My love for smaller and boutique metal and heavy music labels had to start somewhere. Everyone like me would feel the same. At some point, you stumble across someone who puts out music that feels like exactly what you’d do in the same position, only you’re not as ambitious and as savvy as the person releasing this music. But you secretly feel like whoever started the label did it for people like you.

I’m an unabashed fan of Gilead Media and its owner Adam Bartlett. I’m lucky enough to call him a friend, and I’ll upfront admit that because this is a critical piece, and I have never-ending anxiety, I don’t want the words that follow to be skewed. There’s a documentary on Bartlett, Gilead Media, and 2018’s Migration Fest that took place at Mr. Smalls in Millvale, Pa., super close to my house and one of my favorite weekends of my life. I remember being at the gym hours before it and listening to Thou’s “Rhea Sylvia” and thinking this is something I’m going to remember forever. I didn’t know it would be a transformative weekend of my life. But it was. But this isn’t about me.

“A Wandering Path: The Story of Gilead Media” is a documentary created, written, and directed by Michael Dimmitt of Mutilation Rites about Bartlett, Gilead Media, and Migration Fest that is touring film festivals and is an incredible experience. Admittedly, if you’re not a fan of the label or its bands, you might feel like you’re on the outside looking in on this entire world. But this feels like a film made for Gilead devotees and its bands, the people who filled Mr. Smalls and swear by every Gilead release because you know the music will deliver every time. And there’s enough here to explain who Bartlett is, who the main players are for Gilead Media, and why Migration Fest was a spiritual and communal experience its followers cherish completely. 

The story of the label is interwoven throughout the film, and as the journey goes, we meet each band that has been pivotal to the label and formed the foundation of what Bartlett does. Well, there’s one exception. Panopticon and its leader Austin Lunn get a lot of focus, and they are not actually on Gilead Media. But Lunn’s words and Bartlett’s urging him to finally take his band to the live setting is what makes that union so vital. Panopticon appeared on both versions of Migration Fest, and Seidr performed at the 2014 version of Gilead Fest, so their relationship goes back a long way. Lunn explains why Bartlett’s urging, which at times were purposely antagonistic (“You’re afraid,” is one of his jabs to get his friend to perform live with Panopticon), and Lunn credits him with pushing him to take his band to the next level. It’s a cool, touching story, and being able to see the band live at Migration in 2018 is a life highlight. No exaggeration whatsoever. So, thanks, Adam.

As these stories are told, we see sections at a time. We see Bartlett in his Oshkosh, Wisc., record store Eroding Winds (which now has two locations) as he prepares for the journey to Pittsburgh (Millvale is the home of Mr. Smalls, which is just a few miles from downtown) and his coworkers helping him for the mission. We meet his wife Cari and his mother Lora as we learn more about Bartlett’s upbringing (childhood photos and video included), we see his pups (with a closeup on the late, great Tater), and the seeds planted for the birth of Gilead Media in 2005 (the name in inspired by the “Dark Tower” series by Stephen King). We get a running tally through the piece of important Gilead releases throughout the label’s existence, starting with Crossing the Atlantic, A Scanner Darkly, …Of Sinking Ships, and the Cancer Conspiracy. From there, we get small segments on each band that’s been a major contributor for the label as well as a thorough timeline of those key records.

We encounter the uncomfortable and punishing Couch Slut, whose singer Megan Osztrosits bloodily recounts her stage antics, the pain and agony behind performing songs that have so many stories of the sexual trauma and harassment she exorcises on stage. The fact that other women relate their stories and appreciate how she exposes these horrors helps them deal, which she acknowledges. Live, she’s an utter typhoon, but that awe you’re in is informed by the horrors she faced. Of course there’s Thou, the band Gilead Media became known for, and the live portion from their Migration Fest performance centers on newest member KC Stafford and their incredible performance on “The Hammer.” It also shows how loose and not seriously the bands takes itself, and testimonials from Emma Ruth Rundle, who also is widely featured, and Blood Incantation/Leech member Paul Riedl give deeper insight.

