Premiere: Digester’s Grandmother is a doom-laden rage against the dying of the light

Digester. // photo courtesy the artist

Lawrence “prairie sludge” band Digester has been playing for over a decade now, but aside from a single, “The Old Order,” in December of last year, the band’s last release was their self-titled release over eight years ago. Thankfully, that all changes when Digester releases Grandmother, their new full-length this Friday, November 22, with a matinee release show at the Replay.

Ahead of that, we’re excited to premiere the full album for your listening pleasure. If ever there were a collection of songs perfectly suited to days which darken ever earlier, the seven tracks which make up Grandmother are it. Big doomy riffs, razor-throated vocals, and bone-rattling low end make Digester’s latest exactly what you need to rage against the dying of the light. Check it out below while you read our interview with the band’s vocalist and guitarist, Brandon Sprague, all about how Digester’s Grandmother came to be.

The Pitch: You’ve been a band for over 10 years. Why have you released so little music?

Brandon Sprague: This would be our third release other than a demo from when the band was a two-piece of just my brother and I. Most of these songs probably would have been released by 2021 but the Covid pandemic put us behind like many others. We have at least another album’s worth of ideas and believe the follow-up is closer than five years away this time. One other thing that slowed us down on putting out more music is that my first and only child was born in the middle of the pandemic.

Don Bailey recorded the album. What was working with him like?

Don Bailey of Horned Wolf mixed, mastered, and recorded this album at his home studio called Pretendmachine. We’ve known Don for a number of years and have played a few shows with Horned Wolf over the years, so Don is a friend and recording was a blast. He was very intuitive to what we wanted and very open to our feedback. The process was not only easy but a ton of fun. Don was open to micing our cabs for the recording. While a lot of recordings are done entirely through the use of modelling amps and cab simulators, Don had no issue getting the sounds we were after using the old ways. The sound of an amp in a room is where it’s at for the type of music we play.

The first single, “The Old Order,” came out in December of last year. How was the process of putting together the rest of the record?

Well, all of the recording was done when we released the single but we spent the next number of months getting the artwork together and putting together the rest of the package. We also needed time to come up with more funding for the physical media to be printed. We handle as much in-house as we can, however the illustration on the cover was not our work.

The artwork is very striking. Who did it and why did you choose to work with them?

Karl Dahmer of Dahmer Art did the art. We’ve known Karl for a number of years through playing shows with Rimjob. He currently fronts a band called Corpseburner that everyone should check out. We’ve seen Karl have great success with his art over the years and have always been a fan. We gave him some vague ideas about what we wanted for the album art and as usual, he produced another memorable piece. We try to do business with people we know and keep the money in our friends’ pockets around the scene.

Lawrence’s metal scene goes through its ups and downs. How does it feel to be one of the stalwarts at this point?

It certainly has. I think right now heavy music is thriving in Lawrence again. We’ve seen a lot of bands come and go but we just keep hanging around. Mostly I think we all feel lucky to have found others to play music we enjoy free of the kind of drama that ends bands.

Why did you pick the bands you did for your release show?

Horned Wolf was an easy decision for us. They are a great band with a great following. That and the fact that Don spent a lot of time working on the album with us made it a no brainer. We’ve become friends with Confined in Flesh over the past few years and done a few shows together. They bring a ton of energy to their performances. Jaime Serrano is a local legend around these parts on the drums.

Anything special planned for the show?

We’re going to play the whole release from front to back. It’s going to be about 45 minutes which is the longest set we’ve played in a number of years.

Is this digital only or will there be a physical version?

We will have CDs and we will have a single copy on vinyl for sale at the show. The vinyl was made by Kunaki, a media manufacturer. We will have links up on our social media for people to order an album directly if they want but apparently, they will be quite pricey to order until after the holidays as their cost is demand driven.

The release show for Digester’s Grandmother is this Friday, November 22, at the Replay Lounge with Horned Wolf and Confined in Flesh. Details on that show here.