maudlin of the Well

maudlin of the Well
Origin	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Genres	Avant-garde metal Progressive metal
Years active	1996–2003; 2008–present
Labels	Dark Symphonies
Associated acts	Kayo Dot Triac Roh Delikat Baliset The Year of Our Lord Tartar Lamb
Members
Jason Byron Toby Driver Greg Massi Maria-Stella Fountoulakis Josh Seipp-Williams Jason Bitner Terran Olson Sam Gutterman Nicholas Kyte Andrew Dickson

maudlin of the Well (commonly abbreviated as motW) is an avant-garde metal band from Boston, Massachusetts. Their music contains elements from many different genres including doom metal, indie rock, jazz, progressive rock, post rock, progressive metal, death metal, chamber music, ambient music and New Age music. After a five year hiatus, the band re-united to record their latest album, Part the Second, which was funded by fan donations and released online May 14, 2009 for free.

Biography

Maudlin of the Well released three full-length albums before disbanding in 2003. These albums included 1999's My Fruit PsychoBells...A Seed Combustible and 2001's Bath and Leaving Your Body Map. These last two albums were considered companion albums. The band had a consistent core membership, which consisted of Jason Byron, Greg Massi, and Toby Driver. Throughout its career a sort of "revolving door" of members and session musicians participated as needed.

Maudlin's music, lyrics, and atmosphere dealt predominantly with the subject of astral projection. The band tried to find music rather than compose it. This was done through practicing astral projection and lucid dreams, from which the band were purportedly able to "bring back" pre-existing music from the astral plane (as stated by Toby Driver in the liner notes included with the reissued Bath and Leaving Your Body Map).

In late 2001, the band began working on a fourth studio album. During this time, the band lost several longtime members, changed labels, and ultimately renamed themselves to Kayo Dot. This fourth album was later released in 2003 as Kayo Dot's Choirs of the Eye.

All three of their albums are now out of print, although Dark Symphonies re-issued Bath and Leaving Your Body Map in 2006 and My Fruit PsychoBells...A Seed Combustible in 2008, all with bonus tracks consisting of early demos.

In a blog post on the bands MySpace page on July 27, 2008, Driver revealed that a fan donated enough money to record a new album. Recording started on February 10, 2009, and the album, titled Part the Second was finally released in May 2009. It is available for free download in various file formats (MP3, FLAC and WAV) on motW's website, torrent networks, or alternatively, it can be streamed directly from the site. An amalgam of many different musical styles, the new songs share an ethereal quality with previous motW recordings, but are distinctly more mellow than the group's prior releases.

Discography

Demos

• Through Languid Veins - 1996
• Begat of the Haunted Oak: An Acorn - 1997
• Odes to Darksome Spring - 1997
• For My Wife - 1998

Albums

• My Fruit Psychobells...A Seed Combustible (1999)
• Bath (2001)
• Leaving Your Body Map (2001)
• Part the Second (2009)

See also

• Kayo Dot

External links

• Maudlin of the Well's official website
• Kayo Dot's official website
• Official MySpace Account