisk called it “an utter triumph of form” and Matt Bacon at Metal Injection said it was “absolutely massive.”

Apostle of Solitude will host an album release show this Friday, March 23rd at Black Circle Brewing in Indianapolis, along with Desert Planet, Devil to Pay and Shroud of Vulture.

A US summer tour is currently in the works as well as another trip across the pond with Apostle of Solitude confirmed for the 2018 installment of DOOM OVER VIENNA festival in Vienna, Austria.

more love for “From Gold to Ash”:

“unrelenting, unforgiving” – Decibel Magazine
“classic, powerful doom metal” – Invisible Oranges
“a brilliant record; deep and dark.”- the Sludge Lord
“pristine doom” – the New Noise
“This is old school doom with the soul of Black Sabbath” – Rockmuzine
“they have taken the crown from Solitude Aeturnus as America’s best epic doom band” – Wormwood Chronicles
“a rare and beautiful thing” – Bandcamp Daily
” an album full of riffs, melancholy, and a complete lack of pretension” – Angry Metal Guy
“45 minutes of pure auditory pleasure” – Hellzine .be
“pure sadness, steeped in every fiber of music” – Ragherrie
“a bulky, gritty album” – metal underground

Two new Apostle interviews out today, one at The Metal Bulletin, which you can read here: metalbulletin.blogspot.com

The second is in Italy’s Rock Hard magazine. You can read the english translation below:

If doom metal is experiencing yet another season of great vitality, it is also due to bands like Apostle of Solitude, who for years have been moving constantly up the scene, taking advantage of the teachings of the past but trying to leave their personal mark. Which for the Indiana band now takes shape in the form of a new record, ‘From Gold to Ash’. It’s up to the singer and guitarist Chuck Brown to set the record straight, and not only …

From Gold..’ is your 4th album. Does it show any side of Apostle Of Solitude you haven’t disclosed yet?

With From Gold To Ash we didn’t specifically do anything we had not done before but I do think with the new record we expanded upon things we’ve been more conservative with before. Like the use of more vocal harmonies and more diverse second guitar parts. Because of that we hope existing fans will find the new album consistent with the older material yet refreshing and evolving.

How did you work on the new songs? Any difference in the songwriting process?

It’s really the same process we’ve used in the past with the varying lineups. I will usually bring in a skeleton of a song or idea and as a band we tweak the arrangements, add or remove second guitar parts etc. The vocals are typically the final thing we do. This time around there was more collaboration with Steve and I on lyrics and melodies than in the past which I feel has helped make this our best effort yet.

Can you identify an overall theme or atmosphere overarching the complete album?

As with most AoS material on a whole the tone of it is rather somber. Themes dealing with
everyday tragedy and despair are present in nearly every song.

As always, you have very strong melodies. How important are melodies for a doom metal band?

It just depends on the band to me. For Apostle, yes strong guitar and vocal melodies are important but for some other bands maybe there is more emphasis on guitar riff style or vocal style. We certainly don’t subscribe to a set of rules for what qualifies something as heavy or more specifically doom.

Equally, the songs express quite a melancholic feeling… Do you need to feel melancholic to play doom?

Like most things it can help if you have experience with what you are writing about but I don’t think it’s essential. I don’t need to jump off a cliff to imagine it would be quite horrendous to do so. I suppose though that it is necessary to have a good imagination if you’ve not gone through said experience.

Seen from the outside, doom metal seems to be quite a homogeneous genre, which is actually not. Which bands share your same vision of doom?

I’m honestly not sure I have an answer to that. There are so many artists we all like but I don’t know if like us they don’t really consider themselves strictly doom. So I’m not sure if our ideas are in line with other bands or not.

How difficult is to differentiate yourself, staying on the track of doom?

It can be difficult to try and balance keeping true to what you’ve established as “your sound” and still achieving uniqueness each time you write something new. It’s something we are conscious of but don’t dwell on. Writing a song we’re proud of is what matters most.

