First, thank you for everyone who came out to the Spit ..N Ink fest this past weekend.  It's was for an incredible effort by all our friends at Brooklyn Park Tattoo to put this show on to support the Faison School for Autism.  

For those who weren't able to make it to the show, we made a big announcement.  After seven years in the band, our vocalist Jeremy is leaving Withersoul to pursue a career in the Army.   There was no animosity or "Behind the Music" -esque drama over this occurance. We are extremely proud of him, love him dearly as a brother, and we wish him nothing but the best in his new career.

Which leads to the next question....who is the new male vocalist in Withersoul?   After much discussion, we've decided to carry-on as a 6 piece with Nathan and Jesse handling the male/extreme vocal parts.   Both Nathan and Jesse have fronted bands in the past (Atromorta & Aphotic Lore respectively...check them out) and it's the most natural step for us to take with the band.  Thank you to the people who heard the news early and were interested in trying out for us.  

We will be hitting Nathan's studio this summer and to give you our first full length album soon thereafter.

Just a short message here to update what we have been up to. The new album (yet to be named) is written. We also have begun some pre-production  and it should be recorded this winter. So stay tuned for more upcoming info. We have new merchandise being designed and have shows being planned.

Below is a review of Withersoul's half of the split. The was done by Doom Metal.com and can be found on their page...

Withersoul musically provide Shroud Of Bereavement with a nearly defectless compliment, as both bands share a few similarities in both lyrical theme and aural execution. Withersoul, however, is the more traditional of the two, describing their sound as "Monolithic Doom/Death Metal". Aggression is abundantly utilized, as well, evidenced by much faster tempos and more intricate guitarwork. Female vocals are also deployed, albeit much differently, taking a more powerful leading role while retaining a decidely organic quality. Withersoul's offering on this release is simply vigorous and pounding.

Withersoul's first track, 'Forever, I Will Burn', is a heavily gothic whiff of furnace dross, complete with swelling diminished chording and blasting drums. An interplay of Death vocals and female singing gives this song an element not unlike that of early Theatre Of Tragedy, though the utter speed of Withersoul's relentless assault quickly obliterates a true comparison. This track offers a very clear picture of Withersoul's technical ability, and exemplifies the harsher melodic elements so prevalent in Death/Doom. From the furiously employed palm mutes to the ethereal synth strings, 'Forever, I Will Burn' is a gothic tour-de-force.

Insidious Eastern-influenced melodies await the listener in 'Descent', Withersoul's second offering. The sheer melodic element of this track is overwhelmingly heartfelt - a prime requisite for memorable songs. Harmonized Egyptian scaling saturate this production, pausing periodically for a dark, muted rhythm. The vocal landscape of this song heavily favors the use of female oration, which blends seamlessly with the song's decidedly Gothic Metal focus. Death Metal vocals puncture the mix sporadically, as if to remind the listener an aggressive tempo change could be lurking around every corner.

'In Emptiness', Withersoul's third and final offering, begins with an ominous blackened screech that becomes quickly assimilated into a bleak landscape of guitar and heavily prominent keyboard. This section instantly conjured memories of The Sins Of Thy Beloved, which I regard as a favorable comparison. Without warning, the track suddenly veers into a piano interlude, joined slowly by drums, guitars, and stunning female vocals. Mellow yet intensely performed, the section moves finally into a NWOBHM-esque twin guitar harmony placed nicely against a near virtuosic display of piano ability. Quite the way to end an album! Shroud Of Bereavement and Withersoul certainly make their case here as premier acts within the small but potent US Doom scene. This release certainly has something for everyone, and may well be placed in the realm of classic albums for fans of Epic Doom Metal. Both bands make a hefty statement about the their future, which seems to be a quite fruitful one. With material like this, Shroud Of Bereavement and Withersoul assure us all they're just getting started

Hello everyone...just wanted to give an update on the world of Withersoul. We played NYC last Friday night...the show went well and we had a great time in NY...thanks to all who came out in the cold and the snow for the show!...In other news Withersoul is currently well into the writing process of the upcoming full-length. Things are coming together slow but surely and we can't wait to record hopefully sometime this  summer.

We also just posted a new show date...Oct 15th at Jaxx w/ Nightwish and Division. We look foward to seeing some familiar faces that night and are very much looking foward to playing w/ Nightwish. We currently are also in the beginning stages of looking into a small tour this summer..so stay tuned.

Once again we do have the split CD for sale for $10. We have few remaining T-shirts left also..so if you dont have them yet...Order one!

