A mainstay of the Stoner/Doom scene, YOB has been dishing out their style of slow, time-bending Metal for more than 20 years now. Consistently pushing the boundaries of their sound, the band has strung together an impressive sequence of eight very well received full length records. Aaron Rieseberg has been performing bass duties on the last four of those, since 2009, including their latest, Our Raw Heart, which graced many a best-of-2018 list.



Catch the band on tour this summer in Europe with Neurosis, or in the US, as part of the Pickathon and Psycho Las Vegas festivals. Also keep an eye out for a fall release from Aaron’s new band NIGHT SWIM. According to our sources, think heavy, dark, kind of dreamy sounding in parts.

What have you been listening to the most lately?

The Wake by VOIVOD. I’ve been digging into that and listening to it more and more. Also been listening to LEONARD COHEN. I have a CD that’s a collection of stuff through the years. I have a bunch of these old KING CRIMSON recordings from the mid 70’s, right before they recorded Red. Just a bunch of 1973-1974 live recordings of King Crimson. So a lot of that on the tour and also, YES, listening to a couple of their records like Relayer and Close to the Edge.

That’s quite a good mix of different influences, different vibes. What makes you want to switch from one to the next? Is it just how you feel on a given day? Or maybe you have different genres for different times of the day?

I guess, in the morning, the Leonard Cohen stuff really just has been sounding really good. In the morning, I usually keep it a little mellower. I’ll listen to MARVIN GAYE or some more R&B kind of stuff. LITTLE BEAVER. Once the day gets going, through my headphones, I listen to a lot of kind of Prog-ier, Punk Rock stuff. That’s before the show. Then winding down at night, if I’m hanging out with the guys and we’re still on the bus, we’ve been listening to all kinds of shit from Fusion to Metal to whatever. Just kind of depends on whether I’m listening to it on headphones, or on the bus hanging out. Sharing music with each other or I’m waking up in my bunk and throw something on. But yeah, if I want to get jazzed before a show, these live KING CRIMSON have really been doing it for me.

You’ve mentioned The Wake earlier. I’ve been listening to it a lot also. A lot of people are saying that it might be their best in over 25 years. Where would you rank it in VOIVOD’s discography?

Man, I would say in the top five. I think Nothingface is still my favorite. That was the first one I ever got into. After that, Dimension Hatröss, The Outer Limits…I went through a big Phobos phase, where I was really into that but it doesn’t hold up as well as the other ones. Also Killing Technology. I think it’s right up there with those other four records. It’s fucking amazing.

What would you say is the album you’ve listened to the most in your life?

I would say Red by KING CRIMSON. It’s probably the most played record, I keep coming back to it. Lately, I’ve been looking for all kinds of live recordings where they’re playing stuff leading up to that, like The Road to Red stuff. I heard that for the first time when I was 16 years old or something like that. I’d never been into Prog or anything like that and it really just hit the sweet spot. It just gets better over time for me. I still love it.

Are you a fan of live records in general or is it more of a King Crimson type of thing?

I’m a huge fan of live recordings. Not all of them but if it’s a particularly good one, I like to seek those out. Recently, I heard this live DONNY HATHAWAY record and it sounds great. I feel like the performances are better than any of the recorded album stuff. Every once in a while you hit a live record like that. Some of the live ZEPPELIN shit, like Madison Square Garden 1973 or Royal Albert Hall 1971, those are some of my favorite Led Zeppelin recordings, and they are live.

Do you have an example of any song that’s way better live than the studio version?

Oh, let me think about that. That’s one thing about the Crimson stuff, that era with John Wetton, live, it’s still ferocious. Partly because of his bass tone. It’s so much more distorted and grindy and in your face on the live recordings. On the album King Crimson USA, where they’re playing New Jersey in 1974, the version of Starless might even be better than the record, which is saying a lot. That fucking good.

Can you think of three to five songs that you consider to be perfect songs, in any genre?

In the light by Led Zeppelin, I think it’s a perfect song. There’s nothing like that tune. The whole intro to it. The vibe, the synthesizers and everything. It’s not a traditional song as far as verse-chorus, verse-chorus, and you know, it’s pretty psychedelic. They hit on something so unique and identifiable, nobody else could do that. You kind of wonder, how the fuck did they come up with that? I could play it every day and never be sick of it, so I guess that’s a big factor. I think the more I listen to it, the more I appreciate it.

