Dwarr

An outsider in an already left-of-center genre, Duane Warr, better known by recording moniker Dwarr, began his journey into the annals of musical obscurity as a factory worker with dreams of making it big in Columbia, South Carolina. His music is an eccentric combination of psychedelic rock and doom metal, drawing from influences like Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, and Pentagram to create an atmospheric and riff-oriented sound made all the stranger by occasional bursts of piano and saxophone. In what seems like a blue-collar retelling of the Boston story, Warr did not assemble a band, instead renting an eight-track recorder from a nearby studio and recording an album by himself in order to keep his artistic vision untainted by outside influences. For his 1984 debut, Starting Over, Warr played almost every instrument himself with the exception of the drumming, which was handled by Ron Sparks. He followed up in 1986 with Animals, also recorded alone with Sparks as a session player. The two albums, which were self-released with an extremely limited run, failed to grab the public’s attention. Dwarr wouldn’t release another record until 2000, when he put out his third album, Holy One. Then, three years later, he released Times of Terror. In 2010, Dwarr saw a bit of a resurgence when indie giant Drag City reissued Animals, introducing a new generation to what had become one of metal’s most obscure cult classics, then followed up the next year with a reissue of Warr's debut album, Starting Over.