Los Angeles sludge/doom metal trio Vape Warlök premiere debut album »…And His Skull Shall Make My Bong«; out this Sunday via Pillars Of Creation!
Los Angeles, California based sludge/doom metal trio Vape Warlök (feat. members of Unida, Circle Of Sighs & High Priestess) premiere their debut album »…And His Skull Shall Make My Bong« ahead of its release this Sunday, April 20th, 2025 via Pillars Of Creation.
Tracklist:
01. Satan’s Succubus
02. …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong
03. Meth Slave
04. Satanalingus: The Devil’s Tongue
05. Bongmaster General
Courtesy of Mettle Media PR:
Premiering today at Ghost Cult Magazine is an early full-stream sneak peek of Vape Warlök’s upcoming debut album »…And His Skull Shall Make My Bong«!
Grab your stash or twirl your ‘stache while you get an earful right HERE.
Hurling straight at you from their wholly tongue-impaled cheek comes »…And His Skull Shall Make My Bong«, the debut full-length from Southern California’s Vape Warlök.
If a bongwater-soaked battle vest covered in poorly-sewn-on Sleep patches and mildew became sentient and formed a band, it would be Vape Warlök. Comprising members of Unida, Circle Of Sighs, and High Priestess, these denizens of the dour doom dumpster aspire to make music that is raw, primitive, and heavier than thou.
The new album was written and recorded in 2023-2024 at Thee Culveric Catacombs (Culver City, CA), Suspirium Art Space (DTLA), and Downtown Rehearsal (DTLA). The trio shared an official video earlier this year for the album-opening track »Satan’s Succubus«. That first single alone thoroughly indicates that Vape Warlök slathers their knuckle-dragging stoner-doom in a thick husk of filthy slime that won’t wash off no matter how hard you try. It’s just plain gross, and that’s how they like it.
The Count (Collyn McCoy) shares some of his golden insight into the new record:
“Our goal was to make a record that was unrelenting in its heaviness, devoid of any prettiness or slickness, and imbued with murky, visceral, nihilistic gloom. A record that would evoke the black mold on the walls of an abandoned double-wide under the shadow of refinery smoke in some rust belt hellscape where even the scarecrows bend at the waist in a fentanyl lean. A record that would make listeners feel the same way we felt when we first heard Dopesmoker, Dopethrone, When The Kite String Pops, and Take As Needed For Pain. But also… it should be fun. A fun record with songs about sexy nuns, bong-wielding warlords, and getting one’s salad tossed by the devil in a haze of 90% THC pineapple vapor.
We tuned, sometimes. The riffs were occasionally remembered by all parties and played the same way all at the same time. Tempos ebbed and flowed; instruments went sharp or flat depending on the heat and humidity. It was a naturalistic record in that sense. Every soundwave was captured by ancient, duct-tape-covered SM-57s that had seen things that would never be spoken of again. My amp caught fire, twice. Speakers were blown. The bikers in the custom chopper shop below our practice space pleaded with us to turn down… which we declined. They responded by ratting us out to the landlord. Biker Karens. Who ever heard of such a thing.”
»…And His Skull Shall Make My Bong« will be available in digital and physical format this coming Sunday, April 20th, 2025, including limited edition vinyl via Pillars Of Creation.
Pre-order here: vapewarlok.bandcamp.com
Vape Warlök is:
The Count (Collyn McCoy) – Guitars, Vox, Synths
The Baron (Phillip Rodriguez) – Drums, Samples
The Duchess (Mariana Fiel) – Bass, Vox
“Vape Warlök is a band who know how to have a DEMONIC good time with the band even adding strands of hard rock and heavy metal into the mix through some wonderfully pitched moments of classic guitar shredding on different parts of the record.” — Outlaws Of The Sun
“Ridiculous, filthy, ignorant riffs… A lumbering drug march through molasses. Love it.” — Darryl Shepard
“Vape Warlök are superlatively heavy, and obviously the call not to take »…And His Skull Shall Make My Bong« too seriously is resonant from the skullbong blacklight poster artwork on through the murky psychedelia of the »Satan’s Succubus« video and the grueling chicanery that ensues from the opener onward. At the same time, Vape Warlök aren’t so easy to discount as being just-fuckery. That there would be an awareness of their place in the genre isn’t a surprise — they’re veteran players, just with fun nicknames.” — The Obelisk
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well