Doomtree

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“I am the chosen one; Walks around this world of emptiness; With these feelings of hope and fear; With the system of a down; Your life will be forever gone…”
-- “Severed”
You may have already heard of DOOMTREE frontman, Steve Zing. Formerly a member of both heavy rock legends Samhain and Son of Sam, Zing is considered to be an icon of the heavy rock genre.
That said, Zing is not the type to put any sort of musical limitations on himself. Influenced by everything from heavy punk rock to metal to progressive rock – even ‘50s music! -- Doomtree’s debut CD Down Below (Long Live Crime Records) is heavy, yet at the same time listener-friendly. “Doomtree’s music is indescribable,” Zing explains. “It’s very intense – it’s not pop punk, and we’re not whining.”
Perhaps New Jersey-based Doomtree’s music is diverse because all five bandmembers did not cut their teeth on the same musical fare. “We didn’t all grow up on punk rock,” Zing reveals. “I grew up on heavy punk and ‘50s music, like early Elvis, Bill Hailey and Buddy Holly. Falco digs hard-core metal, Danno is into progressive rock…our music has each of our signatures, and we put our own spins into it. We rarely listen to the radio or to other new bands.”
The tunes on Down Below are aggressive, in-your-face and honest. The first album cut “Severed” will rile you up with its heaviness. Of course there’s anger in there, which is at the core of any good heavy rock music. Yet, there is also a very subtle underlying melancholy if you listen closely enough. Zing continues, “We don’t try to write songs. We do what is best for the song, whatever it takes to make the best tune possible.”
So how did these five, like-minded yet musically diverse musicians find each other? “We were all in different bands in New Jersey,” Zing says. “We were each unhappy with our current situations, and found each other through the sheer desire to get better players and form an equal partnership.”
Apparently, they chose each other wisely, because the entire recording process was seamless. It took only three weeks, with the bandmembers doing their parts in their home studios. “We were able to do it quickly because we knew what we were doing,” explains Zing. “We picked dates to record, stuck to them and produced the album ourselves.” Down Below was eventually mixed by Andrew Alekel (Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, NIN).
Beyond the gripping music, Doomtree’s strengths lie mainly in its live show. “We like to convey our energy to the people through our live show,” says Zing. “We just keep moving – we never stop. Photographers complain to us all the time that they can’t get decent shots because we’re always moving! But we don’t wanna just stand there – if we did that, why come see us live? People can just stay home and put the record on. We want people to go home and say, ‘Hell yeah, that was a great show.’”
Doomtree are looking forward to taking their music out of New Jersey and unleashing it onto the world at large. “The east coast has become a cover band cesspool,” Zing sighs. “Every band has its own cover band…there are tribute bands to the tribute bands. We are at least trying to do something original musically, which will interest and excite fans of heavy music. We’re intense, energetic, and we love what we’re doing.”
Welcome to the world of Doomtree – raw, energetic music your parents will hate.
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