Been waiting for news about new Howling Giant? Me too. With a European tour lined up to support it before it’s even officially out — seems likely they’ll have some for the merch table at least before the run finishes at Desertfest Belgium on Oct. 22 — the heavy prog-rocking Nashville four-piece will unveil their second album, Glass Future on Oct. 27 through Magnetic Eye Records. They’ve posted the title-track to coincide with the release announcement, following the groove-riding “Sunken City” with a speedy and twisting riff complemented by Hammond shimmering enough to remind me of mid-period Amorphis (not a complaint), the two duking it out with solos near the end after the band have coursed through their tale of seemingly apocalyptic woe, presented of course with considered melody and arrangement, uptempo, fun.

Compared to the various apocalypses humanity has actually been through in the four years since Howling Giant released their first album, 2019’s The Space Between Worlds (review here), it is far preferable. Below you’ll find ordering links and some background info. This came in a Bandcamp announcement but I expect a press release won’t actually be far behind (it’s early here, so maybe once the US actually wakes up?), so if there’s more on the recording or whatever that’s relevant or a video or something like that, I’ll drop it in as needed and hope to edit accordingly [EDIT: Yup, that happened. Video below]. Just a heads up.

So, from Bandcamp then:

HOWLING GIANT – Glass Future Out Oct. 27

Buy at our shop here:
worldwide: en.spkr.media
US/Canada: us.spkr.media

Every song on HOWLING GIANT’s sophomore album “Glass Future” tells its own story. Yet even without an overarching concept, all could exist within the same universe. Such crafty lyrical world-building is hardly surprising coming from a trio of enthusiastic fantasy and science fiction aficionados. “Glass Future” downright asks to inspire a book or graphic novel, even as it explodes with furious energy and thunderous acrobatics.

Musically, “Glass Future” offers a continuation and evolution of all the elements that made the debut album “The Space Between Worlds” (2019) such a success. HOWLING GIANT entice classic metal and hard rock to interact dynamically with spacy, prog-infused passages, desert and psychedelic metal moments, rock organs, catchy hooks, and top everything off with soaring harmonized vocals.

HOWLING GIANT hail from one of the most legendary places for music on earth: Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Despite the city’s reputation for assembly-line pop country, the town called Music City is a place of deep history, where brilliant songwriters and virtuoso session players keep dozens of musical legacies burning bright. Fertile ground, then, for a preeminent fuzz-psych power trio who consciously live in the pocket of that lineage.

During the last two years, the trio integrated bassist Sebastian Baltes, the son of German metal legends ACCEPT’s former bass player Peter Baltes, fully into the band as a co-writer. HOWLING GIANT take a gargantuan leap forward with “Glass Future” that brings their outstanding musicianship and golden-throated triple vocal attack fully into stride. Nothing to do but try to keep up and enjoy the stunning sonic scenery along the way!

Tracklisting:
1. Hourglass
2. Siren Song
3. Aluminium Crown
4. Hawk in a Hurricane
5. First Blood of Melchor
6. Glass Future
7. Tempest, and the Liar’s Gateway
8. Sunken City
9. Juggernaut
10. There’s Time Now

HEAVY TEMPLE & HOWLING GIANT Euorpean tour
29 SEP 2023 Pratteln (CH) Z7, Up in Smoke Festival
30 SEP 2023 Leeuwarden (NL) Neushoorn, Into the Void Festival
02 OCT 2023 Siegen (DE) Vortex
03 OCT 2023 Hamburg (DE) Hafenklang
04 OCT 2023 Jena (DE) Rosenkeller
05 OCT 2023 Kassel (DE) Goldgrube
07 OCT 2023 München (DE) Backstage, Keep It Low Festival 2023
09 OCT 2023 Budapest (HU) Robot
10 OCT 2023 Wien (AT) Arena
11 OCT 2023 Bologna (IT) Freak Out
12 OCT 2023 Milano (IT) Barrios
13 OCT 2023 Roma (IT) RCCB
14 OCT 2023 Viareggio (IT) Circolo ARCI GoB
15 OCT 2023 Carmagnola (IT) Circolo ARCI Margot
18 OCT 2023 San Sebastian (ES) Dabadaba
19 OCT 2023 Barcelona (ES) Razz3
22 OCT 2023 Antwerp (BE) Trix, Desertfest Belgium

Engineering & Mix by Kim Wheeler in Nashville, TN
Mastering by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, OR

