Usnea
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Portland, Oregon-based blackened funeral death doom, 2011-2024. Hail Sagan. Just awesome... Few albums hit me like Usnea’s debut did after a first audition.
From the mouths of others:
"We forget, sometimes, that the best ‘doom’ should convey emotion – be it sadness or slow burning rage – rather than be an excuse to simply tune your guitar down and play through the loudest amp possible. Usnea’s ability to inject a real feeling of sadness into their tunes without sacrificing any heaviness is to be envied in a sea of faceless sludge bands right now."
-The Sleeping Shaman (http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/u/usnea-st-lp-dd-2013/)
"The attributes of the musicians are put to the test when, from a dense and dreary register, they unfold the music into a more atmospheric, almost psychedelic point, giving us one of the most beautiful moments on this track. By creating such moments like this, Usnea hold and captivate the listener, using unpredictability as one of their biggest weapons, besides giving the tracks a unique character to each one. Just imagine the dreary funeral doom atmosphere created by Aldebaran, blended with the lurid and mysterious atmosphere of Laudanum, with the most calm yet threatening side of Thou. In one whole track we have that crushing doom with some psychedelic atmospheres and it closes with a beautiful, serene and comforting instrumental. I only heard one track on their Bandcamp some weeks ago and I immediately knew that something really amazing was on the way. Not all bands blend in such a perfect way their influences that go from the early Peaceville doom bands to the more contemporary bands like Loss, Aldebaran, Mournful Congregation and others. With this album not only Usnea open their way to the front-line of the US doom/sludge scene, right along with bands like Lycus, Amarok, Hallow, Bädr Vogu, Bereft, Serpentine Path and many others, but they also had the prowess to make one of the best albums of doom/sludge of the Year. I’m pretty sure that this album will take place in many lists of the best that has been done in terms of heavy music at the end of this year. Clearly the solid background as (great) musicians is one of the main factors of Usnea’s success but also the creativity, the performance, the whole production involved and the level of excellence of what has been heard here makes me want to believe that Usnea is a name that soon will be heard on every doom/sludge fan not far from now. I simply love this album, it quickly became one of my favorite albums of the year. I must confess that hear it almost every day. It blends perfectly some of my favorite genres – funeral doom, doom metal and sludge – by creating beautiful atmospheres that give me complete goose-bumps like i didn’t felt since Aldebaran’s “Buried Beneath Aeons” or Mouth Of The Architect’s “The Ties That Blind”. If you seek your favorite doom album for the year, look no further. Just like usnea (the lichen), this album will grow more and more right after each audition."
-CVLT NATION; part of review by Haxan (Forever Cursed and Cvlt Nation; http://www.cvltnation.com/usnea-draft/)
"savage music with enormous depth that would use pets and children as bear bait... This album, composed of four ten-plus minute tracks, feels like a bog thawing as winter passes, where the nights are still long and dark but the creeks start to gurgle beneath the snow. I hesitate to call this music “funeral doom” because to me it feels like something dangerous waking after hibernation, coming to life instead of crawling into a casket... a magnificently crushing debut album. Honestly, even mentioning it’s a debut album feels like a qualifying phrase. This is a focused, grim, and truly great record, regardless of where it sits chronologically in a discography."
- Mister Growl (http://mistergrowl.blogspot.com/2013/03/review-usnea-st.html)
11/29/2025
Wishing Feliz Cumpleaños to our dear ginger drummer … stalwart keeper of the time, sweetheart of gold, and fabulous friend & human being. Enjoy this pastiche of moments from my camera roll of the one and only Optimo
07/22/2025
Rest Easy Dark Prince, we would not exist without you.
Long Live OZZY OSBOURNE and BLACK SABBATH!!!
Usnea - Into The Void (Black Sabbath cover) Master of Reality: The CVLT Nation Sessions 2014http://www.cvltnation.com/category/features/cvlt-nation-sessions/''To close out our third anniversary week, C...
12/15/2024
Happy Holidaze from Usnea to You-snea.
12/05/2024
The dust has settled from our last show and I wanted to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts. We are immeasurably grateful for an amazing crowd, friends, fans, and photos from . did an amazing job with the whole fest and every band were incredible.
We all have post-Usnea projects in the works and we will post about them here when the time comes. In the meantime, we still have pins, patches, LPs, and CDs at our bandcamp merch store if you or someone you know wants them.
Thank you for an incredible sendoff show Portland, and to all of our friends and fans out there we hope you all flourish and find community and resiliency in this dystopian world we all live in.
12/05/2024
Check out this review of our final show and the festival it was a part of: https://newnoisemagazine.com/galleries/festival-review-pyre-fest-2024-is-a-new-beacon-for-heaviness-in-portland-or/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR34Al3UAq9C-xNVupzFLUqJz-cDLle9U_SsS0dayzaIcjmhlukmTfZKRx8_aem_tbJB4_vnOh_iHVYnbNuPtw
"Finally, it was time for Usnea’s swan song. The band, a cornerstone of Portland’s doom scene, gave a performance that was both celebratory and heartbreaking. Their sprawling compositions, filled with mournful melodies and crushing heaviness, served as a fitting farewell. The band played material from the entire discography. As their vocalist/guitarist Justin Cory put it, “We wanted to play a range of our favorite songs from our four albums.” A fully engaged crowd was visibly moved by the weight of the moment. Usnea’s final song, “Healing Through Death,” from the 2014 masterpiece Random Cosmic Violence, was a powerful sendoff, ending their decade-long journey on a high note."
Festival Review: Pyre Fest 2024 Is a New Beacon for Heaviness in Portland, OR The inaugural Pyre Fest took place in Portland, Oregon, in November, leaving a lasting impression on attendees and performers.
11/08/2024
Our good friend John Malley interviewed Justin about the end of the band. Read it here:
https://www.frozenmoonpromotions.com/interviews/interviewusnea2024?fbclid=IwY2xjawGbJV1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHWbeSCQfi-bkIFF0C7oCISqKNS1VWYYfqqveNUW7_KHbRMXjC1kRscoYdg_aem_J-zNjLLuZzr2Opw3b660jQ
10/01/2024
🥀 Final Show Announcement 🥀
We are honored to be closing out the first Pyre Fest on Saturday, November 23rd — a beautifully curated weekend of performances from some of the best underground extreme metal bands in the PNW — amongst friends old and new.
🤟 Come say farewell and bang your head with Usnea one more time 🤟
08/28/2024
💀 Very stoked for these Portland and Seattle shows with Feral Season. We have been good friends and tour mates with Karl since his days in Occlith and CHRCH, and his newer project is one you won’t want to miss!
This will also our last time playing Seattle and second to last hometown performance—we hope to see you.
08/21/2024
📣 After 13 years, we have decided to go on an indefinite hiatus. 🔮
We are playing several farewell shows in the Pacific Northwest and then we will all be moving on to other projects.
We have been on a fantastical journey with one another and all of you—friends, fans, bandmates, family. It has been an extreme privilege to share our catharsis with the world. We do not take that bond lightly and are incredibly grateful for all of you. As bleak as this world has been—and is yet to get—supporting each other through mutual aid, co-creating art that penetrates to the deeper realms of our being, and fostering love and compassion are what make it all bearable.
Thank you for all of the support, the friendship, and the memories. We hope to see you at one of these last shows:
September 26th
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September 28th .seattle
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November 23rd
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A huge thank you to all of you who have supported us, but especially .vibes
with love
Usnea
08/18/2024
🥀 RIP 🥀
We hope you arise to a second life like a phoenix
Photo courtesy of Greg Cristman, September 9th, 2018
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