A title like ‘From Gold To Ash’ sounds quite pessimistic. What are the reasons behind this choice? It could also have a religious feeling…

I would agree that the title is a pessimist’s view of things but it can also be viewed as a realist’s approach to things. In acknowledging that nothing lasts forever and that it’s out of your hands maybe there’s some peace to be found with that understanding.

Since a couple of years, doom seems to be quite in favor with media and fans. Why in your opinion? Does it make things easier for a band like yours?

I would imagine there are many factors to why something becomes the vogue thing. I hope that it’s largely to do with people having access to bands who prior to the internet age were marginalized not because of lack of talent but because there wasn’t enough money in it for the general media to bother with. The Doom genre getting more attention definitely helps a band like AoS but unfortunately sometimes people begin to pull away when a certain style starts getting too much attention and you’re back to where things started.
Is what it is. Just the way of the world.

Any chance to see you touring on this side of the ocean? Anything already planned?

Absolutely. We’re planning a 10 day eastern US tour this summer and are also planning a 10 day tour in Europe this November. So definitely be on the lookout for the specifics dates and cities over the next couple of months.

Thanks to the good people at The Doom Charts, “From Gold to Ash” has moved up to the #3 spot!

The Doom Charts represents some of the finest bloggers, journalists, radio and podcasters, album reviewers from the doom-stoner underground around the globe. Each month, their critics submit their picks for the best new doom-sludge metal and stoner-psychedelic rock albums. The results are compiled and tabulated into doom charts. The Doom Charts is “a one-stop shop for the best new albums in the world.”

You can check out the February Doom Charts HERE

The good people of Decibel Magazine have reviewed ‘From Gold to Ash’ in the latest issue.

Dooming while Rome burns

Isolation claims ample souls, but the trajectory of Apostle of Solitude through doom into a majestic outerness fairly levitates across a decade of full-lengths. Fourth scripture ‘From Gold to Ash’ broils purely Old Testament – unrelenting, unforgiving and easily the heaviest element in the Indianapolis quartet’s catalog – yet buoyantly so. Lift is their gift.

Debut LP ‘Sincerest Misery’ established three Apostles’ spiraling upward guit-harmonies. ‘Last Sunrise’ then perfected the Midwestern Valhalla vocals of bandleader Chuck Brown, drummer on Gates of Slumber’s first long-player. ‘Of Woe and Wounds’ in 2014 rused both by delivering the band’s ‘Blue Record’ (Baroness), two torpedoes straight into the hull of peak ability, a colossal sound carved from proggy formations and epic intonations outlined by moaning grunge.

‘From Gold to Ash’ maintains that summit at an inexorable pace. Past the ‘Leviathan’ rush of instro intro “Overlord,” this is the slowest roll in their boneyard (see album title), and another juicy welt on Brown & Co.

The following “Ruination Be They Name” maps doom from Birmingham to Seattle lit by a Slash-ing solo, while the folk interlude segueing into its first-side twin pillar, “Keeping the Lighthouse,” tolls spooky solidarity with the delicate beginning to B-side opener “My Heart is Leaving Here.” Those moments of solo guitars frame the group’s fraternal chorus and mondo sound in a prism of 1970s glory metal.

Side two never quite closes the circle – 10-minute “Monochrome (Discontent)” – but there’s no mistaking its completeness either. And ‘Ash’ would benefit from another vein of ‘Gold’ – a ruby red burner or two – but Apostle of Solitude proselytizes successfully at every turn.

– Raoul Hernandez

Apostle of Solitude’s “From Gold to Ash” was officially released today via Cruz Del Sur Music.

You can order your copy (digital, CD or LP) via the bandcamp page here

“an utter triumph of form” – the Obelisk
“absolutely massive” – Metal Injection
“classic, powerful doom metal” – Invisible Oranges
“unrelenting, unforgiving” – Decibel

Our new album “From Gold to Ash” is available for streaming today thanks to our friends at The Obelisk. (special thanks to JJ for the kind words) We have waited a long time for this moment and would humbly like to thank everyone whose support has made it possible.