Artwork by Susan M. Davies
Layout by Peder Bergstrand

Guest musicians
Drew David Harakal II – organ, piano, synths
James Sanderson – additional vocals on ‘Siren Song’, ‘Hawk in a Hurricane’, and ‘There’s Time Now’

HOWLING GIANT is
Tom Polzine – Guitar and Vocals
Zach Wheeler – Drums and Vocals
Sebastian Baltes – Bass and Vocals

howlinggiant.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/howlinggiant/
https://www.instagram.com/howlinggiant/

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

Howling Giant, “Glass Future” official video

Howling Giant, Glass Future (2023)

When Heavy Temple and Howling Giant were announced in April for Into the Void in Leeuwarden, I noted that I hoped the two bands would tour together. What they most have in common between Heavy Temple‘s hard-fuzz dark boogie and Howling Giant‘s sprawling heavy prog — aside from being labelmates under the banner of Magnetic Eye Records — is that both have only just begun to realize their potential. Doing this tour will help push both acts forward, and more over, doing this tour together is important.

Yeah, they’re playing Up in Smoke, Into the Void, Keep it Low and Desertfest Belgium, but the truth is these two — both with multiple tours under their respective belts — are the kinds of acts who in another decade or decade-plus could very well headline these kinds of events, so their pairing for a run now is an investment in further comity over the longer term of their careers. I hereby — and you know I mean business when I break out “hereby” — formally request on-stage collaboration, abundant guest spots if not the formation of a Heavy Giant Howling Temple family big band. Also video of that. Like, decent video.

And a note to Europe specifically: These bands are two of America’s brightest hopes for next-gen heavy. Skip seeing them now and you may live to regret it later.

Dates came down the PR wire with comment from the bands:

HEAVY TEMPLE & HOWLING GIANT announce co-headlining EUROPEAN tour!

HEAVY TEMPLE from Philadelphia, PA and Nashville, Tennessee’s HOWLING GIANT will both make their first journey overseas for a co-headlining European tour in advance of their upcoming new albums. The tour will include appearances at several key festivals. It kicks off in Switzerland at the Up in Smoke Festival in Pratteln and runs through until October 22 in the city of Antwerp at Desertfest Belgium.

Please see below for all confirmed HEAVY TEMPLE and HOWLING GIANT tour dates.

HOWLING GIANT comment: “We are fired up about this European quest with our shield companions in Heavy Temple,” drummer Zach Wheeler writes. “We’re ready to sling riffs and cross swords with the best of the best beyond the great pond.”

HEAVY TEMPLE add: “We hope that Europe is as ready for us as we are for them!”, bassist and vocalist High Priestess Nighthawk declares. “Can’t think of another heavy-hitting power trio that we’d like to shred across the pond with than Howling Giant.”

HEAVY TEMPLE & HOWLING GIANT Euorpean tour
29 SEP 2023 Pratteln (CH) Z7, Up in Smoke Festival
30 SEP 2023 Leeuwarden (NL) Neushoorn, Into the Void Festival
02 OCT 2023 Siegen (DE) Vortex
03 OCT 2023 Hamburg (DE) Hafenklang
04 OCT 2023 Jena (DE) Rosenkeller
05 OCT 2023 Kassel (DE) Goldgrube
07 OCT 2023 München (DE) Backstage, Keep It Low Festival 2023
09 OCT 2023 Budapest (HU) Robot
10 OCT 2023 Wien (AT) Arena
11 OCT 2023 Bologna (IT) Freak Out
12 OCT 2023 Milano (IT) Barrios
13 OCT 2023 Roma (IT) RCCB
14 OCT 2023 Viareggio (IT) Circolo ARCI GoB
15 OCT 2023 Carmagnola (IT) Circolo ARCI Margot
18 OCT 2023 San Sebastian (ES) Dabadaba
19 OCT 2023 Barcelona (ES) Razz3
22 OCT 2023 Antwerp (BE) Trix, Desertfest Belgium

Heavy Temple:
High Priestess Nighthawk – vocals, bass
Lord Paisley – guitar
Baron Lycan – drums

Howling Giant:
Tom Polzine – guitar, vocals
Zach Wheeler – drums, vocals
Sebastian Baltes – bass, vocals

https://www.facebook.com/HeavyTemple/
https://www.instagram.com/heavytemple
https://heavytemple.bandcamp.com

www.facebook.com/howlinggiant/
https://www.instagram.com/howlinggiant/
howlinggiant.bandcamp.com

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords
https://www.instagram.com/magneticeyerecords/

Heavy Temple, Lupi Amoris (2021)

Howling Giant, “Sunken City”

So, a couple learnings here. First, at some point between then and now, Nashville’s Howling Giant pivoted from Blues Funeral to Magnetic Eye Records. I’m not sure when, but their new single “Sunken City” is hosted by the latter, and it’s all under the umbrella of Spkr Media and the cruel tutelage of Pai Mei Jadd Shickler anyhow, so it’s good to know, but maybe more of a bookkeeping thing less important than what the song itself tells us.

