The Ape of God

The Ape of God / The Ape of God
Cover art for The Ape of God (PFL145)
Studio album by Old Man Gloom
Released	November 11, 2014 (2014-11-11)
Recorded	December 2013 & June 2014
Studio	GodCity Studios (Salem, MA); HOLC (Vashon, WA)
Genre	Sludge metal, post-metal
Length	PFL145: 43:40 PFL145.5: 46:49
Label	Profound Lore, SIGE
Producer	Kurt Ballou
Old Man Gloom chronology
No (2012)No2012 The Ape of God and The Ape of God (2014)
Related artwork
Cover art for The Ape of God (PFL145.5)

The Ape of God is the name of three different studio albums released by the American rock band Old Man Gloom — one of which was a "fake" album released promotionally to music critics and subsequently leaked online, and two of which were officially released to the public making up the band's sixth and seventh studio albums (and are sometimes unofficially disambiguated as The Ape of God I and The Ape of God II). The two publicly released albums were released on November 11, 2014 through Profound Lore Records (digital/CD) and SIGE Records (vinyl) — marking the first time since the band's inception that an album was not released through Tortuga Records and Hydra Head Records. The Ape of God albums were marketed and promoted as a single album for several months, but the weekend before its official release, it was revealed to actually be the name of two separate but identically titled studio albums and was also revealed that the version that some music critics had reviewed and leaked only featured edited-down versions of songs from both albums.

The "fake" promo version of The Ape of God albums was subject to critical acclaim, however the fact that Old Man Gloom had deceived members of the press to prevent the leak of their albums was very negatively received and angered several journalists.

The Ape of God albums were recorded in two separate recording sessions with Converge guitarist and long-time producer for Old Man Gloom, Kurt Ballou. The first took place in December 2013 and the second took place in June 2014. The band felt that previous albums had heavier metal songs jarringly "cut and pasted" in between softer ambient songs, and set out to make these two opposing parts more "interwoven" together on The Ape of God albums. The writing process for both albums was described as "extremely quick" by drummer Santos Montano since all members are busy with other bands, and that most of what ended up being recorded was "almost entirely spontaneous." Montano also said Ballou wasn't involved with the writing process at all, and his input in the studio was relatively minimal.

Old Man Gloom announced that they began work on their follow up to their 2012 album No in December 2013. In August 2014, the band formally announced that their new album would be titled The Ape of God and would be released in November through Profound Lore Records digitally and on CD, and through guitarist Aaron Turner's own SIGE Records on vinyl. The album marked the first time in the band's history that an album was not released through Turner's Hydra Head Records and/or it's subsidiary Tortuga Records. Turner previously interacted with Profound Lore founder Chris Bruni when the label released albums from his other bands: Isis' live album Live.03 in 2005, and Mamiffer's collaboration with Locrian Bless Them That Curse You in 2012. Turner said he felt Profound Lore would be a good label to release The Ape of God, elaborating: "I felt like it was really the best place for us to be, because Profound Lore is obviously oriented toward heavy music, but I feel like they're pretty broad in their approach. They've definitely got a pretty experimental angle to their output and it just felt like a good place to be. I think [Bruni] got a built-in audience to some degree, and also I feel like he has a broad enough reach where the people who already like us would easily find us through that outlet."