In the spirit of the album’s honesty, I’ll tell you flat-out I love Clamfight. I’ve known them as people and as a group for nigh on 20 years, and from doing shows together in the long-long ago to joining Steve Murphy of Kings Destroy in doing guest vocals for the eponymous “Clamfight” on this record and editing the bio, there are few acts out there to whom I feel closer. Maybe none.

So I’m not going to feign impartiality here or whatever. I’ve followed along as the band started putting this record together, through covid, losing engineer Steve Poponi after they were done, and I’ve seen and heard how they’ve pushed themselves, dug deeper into what they do, and come up with the best material they’ve ever written. And I say that as a dude who helped put out one of their record. Clamfight‘s Clamfight is the kind of record you make after you realize how lucky you are to still be making records at all, let alone with people you love. It is the truest declaration of self Clamfight have ever made.

I also can’t help but love the fact that their first single has been up since the end of January, is 11 minutes long and it’s four minutes in before you hear the first vocals — that Clamfight music industry acumen strikes again! In all seriousness, “The Oar” is at the bottom of this post and is obviously more about immersion more than trying to beat you over the head with an immediate chorus. The rest of the album follows suit in variable mood and intensity, but remains affected by the atmosphere of “The Oar,” so it’s a good place to start before you push further.

It was an honor to be involved in this in the small way I was.

From the PR wire:

CLAMFIGHT: New Jersey Sludge/Doom Metal Quartet Prepares To Release Eponymous Fourth LP On May 16th; “The Oar” Streaming + Preorders Posted

New Jersey/Philly sludge beasts CLAMFIGHT are prepared to self-release their eponymous fourth full-length release this Spring, unveiling the cover art, track listing, preorders, and lead single, “The Oar.”

The members of CLAMFIGHT are childhood friends who played their first show together in the Fall of 2005. The band’s lineup has remained the same ever since, with bassist Louis Koble, guitarists Joel Harris and Sean McKee, and drummer/vocalist Andy Martin. Over the past twenty years, the band has played shows along the entire East Coast and beyond, having shared a lot of laughs and shenanigans as well as loss and heartache together along the way. Having released three albums to date – Vol. I in 2010, I vs. The Glacier in 2013, and III in 2018 – the band now presents their most somber yet victorious record yet with Clamfight.

CLAMFIGHT began work on album number four right as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. With only drum tracks finished the weekend before the lockdowns began, the sudden downtime gave the band the opportunity to broaden their sound. With their longtime friend, mentor, and producer Steve Poponi, the band expanded the sonic range of the new material and brought more dynamics and intricacy to the seven new songs.

The pandemic also changed the record lyrically and thematically. Lyrically, Clamfight became a sort of diary or memoir, but not about masks and temperature checks at the grocery store, but about how the love and friendship between the band helped get them all through those dark times. If there’s a central theme to Clamfight it’s that life is short and precious, but that the people around you – the people that you love and that love you back – are the ones that make it worth savoring.

Now, Clamfight is ready to see the light of the day. “To us, this is easily the most personal and important record that we’ve ever done. It was part of why we wanted to self-release it. We didn’t want to be beholden to anyone else on this one, and we wanted to push it as much or as little as we pleased without feeling like we were letting anyone down. We’ve got all the respect for Argonauta and some of the other folks we talked to about this one, but for a record that was so personal going at it alone felt right.”

Clamfight was recorded by Steve Poponi and Matt Weber at The Gradwell House in Haddon Heights, New Jersey where it was also mixed by Steve Poponi and Dave Downham and mastered by Dave Downham, and the album’s cover art and layout was handled by Morgan E Russell. The record features guest vocals on “Brodgar” by Sam Marandola and on “Clamfight” by Stephen Murphy and JJ Koczan.