Black metal wizards Krallice have had a long journey with Gilead, that we see here from its beginning, and we get a look at how their collaboration with Neurosis’ Dave Edwardson came to be. By the way, Edwardson’s speaking voice sounds eerily like Nick Offerman’s. We then move to West Cornwall, CT., and Yelping Hill, the site where Yellow Eyes write and record their music. The Skarstad brothers explain what their music means to them as artists and also display some of their homemade instruments that are responsible for the otherworldly sounds on their records.

A dash to the Pacific Northwest covers Mizmor and Hell, as well as the wild Eternal Warfare, and how their bands have become familiar affairs. We see the early days of Sorceress that featured A.L.N. of Mizmor and M.S.W. of Hell in a more traditional doom band before we see how each group formed out of that and still involve each other. A note I forgot over the years is M.S.W. breaking his leg skateboarding and A.L.N. potentially having to find a fill-in drummer for the Mizmor Migrations spot. If you don’t know how that ends, I won’t ruin it for you. A.L.N. also further explains how he went from studying the bible overseas on his path of faith to the first Mizmor album that was devotional music to how his faith eroded and disintegrated over time. He’s a fascinating interview, and his excursion is inspirational and painful, a plight that’s not foreign to many in the metal landscape and beyond.

Before we end up at Migration, we get a quick look at Mutilation Rites, which has Wiegedood hilariously roasting them as the “most dysfunctional band” they’re ever toured with, noting, “Europe hates Mutilation Rites.” It’s a joke. I think.

We finally end up at Migration Fest weekend, July 27-29, 2018, and we see the end of the journey, Barlett and co-creator Dave Adelson of 20 Buck Spin talking about how everything came to be, and performances from Pyrolatrous, Fórn, and the bands we already met, Tanner Anderson (of Obsequiae who played keys with Pantopticon) praising Mr. Smalls’ sound as they gush over the weekend. It’s a lovefest, basically, and anyone in attendance at the festival knows it felt that way the entire weekend. It was an incredible event spearheaded by Bartlett and Adelson, an event that was to have a third version in 2020 until the pandemic struck.

“A Wandering Path” is an intimate piece about a man who has sacrificed sanity to see through his mission, Bartlett being a longtime fan of heavy music who has been a credit to underground bands and helped introduce some incredibly important artists people love. Getting to see the players away from the stage and speaking honestly from the heart both about their art, the label, and the festival is such a wonderful experience. You get real humanity, a lot of humor, and the desire and care each of these artists put into their creations. It’s impossible to walk away from this not liking every single person featured. That’s on top of some of the very heavy subjects of abuse, sexual assault, religious indoctrination, and the grief of losing important people that are matters with which so many of us can relate. Perhaps someone watching will connect to one of these people’s stories and realize they’re not alone and also can find the will to fight.

For longtime Gilead Media fans, this is a real treat, a chance to get to know everything and everyone a little better, and the way Dimmitt presents everything moves quickly but still leaves you more knowledgeable and engaged that once everything comes to an end, it feels like a full journey you’ve taken. Even if you’re not as familiar, you still can come away with enough insight to move forward and dig into Gilead and these bands, giving you a crash course into a record label built by love, courage, determination, and will, which you easily can glean from every human being featured on this great documentary.

“A Wandering Path: The Story of Gilead Media” will be screened at Richmond International Film Festival in Richmond, Va., Sept. 27 at 9:50 p.m. at the Byrd Theater. There’s a meet and greet from 8-9 p.m. at Plan 9 Music across the street from the theater.

For more on the film, go here: https://www.awanderingpath.com/

For more on Gilead Media, go here: https://gileadmedia.net/

To get a ticket to the screening, go here: https://riff.eventive.org/schedule/638f72c7b2572f005bee804b

For more on the festival, go here: https://www.rvafilmfestival.com/