(The NY death metal band Sorrow‘s first records were released in 1991 and 1992, and their third one followed decades later in 2023. How it came to be, and the dual meaning of its title, are among the subjects that Comrade Aleks discussed with three of the band’s members in the following very good interview.)
I think that I interviewed Brett Clarin for the Doom Metal Lexicanum project a few years ago, and for sure there was the interview with him here focused on his symphonic black/death metal band Journey Into Darkness. But his “main band” was the angry death-doom outfit Sorrow based in New York in the late ’80s and disbanded in 1993 after the EP Forgotten Sunrise (1991) and the LP Hatred and Disgust (1992).
A bad deal with Roadrunner Records disappointed the guys so much that they left without finishing the recording of the next full-length. And all of a sudden Sorrow’s original lineup returned in 2022 in order to complete that recording.
Andy Marchione (vocals, bass), Brett Clarin (guitars), Bill Rogan (guitars), and Mike Hymson (drums) released Death of Sorrow through Xtreem Music in August 2023, and I skipped it somehow. But support is never enough, and here we have the interview with Brett, Andy, and Bill discussing true death of Sorrow.
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Hi there! Who’s online today? What’s new in Sorrow’s camp?
Brett: Andy, Bill and I are online. I’m on probably way too much, but I like to use it for my own music. There’s not much new Sorrow though, I do try to post up memorabilia from time to time.
Sorrow’s story was brief and kind of sad, as you released the first album Hatred and Disgust in 1992, and then you disbanded, being disillusioned with the label’s policy and things in general. What drove you reunite in 2022?
Andy: I know I felt the band had “unfinished business” with this unreleased 3rd album material just sitting around for years. At one point we were considering releasing the rehearsal audio we had of all these songs already on cassette, but the sound quality was not the greatest, so we got together and talked about it and decided to try and record one or two of the old songs to see how it would come out. Those one or two songs turned into what is now called Death of Sorrow.
You say “unreleased third” album, do you count the EP Forgotten Sunrise as the first album?
Brett: Yes, even though it is technically an EP, we have always referred to it as our first album. When Xtreem said the new album was the second album, we had to try to refer to Forgotten Sunrise as an EP. But I think we all still consider it our first album. It was supposed to be an album.
How did you manage to gather with the original lineup?
Andy: We have always been in contact with each other. Either through email, text or phone call. We have known each other pretty much forever and we didn’t ever really fight, so we’ve always remained friends. Once the discussion of “recreating” this album came up, we stayed even more in touch. Although one of us did take a bit more convincing to agree to doing the full album, once we heard how it was sounding, everyone was full on board.
Did you discuss this reunion just as a studio project or did you aim to play a few shows as well?
Andy: I won’t say that I did not think that I wouldn’t be jamming and playing live shows with the guys in Sorrow again. I would love to do that. I think all musicians always aim to play live shows. But age, medical issues, jobs, our lives in general, would definitely prevent us from even attempting to do even one live show.
I see some old bands playing live shows. Some of them have been playing the whole time, as in have not stopped. But to not have been doing this for 30 years and then suddenly start again, I don’t know. It’s kind of scary. I wouldn’t want to go out there and play and really suck.
But we knew for certain we were going to do this one album because we had to. Then it came out sounding so good to us that for a moment I suggested we do another album, but then we kind of all decided against it. As Death of Sorrow is supposed to be just that. The funeral, the end of Sorrow.
My depiction of the album cover (of death of sorrow) is our mascot, I call him Chuck (nothing to do with Mr. Schuldiner), he came from the burning city on the cover of Hatred & Disgust. He arrives, exhausted at his grave where he is supposed to be. He sees everything he has done in his life (in this case, Chuck is Sorrow) and drops all of his items. Sees the world is still the same. People not giving a shit about everything and just gives up. It is the death of sorrow. Sorrow has died and the human emotion of caring and giving a shit has died as well. That is the dual meaning of Death of Sorrow.
How was Chuck born? Did you take this image from some movie? Or did you see it just as a universal image? Something that speaks with the listeners as a symbol of the genre, of the band’s direction?
Brett: Mike was friends with a person named Chuck, and he drew the first demo cover. Well, he copied it actually LOL. We told him we wanted an apparition, and he basically copied it from a D&D book. We didn’t know at first, but it looked great so we were happy. Then on the second demo, we wanted to use it again, but this time with more meaning behind it. So, I came up with the idea of Death (the character, not the band) holding up religious symbols signifying the destruction that religion causes. When we were working on Hatred and Disgust we wanted to take that concept to its limits, which Hiro (RIP) drew phenomenally.
