Heavy drone duo Droni Eye Omi will make their debut on March 7 with the two-song full-length, Liminal Mass. Carving a place for itself with mountainous tonality and a drumless, often-howling expanse, it’s being released through Desert Records, whose Brad Frye (also Red Mesa) comprises half the lineup alongside flamenco guitarist Ronaldo Baca, and as you’ll see in the release info below, they go so far as to call it a “migration to thyself.”

Anybody remember Inner Space? Go look it up if you’re under 40. Or better, don’t.

“Chromosphere” (29:53) and “Black Flare” (14:13) make up the record, and as a new project, it drones hard. Very definitely self-aware in the Earth 2 nod, and I mean, we’re talking about interwoven layers of guitar noise as a genre, so a given listener might hear all kinds of things in the reaches of the material. I can’t say I’m all the way on board with the band’s decision to keep the release 100-percent free of flamenco guitar (not even a little?), but they’re just getting started and have a clear and expressive purpose as showcased in these initial audio slabs. Both tracks are hypnotic and meditative, but not actually still.

The opener and longer of the two (immediate points) is of course awash in distortion, but it writhes in that, one guitar howling and feeding back as they push toward the 10-minute mark while the other sets a foreboding backing ambience, soon to join a building fray. There are notes, held, distinct, but Baca (who also mixed and mastered) and Frye are exploring here as well, and the sense of improv — a palpable ethic of “let’s try this” overarching the songs — adds to the motion of the listening experience. As destinations go, “thyself” may or may not be a place you want to end up, but terms of being transportive in sound, Liminal Mass is no lightweight.

And this gets us a little closer to understanding what the mission behind the instrumentalist search here actually is. “Black Flare” feels stately and is a little more patient in its unfolding, changing less but still oozing into a resonant wail before letting go to a more subdued ending, but it’s heavy, and that’s a distinguishing feature. Droni Eye Omi are of course not the first to make drone feel oppressive, but Liminal Mass feels like a counterpoint to trends toward floatier sounds. Just because it’s ethereal doesn’t mean it can’t feel like it’s collapsing your sternum.

One more distinguishing feature? No pretense about it. Frye and Baca made the thing in a day, recorded live — they even had a light show to ritualize the mood — and clearly aren’t going for the SunnO)))-style drone metal avant-garde positioning in naming the project like they were a bong metal band. This character is something one doesn’t often encounter with drone: fun. And in the context of the tube-burning noise Droni Eye Omi are making throughout what might be the beginning of a broader journey with heft to spare in terms of style, somehow the admission that they might actually have enjoyed the process of putting the album together feels daring. Drone is weird. So is life. If you’re still reading, so is thyself in all likelihood. Might as well have a good time with it.

“Chromosphere” — duly scorching — premieres on the player below, followed by the PR wire background on the project as mentioned above.

Take a breath, open your mind, and enjoy:

DRONI EYE OMI – Debut album ‘Liminal Mass’ releases via Desert Records on March 7th, 2025.

Two guitars, one from Brad Frye (Red Mesa and Desert Records founder) and a second one from Ronaldo Baca (renowned New Mexican gypsy jazz band Swing Magique and flamenco guitarist) bring you a dense electric guitar drone mixed with psych and space minimalism, and meditative heaviness.

However, desert/stoner rock or gypsy jazz/flamenco this is not!

This is true drone and minimalism inspired by Lamonte Young’s “Composition 1960 No. 7” and Earth’s “Earth 2”.

The band takes these primary influences and sends them straight to the cosmos.

Take a journey to the outer realms of your inner thoughts and sentiments. Droni Eye Omi are the cosmopilots that steer the celestial cruiser of sound into the vast universe of your mind.

Fear not of uncertainty, for nothing is certain with the settling of souls, here and beyond. Hear not the redundant questions of man, but experience the answers known to sound and vibration. Let the high voltage guitars rumble your chest and rattle your ears to an intoxicating sphere of bliss and realization.

You are on a migration to thyself!