You can listen to the stream HERE

LPs and CDs available via the Cruz Del Sur Music website and will be available on bandcamp on 2/23.

Album release show is 3/23 at Black Circle Brewing Co. (Indy) with Desert Planet – band, Devil To Pay and Shroud of Vulture.

Apostle of Solitude’s “From Gold to Ash” shares the top spot on Powermetal.de’s February Soundcheck. You can check out the chart HERE

The site also ran a stellar review, which you can check out HERE

Powermetal’s review (translated from German):

Doom close to perfection

What makes good Doom? Is it the sad melodies, the heavy riffs, the slow tempo? More recently psychedelic retro-moments are added, others swear by doom death with the deepest gurgling and even heavier riffs or the pathos of the Scandinavian epic dooms. But what characterizes a pure, purist doom album shows APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE on “From Gold To Ash” almost to perfection.

Spacious production without computer steroids or false retro sound, a brittle atmosphere and simply beautiful songs, where you feel every second the emotions that are so important for the Doom. That the men from Indianapolis can play, we already know for a long time, that they can live it also since the tour in the year 2016 likewise. All this is now combined on the new album with some of the best songs the band has ever written.

Chuck Brown and colleagues carry out all the wounds and all their suffering audibly for everyone without falling into self-pity, it goes on and on, no matter what fate may bring, suffering gives rise to beauty, to vocal or guitar melodies, to one the accentuated drumming of Corey, which was taken here wonderfully authentic continues to drive. This music can give strength, can pick you up in the darkest moments, comfort you and raise you again, because you know that you are not alone, that there is no reason to give up and all this without pathos, kitsch or platitudes.

It is this honesty that distinguishes APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE and makes “From Gold To Ash” such a strong album. Picking out individual songs here makes little sense, because weak sounds are simply not here. Hits are of course also in vain, because a hit would completely resist the spirit of this album. Instead, listen to “From Gold To Ash” in its entirety and indulge in the catharsis that this album represents. Soul hygiene of the very finest kind and on a captivating musical level, this is the album to date for the time being, to which all traditional Doom bands will have to compete.
– Raphael Päbst

more accolades for “From Gold to Ash”:

“From Gold to Ash is one of the best albums that’s going to come out in 2018.”
– The Obelisk

“Apostle of Solitude‘s brand of doom practically bleeds emotion, particularly on their excellent soon-to-be-released fourth album, From Gold to Ash.”
– Decibel Magazine

“A momentous doomy 7 tracks, ones filled with bitterness and aching beauty. The crushing slabs of metal, dark enough to consume the soul are lifted with the light of the vocals that deliver sorrowful & soulful melodies.”
– Games, Brrraaains, & A Head-Banging Life

“Ambitious and equally aching doom. From Gold To Ash covers a wide spectrum of doom, from thundering gallops, mid-tempo bashers to reflective, melodic romps.”
– Metal Nexus

“These guys tend to be gloomier than most, as their lyrics often deal with real-life struggles, as opposed to bong-smoking wizards in outer space… which only makes the music that much more impactful.” (8.5/10)
– Hellbound.ca

“From Gold to Ash, just might be the band’s strongest effort yet. It’s easily their most emotive, and it’s going to cause some major waves in the doom world.”
– Indy Metal Vault

“Full of heavy guitars and melodic vocals. Such an outstanding album.” (4/5)
– Baby Dolls and Razor Blades

“With great sincerity and an overwhelming ability to create beauty in a strikingly simple way, Apostle of Solitude, on this magnificent From Gold to Ash, standardizes on the sonorous razorblade of its artistic proposal all the vociferating, but exceedingly human, devices of their musical sensibility.”
– Merchants of Air

The brand new Apostle of Solitude video for “Keeping the Lighthouse” premieres today via Deaf Forever (DE). The video was produced by Apostle of Solitude with J Rich Media.

You can check it out here