Before disbanding Sorrow recorded six new songs, which were left unreleased until 2014, when Brett downloaded them in SoundCloud. How much did you rework this material for the Death of Sorrow album?
Andy: We mostly had to rewrite the lyrics on some of the songs. We misplaced them. The music for the most part is the same, as we had the tape to go by and relearn the songs. The songs that still have the original lyrics from the ’90s are “Scar”, “Remembered Eternally” & “Hidden Fear”. The rest of the songs I spent some time trying to decipher what I was saying in that old rehearsal tape. I wrote down what I could remember and gave those lyrics to the writer of the lyrics and then asked them to finish the song. Then whatever I got back, I worked those lyrics into the songs. It wasn’t very easy, but once we got the hang of it, everything went smoothly, and it was a lot of fun.
The album consists of eight songs, and that means that you composed two new tracks. How did you work on new material?
Andy: Actually, 1 of those extra songs is “Hidden Fear”, written by Brett back in 1989 and that is from our second demo. And “Funeral March” is just some keyboard work assembled together along with a sample of Mike speaking from an interview we did a long time ago. I don’t know if that “qualifies” as a “song”, but it is an extra track on the album.
Honestly, we did think about writing new material for it and I presented a bit of a recently written new song to record and place onto Death of Sorrow, but the song I presented was so far distant from what was written back then, it would have ruined the whole presentation. Everybody’s musical tastes and preferences change over the course of time, and it just did not sound like a Sorrow song. Jokingly I was told by the guys maybe I should save that for the Andy Marchione solo album…
Andy, was it hard to return to growling vocals after all these years?
Andy: I would say it was a bit of a challenge trying to find that growling technique again. I’m a very quiet guy, I don’t really speak very much. I haven’t been doing any “real singing” anywhere, except for in my car while driving with the steering wheel as my audience. And I definitely was not singing death metal growls in my car. I’m not the biggest fan of the death metal vocal style honestly.
I’d say I had not sung like that since the last show we played in 1993. Brett was the one on my ass mostly, telling me to practice and find the voice again. I was a bit concerned that maybe the guys wouldn’t like how I sound now. I mean, I hear a difference in my voice from how it was back then. To me, it’s totally different. Also, I had ACDF surgery in 2020. The doctors fused 3 vertebrae in my neck. After the surgery, I found it difficult to sing in a normal voice and that was upsetting. But like I said, it’s a technique. Once you find the sweet spot, where you aren’t just tearing your vocal chords up, it’s easy.
My voice on Death of Sorrow is definitely different than on the other two albums. Actually, it’s been different on all the demos & albums. I definitely prefer the newest version of my vocals though. There are some pretty cool looking X-rays of my head that I showed the guys in Sorrow after the cervical fusion operation. I thought they would have made great album cover photos. HAHAA But they probably would have been more fitting for a band like Tool.
Did your perception of Sorrow change after all these years? What does the band mean for you now?
Andy: My perception of Sorrow has always been the same. Four angry and frustrated guys looking for an avenue to deliver our message to the public. Sorrow was a vehicle to get our message out there. We weren’t really ever about demons and being spooky and gore and guts and everything like that; that being said, is what most likely contributed to how quickly we were dropped and/or our downfall. Even on our demos we had that quote “we’re not sick and you’re not evil.” But I guess that’s not what people want to see or hear. But what do I know…
I do feel fortunate to have been able to create, record, rehearse, play shows, etc with my brothers in Sorrow. To have our music released on various formats all over the world was a dream of mine and it did happen. So I am happy about that. Those releases are forever.
Do you see Sorrow as a death-doom band now or did you record your songs with death metal on your mind?
Brett: It was still death–doom. There are a few parts on the album that stray a bit from death metal but would fit right in on a doom album. But it is more a death metal album. Same as Hatred and Disgust.
I didn’t find information about the recording studio where you worked on Death of Sorrow. So how was everything organized?