CREDITS
Recorded by Droni Eye Omi with a Tascam Model 12 on 5/31/2024 at Bingo Studios in Albuquerque, NM.
Mixed and Mastered by Ronaldo Baca at Orange Cat Studios
Album cover by Diogo Soares

Droni Eye Omi:
Brad Frye (Guitar One)
Ronaldo Baca (Guitar Two)

Droni Eye Omi on Facebook

Droni Eye Omi on Instagram

Droni Eye Omi on Bandcamp

Desert Records on Facebook

Desert Records on Instagram

Desert Records on Bandcamp

Desert Records webstore

Desert Records Linktr.ee

[Click play above to stream Blue Heron’s Everything Fades in full. The album is out Sept. 27 on Blues Funeral Recordings. The band play Ripplefest Texas on Sept. 20.]

The second full-length from Albuquerque’s Blue Heron begins, of course, with a science lecture. Okay not quite. Lead cut “Null Geodesic” unfolds with a snippet about or responding to or by theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, and before it evaporates into echoing trails a few seconds later, it reminds the listener that science is based on observation. Fair enough. One might observe a similarity in concept behind the title of Everything Fades — the four-piece’s second album — and their first, 2022’s Ephemeral (review here). Accordingly, since when in side A’s “Swansong” frontman Jadd Shickler declares, “I’m running out of legends and I’m sick of saying goodbye,” the hardest thing to know is which legend he’s talking about (I’d guess Mark Lanegan, but feel free to make your own pick), it feels safe on a scientific level to note the continued relevance of the theme.

Joined in the band by guitarist Mike Chavez, bassist Steve Schmidlapp and drummer Ricardo Sanchez, Shickler is a significant presence in the material as he is in the broader heavy underground. Like Chavez, he formerly featured in Spiritu, and in addition to founding Blues Funeral Recordings and serving as label boss for Magnetic Eye Records, he’s one of the two founders of the defunct imprint MeteorCity, and arguably somebody who has been part of shaping heavy rock as it is today on a level few others could claim as their own.

He’s not writing songs about it, so it’s not all directly relevant to Everything Fades, but he’s someone I’ve known for 20 years, give or take, and one can hear in the included nine-tracks/38-minutes a conversation happening with the modern sphere — you’ll recall the band took part in Ripple Music‘s split series with last year’s Turned to Stone Ch. 8 (review here), sharing a platter with now-on-Magnetic–Eye Texas rockers High Desert Queen; the coursing, grunge-nodding progression of “Clearmountain” on Everything Fades would seem to show some effect of that — as Blue Heron build on the accomplishments of their debut.

And Everything Fades very much does that. “Null Geodesic” serves double-duty as a proper opener and an album-intro, and its sub-three-minute run recalls the interludes from the prior long-player but is more of a song despite a simpler structure where the heavy middle establishes the desert-hued tonal heft to come, brings the first gritty vocal echoes and balances impact and atmosphere. Much of Everything Fades feels tighter-wrought than Ephemeral, and part of that may just be that “Null Geodesic” is backed by the four-and-a-half-minute title-track instead of a 13-minute jam-out, but there’s no lack of expanse carried in the sound either way.

Tonally rich, Chavez‘s guitar and Schmidlapp‘s bass intertwine fluidly over the emphatic march of Sanchez‘s drumming as “Everything Fades” moves toward its pedal-click volume burst, and Shickler‘s guttural take recalls some of Neil Fallon‘s throatier moments but proves malleable in the more melodically-focused “Swansong,” which includes backing harmonies, and side B’s aforementioned “Clearmountain” as well as the penultimate “Bellwether,” which ties it all together with a particularly heavy push near the finish, ready to give over to 1:17 instrumental capper/outro “Flight of the Heron.”

