Pod People – Doom Saloon LP

First time on vinyl reissue of the Pod People 2001 debut, Doom Saloon. From the band: This is our first full length album. We were able to record it with the assistance and investment by High Beam Records. Jeb and Andrew were friends of ours for a couple of years before we recorded. Andrew McKenzie in particular was a big fan as we were one of a very bands doing Sabbath inspired doom metal in Australia in the 90's. The dude sold his house to go to the UK for the OG lineup Sabbath reunion - so that should give you an idea of how much of a doom lord he is and the album would not have happened without his investment. We had recorded at Back Beach Studios in Rye, Victoria on our previous EP's which are available on the site also. On both EP's we worked with DW Norton who had worked on a tonne of Aussie metal releases and whom we enjoyed a great working relationship with. His experience working with us on the EP's really shone through as this album exceeded our expectations. When you record at Backbeach, you can stay in the studio which made for total immersion in the process with only the quiet backroads next to the ocean and trips to town for food and alcohol interrupting the process. The album was also released by Rise Above Records overseas as a result of us playing a couple of shows with Cathedral and kinda auditioning for Lee Dorian in the process. We were super happy with how everything turned out, though a slightly different version of King Tide was changed to adapt to some equipment issues in the studio. We got a lot of positive responses to the album at home and overseas. The Rise Above version did a slightly cut down print of the artwork compared to the High Beam Australian release that was printed in the shape of an upside down cross. The artwork was conceived by Josh and realised far beyond our expectations by our good friend Roy Torkington who played guitar in Australian psychedelic death metal legends Alchemist. Roy absolutely killed the vision which was provided to him on crudely drawn paper with indecipherable notes. The artwork depicts the decent into hell following the roadmap laid out by Dante Alighieri in his epic work 'The Divine Comedy'. The albums title and the first frame on the cover of the record is the bar for one last stop on the way to hell, which is closely mapped on the Inferno chapters structure. The red side is the fire, the blue side the ice as the Alighieri imagining of hell, Satan is trapped in ice with his three heads chomping on histories three most notorious sinners. It's pretty bloody brutal we reckon and Roy is the man that bought it to life for us.