Talking doom with Beastmaker guitarist Trevor Church

It’s been a productive year for Fresno’s own purveyors of doom, Beastmaster.

Along with releasing a massively heavy debut album on Rise Above Records, the trio spent the year on several tours across the United States and Europe. It brings its current tour back home, playing Monday night at Fulton 55 with Austin, Tx psych band The Well and Visalia’s answer to Led Zeppelin, Slow Season.

The Bee caught up with Beastmaker guitarist Trevor Church in advance of the show.

Q: Let’s start easy. For the laymen out there, what is doom?

Doom has a lot of different interpretations these days. In the world of Beastmaker, it is horror and slow, heavy riffs inspired by films like “Tombs of the Blind Dead.” The one thing everyone has in common is a love for Black Sabbath, the pioneers of doom. It’s heavy fuzz, loud amps, big drums and psychedelic vocal styles.

Q: It’s all about tone. So how do you get so damn heavy?

It really is all about tone. We go for more of the vintage tones and not so much the modern doom style. So high gain tube amps on guitar, low heavy bass tones and I personally believe that without the hammering crushing drum tone you’ll sound thin, so you’ll need a 26-inch kick drum and big cymbals.

Q: Aside from y’all, who else should people be listening to?

Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats, Orchid, Blood Ceremony, Demon Head, Dunbarrow, Witchcraft, Graveyard, Salem’s Pot, Electric Wizard, Goatess, Ghost, Hour of 13, Kadavar, Monolord, R.I.P., Witchfinder General and With The Dead.

Q: Because you guys are playing this show with Slow Season: Sabbath or Zeppelin?

Always Sabbath.

This story was originally published December 9, 2016 at 12:30 AM with the headline "Talking doom with Beastmaker guitarist Trevor Church."