Andy: The four of us are not local to each other anymore so we ended up recording our individual parts in our own homes. Bill and I got together during some of the recording sessions. But basically, we listened to the old rehearsals of the songs, created individual click tracks for each song. Then, we recorded what is called “scratch tracks” of our instruments to those click tracks. That is when you play along with the actual song and record that new track. From that, you are creating a “reference” type of thing. You are more or less lining things up for everyone or creating a new “rehearsal”.
After everyone had recorded their scratch tracks, we went back and re-recorded our parts so they sounded good to all of us. We sent the files back and forth to each other over the internet. Perfecting them. When everything was to our liking, we mixed the sounds and volumes together and arrived at the finished product. I know I am oversimplifying the process, but, that’s basically it. Everyone recorded their individual parts and sent those files to me where I edited and mixed them together in my digital audio workstation.
One year has passed since the album’s release. You were displeased with the music business back in the ’90s, so are you satisfied with how things go now? Was this release worthy of your efforts?
Andy: The music industry has changed beyond belief from the ’90s. I personally know nothing about how it works. I’m just a guy who enjoys writing, creating, and playing my guitar and recording my music for the world to hear. If it was sustainable, I would do it for free forever.
As far as record labels go, I can say that our label Xtreem & Dave were absolutely the greatest to us along with the artist Daemorph. They both were so patient and helpful and did everything they promised and more! I wish we would have signed with them back when we first started. Now from the experience, it feels like it would have been better to be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a giant ocean.
But honestly, I am very happy to have been able to create this release, as it was, for me, the perfect time. I had and still have some shitty things going on in my life and it is/was a great distraction. I have to thank the guys in Sorrow and Dave from Xtreem for giving me/us the opportunity of this “distraction”. So absolutely it was worth the time & effort. I wish I could do it again.
The album’s artwork deals with “social themes”. What are your lyrics about now? Did you change the texts originally written back in 1993 or did you leave them as it is?
Andy: The lyrics are still of the same topics. Nothing has changed and probably never will… As I said earlier, some of the original lyrics were lost so they had to be rewritten. But whatever the actual words were back then, we only added to them. Nothing was changed.
Can you share more details about the lyrics?
Brett: There are four of us in the band with four different political views. None of us are partisan, we’re all independent. The lyrics range from discussions of oligarchies, a biased justice system, the hypocrisy of religion, war, to very personal messages of dealing with life and its unfairness. I hope very much that people do read the lyrics, they have always been an important part of our music.
By the way, how much of New York is in your songs?
Brett: Not too much musically. Back then, and even now, NY is tech death and slam (think Suffocation and Internal Bleeding), which we never were. So, aside from Winter also hailing from NY, we didn’t have much NY sound in us.
I see that only Brett has a project besides Sorrow – it’s Journey into Darkness. What’s its current status?
Andy: We all have music that can be found online. Here is a list of what to search for online to find it.
Brett – JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS is my symphonic black death metal solo band. All links can be found at https://jidarkness.com/. I am working on new JID material, but it’s slow going. I’ve been occupied doing cinematic, game, and trailer music. If there are any video editors or video game authors, hit me up for music! https://brettclarinmusic.com/
Mike – VICTOR VULVA & THE XYZ ORCHESTRA esoteric noisy synth comedy cornucopia https://victorvulvaandthexyzorchestra.bandcamp.com/
Andy – I have some music out there as well. It can be found online under “Spacedive” and “Andy Marchione”. Some of it is just fun stuff. Older things and some new music. I try to keep myself busy out there.. https://andymarchione.bandcamp.com/
https://spacedive.bandcamp.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@AndyMarchione
What are your further plans? Do you work on new songs? Do you plan to keep Sorrow alive?
Andy: I am pretty certain we are leaving Sorrow alone. This was the final Sorrow release.
We apologize to the Sorrow fans & hope you love Death of Sorrow because we had such a great time creating this album. But the four of us are in such different musical places right now that a new Sorrow release would not be Sorrow. So, I would say continue to follow us and listen to our individual music. We do release new music, though probably not in all formats, but our music can definitely be found online.
Well, thanks for sharing this, gents! So… no more Sorrow, okay. At least, it’s good that you were able to return and finish the album. Thanks for the interview. Any last words for our readers?
Brett: Thanks for the interview. Doom the world.
Andy: Thank you from the boys in Sorrow.
https://www.facebook.com/SorrowNY
https://xtreemmusic.bandcamp.com/album/death-of-sorrow
https://sorrow.bandcamp.com/album/death-of-sorrow