Jazz-Fusion Act Dark Hall Revisit ‘Changing Weather’ 25 Years Later in New Playthrough Video

It was in 1992 that Dark Hall was founded by bassist Steve Di Giorgio (currently part of thrash metallers Testament), saxophone/flute player Flamp Sorvari and drummer Chris Dugan. By 1994, they had Eric Cutler on guitar and had their first five-track demo called Solace in hand, recorded in California. With guitarist Ken Schultz in the fold, they recorded and released an untitled demo.

Now 25 years later, the quartet dive back in like they’d never left, following the announcement of a re-mastered version of the untitled demo coming out via Bengaluru-based Subcontinental Records on CD, vinyl and limited edition cassette. Below, you can see them perform “Changing Weather,” which is offered as a digital exclusive from the self-titled album.

Di Giorgio says that the original idea was for a bass playthrough video of “Changing Weather.” He adds in a statement with the video, “So just on a whim, I thought what if the other guys were able to do a playthrough also and we could just combine each person’s individual footage together and it would be more interesting than just the bass part. And they agreed!”

Described as a “virtual reunion of sorts,” the playthrough video is an updated version of the song from the late Nineties. Di Giorgio says over an email interview that drummer and sound engineer Chris Dugan not only recorded the video, but also the audio, making it “truly plugged in and doing a totally, new fresh rendition of how we sound now, 25 years later.” Admittedly, Di Giorgio says revisiting the song made him realize some passages were tricky to nail and they were recording their parts without having jammed together for decades. “But I’m so proud of the guys and very happy with the result,” he says.

What is familiar and unfamiliar for the artist on the re-mastered version of the songs? Di Giorgio says the “rawness” is familiar. The bassist adds, “The remastered songs are all recorded on a very small budget, or in most cases, gratuity from Dugan who owned the studio and engineered it himself. So we had bare minimum time to get the best performance put to tape. So we recorded live as a band, all together, in the same room and had only minimal opportunities to correct and kind of mistakes or wrong notes. But basically what you’re hearing is a super raw, unfixed performance. This was done analog to 2” tape with no DAW, no click track, no grid, no copy/paste. And you can tell!”

Back when it started out, Dark Hall was an outlet for a completely different side to Di Giorgio, who’s been known for his work with metal bands like Sadus, Death, Autopsy, Ephel Duath and even Megadeth’s 2021 album The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead! He says, “I’m a blend of everything that inspires me, and that’s what needs to come out of me.”

He and Flamp were friends in an afterschool band, for long toying around with the idea of making their own tunes. Di Giorgio says, “We would often just get together, the two of us, and jam with a drum machine and keyboard synthesizer trying different song ideas. I branched off to metal during late highschool, but always maintained friendship and musical idea with Flamp. So I was always swaying between metal and the jazz (I guess you could it jazz). All my metal band mates knew that I was originally from the jazz/fusion world so it was nothing for them when I went to play gigs in that context.”

Despite the renewed spotlight on Dark Hall, Di Giorgio does say it would be a long shot for the band members to get back together and record new material. Apart from geographical distance separating them, they’re all busy with their own bands, projects or jobs. Still, the bassist says they talk about it from time to time. He says, “But it’s a lot of work and it’s hard to see that happening. Maybe we can pull together virtually like we did for the video and try to do one song, just for old-time’s sake. That’s a door to be opened in the future, way… way down that dark hall…”

Watch the video for “Changing Weather” below. Get ‘Dark Hall’ on Bandcamp.