Kingdom Of Sorrow

Kingdom Of Sorrow

[4.5/5]

While it’s hard to imagine any record featuring Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed) and Kirk Windstein (Down/Crowbar) as well as alumni from both Black Label Society and Unearth won’t rock on some level, Kingdom Of Sorrow are one of those all-star side projects who deserve to be treated as a major plot point in the members’ careers. Seamlessly fusing Jasta’s hardcore instincts with purebred metal and a taste for doom, the songs kick and tug with unbridled intensity. The opening drums of “Hear My Prayer” break open a groove that pours you into the record, and the drama escalates from there. With crisp guitars and traded vocals, the band seem to write from one brain-a stunningly coherent result for a would-be one-off. Better yet, it’s a record written with heart and purpose-in its lyrical but moody atmosphere you can all but taste the tears flowing into the black floodwaters of Windstein’s homebase, New Orleans. There’s still fun to be had, though; some versions of the record come with an infectious cover of Motörhead’s “No Class,” and live, this stuff will inevitably beg for a ferocious pit. From any angle, Kingdom Of Sorrow is an excellent record for heavy music fans of all stripes. (RELAPSE) Jeff Leven

ROCKS LIKE:

Eyehategod’s Dopesick

Soilent Green’s Sewn Mouth Secrets

Crowbar’s Crowbar

IN-STORE SESSION WITH VOCALIST JAMEY JASTA

How did this project come together?
In March of 2005, we [Hatebreed] did the Rise Of Brutality tour with Crowbar. It was the very end of the album cycle, and we were planning on taking a year off with Hatebreed to sort of regroup, do other projects and get hungry again. I was partying with Kirk every day, and it was kind of a drunken idea to do this project record and then as the tour came to the end, he was like, “I’m really serious about trying to do something different than we’ve both done in our other bands, and I’d really be honored to do a side project with you, and I’d really be into it.” That was a dream come true for me because the guy is a vocal influence, a lyrical influence and he’s influenced a lot of the riffs that I write. So I said, “All right, we’ve got to make sure this is not just a drunken conversation that never turns into anything. Let’s bring it to fruition.” So I got him on a plane and we started working right then in May of ’05. So it’s been a labor of love and a two-year ordeal. [Laughs.]

So how did you write-did you just jam things out?

I came in with a bunch of ideas that I already had. I just starting playing them for Kirk, and he would do what we would end up calling “Kirkify” some of my riffs-he would add little tails and ideas here and there and then we started jamming them out. After [Hurricane] Katrina happened, it threw everybody for a loop and Kirk was displaced, but then I flew him back up and we resumed work on it.

How much of Katrina seeped into the record emotionally?

When I went down and we went into the studio to do guitars and stuff and do more vocals, I really got a firsthand look at everything. I rented a car and drove around and got in the mindset of what it would be like to have to rebuild your entire life. It was something I’ve never done before-I’ve gone to certain places to get inspired before to write music and to write lyrics, but I’ve never been to a place that literally the whole world had turned their back on in a way. It was a very intense energy.

Will you tour on this record?

Yeah, we’re looking forward to it. It’s gonna be a cool little bar tour. We’re gonna do, like, little 200-300 capacity bars, and it’s just going to be loud as hell. It’s going to be killer! –Jeff Leven