With shows lined up for July throughout the Iberian Peninsula, culminating in a slot at SonicBlast 2026, Arizona-based doom wretches Goya will return to the road Stateside in September to support Norwegian rockers Kal-El on a West Coast tour. The three-piece recently welcomed new drummer Ben Wise in place of Marcus Bryant, who contributed to last year’s In the Dawn of November (review here), which marked the band’s first LP to be released on Blues Funeral Recordings.

The trio have been in progress on new material, as guitarist/vocalist Jeffrey Owens notes below, and no doubt the West Coast run will help keep momentum on their side as we move into Fall and start looking toward what might be in the works for 2027. I have no idea what Goya‘s plans are or timing on the next record, but you can bet that by the time they’re done in Colorado Springs on Oct. 10 to cap the tour, the dynamic will be on lock. I could think of worse ways to lead into writing and/or recording.

Word came down the PR wire:

Doom metal punishers GOYA announce European & North American shows!

Arizona doom metal unit GOYA are set to hit the Western tip of Europe with a short summer tour that includes various festivals. The band will also join their labelmates Kal-El on their upcoming fall US tour to support their acclaimed new album “In the Dawn of November” released on Blues Funeral Recordings.

Guitarist and vocalist Jeffrey Owens comments: “We’re excited to move into a new era of Goya with our new drummer, Ben Wise. CJ and I have been working with him on some fresh songs. We hope to have enough to make our next record before too long, and we think it’s the best iteration of our music yet, as well as a natural evolution. Bringing this vibe around the world couldn’t make us happier.”

With sprawling compositions, titan-heavy riffs drenched in fuzz and haunting atmospherics, GOYA don’t just play doom music: they embody it to the core. Unrelenting and immersive, their fourth studio album and Blues Funeral Recordings debut In the Dawn of November is raucous, hypnotic and defiantly punishing. Recorded by Jack Endino (High On Fire, Soundgarden), this new sonic onslaught from the heavy desert trio takes no prisoners while sweeping everything in its path. Watch their latest videos Depressive Episode and In the Dawn of November!

European summer shows
29 July – Madrid – Wurlitzer Ballroom
30 July – Getxo – Txirinfest
31 July – Santander – Rock and Beer the New
01 Aug – Langreo-Asturias – Castru Garganta
02 Aug – Leon – Doomnight – Xana del Torio
07 Aug – Vila Praia de Ancora, Portugal – SonicBlast

North American fall tour 2026 w/ KAL-EL
9/23 – Phoenix, AZ – Last Exit Live
9/24 – Las Vegas, NV – Dive Bar
9/25 – Landers, CA – The Annex
9/26 – Palmdale, CA – Transplants Brewing
9/27 – Los Angeles, CA – Redwood Bar & Grill
9/29 – San Francisco, CA – DNA Lounge
9/30 – Sacramento, CA – Cafe Colonial
10/1 – Eugene, OR – John Henry’s
10/2 – Portland, OR – The High Water Mark
10/3 – Seattle, WA – The Funhouse
10/4 – Vancouver, BC – Astoria
10/6 – Spokane, WA – The Chameleon
10/7 – Boise, ID – The Olympic
10/8 – Salt Lake City, UT – Aces High Saloon
10/9 – Denver, CO – Black Sky Brewery
10/10 – Colorado Springs, CO – What’s Left Records

Goya is:
Ben Wise – Drums
Jeffrey Owens – Guitar/Vocals
CJ Sholtis – Bass

https://linktr.ee/goyadoom
marijuana.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/goyaband/
facebook.com/goyastoner

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

Goya, “Depressive Episode” official video

Goya, “In the Dawn of November” official video

Goya, In the Dawn of November (2025)

Eight wretched years after their last missive, Harvester of Bongloads (review here), depressive Arizona riffers Goya return with In the Dawn of November, which is unmistakably their most miserable work to-date. Of course that’s a compliment, since misery is what they’re shooting for. All your faux, on-the-internet spiritual enlightenment, toxic positivity and birthday wishes can fall down a well; it’s time for “Sick of Your Shit.” It feels like a hallmark of our age that something dark and downer is automatically considered more realistic, but if you can look at the world around you in 2025, planet and people, and feel good about it, you’re either clueless or an asshole.

