R.I.P. Wants To Make Doom Metal Great Again

WHO: Fuzz (vocals), Angel (guitar), Jon Mullett (bass), Willie D (drums).

SOUNDS LIKE: A leather- and denim-clad heavy-metal pro wrestler staring down the abyss.

FOR FANS OF: Pentagram, Black Sabbath, St. Vitus.

In a scene overrun with doom-rockers sporting expensive boutique tube amps competing to prove who can play the lowest and the slowest, Portland's own R.I.P. wants to return to the music's roots.

In other words, it wants to make doom metal great again.

"Those bands back in the day, no one really cared about 'em," says the guitarist who goes by Angel. "It was just kinda like back when they were just, like, true freaks playing back in the '80s. Only weirdos and freaks played metal and punk. Now, you can just go to the mall and be a metalhead or whatever. No one cared about it back then, and we're trying to re-create that."

Expectedly, In the Wind, R.I.P.'s upcoming debut album, does not pull any punches. It is truly raw, heavy and passionate—minimalist and deliberately regressive, full of fuzzy riffs all brought together via heavy-hitting vertebrae of percussion, blazing lead guitar and vocals that shake and howl with hurricane force. The band's commitment to the aesthetics of old-school metal extends to its theatrical stage presence. Onstage, lead singer Fuzz wears a wide-studded belt that makes it look as if he just won a professional wrestling championship, and he holds a mic stand ornamented with a farmer's scythe.

Traditional doom isn't the only thing R.I.P. draws from, though.

"I'd say that our two main influences are '90s hip-hop and pro wrestling," Fuzz says. "You gotta look cool. You gotta look good or really bad. You gotta talk a lotta shit and you gotta back it up."

SEE IT: R.I.P. plays World Famous Kenton Club, 2025 N Kilpatrick St., with the Well and Beastmaker, on Saturday, Dec. 10. 9 pm. $5. 21+.