Old Mayor - Shelter Ceremony Collapse (full ep, 2023)

Today I deliver another Saturday Assembly feature to you from the non-black worlds of Metal, and this one is a special one to me. Shelter Ceremony Collapse is an exhumed EP, recorded 15 years ago by the then-Brighton based band Old Mayor – the duo of poet Adam Kammerling and Owen Gildersleeve (Modern Technology / Human Worth) who produce an unholy bestial form of hypnotic sludgy, tar-thick doom, with a chilling howling vocal. I put on this band’s first ever live show in support of their demo release when I was running a live band club night in a basement bar in Brighton, and it remains one of my favourite gigs I ever put on, and the start of some great friendships. Now the band are back, playing live in Brighton again this weekend after a decade away, at an all-dayer marking the end of long-running Brighton promotor Tatty Seaside Town. The end of an era (just check out their flyer archive IG account for a glimpse of how I spent my formative years: ).