Clutch Post New Single “The Drifter Returns”
The prospect of a new Clutch album sparks only one question in my mind: When? At this point, today, right now, I don’t have an answer for that question, and maybe that means it’ll be in the New Year and “The Drifter Returns,” the long-running Maryland-rooted groove kings’ new single, is intended as a holdover ahead of their coming Fall tour in the company of Norway’s Slomosa — it’s not every day I consider driving to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania — but I don’t know that, which means the thing could show up tomorrow, never, or at any point between. But posting a new song is of course an integral part of the process, and so here we are.
How’s it sound? Well, at least there’s an answer for that one. To follow-up 2022’s Sunrise on Slaughter Beach (review here), the band returned to producer Gene “Machine” Freeman, with whom they’ve previously worked three times, first on 2004’s Blast Tyrant (discussed here; reissue review here) and subsequently on the back-to-back pair of 2013’s Earth Rocker (review here) and its 2015 sequel, Psychic Warfare (review here), and for Clutch fans, that collaboration is usually good news. Machine has a tendency to get an uptempo kind of energy out of the band’s performance, or at very least to highlight it within songs already suited to their working together, that at this point has a pretty solid track record of landmarks. “The Drifter Returns” is of the oeuvre, and that should be read as a compliment to it.
I don’t even know what the new Clutch record’s called, but I know the lyrics mention Georgia, so if you’ve got your Map of Places Neil Fallon Has Namedropped in Songs handy and your Official Clutch Placename Stamp, you know what to do. He’ll get to all 50 states sooner or later and then, I expect, go back and start it over. They’ve got fans everywhere, to be certain, and many spots to visit both figuratively and literally. This seems like a good time to mention the Australian tour they’ll undertake in January with Corrosion of Conformity. Having seen the two bands together earlier this year (review here), I’ll tell you flat out that you don’t lose.
You’ve probably seen the lyric video already. Meh. If you think a song is stale after a weekend, that’s not on me. Enjoy:
Clutch, “The Drifter Returns” lyric video
The Drifter Returns
Stream it here: https://orcd.co/thedrifterreturns
Clutch w/ Slomosa & Blood Vulture
10.16 Charlotte NC The Fillmore
10.17 Myrtle Beach SC House of Blues
10.18 Jacksonville FL Five
10.20 Tampa FL The Ritz Ybor
10.22 New Orleans LA House of Blues
10.23 Robinsonville MS Bluesville at Horseshoe Tunica*
10.24 Fort Worth TX Sick New World (Clutch only)
10.25 Fayetteville AR Ozark Music Hall*
10.27 Des Moines IA Val Air Ballroom
10.29 Green Bay WI Epic Event Center
10.30 Moline IL The Rust Belt
10.31 Cincinnati OH The Andrew J. Brady Music Center
11.01 Fort Wayne IN Clyde Theatre
11.03 S. Burlington VT Higher Ground
11.05 Hampton Beach NH Casino Ballroom
11.06 Wilkes-Barre PA F.M. Kirby Center
11.07 Norfolk VA The Norva
*No Blood Vulture
