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SubRosa - Biography


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2008-

Biography

SubRosa is a heavy experimental doom band from Salt Lake City, Utah. Within the SubRosa crucible, subterranean, crushing volume suffuses with the haunting ambience of two electric violins. Elements of dark folk interplay with lyrics spanning sociopolitical issues and Americana narratives. The resulting soundscape is dark, bleak and emotional. Rebecca Vernon's vision for SubRosa brewed for some years before songwriting began in the summer of 2005 with kindred spirit Sarah Pendleton on violin. The Worm Has Turned was written in Rebecca's haunted basement apartment and self-released in June of 2006. Strega was released in March of 2008 on Swedish doom/thrash label I Hate Records, after remixing by Marduk bassist Magnus "Devo" Andersson. The EP Swans Trapped in Ice was self-released in 2009.

Kim Pack joined as an additional violinist in 2008, and SubRosa's full-length album, No Help For The Mighty Ones, recorded by Salt Lake producer Andy Patterson and mixed and mastered by Devo again, was released in the summer of 2011 on Profound Lore Records. No Help was listed as #20 on Decibel's Top 40 Albums of the 2011, and #20 on Pitchfork's list of the 40 best metal albums of the year, along with other year-end lists.
Andy Patterson (drums) joined the band in 2012, and Profound Lore released full-length album More Constant Than the Gods, on Sept. 17, 2013. It received extensive critical acclaim and appeared on many "Best of 2013" year-end lists, including Decibel Magazine (#4 of Top 40 Extreme Albums of 2013) MSN.com (#5 metal album of the year), Pitchfork (#9 of Top 40 Metal Albums of 2013), #11 on both Rolling Stone's and SPIN's 20 Best Metal Albums of 2013, #5 on Entertainment Weekly's "Top 6 Best Metal Albums of the Year," and #2 on Cvlt Nation's Top 6 Doom Albums of 2013, among many others.

Profound Lore released full-length album For This We Fought the Battle of Ages on Aug. 26, 2016, which also appeared on many year-end lists, including Decibel Magazine (#27 of Top 40 Extreme Albums of 2013) and #1 on Meat Mead Metal and The Obelisk. SubRosa created their first music video for the song "Troubled Cells" with an all-volunteer film crew based out of L.A., touching on LGBTQ suicide rates in Utah.
Roadburn/Burning World Records released SubRosa Subdued: Live at Roadburn in November 2017, capturing SubRosa's "subdued" (stripped down, quieter) live set played at Roadburn 2017.
SubRosa has played festivals such as Roadburn (2015, 2017), Graspop, Desertfest Belgium, Up in Smoke, Fall into Darkness, Scion Rock Fest, Hellfest (2014, 2017), Housecore Horror Fest, Uninvited, Southwest Terror Fest, Hopscotch, Treefort, Durbuy Fest, Doom over Leipzig, Psycho California, Psycho Las Vegas (2016, 2017) Duna Jam, and Pabst Festival. SubRosa has completed US and European tours opening for Boris, Cult of Luna, Yob and Wovenhand, and opened for Deafheaven and Neurosis at two separate shows in Denver, Colorado.