To that: Big riff, big melody, big hook, big prog — Howling Giant are going for it. This is a band who’ve been positioning themselves to engage an audience for years now and it seems their upcoming album will find them looking at least in part to reap what they’ve sown and raise their profile in the heavy underground. Yes, I’m talking about touring Europe. Nifty and more that they’ll spend a month on the road with Elder and Ruby the Hatchet — Howling Giant are no strangers to touring, and I’m sure these dates will be killer; I hope to attend the Connecticut show — but as they’ve already been confirmed for Into the Void in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, and Desertfest Belgium 2023, I have to think there are more tour dates coming. Both of those fests are in October. Does that mean a September album release?

That would make releasing a first single four-to-five months ahead of time very, very early. And if they’re releasing it to promote the US tour, it’s still a month early. So maybe the record shows up in July, but the PR wire knows more than I do and says “autumn,” so I’m just going by what I read. All the same, “Sunken City” fucking shimmers and is every bit the righteous groove that might just aid Howling Giant in manifesting their long-laid plans for global domination — or Twitch streams; whatever that is — so if it’s half a year early, it’s still right on time as far as I’m concerned. The rest will fall into place with the hard work, extensive planning and unpredicted pains in the ass that always make new albums seem like magic.

Song is at the bottom of the post. The PR wire has the tour dates and more:

HOWLING GIANT release new single ‘Sunken City’ and announce US live dates with ELDER & RUBY THE HATCHET!

In advance of their upcoming US tour with ELDER and labelmates RUBY THE HATCHET, Nashville psych-metal power trio HOWLING GIANT release the soaring digital single ‘Sunken City’ as a first taste of their sophomore full-length, which is scheduled for autumn this year.

Please see below for all confirmed HOWLING GIANT live dates.

HOWLING GIANT comment: “‘Sunken City’ was one of the first songs we wrote for our new record and we’re excited to play it live on tour with Elder and Ruby The Hatchet”, drummer Zach Wheeler writes. “The track showcases some of our favorite riffs, licks, and songwriting to date, and we’re very much looking forward to everyone coming out to hang with us on the road and hear ‘Sunken City’ live!”

HOWLING GIANT Live * +ELDER +RUBY THE HATCHET
03 May 2023 Buffalo, NY (US) Mohawk*
04 May 2023 Cleveland, OH (US) Grog Shop*
05 May 2023 Indianapolis, IN (US) Black Circle*
06 May 2023 Rock Island, IL (US) Wake Brewing*
07 May 2023 Kansas City, MO (US) The Record Bar*
09 May 2023 Denver, CO (US) The Bluebird Theater*
10 May 2023 Salt Lake City, UT (US) Urban Lounge*
11 May 2023 Las Vegas, NV (US) The Usual Place*
12 May 2023 Los Angeles, CA (US) Lodge Room*
13 May 2023 Santa Ana, CA (US) The Constellation Room*
14 May 2023 San Diego, CA (US) Brick By Brick*
16 May 2023 San Francisco, CA (US) Great American Music Hall*
17 May 2023 Fresno, CA (US) Strummer’s*
18 May 2023 Sacramento, CA (US) Harlow’s*
20 May 2023 Seattle, WA (US) Substation*
21 May 2023 Vancouver, BC (CA) Modified Ghost Festival*
23 May 2023 Calgary, AB (CA) Palomino*
24 MAY 2023 Edmonton, AB (CA) Starlite Room*
26 MAY 2023 Winnipeg, MB (CA) The Park Theatre
27 MAY 2023 Fargo, ND (US) The Aquarium*
28 MAY 2023 Minneapolis, MN (US) Fine Line*
29 MAY 2023 Milwaukee, WI (US) X-Ray Arcade*
30 MAY 2023 Grand Rapids, MI (US) Pyramid Scheme*
31 MAY 2023 Toronto, ON(CA) Lee’s Palace*
01 JUN 2023 Montréal, QC (CA) Les Foufounes Électriques*
02 JUN 2023 Providence, RI (US) Alchemy*
03 JUN 2023 Hamden, CT (US) Space Ballroom*

Despite Nashville’s reputation for assembly-line pop country, the town called Music City is a place of deep history, where brilliant songwriters and virtuoso session players keep dozens of musical legacies burning bright. Nashville’s preeminent fuzz-psych power trio HOWLING GIANT live in the pocket of that lineage.

