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