The Cold Year’s Unique Necromancy

Certain ancient cultures use to practice something called copromancy; the ancient art of diagnosing illness or heath by peering into your daily shit. They would dig into feces; they would gut it so it would spread out evenly on the ground. The copromancers could tell your past, present, and future by wafting the aroma of your excrement toward themselves in a welcoming sort of gesture with fiercely dilated nostrils, inhaling seriously while simultaneously keeping a strong gaze on the subtle coloration of your creation, and with all of this input they are enlightened to see your human spirit. After blasting all their senses in shit, they see something more. They make meaning.

Now we can all agree we are in shitty times, and there are a lot of reasons for that; No one agrees with each other, our sense of community is dwindling, the separation of church and state is obviously a rue, everyone is drunk with technology and you can’t beat them so you join them. The list goes on and on, and although we may agree on this concept of a ubiquitous sadness there still may be hope through expression.  

This brings us to The Cold Year, which is a local band based in Salt Lake City, who truly knows the power of expression. Matthew Skaggs(vocals/guitar), Mitch Shephard (bass guitarist), and Josh Cannon (Drummer) make up their cultural copromancy. They peer into the shit of the human condition particularly in their new album Prey for Me, (dedicated to their dearly departed friend Heidi Markworth).

  In their new album song titles like “Kill Yourself”, and “Saint Iscariot”, may have dark cognitions accompanying your first impression of their music, but after all, it is poisonous pesticides that keep insects off flowers. These dark themes are not uncommon in the world of music, but the blatant melancholia is contagious from the beginning to the end like an itch you can’t scratch enough. There are intermingled inspirations of gypsy jazz guitar, alternative bass, and throbbing drums which creates a musical flavor that seems familiar yet satisfactorily unique in its execution. 

The Cold Year believes in “creative democracy” while creating their songs, so like any democratic structure, there is a diversity to the outcome, this diversity shows in their new album. For example, in the fifth song off Prey for Me, “Spanish Necks”, they bring in a Latin vibe through the use of brass trumpets and drums that emphasize the off-beat of the usual time signature. Following that the jazzy chords come out in, “The Masses”, with the energy of punk rock but the technicality of playful jazz. They even include an ode to vinyl records in, “Thirty-Three and a Third” which shows particular poetic talent in Matthew’s lyrics. 

Another big part of The Cold Year is that they satirize the serious themes of culture. They wear priest’s collars on stage and sell their merchandise on an altar which they constructed as what they call an “Altar to late-stage capitalism”. With so many religious imageries some might come to think of this group of gentlemen as ambivalent atheists, but they told Salt Lily Magazine themselves that they are not just looking to jest at the cultural structure of religion, but of all structures that try to define what a moral compass has to be. 

You can see their playfulness in their multiple music videos, as well as their first album Praise the Goat. They play in the face of all of their delicate and dark subject matter, which makes for a great listening experience. You can follow The Cold Year on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, or you can even check out their YouTube channel. You are in for an experience in cultural copromancy that you will love.