The weather in the Northwest is not a myth. It rains a shit-ton in Portland this time a year — from November to May. It’s not always full-on downpours, but it’s just enough to piss most people off. But apparently, people who live there are used to it. Being a product of your environment is actually a good thing, otherwise we wouldn’t get to experience Lord Dying’s stellar brand of dark, sludgy, doom metal on its sophomore release, Poisoned Alters (released Jan. 31 via Relapse Records). For band members Erik Olson (guitar/vocals), Don Capuano (bass), Rob Shaffer (drums) and Chris Evans (guitar), the weather and their surroundings has had a profound effect on the band’s creative output.

“I think it does (have an effect) on us and a lot of the bands from the Northwest,” Olson explained. “There’s not a lot you can do as far as going outside, so you’re really stuck inside. And while you’re inside, you work on your music.”

With the emergence of top-notch Portland-area bands in the past few years such as Toxic Holocaust, Red Fang and Agalloch, the area is not such small potatoes anymore when it comes to the local music scene. However, Olson explains because of their location, touring opportunities are not so plenty.

“There have been a lot of great bands from Portland and there’s a lot of great local bands,” Olson said. “We don’t get on tour as much as we try and do, full-time that is. There’s a lot of bands that will play locally. The thing about Portland is … Seattle is only a two and a half/three hour drive, but everywhere else, you’re looking at a 10-hour drive to anywhere, for the next closest city where we’re playing. And I think that really limits touring around here. To make it so that you don’t lose money, you have to just keep going (across the US). Once you get out to the East Coast, it’s a lot shorter drives and you can stretch your dollar as far as your gas tank goes.”

Line up the Marshall stacks, click the distortion peddle and plow straight ahead. This best describes Lord Dying’s mantra on its sophomore release, Poisoned Altars. There are plenty of slowed-down Motörhead moments mixed with a doomy Sabbath vibe along with modern Mastodon elements and High On Fire-isms is what you get on Poisoned Altars. The record  was produced by fellow Portland habitant and Toxic Holocaust leader, Joel Grind. Knowing each other through the local music scene, it made sense for Grind to produce Lord Dying’s new album.

“We met at a party about four or five years ago. Then he was at our record release show for Summon The Faithless and we started hanging out after that. I was a big fan of the production that he got on the Toxic record, particularly I liked the production he got on Conjure and Command. He offered to record us and we just felt like it would be a good fit. We couldn’t be happier at how it turned out. He’s really professional in the studio.”

With the name of the album and the title track, as well as the band name, one gets the immediate sense that Lord Dying is slamming organized religion.

“Yeah, definitely. Chris (Evans) and I both lived in Salt Lake City before we moved to Portland about a year ago. We kind of grew up there, I wasn’t born there, but we had roots for sure in Salt Lake City. Being from there caused us to be against organized religion. Just being outcasted, and the way we were treated in high school because we weren’t Mormon, that would be the root of it. That’s what the band name means to us as well. Lord Dying, the end of organized religion.”

Comparisons to bands possessing similarities to sludge rock/metal such as Red Fang, Black Tusk and Mastodon, is not off-base when it comes to Lord Dying’s musical prowess. About the riffs … once Lord Dying finds a groove-based fuzzy riff, they just ride it like there’s no tomorrow. These great transitional riffs strewn throughout Poisoned Alter grabs the listener’s attention.

“We’re just focused completely on the riffs we write. Sometimes it comes out like that (sludge sound) and other times we have a lot of thrash riffs and early death metal influences. We really try to push the envelope on the stuff we write and try to get better at what we do. I agree that there’s a strong sludge-like thing happening. And that’s kind of normal with a lot of bands from the Northwest anyway.”

There’s no sophomore jinx with Poisoned Altars, either. “On this album, all the songs written were intended to be on the album,” Olson concluded. “Going into, it we wanted to do an album that was meaner and faster and the songs were more cohesive to belong on an album where as with Summon The Faithless, everything was written up to that point. none of the songs were necessarily intended to be on the record but that was what we had and we put it out. I think this new one is a little more mature for us as a band, as far as really trying to put out a good record. That was intentional.”