Posted in Whathaveyou on January 6th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Washington D.C. heavy rockers Borracho released their sixth album, Ouroboros (review here), through Ripple Music last August, and it looks like they’ll spend a decent portion of 2026 supporting it. They were previously announced for Mojave Experience Fest in March, and they’ve announced dates around that with stops in San Diego and Los Angeles leading them to the festival. They’ve got East Coast shows this and next month as well, keeping company with Clamfight, Sun Voyager, Guhts, The Obsessed and others.
Not the most extensive tour ever, but it doesn’t need to be and it won’t be the last time Borracho get out this year. If you caught the initial wave of announcements for Ripplefest Texas 2026 (posted here), you’ll note Borracho were in there, and likely they’ll do other shows en route one way or the other. The trio also recently signed with Broken Music for European booking, heralding a European tour for Oct. 2026 that, just by virtue of the month in question, will likely include a few festival stops. I don’t know what else they might have in store, but a return to Europe alone is plenty to plan for throughout the course of this year.
Those dates, obviously, are still TBA, but here are the next couple months’ worth of shows Borracho are playing. Looking hard at that Lucky 13 gig, I am.
From social media:
Happy new year! We’re gonna be out playing some shows for y’all over the next few months, from the east to the west. Mark your calendars, and get ticket links in our bio. Friday night Mojave Experience show is already sold out!
Jan 24 – Philly at Century Bar w/Clamfight, Boozewa & God Called in Sick Feb 3 – DC at Pie Shop w/ Ritual Arcana Feb 21 – Brooklyn at Lucky 13 w/ Sun Voyager, Guhts & The Crooked Skulls March 11 – Baltimore at Metro w/ The Obsessed & Foghound March 18 – LA at The Escondite w/ Doomboyz & Sonic Blossoms March 19 – San Diego at The Tower Club w/ Nebula Drag March 20 – Yucca Valley at Mojave Gold for Mojave Experience Fest
BORRACHO: Steve Fisher – Guitar, Vocals Mario Trubiano – Drums, Percussion Tim Martin – Bass, Backing Vocals
[Click play above to stream Borracho’s Ouroboros in full. Album is out tomorrow on Ripple Music.]
As anybody who’s been alive long enough to form words can tell you, some things change and some things do not. And Borracho, the heavy groove-purveyor trio from Washington D.C. founded in 2007 and offering their first album for Ripple Music in the seven-song/41-minute Ouroboros, know what they’re doing. The returning trio of guitarist/vocalist Steve Fisher, bassist Tim Martin (also backing vocals) and drummer Mario Trubiano have been the steady, consistent lineup of Borracho since their second album, 2013’s Oculus (review here) (note as well the similarities in cover art), and the chemistry across pieces like “Lord of Suffering” and “Machine is the Master” is at an expected high. At the helm as ever is Frank “The Punisher” Marchand, who has produced and mixed every Borracho record (KentStump mastered), and while there aren’t a ton of surprises throughout, there are nuances to the sound that help give the record its personality.
To wit, Fisher‘s guitar feels more compressed in terms of tone, and its fuzz is more densely packed; there’s more crunch in it but it’s a lighter crunch; not like how you’re thinking Fu Manchu sound, but how they actually sound. “Vegas, Baby” opens with an immediately exclamatory feel, and the roll that quickly takes hold at the start of the album is definitive. Notable is the melody of the solo in the back half, given added reach through layering and fluidly executed in a way that ties well with the underlying riff, speaking to it rather than just shredding, and feeding the build, which as far out as it goes of course turns back to the verse cleanly when it’s done. Welcome to Borracho‘s wheelhouse. It’s full of high-grade, no-pretense, hook-prone heavy rock and roll made by three guys who’ve been at it for more than 15 years and whose love for each other bleeds through the music as much as anything else the songs might be expressing.
And while we’re here, let me be up front and say that I’m not backdoor-calling Borracho boring by highlighting the consistency of their work or the fact that they’re among the most reliable American underground heavy rock bands to come along during their time. Ouroboros reinforces this, whether it’s in the pointedly C.O.C.-type shouty choruses to release the instrumental tension build in “Lord of Suffering” or “Freakshow” or the hard-times-need-riff-rides finale “Broken Man.” At the same time, Borracho don’t neglect to showcase growth or progression in sound, or at least a willingness to screw with the formula a bit, and this too is something that’s both expected and appreciated. As hypnotic as their roller riffing is and has always been, “Vale of Tears” follows suit from “Loaded” off of 2023’s Blurring the Lines of Reality (review here) in taking advantage of that for a short instrumental course that’s more than an interlude but not as far reaching as the ‘regular’ tracks that surround, which are between five and a half and seven and a half minutes.