Also, No Quarter by Led Zeppelin. That’s another one. Besides that…man…I’m a huge Zeppelin fan, especially the later era.

Oh, really? What would be your, say two favorite records?

I would say Physical Graffiti and Houses of the Holy.

Oh, ok so not late-late. Not Presence?

I love Presence. It’s up there too. But as far as an entire record goes, Physical Graffiti and Houses of the Holy, front to back are just fucking dynamite. Especially Physical Graffiti because it’s so long and there’s so much variety on it.

Yeah and it’s a lot mellower than the early stuff, and they’re really taking their time to build the songs off.

For sure, yeah. There’s definitely some heavy, hard rocking ones on that too but yeah, there’s definitely more patience on certain songs. They just go more places, it’s so eclectic. I mean, the early stuff will always hold a special place in my heart too. But Presence, tonally, is maybe my favorite one. The guitar sounds on that thing are fucking amazing. I would love to know what Jimmy Page had going on on that one.

Credit: Dirk Frewing

Do you remember the first time you really appreciated music? Maybe an album or a song?

Damn. I think …And Justice For All, as far as full albums go. I was young, 12 I think, and my buddy was playing it on cassette and it was my first time absorbing and being impressed by a whole record. Before that, it was more song by song. Then AC/DC – Ballbreaker. I think I was 12 too. I really got into Ballbreaker and my dad took us to see AC/DC on that tour. After the show, my brother was like “we want guitars!” I remember Angus hit a G chord or something with a kick drum and the cymbals and it was so fucking loud. My brother and I looked at each other like “what the fuck!? This is crazy!” Before that I’d seen MC HAMMER and GEORGE THOROGOOD so AC/DC was definitely startlingly loud and powerful.

Does Ballbreaker still hold a special place to you in their discography?

Not so much! (hahaha)

From that point on, how did your musical tastes evolved through high school and later?

Pretty soon after that, I got really into METALLICA and I had a buddy who was all into Death Metal and Punk Rock and he got me really into BAD BRAINS and SEPULTURA and MINOR THREAT and CARCASS and DEFTONES. I started getting more into the Heavy Metal, Death Metal thing. I got DEATH Individual Thought Patterns, which a friend loaned me and Covenant by MORBID ANGEL. Those were two HUGE records for me. What I consider two of my favorite records as well. Anyways, I got super into Punk Rock. I was playing bass, I was learning a lot of Punk Rock songs and a lot of Sepultura songs and Metallica songs. Then I started getting really into KING CRIMSON around my mid-teens and getting into more Fusion and Jazzy shit and started getting into Funk.



I was still totally not into Classic Rock at all. AC/DC I still loved but like ZEPPELIN and RUSH and shit like that, I was still like “no, I don’t get it.” Not until my early 20’s that I came back around and was like “Oh my god, this is some of the greatest music ever written.” So now I love Rush and Zeppelin and a lot of Classic Rock. BLACK SABBATH, FREE, LYNYRD SKYNYRD. I’m big on Southern Rock too. That’s what my brother and I got from our dad. He was all about Skynyrd, CCR and ZZ TOP.

Then there’s tons of underrated stuff with Southern Rock. Like, you’ll stumble upon a band that played for two years and then disbanded and they’re amazing. One of my favorite, although they have a lot of albums, is BLACKFOOT. Ever heard of them?

Yeah, I’ve only heard a few songs. My buddy Matt Oliver from DANAVA was telling me about that band. Didn’t they have members that were in a different band?

I’m not sure. I don’t think so.

Another one: CAPTAIN BEYOND. Have you heard of them? (Yeah!) That first record…I don’t know if you can quite call it Southern Rock but they kind of had a bit of that Southern feel to it.

Yeah, it’s kind of a good mix. There’s a bit of a Prog element to it also. A bit of an odd mix but it works really well.

Man, speaking of perfect songs…the whole album is great but that first track, Dancing madly backwards (on a sea of air), that, to me, is a perfect song.

Also NEIL MERRYWEATHER. Have you heard of him?

No, never.

He’s from Canada. He played in a band called HEAVY CRUISER and then he played with RICK JAMES for a while but his solo stuff, just under Neil Merryweather. There’s two records, one called Kryptonite, which is more like Psych Power Rock, and he plays bass and sings and writes his stuff. Then another one called Space Rangers, which is almost like Soul, he’s got a really soulful voice but fucking out there. Really cool synth lines and shredding guitar leads.

What are your ten favorite albums of all time? Can you name a standout track for each?

