Hora’s bassist Mike on crafting doom metal with Cornish Witch Trials Lore

Hora, a Doom Metal band from Bristol, recently released their EP Witch Trial Sessions, drawing from the historical Cornish witch trials. The band’s bassist, Mike, shared insights into the equipment and creative processes behind their music.

Mike plays a 2019 Dingwall Combustion 5/2 bass, chosen for its unique qualities that fit Hora’s sound. “It is a special bass to me”, Mike said. “When my wife and I were talking about getting married, we decided that if she got a fancy ring I should get something too. I’m not that into jewellery, but I am into basses! So, I got my Combustion. I love playing it. I feel like I can play some parts better on the fanned frets than I can on my regular basses. It sustains like a piano too, which is really important in some sections. Just a real Nigel Tufnel moment!”

The bass’s modifications, such as the moved neck pickup and the stacked volume/tone control, allow for a tailored sound, crucial for the band’s drop C tuning: “I’ve modded it a bit as well. I’ve moved the neck pickup into the NG2 position and swapped out the volume for a stacked volume/tone control. Just lets me roll off the modern edge a little more than the stock EMG preamp. We play in Drop C, and I’m using a Payson set of strings specifically for the tuning. I’ve also taken to tuning my highest string up to a high C as well, just to give me three octaves really easily. The definition that I get on my Dingwall is just amazing. I can be playing with loads of fuzz/distortion and it isn’t just mush. I tend to have it set on both pickups in series, then boost the bass a bit, roll the treble off a scooch and also turn the tone down to about 60%.”

The recording process involved a blend of digital and analogue gear. Mike used a Boss GX-100 multi-effects pedal, emphasizing its utility despite its quirks. “When I joined the band, I had a traditional pedalboard, then one pedal died and instead of replacing just one, I went a bit mad”, he explained. “The tracking on the octaver is rubbish and it doesn’t do any synthy stuff, but the overdrives, distortions, fuzzes and time-based effects are really good. For live, I spent a while dialling it in at gig volume to get it where I wanted it to be. I actually tend to use the guitar drives instead of the bass specific ones. The GX-100 has a bass control for all of the drives, so you can dial more in without needing to run a parallel clean track. So you just get a massive fuzzy sound with all of the bass you want. It’s amazing! I’ve got an always-on overdrive, I think it’s based on the SD-1. Then a Rat, followed by a Big Muff.”

Amp wise, Mike’s running it into an Ashdown ABM-600: “This thing just has all of the heft and I think the valve drive also removes any residual digital-ness from the GX-100. For the EP, I was running it with the pre-shape button off and tweaking the EQ to suit the song, then taking the DI out into my laptop and running it into Two Notes Wall of Sound with two Ampeg 810 cab sims with different mics and one running vintage, the other more modern. For the massive wall of sound tones like in the breakdown of Lament of the Condemned and Executioner’s Introspection, I’m also running into a big reverb and Boss’s emulation of the Space Echo. Especially live, it means that I can be holding down the low end while Adam (guitar) and Andy (guitar & vocals) do different bits on top. We recorded the clean signal of bass and guitars when we were recording the drums to give Dan something to play along to, and then we got to tweak a lot. I’ve got ideas on how to improve things all round for Volume 2 as well. We’ve almost finished writing the songs for the next release, then we can hopefully start recording in the next couple of months.”

When it comes to crafting bass lines, Mike focuses on serving the song: “I’m always trying to support the song. I’ve never wanted to be the flashy, 100 mile an hour slap bassist. And I don’t think that works well in Doom! Sometimes I want my sound to just be a texture, and playing octaves with a lot of fuzz and some delay and reverb can really do that. Adam is generally the main songwriter, so he’s also got ideas on how he thinks the bass should go. Sometimes I listen, sometimes I play around a bit more. I think we’re still finding our feet a bit in the writing space. In some of the newer, unreleased songs, I’m taking a few more liberties. But again, it’s always in service of the song. I’m having a go at writing a song too, but perhaps oddly, I’m starting with the guitar. I love bass and I am a bassist at heart, but I don’t find it the easiest to write a whole song on.”

The EP’s thematic focus on the Cornish witch trials offers a narrative depth to the music. Each track presents a different perspective within the trials, from the judge’s conviction to the executioner’s doubts and the condemned’s lament: “Adam has had the idea rolling around for a while. He’s from Cornwall originally and during lockdown, Adam and Andy came together to start working on it. In The Judge’s Conceit, the judge is sure that this is the right thing to do, to burn the witch. Counterpoint to The Judge’s, in The Executioner’s Introspection, the executioner is less sure but is aware that they have a job to do. Other, better-suited, people have already made the decision. And finally, in Lament of the Condemned, the accused is reflecting on how if she were actually a witch, they wouldn’t be getting away with doing any of this to her.”

Order Witch Trial Sessions now.