It’s not with pseudo-Buddhist posturing that guitarist Jeffrey Owens opines that “Existence is pain” so much as casual observation. As Goya close in on the band’s 15th anniversary next year, Owens is the remaining founding member and as In the Dawn of November rolls out with its eight-minute title-track, his delivery and cynicism become a major part of the impression and persona of the album. Not surprising, right? That’s kind of always been the case with Goya, but — and this might be maturity creeping into their approach; this is their fourth LP after all — the weed-worship and horror-cinema themes have been largely put to the side in favor of honing in on the despondent.

Production by Jack Endino — as if to say ‘we’re not screwing around this time’ — who of course is known for his work in the heavy underground with High on Fire, Windhand, Nebula, etc., never mind CV lines like Nirvana, gives life to the lumbering roll of “In the Dawn of November,” and from CJ Sholtis‘ bass intro onward, a current of Type O Negative creeps into Goya‘s sound instrumentally, offering sympathy in the culminating leads, but coming across as resigned more than hopeful with the repeated line, “Please let me go.” This ending is backed by the declarative, righteous, highlight swing of “Cemetery Blues,” punctuated by Marcus Bryant‘s thudding toms and marching to the hi-hat and smooth kick.

The underlying influence of Electric Wizard is still there — the Dorset doom mainstays have always been a factor in Goya‘s approach — but “Cemetery Blues” is less stoned, swings more and hits lands harder. Preston Bryant‘s synth later on gives a sense of flourish that “In the Dawn of November” seemed to purposefully withhold, and there’s more lead guitar antics, but “Cemetery Blues” is still about the riff at its foundation. It holds its direction for the duration, and is right to do so, sounding inspired in addition to making a show of its wretchedness and wanting to die. In succession, “Depressive Episode” and “Sick of Your Shit” follow. The former is faster, speeding up the swing, and “Sick of Your Shit” brings lines like, “You think you’re fucking cool/You’re just another piece of shit I despise,” that, if you’re the ‘you’ in question, is probably enough to ruin your day.

So much the better, then, to be in the proper headspace for the remainder of In the Dawn of November. It’s noteworthy that “Depressive Episode” manages to speed up the proceedings without losing the clarity in Sholtis‘ bass or Owens‘ guitar. The rumble is there, it just moves, and the Endino mix gives it the space to do so, even amid the wah-insanity atop the gallop in the back half. “Sick of Your Shit” is slower and marks the presumed start of side B. It makes itself welcome with a quick intro groove before a “blech” marks the transition to the riff-proper, and goes on to position itself in the running for your feel-awful hit of the summer. Just in time for wildfires, continued daily numbing to corruption and political violence, and ongoing genocide. The song isn’t about any of that stuff, at least not outwardly, but again, it for sure feels like it’s speaking to the moment we’re in.

To that end comes the 12-minute “I Wanna Be Dead.” With just the instrumental epilogue “Comes With the Fall” after it — which I think makes the penultimate track ‘the fall’ in this case — “I Wanna Be Dead” is as much a blanket musical statement as it is a straightforward lyrical declaration. In Sabbathian tradition, it starts with a storm and a bell tolling, and it gradually unfolds around that backdrop with crashes and a pointedly doomly cast. It is Goya at their most Goya, with Owens layering vocal lines for emphasis on his way to shouting into the void, “There’s nothing after this/To be a corpse/But of course,” in unmitigated and winking glorification of death.

The next lines lay it out: “It’s just the fantasy within my head/I’m hoping/I’m praying/I’m waiting/I wanna be dead,” and then the title lyric repeats to really nail down the hook. That chorus is definitive for the song itself, but at 12 minutes, obviously there’s more going on than Owens saying he wants to die. The spacious, organ-laced break in the middle allows for atmospheric flourish in a way that a lot of the album has eschewed — preface for “Comes With the Fall,” which is more obscure with its vague speech sample, noise and meandering layers of guitar — and gives over to the solo in an effective reveal of the build the band has just begun to pay off.

