The Ape of God

by

Old Man Gloom

The Ape of God is the name of three different studio albums released by the American rock band Old Man Gloom—one of which was a "fake" album released promotionally to music critics and subsequently leaked online, and two of which were officially released to the public making up the band's sixth and seventh studio albums (and are sometimes unofficially disambiguated as The Ape of God I and The Ape of God II). The two publicly released albums were released on November 11, 2014, through Profound Lore Records (digital/CD) and SIGE Records (vinyl)—marking the first time since the band's inception that an album was not released through Tortuga Records and Hydra Head Records. The Ape of God albums were marketed and promoted as a single album for several months, but the weekend before its official release, it was revealed to actually be the name of two separate but identically titled studio albums and was also revealed that the version that some music critics had reviewed and leaked only featured edited-down versions of songs from both albums.

The "fake" promo version of The Ape of God albums was subject to critical acclaim, however the fact that Old Man Gloom had deceived members of the press to prevent the leak of their albums was very negatively received and angered several journalists.