The Sixth Chamber

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The Sixth Chamber
  
Background information
GenresMetal
Years active2001-Present
LabelsNetherworldly Records
Websitewww.thesixthchamber.com

The Sixth Chamber is an American acid goth rock band founded in 2001 by singer, guitarist, songwriter and band leader Rahne Pistor. [1] The band is currently in production on its third full length album. The band’s moniker was taken from a line in 18th century mystic William Blake’s book “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”.[2]

“I was in a Printing house in Hell & saw the method in which knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation….In the fifth chamber were Unnamed forms, which cast the metals into the expanse. There they were received by Men who occupied the sixth chamber, and took the forms of books & were arranged in libraries.”

~William Blake, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”

As one of the first of the Black Sabbath and dark psychedelic-influenced wave of retro rock revival to emerge in the mid’-2000s, the band became known for it’s phantasmic lyrics and riffs and its rejection of the direction of popular influences and a longing for a return to the days when heavy rock ruled the charts.[3] [4]

The Sixth Chamber was the last band managed by Bud Prager, executive producer and manager of Mountain, Megadeth, Foreigner, Type O Negative, Corrosion of Conformity, Jack Bruce, Bad Company and others, before his death in December of 2008. [5]

The band’s song “Something’s Going Wrong” was featured in the Lions Gate-distributed horror feature film Dance of the Dead directed by Gregg Bishop and its song “Jump Into the Flames” was featured in the Halloween party scene of the documentary Venice Beach in the Sixties: A Celebration of Creativity, directed by experimental 1960s psychedelic filmmaker Leland Auslender, which shows rare footage of Venice Beach Beatniks and acid takers in the mid’1960s. [6] [7]

Early days

Rahne Pistor began his foray into rock in 1998 and 1999 as a teen playing bass in the punk band The Undead, which was led by Bobby Steele, guitarist of The Misfits from 1978 to 1980. [8] The Sixth Chamber was conceived as an experimental gothic rock band by Rahne Pistor in 2001, with Pistor on vocals and bass. Drums for the first demo were recorded by Pistor in a cave in New Jersey shortly before Pistor’s cross country move to Los Angeles. The lineup for the first demos included Kjehl Johansen, guitarist of The Urinals/100 Flowers and guitarist Carlo Dean. Finished by early 2003, these recordings were re-released in 2019 as the World of Wonders EP. In September 2002, The Sixth Chamber played its first live shows live on KXLU 88.1 FM and at Westchester Grille opening for SST Records avant-garde punk veterans Saccharine Trust and Chuck Dukowski of Black Flag fame.

First album

The first consistently gigging lineup of The Sixth Chamber was formed in 2003 with Sevan Kand added as a guitarist and vocalist and Joel Gausten added on drums. Sevan Kand was notable in the gothic rock scene as his voice was used on a number of Christian Death albums as a small child. [9] The Sixth Chamber played regularly at Los Angeles nightclub staples such as the Knitting Factory and Spaceland during this period. The band’s sound became more of a metallic-tinged death rock and the tracks for the first album Crippled Souls were laid down in the studio. By the time Pistor had finished recording the last of the vocals in 2004, the lineup had split. Palo Henderson replaced Sevan Kand on guitar to finish the recording. This lineup played four back to back nights at the 2004 Drop Dead Festival, an international gothic rock festival in New York City spread across the Knitting Factory and CBGBs. Pistor finished the mixdown of the debut album Crippled Souls with the help of first wave punk rock producer Geza X (producer of The Germs, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Meredith Brooks). The album remained unreleased until 2013.

Bud Prager management era

The Sixth Chamber was at the forefront of the dark psychedelic resurgence that began to emerge in the mid-2000s but kept a hard rock edge. [10] In 2005, Pistor switched to guitar and drummer Michael Ferrara and bassist Josh Soto joined the group. In 2006, Sevan Kand rejoined the group as lead vocalist. Writing began on the Mythos album and the group began heavily gigging around town at the Key Club (performing at the Steel Panther “Community Property” music video premiere), at the Viper Room, Spaceland and the Malibu Inn opening for 1960s psychedelic chart toppers Strawberry Alarm Clock. [11] The group took over the recording studio at Caltech University (as Ferrara was student coordinator of the recording club there) and began some early tracking for songs that would become the Mythos album. In 2007, the band’s music was featured in a program at the Egyptian Theater featuring screenings and live Q&A with occult filmmaker Curtis Harrington, director Leland Auslender and actor Dennis Hopper. In 2008, the band was invited to perform at the memorial ceremony for Jimi Hendrix drummer Buddy Miles at Threadgill’s in Austin, Texas alongside Bernie Worrell of Parliament/Funkadelic, Family Stone Project and the surviving members of the Buddy Miles Express. The band went on the road for a tour of the Southwest culminating in the Buddy Miles memorial gig. [12]