No, it’s not revolutionary, but that’s never been Borracho‘s aim. Even when they were a four-piece getting early-Bandcamp-hyped for 2011’s Splitting Sky (review here), they’ve always been more about craft than indulgence. Ouroboros finds them not only demonstrating how solid a foundation this provides for their work — their trademark ‘repetitive heavy grooves’ manage immersion that most acts either need four-meter pedal boards to elicit, if they can at all; that depth in combination with what’s essentially a straightforward sound and the dynamic between Fisher, Martin and Trubiano is the heart of what makes Borracho special — but harnessing some reach as well, whether that’s in the well-punctuated, leant-movement-by-tambourine-because-why-shouldn’t-armageddon-boogie “Machine is the Master” or the more brooding, second cut “Succubus,” the swirling fade-in of which tells you immediately that the palette has shifted.
But the story of Ouroboros isn’t going to be me telling you how it backs up what’s been the appeal of Borracho for the last decade — and if the band are new to you, that’s cool; it’ll work well as a place to start — and then completely undercuts that in its longest track. However much they may have made it stand out, Borracho are still Borracho on “Succubus.” Shaker behind the initial riff adds to the foreboding, and backward cymbals mark the entry of the thud en route to the easier flow of the verse, playing between the start-stop progression established and more open, melodic verse lines. For the most part, Fisher retains the gruff delivery that’s become such an identifiable element in the band’s take — “Succubus,” named for a female demon, feels on-theme with some of where 2021’s Pound of Flesh (review here) was at — but in the quieter section, the later spoken part and the swell of keyboard that fills out the reaches of the mix as they move toward the six-minute mark before bringing back the chorus is a moment to encapsulate how far Borracho have actually come, and just how much they’ve broadened the definition of who they are for themselves as well as for their listeners.
“Succubus” is masterful in how it works its way to the residual-hum ending, swirling out as it swirled in like the nightmare it would seem intended to be before the toms at the start of “Lord of Suffering” re-ground the proceedings. For those who’ve followed Borracho over the course of the last decade-plus-plus, the trio’s apparent comfort in their approach is harder-earned than they make it sound, and maturity suits their tempered pacing and weighted nod. Each of their records has been a step on the way to making a song like “Machine is the Master” land as hard as it does while still having something to say and not sounding like an asshole while saying it, and it may be that Ouroboros is another check-in from the band as they continue to walk their broader path, but that doesn’t make it any less of a landmark for them. It has dire admonitions, and lyrical moodiness is nothing new, but there’s as much in these songs that’s a celebration as a warning, and that too is signature Borracho.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 20th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Six full-lengths deep, Borracho are pretty secure in their awareness of who they are as a band. They’ve known all along — the slogan “heavy repetitive grooves” endures — but it’s refreshing to hear them continue to put together songs in a spirit of camaraderie and expression, whether it’s wondering where they world went wrong or embracing classic tropes like in “Succubus.” They are a riff rocker’s riff rock, and the first word of their bio tells you much of what you need to and probably already know about them: they’re consistent. A Borracho record — any record, not just the upcoming Ouroboros in question — is going to be made to a standard of sound and songwriting that, as a listener, you’re right to expect from the band. And I’ve heard the record so I’ll tell you right now, they deliver again on exactly what you came for. To do less would not be Borracho.
I’ll hope to have more to come before August — I have a pretty decent history of writing about this band at this point, have done bios, etc., will probably ask to premiere a track if that’s a thing they’re doing — but you can dig into the initial info below, which I admit is pretty preliminary:
Consistency. Quality. Consistent quality. What more can you ask of a Stoner/Doom band these days? In a time when more than one thousand stoner/doom albums are released in a year, it’s hard to stand out, let alone do it with every single release. But that’s just what veteran Washington DC riff-masters BORRACHO have done over more than 15 years of bringing the heavy.
BORRACHO is a heavy rock trio hailing from Washington, D.C. Over more than a decade of consistently strong releases and live appearances they have become a staple of the stoner/doom scene and earned a large international following. With five critically acclaimed LPs, a compilation of non-album releases, and numerous single and split releases, the band has sold thousands of records all over the word, and shared stages with some of the genre’s most popular and influential acts. Their sixth LP Ouroboros will be released on Ripple Music in August 2025.
Tracklisting: 1. Vegas, Baby 2. Succubus 3. Lord of Suffering 4. Vale of Tears 5. Machine is the Master (Human is the Slave) 6. Freakshow 7. Broken Man
BORRACHO: Steve Fisher – Guitar, Vocals Mario Trubiano – Drums, Percussion Tim Martin – Bass, Backing Vocals