It finishes by casting ‘a pox upon the human race’ and pushing into deeper heft after a last run through the chorus, complemented by the returning keys. A lot of how a given listener approaches In the Dawn of November will probably come down to their own disposition in the world around them. How much misanthropy can you take? How much negativity is too much? How low can you go? Goya make a show of their depression, and dare to make it a very specific kind of fun — again Type O Negative feel like a factor — but if you can’t hang with a dude talking straight up about how he wants his life to be over, well, this probably isn’t the first time you’ve run into the problem in doom.

There’s a challenge in there as well, though. Doom, as a genre, as a worldwide community, has a problem with mental health and the ongoing spate of suicides and early deaths to prove it. I don’t know if it’s something to be reconciled with or just sad about, but In the Dawn of November is unflinching in accounting for its own joylessness. If Owens or anyone else in the band needs help, I hope they get it, but I’ve been in that place where it feels like there’s no point in moving forward and found myself repeatedly turning to music to prove myself wrong. Perhaps there can be catharsis here, in such a vivid expression.

Either way, please don’t kill yourself.

Goya, “In the Dawn of November” official video

Goya, In the Dawn of November (2025)

Goya’s Linktr.ee

Goya on Bandcamp

Goya on Instagram

Goya on Facebook

Blues Funeral Recordings website

Blues Funeral Recordings on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings on Instagram

Blues Funeral Recordings on Facebook

If you missed it — and I know you didn’t, but stay with me — Arizona worshippers Goya posted their video for the second single from their impending album, In the Dawn of November, toward the end of last week. It’s called “Depressive Episode” and you’ll find it below. The band will release the album on June 13 through Blues Funeral, and before it’s even out, they’ll be on the road headed east for a round of shows in the Midwest and along the Atlantic Seaboard, keeping sludgy company with their labelmates in Toke-offshoot Bronco, whose self-titled debut (review here) came out at the end of February.

The two bands will be out together for about two weeks, and Goya have a couple shows after as they make their way home. The list of dates is below and the video for “Depressive Episode,” the prior clip for the title-track, and the audio stream of both all follow here, because one likes to be thorough while also probably missing out on a bunch of whathaveyou.

The poster and dates came from socials:

Tour with Bronco starts in one month.

JUN 12-Chicago, IL-Reggie’s/Music Joint
JUN 13-Indianapolis, IN-State Street
JUN 14-Cleveland, OH-The Winchester
JUN 15-Melvindale, MI-Parts and Labor
JUN 17-Toronto, ON-Bovine Sex Club
JUN 18-Montreal, QC-Bar Blue Dog
JUN 19-Portland, ME-Geno’s Rock Club
JUN 20-Jamaica Plain, MA-The Midway Cafe
JUN 21-Brooklyn, NY-The Wood Shop
JUN 22-Philadelphia, PA-Nikki Lopez
JUN 23-Richmond, VA Banditos
JUN 25-Winston-Salem, NC Hoots
JUN 27-Atlanta, GA Boggs Social and Supply*
JUN 28-New Orleans, LA Gasa Gasa*
JUN 29-Houston, TX White Oak Upstairs*
*no Bronco

Goya is
Marcus Bryant – Drums
Jeffrey Owens – Guitar/Vocals
CJ Sholtis – Bass

https://linktr.ee/goyadoom
marijuana.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/goyaband/
facebook.com/goyastoner

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

Goya, “Depressive Episode” official video

Goya, “In the Dawn of November” official video

Goya, In the Dawn of November (2025)

Goya will release their first album in eight years, In the Dawn of November, on June 13 as their label-debut for Blues Funeral. Led off by its weighty-grooving title-track, the follow-up to 2017’s Harvester of Bongloads (review here) reaffirms the Phoenix trio among the dankest of riff worshippers the heavy ’10s wrought, whether it’s the title-track’s crawling catchiness, “Cemetary Blues” rolling out like Electric Wizard jamming with Type O Negative, organ and all, or “Depressive Episode” kicking the tempo for a dark stoner shuffle, “Sick of Your Shit” bring lumber and a standout vocal from guitarist Jeffrey Owens, “I Wanna Be Dead” bringing back some of that gothy vibe but doing it in a what-it’s-all-about 12 very, very stoned minutes of heavy pummel and suitably lethal hookmaking, or the vague outro “Comes With the Fall” thereafter — oops that’s the whole record; I guess it goes down smooth.

