LV band cuts EP in key of doom

She turns the lights off before the band begins playing, the room illuminated only by the dozen or so candles casting a dim flicker upon the blood-red walls.

This is music better suited for dark spaces, and singer Shanda Fredrick and her bandmates in Vegas doom thunderclap Demon Lung recognize as much.

Head down, eyes hidden behind a curtain of bangs, Fredrick leans into her mic stand as if bracing herself against the inevitable impact of some invisible force.

And in a way she is, as guitarist Phil Burns lays down a riff that could flatten a mountain with its forward momentum, all slow, deliberate rumble.

Bassist Pat Warren and drummer Jeremy Brenton conjure a bottom end with so much heft, you feel the rhythms pulsing in your heels, making the room feel like it's vibrating.

"You will not be s-a-a-a-ved by the holy ghost," Fredrick sings, her equally sonorous and doleful voice haunting the song like a poltergeist.

Doom is heavy metal's downward gravitational pull, and Demon Lung embodies this earthbound tug.

"We're more about mood as opposed to technical playing," Burns explains a little later between sips of High Life. "It's more appealing when you get a good groove, a good beat, you can just sway back and forth to it."

Outside their rehearsal space after practice, chatting over beers on a breezy Wednesday night, the conversation ranges from the Satanic scares of John Carpenter's cult classic "Prince of Darkness" to the chest-pounding cheese balls in Manowar, as the foursome exhibits expert knowledge of horror flicks and pretty much every phylum of metal, all of which figure prominently in Demon Lung's shadowy jams.

The band recently completed work on their debut four-song EP, "Pareidolia," which should be available tonight when Demon Lung plays with rising L.A. doom troupe Huntress at the Cheyenne Saloon.

It's a strong start for this bunch, with a raw and organic yet crisp production.

Though Demon Lung has been together only for about a year, they've made plenty of headway, opening for such notables as High on Fire, Jucifer and Pentagram.

There's an easygoing air that hangs about the quartet, with Burns and Brenton having grown up together in Indiana and three of the four band members currently sharing a house.

Despite the familial vibe, they're not bonded by blood -- just a love for it.

"Metal, all aspects of it, is pretty much our lives," says Brenton, before catching himself. "Metal and horror films."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.