This evolved approach corresponds with an instrumentalist breadth that manifests a crushing lumber on centerpiece “Dinosaur” at the start of side B, an immersive roll through “Swansong” and others, and a bluesy psychedelic turn in the sans-vocal “Trepidation,” which scorches in spacious lead guitar over Sanchez‘s steady thud until it fades out. As a whole, then, Blue Heron present a more dynamic take across Everything Fades, and do not draw needlessly stark lines between elements in their blend of microgenres. When “Flight of the Heron” kicks in with a riff that feels as purely Kyussian as desert rock could to be — Sanchez‘s soon-arriving drums give a more urgent edge to that — that point of arrival is earned all the more by the swath of ground the band have covered in getting there.

Be it in the tense thud and crawl of the first half of “We Breathe Darkness” that resolves in a consuming, fluid sprawl of distortion, or in the stomp of “Dinosaur,” which revels in its stomp and is one several showpieces for Sanchez besides, or Shickler‘s higher-register reach in the apex of “Bellwether,” Blue Heron find ways to underscore their development as a band over the last several years, without either making Everything Fades about that more than its own songs or letting the material stray too far from where they want it to go. This self-awareness is a strength in terms of their craft and aesthetic purposes, and the album is able to cast itself as a front-to-back journey in part because of it. There may be a lot going on at any given point, and variety is given to structure as well as volume throughout — and not just with what’s a ‘song’ and what’s an interlude — but Everything Fades is cohesive and directed, and boasts a depth of mix that affects the listening experience, whether they’re going all-out and not.

Spiritu never got to put out a follow-up to their 2002 self-titled, and some of what Blue Heron do is directly inherited from Chavez and Shickler‘s work in that outfit, but not all of it. Certainly a powerhouse rhythm section, modern production, and greater stylistic range make a difference, and these are aspects of Blue Heron that come to light throughout Everything Fades in relation to its own predecessor. As the band dig further into their songwriting modus, they seem to find more that works, and even if the pieces included are shorter on average, they’re allowed more impact for that individually while feeding into the overarching flow that, like the movement in “Bellwether” from mellow, tom-backed sandy brooding into a vibrant, hard-hitting course, comes across as organic. At no point does Everything Fades feel forced to go somewhere it doesn’t want to, and much to Blue Heron‘s credit, “Flight of the Heron” resists the temptation to undo its impact with cleverness and ends cold.

To bottom line it, while Ephemeral saw Blue Heron setting forth with an idea of who they were and the kind of music they wanted to make, Everything Fades magnifies that exponentially and is therefore an greater showing of potential for continued growth. Without pretense, they align to an expanded definition of what desert rock is, and in fostering a more varied persona across these songs, they sound ready to add to it. Speaking scientifically, the record kicks ass.

Blue Heron, “Dinosaur” official video

Blue Heron on Facebook

Blue Heron on Instagram

Blue Heron on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings on Facebook

Blues Funeral Recordings on Instagram

Blues Funeral Recordings on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings website

Set to appear among the hordes in the enviable lineup for this year’s Ripplefest Texas, the Jadd Shickler-fronted — formerly of Spiritu, best known for his work with Blues Funeral Recordings, Magnetic Eye, ex-Meteorcity, and so on — heavy rockers from Albuquerque will issue their second full-length, Everything Fades. The band are rolling out the title-track — and I do mean rolling — to coincide with the album’s announcement, and the song’s gritty hook should pique the interest of anyone who caught onto the band’s 2022 debut, Ephemeral (review here) or the 2023 split they issued with High Desert Queen, Turned to Stone Ch. 8: The Wake (review here) last year.

I guess the theme of ephemerality is still represented in the new record’s title and lead single, and fair enough. The fleeting nature of reality as we experience it hasn’t dulled any in the last two years, and from where I sit, a sludge-blues-desert-rocking nod such as that on offer here is worth embracing while you can. I haven’t heard the record yet, so can’t comment on other shenanigans, but if you can dig it, by all means, dig it.

This info is from Bandcamp. I expect a proper press release in the inbox about 30 seconds after it gets posted [actually, I waited for it — ed.]. So it goes. If you have the art and song and release date and you can get to Bandcamp for preorders, you probably have what you need anyway, and I say that as a dude who writes band bios on the (too) regular:

New Mexico heavy rockers BLUE HERON announce new album “Everything Fades” on Blues Funeral Recordings; stream title track now!

