Beastmaker - LUSUS NATURAE CD

Beastmaker hail from the unlikely locale of Fresno, California. Sweating profusely in a parched no man’s land about three and a half hours northeast of Los Angeles, the city isn’t exactly a cultural mecca—and yet it’s the birthplace of Hollywood outsiders and weirdos like Sid Haig, Slim Pickens and director Sam Peckinpah. Still, it suffers from an unsurprising dearth of musicians interested in heavy rock.
Though Church had the concept for Beastmaker as far back as 2006, it wasn’t until he and drummer Andres Alejandro Saldate, a.k.a. Juan Bonham, hooked up with bassist John Tucker in 2014 that the band was fully realized. “I was really inspired by old bands and metal,” Church explains. “ Very much into Black Sabbath, Pentagram and NWOBH. After many failed attempts and at least five bands in between, we found John and finally had a solid lineup.”
Bleak and burly overtones of Sabbath and Witchfinder General ring through Lusus Naturae like echoes from a haunted past. Slow-rolling bruisers  “Eyes Are Watching,” “Arachne” and “It” set the tone of doom and despair with nods to heavy ’70s classics, cult horror flicks and the inimitable work of one Mr. Glenn Anzalone. “When it comes to genre, I think of us as a much slower version of the Misfits or Danzig, but I’ve come to love the word ‘Doom’ whether or not it really relates to us,” Church offers. “It just feels like home.”