BLACK SABBATH – Sabotage – The writ

RAINBOW – Rising – Stargazer

DEATH – Individual Thought Patterns – Overactive imagination

MORBID ANGEL – Covenant – World of shit (The promised land)

NEIL MERRYWEATHER – Space Rangers – Road to hades

LED ZEPPELIN – Physical Graffitti – In the light

KING CRIMSON – Red – Starless

METALLICA – Master of Puppets – The thing that should not be

LITTLE BEAVER – Party Down – I can dig it baby

Have you ever heard NADJA? A little bit on the drone side of things. They have a record called Touched, the song called Stays demons.

What’s the most memorable show you’ve ever seen?

The first time I saw NEUROSIS, it completely drained me emotionally. I had a lot of friends at the show and people were trying to talk to me after the show, and I couldn’t even hardly have a conversation because I was so drained. I couldn’t think of anything else, but what just happened. Like, Wow. It was a new level for me. The live presence and the sound. The sound was so dialed. I’ll never forget that. I’ve seen them probably about 15 times since then and they’re consistently amazing.

Around what time was that?

That was in my early 20’s. I think I was like 22? I think they were touring Times of Grace around that time or just after Times of Grace.



Another one, the first time I saw TOOL. We actually opened for them, at the Boston Garden. The whole production was so over the top and dialed. The visuals…They did a whole intermission where they projected Galaga onto the LED screen and their techs are playing Galaga during the intermission? That was pretty cool. They let us play it too, a couple gigs later.



NEIL YOUNG. I saw him probably two years ago, up in Seattle. I like Neil Young a lot, although I wouldn’t consider him one of my favorite musicians, but after seeing him live, I was brought to tears and it gave me a whole new appreciation for his music. When I listen to his records now, they affect me differently. That was so powerful.

Was the backing band Promise of a Real back then?

No, Crazy Horse was the backing band.

With Crazy Horse, it’s such an electric show. Definitely not what you expect going in.

Right. It was not what I was expecting! So heavy.

It might be one of the heaviest concerts I’ve seen. The first time I saw them, it was FOO FIGHTERS and BLACK KEYS opening and NEIL YOUNG just killed them all.

Wow! When was that?

It was a huge event in Central Park, New York, in 2012. Global Citizen, a free show, can you believe it?

Wow, crazy. I bet there was so many people.

Yeah, tons. There’s actually super good footage of it on YouTube if ever you go down that rabbit hole.

Yeah, cool! I’ll look that up.

Is there any band that you’ve always wanted to see live but you never had the chance to catch them?

Yes. And the band is YES! (hahaha) It’s actually a pretty embarrassing story. I had tickets to see them play Fragile and Close to the Edge, in their entirety and I forgot to go to the show. (hahahaha) I had the tickets, I’d been waiting for it but I bought them like, six months before the show. I was dating a gal and we bought them and we were going to go together and we broke up and I still had the tickets. So I was at a show in Portland, with a bunch of local bands, and my brother sends me a text at like 10pm. He goes “How was the Yes show?” I was like “waaaait, what!?”, and it crashed down on me. I was like, “no, no, noooooo!” I was probably an hour and a half away, and it was an early show so there was no way I was gonna make it by then. I was crushed. Then Chris Squire died about four months later, something like that.

Yeah, that is crushing. I’m sorry that happened to you.

I tried to make myself feel better, telling myself no matter what, I’m catching them next time. I don’t care what they play, I just want to see them and then he passed away. What an inspiration. He’s one of my favorite bass players, like most bass players.

Alright, let’s jump to something else so you don’t keep feeling the pain.

Yes, please! haha

What’s the most impressive band that you’ve toured with? The one that you had to watch night in, night out? And what did you learn from that band?

Man, night in, night out, I would have to say NEUROSIS. Doing kind of a short run with them in the US. They have to dig really deep. They play these really heavy songs that kind of take a toll. It messes them up emotionally to play them because they wrote them in such heavy, dark times. Just watching them, before shows, they are very serious. They get in their zone and it’s almost like you don’t want to talk to them. You don’t want to be in the same room ’cause they’re channeling and building this energy before they go on stage. You know, whatever it takes to get into this place. They were just so great. Such great performers. They played most of the same material, through a number of different eras, but funneled through where they’re at nowadays tonally, with their front of house engineer and it just sounded so spectacular. That really gave us, Travis and myself, kind of this mindset of, what would Neurosis do? Like, we take our soundchecks a little more carefully, and we stepped up our game as far as front of house goes. Dave Clark, their sound guy, he’s got lots of tricks and they take the longest soundtracks of any band I’ve ever seen. Like seven hours sound checks, forever. (haha) Crazy. Sometimes we wouldn’t even get a soundtrack, or just a short line check or something like that.