Albuquerque, New Mexico’s desert rock torchbearers BLUE HERON have announced the release of their new studio album “Everything Fades” on September 27th through Blues Funeral Recordings. Listen to the debut single and title track on all streaming services today!

BLUE HERON expand on their unyielding desert sound with a new slab of propulsive, sun-scorched riff-heaviness. “Everything Fades” finds the band reveling in low-tuned roil and amplifier hum, churning out swerving grooves as if the primordial spirit of the desert itself compels them.

Stream Blue Heron’s new single “Everything Fades” at this location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9oTcrcQAPc
+ listen to the single on all streaming services: https://lnkfi.re/blueheronfades

Balanced between laid-back, meditative atmospherics and heavier, more aggressive lunges, BLUE HERON’s cruising jams and gritty stoner romps call to mind echoes of Kyuss, Clutch and Monster Magnet, as well as modern contemporaries Valley of the Sun and Greenleaf. Full of rhythmic intensity, sledgehammer riffing, and vocals ranging from clean and moody to howling and raw, “Everything Fades” covers a wide expanse of musical ground that shows how familiar influences can always be molded into inventive, exciting new forms.

The album will be issued on vinyl, CD digipack and digital formats on September 27th, with preorders available now via Blues Funeral Recordings.

BLUE HERON “Everything Fades”
Out September 27th on Blues Funeral Recordings
Preorder on
Bandcamp: https://blueheronabq.bandcamp.com/album/everything-fades
Bluesfuneral.com: https://www.bluesfuneral.com/search?q=blue+heron
SPKR shop: https://en.bluesfuneral.spkr.media/en/Artists/Blue-Heron/Blue-Heron-Everything-Fades.html

Tracklisting:
1. Null Geodesic
2. Everything Fades
3. Swansong
4. We Breathe Darkness
5. Dinosaur
6. Trepidation
7. Clearmountain
8. Bellwether
9. Flight of the Heron

Blue Heron coalesced in 2018 around a compulsion to fill the wide New Mexico skies with massive volume, and saturate their piece of desert with thunderous riffs, drums that pummel and swing, deep, thrumming tones and vocals that rip and roar. Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, their firsthand relationship with the desert is inextricable from who they are and how they sound.

BLUE HERON is
Mike Chavez – Guitars
Ricardo Sanchez – Drums
Steve Schmidlapp – Bass
Jadd Shickler – Vocals

https://www.instagram.com/blueheronabq/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5iNywSwnYX4eMwaQISEpzG
https://www.facebook.com/blueheronabq
https://blueheronabq.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/bluesfuneral/
https://www.instagram.com/blues.funeral/
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
bluesfuneral.com

Blue Heron, Everything Fades (2024)

The information you want — i.e., the tour dates — is in the tour posters, but as you can see there, what’s happening is that Desert Records denizens Red Mesa (from Albuquerque) and Sorcia (from Seattle) are both going on tour in August, and for part of each run, the tours will combine.

Got it? So they’re not touring the entire time together, but they’re hooking up for a leg as part of each’s broader stint up and down the West Coast/inland. Lacking a good word for it is how you get to “intertwining” in the headline. I could’ve gone with “conjoined” or “joint,” but I felt like either of those would mean it’d be the two of them the whole time — you can see in the images Sorcia actually have more shows with Tigers on Opium, and both they and Red Mesa will share the stage with a bunch of others in the sphere of Desert Records along the way — whereas “intertwining” at least in my head implies joining with something else from a more solitary state.

And I’m sorry to get sidetracked on language here — I should be dropping review links, right? isn’t that how it goes? like someone’s gonna click that? — but I find words interesting and it’s nice to have an idea what to call a thing when it happens. If you have any other suggestions, hit the comments and please let me know.

