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LABEL PROFILE

20 Years of Southern
Lord’s Dark and Heavy
Art
By JR Moores · March 09, 2018

“At the time, we were partying quite a bit and

we just ripped off the logo from Southern
 Comfort,” says Greg Anderson when recalling
Dopesmo…
1. Dopesm… the early days of his label, which has since
become the undisputed home of boundary-
pushing heaviness. “The ‘lord” thing was a tip of
the hat to Satan—the lord of the south.” So with
a boozy, devilish identity in check, Southern
Lord began issuing music in 1998…by groups
who had already called it a day.

“People throw around the term ‘vanity label’ a

lot,” says Anderson, “and that’s exactly what it
was.” Before they went on to form the drone-
metal outfit Sunn O))), Anderson and Stephen
O’Malley had played together in Thorr’s
Hammer as well as Burning Witch. Both groups
had disbanded, explains Anderson, “But there
were these two recordings that had been made,
one by each band, that were cool documents of
their existence. Basically, the formation of
Southern Lord was to be the outlet for those
two recordings, to make sure they weren’t
forgotten and so that people had a chance to
hear those records before they disappeared into
complete obscurity. So, really, the label started
out releasing two records by bands that didn’t
exist anymore. Ideally, you’re working with
bands that are existing and playing shows and
out promoting themselves and it’s a living,
breathing thing.”
Dopesmo…
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Greg Anderson, photo by Peter Beste

To be fair, that’s exactly what Southern Lord did

next. A Seattle native who had “basically gotten
sick” of his hometown, Anderson had relocated
to Los Angeles when invited to play in the
rhythm section for one of his favorite bands,
The Obsessed. With knowledge acquired from
employment at Caroline label distribution
company, his feet firmly in the fertile L.A. scene,
and spurred on from the positive response to
that initial pair of Southern Lord releases,
Anderson was soon issuing music by bands that
were actually still active, from local heroes to
acts based as far afield as Tokyo. These included
Anderson and O’Malley’s own post-Burning
Witch bands (Goatsnake, Sunn O))), Khanate,
etc.) alongside material by other cult artists
including Church Of Misery, Sourvein, Darkest
Hour, and Nick Oliveri’s Mondo Generator.

In 2004, the label was given a valuable profile

boost when it released the self-titled album by
Probot, the heavy metal side project of none
other than Dave Grohl, who Anderson fondly
describes as a “genuine metalhead who’s really
into underground music.” The album featured
guest spots from legendary vocalists such as
King Diamond, Cronos from Venom, and
Motörhead’s Lemmy. “We did a video for the
Lemmy song,” remembers Anderson, “and that
whole production—hanging out with Lemmy
 and drinking whiskey with him—it was amazing.
Dopesmo…
1. Dopesm… That was our 30th release as a label and now
we’re at over 250. It put our name on the map.”

At various points in the imprint’s history,

Southern Lord has been associated in the semi-
popular imagination with certain specific
subgenres of metal. For a while it was
considered principally a drone metal label,
thanks to Sunn O)))’s snail-paced riff worship
and records like Absolutego by the Melvins-
loving Japanese trio Boris. Later, the emphasis
seemed to shift to black metal when Sunn O)))
explored their take on that genre with 2005’s
Black One, while other signings included
Twilight, Nachtmystium, Striborg, and Wolves In
The Throne Room. More recently, Anderson has
put out increasing numbers of faster hardcore
and crust punk recordings, but the truth is that
from its formative years, the Southern Lord
roster has always featured a wide breadth of
sonic explorers, from ambient artists through
very heavy metal and post-metal acts to jazz
fusion in the form of Fontanelle’s Vitamin F.

Early on, Anderson decided that he wouldn’t let

his label be pigeonholed into one specific style
of music. “From an outsider’s perspective,
someone who doesn’t know this music would
probably think it all sounds the same anyways,”
he admits. “Whatever kind of classification or
genre people want to put on it, a lot of it is ‘dark
art.’ The music is typically very dark, and there
is a lot of heaviness to what we do. [But] I
myself am not limited to one style of music, just
 Dopesmo…
like I don’t eat pizza or Italian food every single
1. Dopesm…
day. I like to eat other kinds of food from other
sorts of regions and ethnicities. It’s the same
thing with music. Music is beautiful and
amazing and there’s all kinds of different
variations of it.”

As Anderson gears up for another busy year

that will see new releases from Jesus Piece,
Eagle Twin, Scream, Sunn O))), and many
others, here are five of his personal favorite
Southern Lord releases from its vast back
catalog.

Sleep
Dopesmoker

BUY

Dopesmoker by Sleep
GO TO ALBUM
Sleep
FOLLOW
Dopesmo…
1. Dopesm… Recorded in 1996, this bonged-out LP consists
of one single song with a running time of over
an hour. The trio’s label at the time were
completely baffled by it. The band refused to
allow any editing of their weed-riddled
masterpiece. Eventually, various botched or
bootlegged versions appeared on the market.
The 2012 Southern Lord re-master is the one to
own.

“It was a perfect storm when that record came

out, because I was getting super deep into Black
Sabbath,” remembers Anderson. “I’d always
been a fan, but at that time it had reached the
point of ridiculous obsession. So when
Dopesmoker came out it felt like the most
amazing tribute to Black Sabbath that was
possible. And by a band from the underground!
Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, or The Who are
like these massive rock gods who you’ll never
ever meet in your life. Sleep were these three
dudes who were exactly like me, smoking as
much pot as I was, and just playing Black
Sabbath riffs. It was very cool to see. That was
one of those bucket list records, one that I had
listened to since the moment I got my hands on
it back in the late ’90s. It had been released
several times already but the way we were able
to do it, having the new artwork and the re-
master and getting the full blessing of the band,
that was a special moment.”

