Kind Premiere “Bladelicker”; Playing Planet Desert Rock Weekend VI
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on January 26th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
This week, Massachusetts heavy psych rockers Kind will travel to Las Vegas to be part of Planet Desert Rock Weekend VI. If you’re going, I’ll see you there. The band celebrate with a new single, “Bladelicker,” premiering below, that marks the official beginning of the band’s year after a busy 2025 that included stops through Desertfest London and Ripplefest Texas, among others. “Bladelicker” also follows behind the November standalone single “The Lean” (down near the links at the bottom of the post), and like it was recorded by Alec Rodriguez at Mad Oak Studios last August.
“Bladelicker” is the longer of the two at three and a half minutes, so by no means are we talking about Kind at their most expansive, but it might be their most immediate. A punch of bass from Tom Corino (ex-Rozamov) backed by the recognizable swingpush of drummer Matt Couto (Aural Hallucinations, ex-Elder) starts off, the fuzz of Darryl Shepard‘s guitar vibrant and moving at a decent clip by the time vocalist Craig Riggs (Roadsaw, Sasquatch, etc.) slips into the first verse like he’s walking down underwater steps to a warm pool. By the time they’re 30 seconds in, the momentum is set, the direction is locked, and they’re rolling, which they’ll continue to do until there’s about a minute left to go and Shepard (who’s been in more bands than I can count, but I’ll go with Hackman here because those records are underrated) takes off into the solo that concludes.
It seems simple enough on paper, and is (on paper), but can’t account for the sense of atmosphere that emerges from “Bladelicker,” specifically the guitar and bass tones and the element of noise that persists alongside. Riggs has regularly had effects on his voice to lend a feeling of spaciousness, and that’s the case here as well, which also of course adds to the breadth, but specifically in the strings, there’s presence and scope. That initial punch of bass that holds down the first 14 seconds until the guitar kicks in never dissipates, and together, the two tones are complementary in more than just stacking frequencies and layers on top of each other. The urgency conveyed at the start of the song doesn’t reveal itself as complete until Shepard joins the fray.
That’s not to leave the vocals out, or the organ, but Riggs (who lest we forget is also a drummer) rides the groove here in a different way, not off the beat, but more subdued in the delivery of the lyrics, setting up a partial contrast that, at this point — Kind‘s third album, Close Encounters (review here), came out on Ripple Music in 2023 — is quintessential to the sound. Anyone who’s heard Roadsaw can tell you when Riggs is hitting it hard. Here, with the effects and the spaciousness around, his voice becomes part of the atmosphere noted above; a human presence, yes, but still hinting toward the otherworldly.
As always, I hope you enjoy:
Kind, “Bladelicker” track premiere
Kind on “Bladelicker”:
We wrote and recorded the basic tracks for Bladelicker in under an hour. I had the guitar part, then Tom and Matt just came up with their parts right on the spot. Riggs wrote the lyrics and vocal melody on the spot and recorded his vocals right after we laid down the music.
Recorded & mixed by Alec Rodriguez
Recorded at Mad Oak Studios in August 2025
Mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering
Written & arranged by KIND
Lyrics by Riggs
Photo by Jon Lammi
Special shout-out to Ripple Music
Kind are:
Craig Riggs – vocals
Darryl Shepard – guitars, Hammond B3 organ
Matt Couto – drums
Tom Corino – bass