Otherwise, the tour(s) announcement(s) follow here, courtesy of the reliably-paradigm-shifting PR wire:

RED MESA / SORCIA TOUR

Two of Desert Record’s power trios RED MESA and SORCIA, have announced their respective Western U.S. tours for August 2024. The bands will support each other on a leg from ALBUQUERQUE-SEATTLE.

A multitude of Desert Records bands will support including Nebula Drag, Dali’s Llama, The Penitent Man, Spliffripper, Grim Earth, Droneroom, Breath, Doors to No Where, and Fuzz Evil.

“We’ve been talking about doing a full Western US tour for years…and it is FINALLY happening! We couldn’t be more stoked to do the Albuquerque to Seattle leg with our dear friends Sorcia. As we support our latest album, ‘Partial Distortions’ we will be bringing the heavy desert rock to your city!” – Red Mesa

“We are very excited to announce that we are getting back on the road for another Western US Tour this August! For the first half we will be hitting the West Coast joined by our dear friends, Portland rippers Tigers On Opium. For the second half we will be linking up with our amazing Desert Records labelmates Red Mesa as we make our way through the desert and up through the Rockies, where we will end the tour by hosting them in Seattle for our tour homecoming. We are looking forward to hitting some new towns on this tour, and we have some killer bands lined up to support these shows, so stay tuned for individual show details. See you on the road!” – Sorcia

Red Mesa tour poster by Joey Rudell of Fuzz Evil / Sorcia tour poster art by Misanthropic-Art (poster layout by Jessica Brasch).

Red Mesa is:
Brad Frye – Rhythm and Lead Guitars, Lead and Backing Vocals
Roman Barham – Drums, Lead and Backing Vocals
Alex Cantwell – Bass Guitar, Lead and Backing Vocals, Additional Rhythm Guitars, Piano

SORCIA
Neal De Atley – Guitar, Vocals
Jessica Brasch – Bass, Vocals
Bryson Marcey – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/redmesaband/
https://www.instagram.com/redmesaband/
https://redmesarock.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SorciaBand/
https://www.instagram.com/sorciaband/
sorcia.bandcamp.com
https://sorciaband.com/
http://linktr.ee/sorciaband

https://www.facebook.com/desertrecordslabel/
https://www.instagram.com/desertrecords/
https://desertrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://desertrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://linktr.ee/desertrecords

Red Mesa, Partial Distortions (2024)

Sorcia, Lost Season (2023)

Albuquerque desert metallers Red Mesa will release their fourth album, Partial Distortions, on April 19 through guitarist/vocalist Brad Frye‘s Desert Records with a Euro pressing on Majestic Mountain, and it is nothing less than the point at which they find their sound. The blend of grueling sludge and uptempo earthy groove on opener/longest track (immediate points) “ÓDR” shows a character that both 2020’s The Path to the Deathless (review here) and the follow-up willful-aural-divergence of the single “Forest Cathedral” (review here) hinted toward, but the balance between nod and aggression, the density of the atmosphere emerged from the tones, and the sense of the band having genuinely dug into their own approach are all palpable across an album that I can’t stop thinking of as a point of arrival. As potential realized.

That’s before you get to the Soundgardenery of “The Assertion” or the suitable roll and more forceful chug of “Desert March,” and, sitting back there waiting for you all the while, closer “Witching Hour,” which premieres today. Hints of a blend of doom, rock, metal and maybe even hardcore that reminds of Solace‘s brooding moments is met with a multi-layer vocal and an explosive back and forth in the hook that is worthy of the album it caps. The thing’s not our for two months, so I don’t want to sit here and review it before anyone’s ready. Think of this as me sharing a song I think you might dig in a spirit of friendship and a hope for making your day, week, whatever, better.

There’s a press quote from me floating around with the album. I was asked to give one and did, pretty straightforward. As a rule, I don’t run press quotes, even my own, because I should be having my own opinions instead of cutting and pasting someone else’s, but I’ll just say I stand by what I put there. This is a new level for the band. And there’s a lot to say about consistency in lineup, expanded input from the rhythm section in the writing process, exploring different sides of one’s personal influences, on and on. I’ll hope to have more to come as we get closer to the release.