Sunn O)))
Monoliths & Dimensions
 Dopesmo…
1. Dopesm…

Photo by Andrew Beardsworth

Monoliths & Dimensions b…

GO TO ALBUM

SUNN O))) Based around the core duo of Anderson and

Seattle, Washington
O’Malley, Sunn O))) originally began as a fondly
✓
FOLLOWING
derivative tribute to the early work of Seattle’s
Earth, i.e. drone metal of the slowest and
foggiest variety. While Sunn O))) haven’t entirely
abandoned that blueprint, by 2009’s Monoliths &
Dimensions their material had reached a whole
new level of intense intricacy. It featured a host
 of collaborators, orchestral instruments, and a
Dopesmo…
1. Dopesm… choir, with compositions and song titles which
referenced the jazz greats Alice Coltrane and
Miles Davis.

“For Sunn O))) to develop and evolve into the

band that made that record was quite an insane
journey,” says Anderson. “When we first started
the band, it was just Stephen and I getting as
high as possible, hooking up as many amplifiers
as we could, and emulating the riffs on Earth 2.
For the band to grow into something that was
its own beast was a big accomplishment. We
were talking earlier about openness and
freedom from genre; I think that record
exemplifies that and it sent a message out to
other artists we work with that we’re open.
Bring us your weird. Get out there. We embrace
that.”

Earth
Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method
 Dopesmo…
1. Dopesm…

BUY

Hex; Or Printing In The Infe…

GO TO ALBUM
Earth
Seattle, Washington
FOLLOW

Dylan Carlson’s Earth had pioneered drone

metal on their 1993 cult classic Earth 2. When
the project returned in the 2000s after an
addiction- and rehab-induced hiatus, their
sound had changed significantly, while still
remaining comfortingly snail-paced. Anderson is
so smitten with Earth that he asked them to
perform the music for his wedding march. Just
picture how slowly his poor bride had to walk
down that aisle.

“We haven’t been ashamed about telling

everyone that the early Earth recordings were a
huge influence on Sunn O))),” says Anderson.
“When Earth reformed and started playing
shows again, Sunn O))) was doing really well,
we were always talking about Earth and
bringing attention back to Earth’s back catalog.

Most artists would have just returned to that

 Most artists would have just returned to that
Dopesmo… style which was now finally in favor. It would’ve
1. Dopesm…
been an easy move. Instead, Dylan decided to
take the music into a completely different
direction, away from the records that everyone
loved and that we were talking about endlessly.
That was bold and inspiring. Earth were
considered the godfathers of drone, but Hex
didn’t have those saturated, layered guitars. It
had clean, almost Western-sounding guitars.
The way it was played—so slowly and carefully
at a glacial pace—was in the same vein as their
early work. That’s the writing style of Dylan. His
style was being presented in a different way
with different tones. The last record we did
together, Primitive And Deadly, is also an
incredible record because they took some
chances with that one too. Adding vocals to it
was another bold move. The first one and the
last one are my favorites.”

Circle
Terminal
 Dopesmo…
1. Dopesm…

BUY

Terminal by Circle
GO TO ALBUM
Circle
Pori, Finland
FOLLOW

Formed in 1991, the Finnish collective known as

Circle have an enormous discography which
innovatively straddles numerous genres
including metal, krautrock, psych, ambient, jazz,
prog, art rock, soft rock, and much more, often
within the space of a single song, no less. Their
debut album for Southern Lord, and estimated
40-somethingth in total, was 2017’s Terminal;
easily one of their strongest recordings to date.

“I’m a fiend, and I collect a lot of their stuff,”

says Anderson. “When they turned in the
master, it wasn’t what I expected. It had this
weird Stooges influence on it which I had never
heard them do before. I knew about the New
Wave Of British Heavy Metal influence, done
within a prog framework, that they’re famous
for. They surprised even me and I’m an
obsessive fan.”

Power Trip
Nightmare Logic
 Dopesmo…
1. Dopesm…

BUY

Nightmare Logic by Power …

GO TO ALBUM
Power Trip

Texas
FOLLOW
Any “Best Metal Albums Of 2017” list that didn’t
include Power Trip’s second LP was certainly
not to be trusted. Naturally, Bandcamp Daily
deemed it top of the lot. “Every riff is so tight it
sounds like it was created in a thrash
laboratory,” wrote Brad Sanders, “and every
 breakdown holds the key to mankind’s mosh pit
Dopesmo…
1. Dopesm… lizard brain.” On it, Power Trip brought thrash
metal kicking and screaming into the horrible
present.

For Anderson and Southern Lord, “2017 was

definitely one of our best years ever. We had a
couple of records that did really well. The main
one was the Power Trip record. It just took off.
There were a lot of pieces that fell together
correctly but all of that was built on the fact that
they turned in a great record. Right now, that
band is unstoppable. Besides everything else
going on the world, for myself included and a lot
of people I know there was a lot of negativity
and a lot of struggle, but as far as the label went
it was great. The Power Trip record was inspired
by the [political and social] climate. There are
other artists who used it as an inspiration or
made it part of their art. It’s still a little early to
tell as far as how that’s going to translate,
whether it’s going to be another mid-’80s
period of punk rock hardcore that was fueled by
the Reagan era. I don’t know. I think we’ll find
out. We’ll see.”

–JR Moores

metal doom

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