Foreshadow Productions Withersoul - Withersoul (CD-R) self-released Withersoul is an American doom/death outfit which has recorded this self-titled demo so far. As far as I know there are two versions of this disc, the latest one is slightly changed in layout and distributed through Oak Knoll. The version I have is, I guess, original one, released by the band themselves and limited to 100 copies (I have .28). It features four tracks clocking in 32 minutes. Saying it upfront, this demo is at least good. Yeah, this is just a debut release but Withersoul manage to tell us that they are here to show something really worthwhile. 'Withersoul' opens with very atmospheric intro 'A Dirge for the Forsaken' which sets the mood perfectly for the up-coming music. I must admit it's one of the best intros I have ever heard on a metal album. Then, the real thing begins. Slow, crushing, mournful guitars, with rumbling drums and deep growled vocals. The key thing is that this strong male voice is not the only one in Withersoul music. He's complemented by soft female vocals. I could not get used to this connection for a long time and it really pushed me back at the very first listen. It's not something usual in (doom) metal music to combine male and female vocals in such a way and it always brought me some cheesy gothic bands to mind. However, after a few more listening sessions it started to make sense for me. And now I can easily say that this combination sounds not only interesting but also quite original. We have to mention the fact that this is demo recording and some deficiency in quality is visible but it only make my hopes for a studio album higher. The male growled vocals very much resemble Aaron Stainthrope's manner, especially from My Dying Bride latest albums and especially 'The Dreadful Hours'. Anyway, this is very promising demo depicting Withersoul as a band with strong musical potential, great guitar sound, general doomed atmosphere and unique combination of vocal manners. Their music range from slow funeral doom/death to mid-tempo death metal blasts. Check them out, definitely. And look out for an up-coming split with Shroud of Bereavement on Oak Knoll this spring. Believe me, this will be something really awesome.

Withersoul "s/t" CD 7/10 - [Oak Knoll] This Virginia band offers some incredibly promising doom on this lengthy demo (four tracks in over a half-hour), exemplified immediately by the sparse chord progressions and somber organ melodies in the intro "Dirge for the Forsaken". But when "Now Yours…" begins it's clear that this act is pretty heavily influenced by classic representatives of this genre, like My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost in their primes, with lots of slow chord progressions, pounding bass/drum rhythms, occasional clean breaks, dark melodic lead lines, and an array of vocal styles – driven by either excellently tactful operatic female singing or deep growls, with a few sneering screams accenting things on occasion. I tend to be very iffy about operatic singing, but as used here those vocals are very strong: She can hit the notes, she doesn't get overdramatic or strained with her harmonies, and it fits the atmosphere of the music. The songwriting, while long, does offer a lot of tempo changes and variation too. "Forever, I Will Burn", for example, picks up the pace quite a bit with some quicker chords that bear minimal resemblances to melodic Swedish death metal, while also throwing down some classic doom with a little edge of Louisiana sludge tossed in for good measure. The tracks get longer and longer as the demo goes, hitting the apex with the 14-minute "Exasperation's Tears", which is of course a little slower and more persistent in its traditional framework, straight down to the spoken passage and use of piano/synths and an openly melodic bass break. I would recommend using the deeper vocal growls more often than the sneers, simply because the growls are more forceful and a little less typical these days, but the songwriting is damn good here, rarely feeling disjointed and usually running through changes fluidly, so I'm sure they'll progress with time. Shit, I mean, they've got a few vocal lines that are almost catchy, which is rare for this stuff. Honestly, the recording is the only thing that needs work, and for a demo this sounds fine. I just know for a fact that this band could sound amazing under the right circumstances. They used a drum machine on this recording, which isn't optimal of course, but it works for their purposes here. They've since acquired a live drummer and it damn sure makes a difference, so beyond that I'd say they ought to beef up the mix with more of a bass presence and give the guitars a little extra crunch and presence. The guitars are the core right now, but they need a little bit more oomph to really nail it home, you know? Maybe cut back on some of the reverb on the lead lines and just let the rhythm guitars crush, because they're damn near right on the money (just getting a little unnatural sometimes), and the clean tones are great. The vocals sound fine as well, so all in all they've done well. The CD-R comes in a simple, nice looking sleeve xeroxed onto thick gray stock with some faint figurative images and a logo alongside the lyrics, which are of course rather bleak and illustrative of this style of music: "Can you see the hell in my eyes? Does my suffering shine out from me? Is my pain plain to see? It was never much before now, Just a slow rise of displeasure…" Great stuff. They've got a few things to clean up at the outskirts, but this is a very fucking strong demo, and I really do expect big things from this band. Anyone who's into straight doom metal without too many bells and whistles should look into this band for sure, and keep an eye out, because with the right opportunity they'll do some damage. Running time - 32:24, Tracks: 4 [Notable tracks: they're all good to my ears]