“Witching Hour” premieres below. Partial Distortions is out April 19.

Enjoy:

Red Mesa on “Witching Hour”:

“This is our foreboding tale inspired by the creepier elements of Stephen King’s “Pet Cemetery”. The closing track is heavy and dark with Alex taking the lead on vocals. Musically, the song consists of two sections that were organically brought together. The first half of the song consists of two riffs that Brad showed Roman and they recorded it into the voice memos of an Iphone in early 2021. The second half showcases a huge riff that Alex had been keeping in his back pocket for 20 years. Once the ending riff was worked out, the song came together quickly. We have been adding this song to our live setlists and is quickly becoming a staple.”

‘Partial Distortions’ shows a powerful return of the Albuquerque, NM heavy desert rock trio Red Mesa with their fourth full-length. The album will be released on April, 19th 2024 via Desert Records (North America) and Majestic Mountain Records (Europe).

This 6-track album features the same lineup from their 2020 release ‘The Path to the Deathless’ and the 2022 single ‘Forest Cathedral’.

The record shows further collaboration between band members as guitarist/vocalist Brad Frye, bassist/vocalist Alex Cantwell, and drummer/vocalist Roman Barham all contributed musically and lyrically throughout the album.

Red Mesa has been leading the new generation of desert rock by proving that the genre is capable of greater expanses. The trio has expanded their signature heavy desert sound on ‘Partial Distortions’ to include more doom and sludge metal moments. “Blackened desert” sound collages and an overall doomier and downright frightening musical path will confront the listener, as the album is darker musically and thematically. All whilst still dwelling within an optimism that instills hope that amongst the loss, the tragic endings, and the suffering that this existence brings, that life is still worth living.

Presale for limited edition LP and CD have begun on Bandcamp and www.desertrecords.us and majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com/

Album cover gouache painting by Marco Blasphemator.
Gatefold and back cover photos by Hayley Harper.
Graphics and Layout by Dave Walsh.

Recorded by Augustine Ortiz at the Decibel Foundry in Santa Fe, NM in December 2022.
Recorded and mixed by Matthew Tobias at Empty House Studio in Albuquerque, NM in April, June, August, & October 2023.
Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, OR in October 2023.

Tracklisting:
1. ÓDR
2. The Assertion
3. Dying in the Cold Sun
4. 12 Volt Shaman
5. Desert March
6. Witching Hour

Red Mesa is:
Brad Frye – Rhythm and Lead Guitars, Lead and Backing Vocals
Roman Barham – Drums, Lead and Backing Vocals
Alex Cantwell – Bass Guitar, Lead and Backing Vocals, Additional Rhythm Guitars, Piano

https://www.facebook.com/redmesaband/
https://www.instagram.com/redmesaband/
https://redmesarock.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/desertrecordslabel/
https://www.instagram.com/desertrecords/
https://desertrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://desertrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://linktr.ee/desertrecords

http://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com
http://facebook.com/majesticmountainrecords
http://instagram.com/majesticmountainrecords

Red Mesa, “Forest Cathedral” (2022)

Red Mesa, “Witching Hour” live in Albuquerque, NM, Jan. 27, 2024

Albuquerque-based trio Red Mesa laid a foundation for themselves in straight-ahead, gruff-but-not-necessarily-aggro desert-style heavy rock, and their 2022 standalone track, “Forest Cathedral” (review here, also streaming below), pivoted toward more of a classically doomed style — think Cathedral the band as well as things grandiose and churchy. Partial Distortions, which is the band’s fourth full-length and was recorded over nearly a year’s span, has been in discussion from Red Mesa for at least a year now, and they seem to hint below that the album continues to expand on where Red Mesa started out, which has kind of been their thing all along. Gradual, organic evolution.