We picked up a couple new tools after that tour, as far as before live performances like, we picked up a phaser box and it helped with phasing between instruments in the front of house. Just to help the low end stay consistent from night to night and always be present and to help make the mix clearer. Also, they play with a much quieter stage volume. Steve just uses a combo amp and a half stack that’s not very loud at all. Scott’s running very reasonable stage volume, and David, the bass player just running an 8×10 at a decent volume. At the time, we were still playing loud, Mike playing two half stacks, like opened up. Really fucking loud. Me with two bass rigs and just trying to get competitive with Mike. From show to show, the monitor mix would waiver a lot but once we saw Neurosis doing their thing, and still sounding gigantic out front because it’s all about the sound engineer. We definitely grew out of it a little bit, like okay, we’re kind of shooting ourselves in the foot by demanding to be this certain volume every night, you know. So we brought down our stage volumes and it’s made our tech more consistent. It gave us less of a headache and it’s better for everyone in the crowd. Our front of house is having a much easier time mixing us. That’s kind of a very long winded answer! (Haha)

That’s what we like! Are there any classic artists or universally acclaimed artists that you missed out on when they first came out and discovered way later? Or that you didn’t like at first and learn to appreciate over time?

Any era? JAMES BROWN. LED ZEPPELIN, of course, I keep talking about them, ah! I know there’s so many but I’m having a hard time…YES.



CAVE IN. Never saw them. I saw OLD MAN GLOOM and a lot of the bands around their circle but not Cave In. It wasn’t before maybe 2011. We were on tour with DARK CASTLE and Rob would listen to a couple of Cave In records on that tour and I was like “how have I never heard of this?”

Is it mostly the early stuff that you’re into? Or like the Jupiter and on, more melodic era?

I’m not very familiar with the discography and what era that was in but it was definitely a little bit heavier and a little bit lighter on the melodic vocals. Until Your Heart Stops, I think.

Okay, yeah, that’s the second record. The first one is pretty much in the same vein but then they went on to more of a melodic, almost Post-Metal type of vibe.

I’ve heard some stuff from that era too but definitely Until Your Heart Stops is one of the one I’ve listened to on that tour. It was my introduction to the band. I was really wondering why I had never heard of this band before because it was like what, late nineties?



So many bands have reformed over the years that I didn’t think I would see again. Going to Roadburn and seeing some major reunions like I saw a couple of months back. I saw TRIPTYKON doing a whole CELTIC FROST set. That was so great to see. Tom singing that stuff, performing those songs.

Did they play Monotheist stuff or mostly the early stuff?

They played two songs off Monotheist and then the rest was early stuff. I wish they would have played more. That’s a great fucking record. That’s definitely one of those records where I didn’t look into them ’till like, two years ago, and then I was like, wow, I’m just now hearing this? Amazing. I’ve known about the band for a very long time, but just kind of stayed in the early years and never dug deep?

Yeah, I’ve skipped it also when it came out. I was like “it doesn’t sound like the early stuff!” but now it’s probably my most listened to Celtic Frost album.

Do you have any unpopular or controversial music opinion you’d like to defend? Maybe stuff that you’ve been arguing with band members or friends of yours?

Great question, man. Let me think about that…(pauses) I got one!

I know people that think bass players shouldn’t play pedals. No effects pedal, just distortion and a tuner. I’ll get shit sometimes because I have a chorus pedal and a reverb pedal. I just don’t get it. Some people find that very ridiculous and unnecessary, which is just crazy to me. There’s these memes, I’ve seen like five different memees of like, “when a bass player walks in with a pedal board” or “when a bass player tries using effects” with an image that is knocking it. I just don’t get that. I don’t go too crazy with the effects but I love when bass players use a lot of effects and do far out shit. I don’t think they just need to stay low. Kind of an hilarious one, I came to jam with these guys one time and they play kind of early Death Metal stuff, kind of like SUFFOCATION, and I brought in my pedal board that I use for everything, you know, and they’re like “What the fuck? You use that?” Yeah, those are my tools you know? It became something they would give me shit about, like “Whatever you do, just don’t step on that.” haha. Ridiculous.