But while it does all that reaffirming, In the Dawn of November also offers clear growth in songwriting, performance, production and stylistic scope, and while celebrating their influences is still a part of Goya‘s purpose as a band, they’ve never come across as identifiably their own as they seem to in this material. I’m looking forward to getting to know the album better, but it’s a striking first impression, and I know nodders will be nodding. Will hope to have more to come. Video and audio for the title-track are at the bottom of the post.

From the PR wire:

Phoenix doom metal trio GOYA to release new album “In the Dawn of November” on Blues Funeral Recordings; stream title track now!

Phoenix, Arizona doom metal torchbearers GOYA have signed to Blues Funeral Recordings for the release of their fourth studio album “In the Dawn of November” this June 13th, and present the spine-shivering video for its title track today.

Goya is a Phoenix, Arizona doom metal band known and revered for delivering mountain-heavy riffs drenched in copious amounts of fuzz on top of haunting psychedelic atmospherics. Formed in 2011 by guitarist and vocalist Jeffrey Owens, the band takes its cue from genre pioneers like Electric Wizard, Acid King and Sleep, crafting a sound that is as hypnotic as it is defiantly punishing.

In the fall of 2024, Goya entered Soundhouse Studios in Seattle with legendary producer Jack Endino (High On Fire, Year of the Cobra, Soundgarden) to lay down a monolithic work of graveyard grooves and bleak reflections to herald their towering return with their most accomplished and unwaveringly bone-crushing record to date — leading the trio to ink a deal with revered Albuquerque-based label Blues Funeral Recordings. “We are proud to welcome these Arizona desert doom stalwarts to the label with a new LP of crushing cosmic sludge! Goya has historically done almost everything themselves, and we’re grateful for the trust they’ve shown by allowing us into their fortress to do what we do and help spread their monolithic riff-heaviness farther than ever before,” said label founder Jadd Shickler.

Let Goya crush your souls with new video “In the Dawn of November”
+ listen to the single on all streaming services: https://lnkfi.re/goyanovember

About the song, frontman Jeffrey Owens comments: “The eight years since the last Goya record have brought me face to face with some hard truths about life. I’m getting older, and mortality has struck me in new ways, so this album is largely a meditation on death. In the Dawn of November is the natural evolution of the band, and the culmination of everything that came before it, simultaneously signifying a new era for Goya.”

TRACKLIST:
1. In the Dawn of November
2. Cemetary Blues
3. Depressive Episode
4. Sick of Your Shit
5. I Wanna Be Dead
6. Comes with the Fall

Goya’s 2012 demo showcased their early potential, but it was their debut full-length “777” (2013) that announced their fearsome arrival in the doom underground. With sprawling, riff-heavy compositions and occult-tinged lyrics, “777” resonated deeply with fans of titanic sludge-metal. Continuing to evolve, Goya released “Obelisk” in 2015, a concept album that refined their blend of psychedelic doom. They followed this with their magnum opus, 2017’s “Harvester of Bongloads”, another concept album that leaned as heavily as ever into their fuzz-laden, riff-driven aesthetic and further cemented their legacy of unrelenting doom and immersive sonic landscapes.

In the summer of 2024, Goya returned to the road for a month-long US tour after taking a few years to write their fourth album “In the Dawn of November”, to be released in the spring of 2025 via New Mexico-based label Blues Funeral Recordings (Acid King, Lowrider, Dozer).

Goya is
Marcus Bryant – Drums
Jeffrey Owens – Guitar/Vocals
CJ Sholtis – Bass

facebook.com/goyastoner
https://www.instagram.com/goyaband/
marijuana.bandcamp.com
https://linktr.ee/goyadoom

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

Goya, “In the Dawn of November” official video

Goya, In the Dawn of November (2025)