Check out Majestic Mountain getting involved for the Euro release, while of course the North American edition will be handed by guitarist/vocalist Brad Frye‘s Desert Records, which much like the band has seen its definitions of ‘desert’ and ‘heavy’ willfully broadened. I do not think that’s a coincidence, and I do look forward to having more to come on the album before it’s out in April. There’s a premiere in the works for sometime between now and then, anyhow.

From the PR wire:

Red Mesa announce new fourth full-length album ‘Partial Distortions’ to be released on April 19th, 2024.

‘Partial Distortions’ shows a powerful return of the Albuquerque, NM heavy desert rock trio Red Mesa.

Desert Records will release the album on limited edition Vinyl LP, CD, and Cassette in North America and on digital download/streaming platforms worldwide.

“Red Mesa bring their signature heavy desert sound with more doom and sludge metal!” – Desert Records

Majestic Mountain Records will release a limited edition vinyl LP in Europe.

“It is an honor for Majestic to be involved in the release of Red Mesa’s excellent new album!’ – Marco Berg/Majestic Mountain Records

Presale will begin in mid-February.

—

The 6-track album features the same lineup from their 2020 release ‘The Path to the Deathless’ and the 2022 single ‘Forest Cathedral’.

‘Partial Distortions’ shows further collaboration between band members as guitarist/vocalist Brad Frye, bassist/vocalist Alex Cantwell, and drummer/vocalist Roman Barham all contributed musically and lyrically throughout the album. Red Mesa employs a three vocal attack as all band members share vocal duties.

The trio has expanded their signature heavy desert sound on ‘Partial Distortions’ to include more doom and sludge metal moments. “Blackened desert” sound collages and an overall doomier and downright frightening musical path will confront the listener, as the album is darker musically and thematically. All whilst still dwelling within an optimism that instills hope that amongst the loss, the tragic endings, and the suffering that this existence brings, that life is still worth living.

Recorded by Augustine Ortiz at the Decibel Foundry in Santa Fe, NM in December 2022.

Recorded and mixed by Matthew Tobias at Empty House Studio in Albuquerque, NM in April, June, August, & October 2023.

Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, OR in October 2023.

Red Mesa is:
Brad Frye – Rhythm and Lead Guitars, Lead and Backing Vocals
Roman Barham – Drums, Lead and Backing Vocals
Alex Cantwell – Bass Guitar, Lead and Backing Vocals, Additional Rhythm Guitars, Piano

https://www.facebook.com/redmesaband/
https://www.instagram.com/redmesaband/
https://redmesarock.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/desertrecordslabel/
https://www.instagram.com/desertrecords/
https://desertrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://desertrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://linktr.ee/desertrecords

Red Mesa, “Forest Cathedral” (2022)

Red Mesa, “Witching Hour” live in Albuquerque, NM, Jan. 27, 2024

It’s kind of funny while also horrifying to think that post-metal, as a style, has been around for about 20 years. The fifth full-length from Albuquerque trio Distances, called Abstruse, is set to arrive on Jan. 19, and across its 10-song/40-minute span, it recalls the formative period of the aesthetic, with a worth-mentioning-twice crush in its tone and a churn that recalls when outfits like Isis, Rosetta and Mouth of the Architect (among others) seemed to be and arguably were at the forefront of a generational wave. Whatever volume you can give Abstruse when the time comes, it will have earned it, but in pieces like the piano-led “Contralateral,” the synth-drone “Passage” and even in the break before the blasting starts in “Empty Prose,” there is of course an atmospheric mindset being employed in conjunction with all that churning intensity.

These guys have been going since at least 2011, so I’m definitely not early to the party, but as my first experience hearing them, Distances‘ concrete bludgeon mostly benefits from the short runtimes of the record’s component pieces, the band refusing to stay in one place for too long while still giving each statement the breadth warranted. On headphones, it is engrossing if you let it be, and well represented by the magnetic-field iconography of the cover. To be sure, there are mysterious, iron-born electric forces at work here. For a sampler, the animated lyric video for first single “Two Thirty” is streaming below.