Well, maybe a twist on that last question, is there a gem from a band that people tend to overlook that you’d like to defend?

The BAD BRAINS record Rise. It’s an album without HR so a lot of people are like, “Fuck that. Bad Brains is nothing without HR”. But this record is fucking great. Well, I’d say about 3/4 of it is fucking great. I feel like some people don’t really give it a chance because HR was not on it…or maybe they don’t like it…but I think that their musicianship is just on fire on that record and the singer does a pretty good job. He’s definitely no HR but he does his best and also gives his own kind of flavor to it. Very overlooked record. That one, I bring it up all the time and people are like, “Huh? Never heard of it” or people who have are like “meh”.

You’ve mentioned listening to Punk quite a bit. Can you give us a top five of Punk or Hardcore songs?

BAD BRAINS – I Against I – House of suffering. I love that song. I love the first album but over the years, I think I’ve listened to that one a little more nowadays.



I love the song Black cloud by CONVERGE, off of You Fail Me.



The Badge by POISON IDEA, off of Field of Darkness. I fucking love that whole record.



Ugly American by Poison Idea as well, on Kings of Punk.



I really like Soulcraft by Bad Brains off of Quickness.

I mean, as far as my favorite shit, I think it’s Bad Brains and Poison Idea. And, of course, BLACK FLAG too. I love Converge. These days, that’s kind of my favorite stuff. It’s held up the best over the years.

What’s your favorite era for Converge?

I think it’s kind of the middle era. Like, I love Jane Doe. I love No Heroes. No Heroes is a pretty underrated record. For some reason, people are so divisive about Converge. They either hate the later stuff and only like the first record. The more like, extreme Hardcore kind of stuff. Then, I feel like they started developing their sound and kind of taken it to some new places and that’s when people are like, “No”, but that’s kind of where I started really getting into them. I feel like they got such a strong identity around that time.

But they have peaks all across their discography. Like, All We Love We Leave Behind is an amazing record.

Yeah, amazing. I love Axe To Fall. You Fail Me? Fuck!

I don’t think they’ve made an actual bad album.

Yeah, I agree.

Actually, talking about not releasing a bad album, who would you say has the most flawless discography?

Woohoohoo…I’ve never even thought about that question. That’s a good one. Well, I’m gonna say DEATH. I feel like there’s no bad Death record out there. Still some of my favorite records, Sound of Perseverance, Individual Thought Patterns, Human. I like their more Progressive shit, when they got a little more technical towards the end. Symbolic too. Such good records. But Spiritual Healing and all the old shit is so solid and I find myself returning to those records. They all have great moments on it. I don’t think they’ve put out a bad record, after all those albums.

What are some up and coming artists that you would recommend? Any newer bands that caught your ear?

I mean, does TRUE WIDOW count? I guess they’re not really up and coming but they’re kind of a newer band and they’re a little more unknown as far as where I’m at. Huge fan. Hum, upcoming bands…WIEGEDOOD, a Black Metal band from Belgium. Levy from AMENRA is in that band. Really good three piece, just two guitars and drums. Great band. I guess they got three records now though, they’ve been putting out records pretty fast.



There’s a band called DARK NUMBERS from Portland, which is where I live. They are just about to release their first record.



What else…DRUNK DAD out of Portland. More like Punk, kind of Hardcore stuff. Whoo, another band called MARRIAGE + CANCER out of Portland. They got an EP out and it kind of reminds me of more 90’s stuff. The vocals hit me a little bit like In Utero-era NIRVANA. Down there and extra dirty.

Is there a band that you discovered live recently that blew you away?

AMENRA. We were playing shows with them and I had never seen them before. I was pretty unfamiliar with their music. I had heard just a few songs. I saw them live and was like, Holy fuck. One of the best live performances I’ve seen in a while. They had the whole visuals going on, they had a projector and really, really good sound and just great performance. Solid songs. They have just a massive sound that they kind of don’t go too far from, from song to song. Just really heavy emotion, you can feel this kind of like spirit in it. They give you that feeling like “wow, these guys are tuning into something”. It’s not like anyone’s got mind blowing chops but they’re just a great fucking band executing their sound to the highest level. I was just floored by that band.



Other than that, a band called DANAVA. I’ve seen them live a number of times but they had that thing. I mean, they’re more like, technically electrifying but watching them live, before I’d heard their music, was a whole different level.