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NEWS RELEASE
Montreal, QC – October 6, 2020
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For fans of Yob, Chrome Ghost, Deftones, Slomatics, Tool
Canada’s Doom Duo Uncle Woe Offers “A Map of Dead Stars” Off Upcoming Album “Phantomescence”
Single Premiere via Doomed & Stoned
New Album “Phantomescence” Due Out October 23rd
Canada’s Uncle Woe brings you a contemplative, progressive doom album “Phantomescence” that was completely conceived and recorded in pandemic induced isolation.
“Phantomescence” deviates from the first Uncle Woe album as the band moves forward from a solo studio project. It is an easily digestible, logical next step in the band’s evolution; elements, which made the first LP, “Our Unworn Limbs”, engaging and intriguing are present again on this offering; expanded upon, polished, and moderately better produced. The new album deals with death in a much broader and less personal sense, and also contains a lot of abstract, dream sequence type elements.
Currently, as a two-piece, Rain Fice and Nicholas Wowk worked on their parts separately, shared them online, and managed to pull off the second album as the band.
Today leading up to the album’s release, the duo are sharing their second single “A Map of Dead Stars” via its premiere on Doomed & Stoned HERE.
The band adds about the track:
“The closing number on the album, ‘A Map of Dead Stars’, probably covers the most musical ground within a single song, and is somewhat difficult to describe in terms of common verse and chorus sections. It starts with a very bluesy, psychedelic passage built around a hypnotic 9/4 bassline, and features a fine slice of expressive lead playing. The bridge between this section and the first ‘verse’ comes in as a hefty wall of beefy sound, not dissimilar to the vibe one might expect from some sort of astral ‘battle doom,’ like Conan or Slomatics. This lets it go into some progressive stoner, alternating verse/chorus sections in 11/4, which give way to a slow, almost groove metal bridge in straight 4/4. We travel from there into an extended 6/4 section featuring almost ethereal, very clean vocal harmonies set against a simple, churning and harmonious guitar/bass arpeggio section, which leads back into that Slomatics style wall of sound section, and finally out through a reprisal of the initial psychedelic blues section. -fade to black.
Lyrically, this song is loosely based on a short sci-fi story I’m writing, about an ALMOST tide-locked planet, whose daily rotation takes several lifetimes to complete. The sunlit side of the planet is a scorching desert, and the dark side of the planet is a frozen, barren wasteland. The inhabitants of the planet are designed to live in the dusk and dawn slivers at the edges of the planet, perpetually migrating with the habitable section of soft light. They follow ancient maps of the stars, which lead them along safe passages over generations. The people in the dawn and dusk regions are ultimately unaware that each other exists, until such a time as the people on the dusk side eventually traverse the polar region and ultimately wage war on the peaceful dawn-dwelling peoples. If budget weren’t an issue, I would LOVE to see a video for this song as a fairly literal, short-film interpretation. Sadly, I am not independently wealthy. haha”
The full album “Phantomescence” is due out October 23rd via Packard Black Productions and available for digital, CD and vinyl pre-order HERE.
Many chugging, bludgeoning passages are offset by expansive and contemplative, subdued, almost post-rock soundscapes, making Uncle Woe suitable for fans of Yob, Chrome Ghost and Deftones.
First single “Become The Ghost” – YouTube.
Track Listing:
1. Become The Ghost (6:29)
2. On Laden Shores (13:30)
3. Lucid Degrees of Autoscopic Ruin (6:45)
4. A Map of Dead Stars (13:14)
EP Length: 40:00
Album Credits:
• All songs performed by: Rain Fice/Nicholas Wowk
• All songs written by: Rain Fice *Become the Ghost by Fice/Wowk
• Produced by: Rain Fice/Nicholas Wowk
• Mixed by: Rain Fice
• Mastered by: Rain Fice
• Album Artwork by: Rain Fice
• Canadian Content (MAPL)
EP Recording Band Line Up:
Rain Fice – Guitar, Vocals, Bass, Keyboards
Nicholas Wowk – Drums/Percussion
More info:
Facebook.com/unclewoe
Instagram.com/unclewoedoom
EPK
About:
Hailing from the oft frozen hills of rural Canada, Uncle Woe is a phantom limb, wielding a bludgeoning tool against mostly true tales of bittersweet sorrow, revenge, and regret.
The bleak desolation of Bancroft, Ontario spawned Uncle Woe in 2019 when Rain Fice grew weary of floundering in non-committed projects and instead dove into songwriting mode with a rough idea of his ideal sound and started carving out what would become the first Uncle Woe LP “Our Unworn Limbs”.
After the album was released in 2019 and started to pick up some buzz, a full band began to form. However, the pandemic was not far off and the band whittled down to a 2 piece. Before lockdown began, Uncle Woe managed to lock down the rough elements of what would become the second album “Phantomescence”, Fice expanded on them, and after being fed to drummer Nicholas Wowk, and recording remotely, the album was complete: a meandering exploration of death and dreams. Many chugging, bludgeoning passages are offset by expansive and contemplative, subdued, almost post-rock soundscapes.
As Uncle Woe begins to hit their stride, fans can look forward to the band putting out music pretty much indefinitely, plans are in motion for a third album already.
The band’s second album “Phantomescence” will be available digitally, CD, and on vinyl on October 23rd via Packard Black Productions.
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“The lone member (although it does seem as if drummer Nicholas Wowk has been added to the band) Rain Fice has created a truly wondrous journey through pure doom lands into that astral, transcendental other place doom of the aforementioned Yob that gives you goosebumps with its completely distressing doom metal. Fice’s clean echo-drenched vocals are also of very high quality, while not actually sounding like Mike Scheidt, Fice does exude a similar aura of supreme enlightenment and complete mastery of his art.” – Verbal Aggression
“Never be afraid to take a chance on a new name. This one comes to us from Ontario and was released earlier in the month, though I’m just now getting around to hearing it. I was pretty damned impressed and count UNCLE WOE in the same company as Domkraft, Spaceslug, Chrome Ghost, and Slomatics. Some damned good doom with crunchy low end and transcendent vocals. Count it among the #HeavyBest19” – Doomed & Stoned
“Chugging, sprawling, and most of all reaching, the late-2019 debut LP, Our Unworn Limbs, from Ontario as-yet-solo-outfit Uncle Woe — composed, performed, and recorded by Rain Fice — is one of marked promise, taking elements of modern progressive and cosmic doom from the likes of YOB’s subtly angular riffing style and unfolding them across an emotionally resonant but still manageable 43-minute span.” – The Obelisk
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