From the PR wire:

Albuquerque post-metal trio, Distances, to release LP “Abstruse” 1/19/2024

Albuquerque trio, Distances, pushes forward with post-metal weight while still keeping one foot in atmospheric headiness on “Abstruse”, an album diving headlong into the hypocrisy, obscurity, and contradictions woven into the knots of life. Crushing sonics are accompanied by heavy themes for those willing to claw deeper, where melancholic and contemplative valleys sit between towering, crushing mountain passages.

Available on Digital, CD, and Vinyl 1/19/2024. Pre-orders available 11/17/2023.

Get ABSTRUSE: https://distances.bandcamp.com/

Written, produced, performed, engineered by Distances
Mastered by Augustine Ortiz, Jr.
Artwork and Video created by Peter Hague

Karl Deuble – vocals, guitar
Kris Schiffer – bass
Peter Hague – drums

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Distances, “Two Thirty” lyric video

Party in the desert, right? Certainly looks that way as the inaugural and maybe-one-time-only Burque Rock City Fest adds Dead Meadow, Greenbeard, Abrams, SuperGiant, Violet Rising and THC Worm to complete its lineup. SuperGiant are local to Albuquerque — which is the ‘Burque’ in ‘Burque City,’ where the fest is happening — this Aug. 4-5, and the first three names are familiar, but I admit I can’t find any info on Violet Rising and as this is my first time hearing/hearing of THC Worm, I’ve included the Bandcamp stream of their Dec. 2022 debut, Dead Horse Incubator, in case you’d also like to be introduced. As one might expect, it’s pretty over the top.

In the end — and I’ll note that there’s still two months to go before the festival actually takes place, so ‘end’ is relative — the lineup here is pretty solid for a lower-key take on what the same crew normally puts together for Monolith on the Mesa. A representative showing set in a different context. If this is a pivot to building something new, they certainly have the contacts, infrastructure and reach to do so, but if it’s a placeholder until 2024, it’s a badass one just the same. If you headed out, I think you probably know what’s coming, and if not, please see the first sentence above.

From the PR wire:

BURQUE ROCK CITY ANNOUNCE FINAL LINEUP!

Burque Rock City Is Happy To Announce The Full Lineup Of Bands For August 4th & 5th Downtown ABQ At The Historic El Rey Theater & Insideout Bar

Burque Rock City Would Love to Welcome: Dead Meadow * Greenbeard * Abrams * Supergiant * Violet Rising * THC Worm

Completing the Amazing Lineup with Previously Announced Bands:

Weedeater * Pike Vs The Automaton * Belzebong * Early Moods * High Desert Queen * Thunder Horse * Sorcia * Prism Bitch * Coma Revovery * Brant Bjork * Yawning Balch * Year of the Cobra * Fatso Jetson * Electric Citizen * Tenderizor * Street Tombs * Red Mesa * Ojo Malo * Nomestomper

Get Your Early Bird Tickets NOW while you can!

Early Bird Day Pass-$100: https://holdmyticket.com/event/412535

Early Bird 2 Day Pass-$200: https://holdmyticket.com/event/412537

Roman Barham, co-founder of Monolith on the Mesa, has been quietly working on Burque Rock City Fest.

Barham says:

“Monolith On The Mesa crew would love to thank everyone who helped make Monolith 2022 an awesome fest. Huge thanks from The Taos Mesa Brewery crew, the Hotel Luna Mystica crew and to all the very respectful patrons that came out and made Monolith On The Mesa 2022 an amazing tribute to our fallen brother Dano Sanchez (deceased Monolith co-founder).

We have decided to take a year off from Monolith and bring it back in 2024 to Taos Mesa Brewery.

Branching south from the Monolith On The Mesa tree is Burque Rock City Fest in Albuquerque, NM At The Historic El Rey Theater & Insideout Bar On Friday August 4th & Saturday August 5th 2023.

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THC Worm, Dead Horse Incubator (2022)

Dead Meadow, Live at Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 2022, San Francisco, CA