Weakling

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Weakling was a progressive/black metal band from San Francisco. The band never toured and released only one album, Dead As Dreams, recorded in 1998 and released on tUMUlt Records in 2000.

History

Prior to the release of the album, a few odd tales sprung up about the possible ways it could be distributed, including printing a single copy to be given to a single fan in Europe or burying copies of the album in the ground and giving maps to fans who wanted to find them. Band leader John Gossard has since decried the spread of these stories as a publicity stunt pulled by the band's record label noting that the ideas were never intended to be more than a joke between the band members.^[1]

Initially, Weakling was mainly noted for featuring guitarist Josh Smith of The Fucking Champs (fellow champ Tim Green served as producer), but a recent reissue of their material has brought their work some more attention, and the album has been hailed in some circles, and by musicians including Fenriz of Darkthrone, as a masterpiece.^[2] Weakling's sound displays inspiration from the works of Scandinavian bands like Bathory, Burzum and Darkthrone, as one might imagine it filtered through the lens of '70s progressive rock: all five songs on the 76-minute album run at least 10 minutes in length and each is composed of at least 2 distinct sections.

Gossard and bassist Sarah Weiner later played together in the similarly short-lived doom metal band The Gault (although Weiner was the drummer of that outfit); after that band's demise, Gossard went on to join established funeral doom outfit Asunder. Keyboardist Casey Ward currently plays drums in The Husbands. Drummer Sam Foster currently plays drums for death metal band Saros.

Although Weakling has never officially announced a split, they broke up in 1999.^[3]

Members

• John Gossard: guitar and vocals
• Josh Smith: guitar
• Sarah Weiner: bass
• Casey Ward: keyboards
• Sam Foster (a.k.a. Little Sunshine): drums

Discography

• Live Practice Demo (1998)
• Rehearsal Demo (1998)
• Dead As Dreams (2000)

References

External links

• Weakling on BNR Metal
• Interview with John Gossard