The lead single from Clamfight arrives with the album’s opening track, “The Oar.” Andy Martin reveals with the song, “In making this record we leaned on each other and our collaborators more than ever before. I never write lyrics until we’re in the studio, and as recording was happening, I found myself writing about where we were in our lives, the people we loved, the mistakes we made, and about how much I love these guys, so when it came time to name the record, the choice was obvious. This is the last record we were privileged to make with our brother Steve Poponi. You’ll hear him at the end of the track. Words fall short when it comes to expressing how much we miss him, so for and now always, we’ll just say Poponi Forever. Take care of yourselves gang.”

Stream “The Oar,” CLAMFIGHT’s lead single from the powerful new Clamfight, now playing RIGHT HERE: https://clamfight.bandcamp.com/album/clamfight

The band will self-release Clamfight digitally and on CD on May 16th. Preorders are now live at Bandcamp HERE: https://clamfight.bandcamp.com/album/clamfight

Clamfight Track Listing:
1. The Oar
2. Brodgar
3. Dragonhead
4. FRH
5. Drinking Tooth
6. Clamfight
7. Redtail

CLAMFIGHT is also booking regional tour dates and live events supporting the new album. They will play Brooklyn on June 20th and a benefit show for their late friend Steve Poponi in Philadelphia on June 21st. A record release show and additional dates are also in the works. Watch for updates to post alongside additional previews of the album over the weeks ahead.

CLAMFIGHT Live:
5/31/2025 Kung Fu Necktie – Philadelphia, PA *record release show
6/20/2025 Goldsounds – Brooklyn, NY w/ Hollow Leg, Florist, End Of Hope
6/21/2025 Poponipalooza ’25: D.I.L.F.@ Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA

CLAMFIGHT:
Louis Koble – bass
Joel Harris – guitar
Sean McKee – guitar
Andy Martin – drums/vocals

https://www.facebook.com/Clamfight
https://www.instagram.com/clamfight
https://clamfight.bandcamp.com/

Clamfight, Clamfight (2025)

11 minutes of new Clams is a big ‘yes please’ this morning as the Philly-ish riff-crunchers unveil “The Oar” as the first single from their impending self-titled follow-up to 2018’s III (review here). The four-piece who are a veteran presence both on stages up and down the Eastern Seaboard and in my heart have been working on Clamfight for years now — I know because I sing guest vocals on it (different song) and I recorded like two years ago — and as drummer/vocalist Andy Martin notes below, it will be their last collaboration with Steve Poponi, who passed away last year.

Bittersweet, then, certainly for the band. “The Oar” is big and lumbering, not without a reach in its melody and linear in its trajectory, build and flow. When it hits the comedown, you’ll be surprised the 11 minutes hare gone. If you’ve seen them live since the pandemic, I’m pretty sure they’ve been doing this one live for the last however long, epic solos and all. Plus gang vocals. Little something for everyone here.

I don’t have any idea on the release plan for Clamfight‘s Clamfight because, uh, I don’t, but I’ll keep an eye/ear for more, and there’s plenty here to dig into in the meantime. Enjoy:

In Andy’s words:

It’s very hard to sum up what this record means to us, or what the process of making it was like. The drum tracks were laid down as Lock Down was beginning and now we’re releasing it during another very dark and uncertain time. In the intervening years we lost close friends and family and gained new ones.

In making this record we leaned on each other and our collaborators more than ever before. I never write lyrics until we’re in the studio and as recording happened I found myself writing about where we were in our lives, the people we loved, the mistakes we made, and about how much I love these guys. So when it came time to name the record, the choice was obvious.

Submitted for your listening pleasure, this is “The Oar” the first song off the record “Clamfight” by the band Clamfight.

This is the last record we were privileged to make with our brother Steve Poponi. You’ll hear him on the end of the track. Words fall short when it comes out to expressing how much we miss him, so for and now always, we’ll just say Poponi Forever.

Take care of yourselves gang.

https://www.facebook.com/Clamfight
https://www.instagram.com/clamfight
https://clamfight.bandcamp.com/

Clamfight, “The Oar”