It was during this period that Pistor and famed executive producer and classic rock manager Bud Prager of ESP Management began to discuss working together. Prager spent numerous hours counseling, coaching and mentoring the band on songwriting. By 2007 Prager was on board as manager with the intent on development until a major label record contract could be secured. Fate shifted when Prager was unexpectedly diagnosed with esophageal cancer and passed away in 2008 before his objectives for the band could be realized. [13]

In late 2008, shortly before Prager’s death, drummer Erik Peterson joined the band in time to play the Circle of Color Summer Solstice Festival on Venice Beach, and has remained in the lineup ever since. In mid-2009, vocalist Sevan Kand departed. In 2010, the band went on hiatus for a number of years.

Modern Era

In 2013, Pistor decided to release The Sixth Chamber’s first album Crippled Souls. This served as the catalyst to reform the group and complete the unfinished Mythos album. In 2014, bassist Bobby Parker joined the band and headed into the studio with Pistor, Peterson and producer Geza X. Sevan Kand, no longer living in Los Angeles, contributed some new vocals remotely. Pistor and Kand split lead vocal and songwriting writing duties on the Mythos album, which was finalized in 2015.

The band continued with the lineup of Rahne Pistor on vocals, guitar; Bobby Parker on bass; and Erik Peterson on drums. The band began to focus on studio recording and filmmaking, completing 2 music videos. The “Hyena” music video was a spoof of Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain and starred veteran adult film actor Ron Jeremy in the lead role. [14] In 2018, the band recorded and filmed a music video for the song “Entrance to the Cold Waste”. The video starred gothic metal belly dancer Mahafsoun and Stanton LaVey, grandson of the Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey. [15] [16]

In 2019, the band continued in a direction of a vampiric gothic doom and psychedelic-influenced sound. They began a search for a keyboardist and wound up with veteran classic rock star Alan St Jon. St Jon is an original and current member of Billy Squier’s band and played on all of Squier’s hits. St. Jon was also the keyboardist on Alice Cooper’s multi-platinum selling Trash album. In addition, St Jon has Gold and Platinum album awards for his work with Iggy Pop, Foreigner, Bon Jovi, John Entwistle, Leslie West, Cher and Twisted Sister and has done extensive studio session work for famous producer Desmond Child. [17] The Sixth Chamber performed 3 live gigs in early 2020 with St Jon in the lineup and has been recording with him on keyboards in the studio completing tracks for its third album. [18] [19] The latest single “Blood of the Prophet”, featuring St Jon on keyboards, debuts on July 31st, 2020.

External Links

              

References

  1. ↑ "The Sixth Chamber | Credits". AllMusic.
  2. ↑ Vasquez, Jennifer (February 5, 2020). "A Night of Goth Metal with The Sixth Chamber".
  3. ↑ "Untitled". Untitled.
  4. ↑ "Rock Picks". LA Weekly. May 1, 2007.
  5. ↑ "Bud Prager | Credits". AllMusic.
  6. ↑ "Dance of the Dead (2008) - IMDb" – via www.imdb.com.
  7. ↑ "Venice Beach in the Sixties: A Celebration of Creativity" – via www.imdb.com.
  8. ↑ "The Undead". August 18, 2019 – via Wikipedia.
  9. ↑ "Christian Death Featuring Sévan Kand* - I Hate You - We Fall Like Love". Discogs.
  10. ↑ "The Sixth Chamber spans sonic generation gap". Pasadena Weekly. April 25, 2007.
  11. ↑ "Artist Spotlight: The Sixth Chamber". SM Mirror. September 13, 2007.
  12. ↑ "Buddy Miles - Obituary".
  13. ↑ Concepts, Lucid Design. "Megadeth FORMER MEGADETH CO-MANAGER DIES OF ESOPHAGEAL CANCER". Megadeth.
  14. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACIvfWdXbD4
  15. ↑ "Entrance to the Cold Waste Archives".
  16. ↑ Grant, Toni. "THE SIXTH CHAMBER Taps STANTON LAVEY & MAHAFSOUN for "Entrance to the Cold Waste" Official Music Video | The ONE Magazine".
  17. ↑ "Alan St. Jon | Credits". AllMusic.
  18. ↑ "The Sixth Chamber". LA Weekly.
  19. ↑ "The Sixth Chamber". LA Weekly.

External Links

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