Funeral Fog
This is different than most doom I listen to (funeral death-doom). But it's so dark and enchanting! The Bough is a gorgeous and mesmerizing track!
BLACK MATH HORSEMAN
Pray
Why?
Forward fall
Time
Time
Zero
Sight
Eyes
A Light
Strike
Strike
____________
____________
____________
He said to let go
Of the man you follow
He said to let go
His wings are hollow
Once in the garden
There was a command
Echos of pardon
Carried by cold hands
Her ghost on their chants
He said to let go
Of the man you follow
He said to let go
His wings are hollow
Fortune shows mercy
But man bare’s remorse
Conjoined by a wound
Beauty is adored
Until it’s revealed
She carries the sword
He said to let go
Of the man you follow
He said to let go
His wings are hollow
Veil of lies has become
A source of pride
Emerald mine once concealed
Serpentine
Could this be Enoch’s curse?
Clandestine
Burn through and then bore the
Open eye
Foe
Falter
I’m the score
Aster
…BOAR DOMANE…
A blade broken in two
How man can be a fool
Look what they gave to you, a truce
My heart haunted, en cruce
Caught in the static of St. Paul
I’d been observing you for so long
Standing alone in the death of awe
I wanted God
Not Man, not laws
I wanted God
Not Man, not laws
What can you tell me now that I know
Violence was born when I gave you bones
I am the void underneath your cloak
I wanted God
Not Man, not laws
I wanted God
Not Man, not laws
Tearing into the sun
It’s my crown
Celestial re-design
I’ll opt for this might
Saturn strikes the circle
This time out
Slow down the stars
Slow down the war
I am not yours
Masters be warned
…THE BOUGH…
Half dead, from the war
An immaculate heart full of thorns
Drifting on the waves
When a woman falls out of phase
It’s a wonder man survives
And you’re all still here to watch me rise
Can’t you see I choose sleep
Because love has no decree
Atrocity runs deep
In this human family
What will you do, finally?
It’s your last chance to be free
Can’t you see I’m your King?
My body won’t bend the knee
Like a man who hunts dreams
I’ll ambush this whole story
What will you do, finally?
It’s your last chance to be free
When you tried to kill me
I let you believe the news
My silence was a seed
Now I’ve got some things to say to you
Fate
We’re alive
We’re the last ones here with the light
And it wants to make a strike
So I’ll hold you close till the last star does shine
Set, doves fly
Left, iron
Let floodlight,
Kept, we’re the fire
light, flies
Sunrise
Dawn of
Final
Life-death-life
…CYPHER…
Come to the river of time
Come to the secret rite
Come when you can’t decide
Come when the world’s not right
Call out,
Zero hour
I’m in the out of time
I’m in the quartz high wire
I’m in the waves all night
I’m in the paradise
Call out,
Zero hour
about
"Black Math Horseman" presented as one singular track in four chapters:
1. Black Math Horseman
2. Boar Domane
3. The Bough
4. Cypher
Overview:
In 2009, Black Math Horseman released their debut album, "Wyllt". The band’s music was unlike almost everything that existed at the time. It was hypnotic, heavy, sonic alchemy that seemed to emanate from another time, another place. The members—vocalist/bassist Sera Timms, guitarists Ian Barry and Bryan Tulao, and drummer Sasha Popovic—had somehow tapped into heavy music’s collective subconscious. A European tour, along with appearances at Roadburn and Primavera Sound, solidified Black Math Horseman’s reputation as a mesmerizing live band. Then, just a few years later, they were gone.
“When we came together initially as a band, we had no goals aside from seeing if we could make beautiful music together,” Timms explains. “We made a demo, which turned into an album because it was liked. And then we became a working band that was being asked to play shows and tours. But we had never discussed what the long-term goals of the band were. There became a schism between some members wanting to become a professional band and others wanting to remain in the creative center of the rehearsal space. Those disagreements led to the band dissolving.”
In 2018, the members of Black Math Horseman reconvened. “At first, the conversation was about how we were all in different places now, and could we even go back to being that band that we were?” Timms offers. “It feels like it’s been a thousand years since we wrote that music. Since then, I’d gone in a very different direction and barely even listened to heavy music anymore. So, initially we just got back together as friends to see what would happen. Maybe we’d write completely different music now—and we were all open to that.”
But that’s not how it worked out at all. “When we started jamming again, we didn’t sound any different,” Timms says. “We discovered that the music that comes from us four together is something that we have no control over. It just happens. It’s a recipe that’s beyond us.”
As of 2022, Black Math Horseman have re-emerged from the fog of time and memory with a stunning new comeback release. Their self-titled follow-up to "Wyllt" makes it seem as if the band never stopped playing together. A trance-inducing journey to the center of humanity’s inner turmoil, "Black Math Horseman" is meant to be listened to as a single, continuous composition.
Conceptually and lyrically, the record continues the storyline from "Wyllt", which follows the mysterious character known as the Black Math Horseman. “This is where the character really comes into full bloom with their ‘black math,’ which is aggressive, manipulative reality shaping,” Timms explains.
“The essence of the album is overcoming a great enemy, a great adversarial force, and reaching a place of harmony that has never been found before,” she continues. “You go to a dark place and destroy relationships that you love, all based on ego. Eventually, you have nothing. And when you have nothing, you have to find a new way of doing things. That’s where we’re at now as a band and family, and that’s also the theme of the record.”
Though the album was composed as one long song, the band divided it into chapters to accommodate today’s listening habits. Gorgeous centerpiece “The Bough” captures a moment of clarity in the main character’s trajectory. “‘The Bough’ is essentially that moment when you realize you have been courting an illusion,” Timms explains. “You’ve put every bit of your heart and soul into courting this illusion, but when you realize that there’s nothing behind it, you want to destroy everything—not only the illusion, but reality and yourself. It’s that lightning bolt of clarity that comes through destruction—that’s what the song is.”
Most of "Black Math Horseman" was recorded in the band’s rehearsal space with engineer Manny Nieto. Covid lockdown kicked in the very next day, so Timms didn’t track her vocals—this time in the studio—until five months later. All subsequent overdubs and mixing were handled by Ian Barry, with guidance from Ben Chisholm.
Unlike with "Wyllt", Timms chose not to play bass on the new record. Instead, multi-instrumentalist Rex Elle graciously filled in. “Rex played everything that I wrote and added a few parts of her own, but I didn’t play bass on the album because I wanted to just focus on singing,” Timms explains. “I’m going to be performing without playing bass, and I don’t want my vocal parts to be limited to what I can do while I’m playing bass.”
Ultimately, "Black Math Horseman" is so much more than a reunion release. It’s a celebration of familial bonds and shared history. “The core essence of the band is the family that we have, and the music we make within that family,” Timms concludes. “There’s nothing else.”
credits
released October 21, 2022
This recording was performed by BMH and Rex Elle on 03.18.19 at Downtown Rehearsal, Los Angeles, CA.
Tracked by Manny Nieto.
Additional Recording at Forward Fall Studios.
Mixed and Engineered by Ian Barry.
Mastered by Ben Chisholm.
Additional bass on "The Bough" and "Cypher" intro's written by Rex Elle.
Sera's main/current band. Spin magazine called it “Processional doom, [with] ethereal female harmonies and high-strung riffs [that] incite head-bowing, not –banging.” Black Math Horseman