Malaysian stoner/doom metal band Occult Dawn premiere new music video for »Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)«

Photo by @yellowledbetter88

Malaysian stoner/doom metal band Occult Dawn premiere new music video for »Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)« from their debut EP, »Psalms I«, out on January 13th, 2023.

Directed by Jerms.
Filmed and Edited by Chiedbfrdth.
Live Footage by Nathan, Yuen and Oldwell Channel.

Occult Dawn was formed in 2020 during the Pandemic era. It all started when boredom strikes during the Movement Control Order forcing everyone to stay at home. The idea of forming this band started when both Fred (guitar) and Jerms (guitar) were texting each other talking about their previous band (Ghouul – on hiatus). Both of them actually still have the desire to start a new band playing the same genre but more heavy, dark and evil. The actual idea is that recording is made via online since both of them no longer working in Bintulu anymore but they are facing problem of not having enough band mates. Besides that, Jerms was unable to write any songs as his hand were broken due to car accident.

After a month, Jerms went to the hospital to remove the plaster on his hand, Fred rang Jerms and told him that he got a job in Kuching, Sarawak where it was the same company that Jerms is currently working. This good news has rekindled their spirit to seriously started the stoner/doom band that they were planning back then.

It took Jerms a week to look around for bassist and drummer. One day, Jerms saw a Instragram story posted by one of his friends, Jawn, in a studio jamming some stoner/doom/drone music (not sure whether it is his band or others) and he immediately texted him asking whether is he interested in playing stoner/doom band: the answer is “YES!”. After one problem solved, Jerms went on to look for a drummer. Thus, he texted Bojet asking for a recommendation of any friends who is available to play drums and Bojet recommending himself to be the drummer.

Song writing began at Fred’s house. Both Fred and Jerms started to record their riff and shared it with Jawn and Bojet for their reference. It took some times for them to adapt with the genre as most of them are playing punk, grunge, groove metal and grindcore music which is more towards “fast” music.

Occult Dawn was highly influenced by Electric Wizard where most of their songs have sound clips from classic movies, hence, Occult Dawn’s first song (»Black Sunday«) began with a sound clip from a classic movie called »Black Sunday«. That is where they have decided to not have any vocals in any of their songs as it was all replaced by sound clips either from movies, death tapes, ritual and interview session.

The name “Occult Dawn” was an idea by Fred. From the name itself showing the identity of the band is more towards “Cult”. First song related with “Cult” was »Dispraise & Worshit« where it comes with the death tapes by Father Jim Jones (during the Jonestown massacre) and the rest of the songs follows.

<a href="https://occultdawn.bandcamp.com/album/psalms-i">Psalms I by Occult Dawn</a>

It took them 2 years to released their first single »Seances« on the February 2022 then second single »Dispraise & Worshit« on the December 2022 which were released digitally via Bandcamp only. Next is their first album called »Psalms I« were released exactly on the 13th January 2023 (Friday the 13th) during their gig with the almighty Ibliss (Kuala Lumpur demonic stoner doom band) and another 2-piece Kuching sludge/doom band, Souh.

»Psalms I« is just the beginning on how the band crafted their sound. Besides that, it became a platform for Bojet to set his musical direction as he is new with the genre and this is his first becoming a drummer (he has been a vocalist throughout his musical adventure). The band serious commitment and effort by buying new gears in order to achieve their preferred sound has been the catalyst pushing the band towards releasing »Psalms I«.

This album is one of the hell sound blend-in with rock picking string down to the metal wave including chilling sound clips from various cults. The release brings us to the good sounds of Electric Wizard, Bongripper, Sleep and Black Sabbath with fuzzy guitar riffing, heavyweight beat and absolute dark and gloomy. This album has received lots of positive feedback/comments from the stoner/doom YouTubers.

Occult Dawn is:
Fred – Guitar
Jerms – Guitar
Jawn – Bass
Bojet – Drums