HOWLING GIANT formed nearly ten years ago with the union of guitarist and singer Tom Polzine, drummer and vocalist Zach Wheeler, and bassist and vocalist Roger Marks. From day one, the trio locked into a musical groove of thunderous metal, proggy acrobatics, psychedelic flourishes and soaring melodic vocals, telling stories of fantasy and adventure with such sheer force of will that they seemed capable of opening a window to other dimensions.

Their early years saw a flurry of recorded activity, with an acclaimed self-titled EP in 2015 and an audacious concept piece split across two EPs, “Black Hole Space Wizard Part 1”, released in 2016 and a year later “Black Hole Space Wizard Part 2”.

Soon, HOWLING GIANT set out to bring their arena-sized energy to the people with the hunger of true road dogs. Throughout 2017 and 2018, they crisscrossed the United States, pouring out heart and soul (and sweat) while flying the flag of emotive, intricate heavy rock and roll. This tireless energy eventually brought them to such prominent festival stages as Psycho Las Vegas in 2018 and both SXSW and Psycho Smokeout in 2019. Around this time, Marks left the band and Howling Giant achieved its current form with the addition of bass player and vocalist Sebastian Baltes.

In early 2019, HOWLING GIANT released their debut full-length “The Space Between Worlds”, an album which saw the band channel the bristling electricity of their live sound and push further into both cosmic drift and punishing heaviness.

With activities locked down globally, HOWLING GIANT focused on recording their sophomore full-length, which is scheduled for release in autumn 2023. Ahead of this, though, the band embraced the opportunity to road-test the new tunes and share them with heavy rock fans everywhere as direct support on a far-reaching North American tour with ELDER and labelmates RUBY THE HATCHET, along with confirming a slot on the illustrious Desertfest in Belgium later in the year. As an enticing taste of things to come, HOWLING GIANT release the digital single ‘Sunken City’ from the upcoming album before hitting the road.

Line-up
Tom Polzine – guitar, vocals
Zach Wheeler – drums, vocals
Sebastian Baltes – bass, vocals

www.facebook.com/howlinggiant/
https://www.instagram.com/howlinggiant/
howlinggiant.bandcamp.com

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords

Howling Giant, “Sunken City”

Nashville-based heavy rockers Karma Vulture release their debut album, Something Better, on April 28 through Bent Knee Records. Born in Joshua Tree, California, the three-piece delivered their well-received Death by Comfort EP in March 2022, following 2020’s debut three-songer, Loud as Fuck, its complementary Live as Fuck live outing, and a host of singles going back to 2019. The album — crisp in its production by drummer/backing vocalist Ben Foerg, with Conor Spellane on bass/vocals and Will Hammond on guitar — runs 10 songs and 44 minutes and is a melting pot of influences.

As one might anticipate from the ‘vulture’ part of their moniker or the Joshua Tree namedrop, desert rock is a root influence, but almost immediately upon switching out the orchestral-noisy intro “Something Good” for the straight-up heavy rock groove of “Something Better” — maybe theremin ringing behind, maybe feedback — the band bring in other elements, whether it’s a bit of mid-period Monster Magnet in the strut of the riff of the title-track, the hints of Soundgarden in Spellane‘s vocals notwithstanding the Josh Homme-style falsetto flourish in the first of the record’s several memory-implant hooks.

Indeed, Queens of the Stone Age are an underlying, almost subconscious factor in Karma Vulture‘s style in various ways throughout: the vocals in “Something Better,” the shove of the later, dirtier-toned “No One’s There” (premiering below), the clearheaded-semi-psych atmosphere in the production of “Rabbit Hole,” and even the Alain Johannes-style arrangement flourish as part of the production in the big solo finish of “Pictures of the Past,” which turns from being a rock-ballad vocal showcase for Spellane — who, to his credit, carries it with a trained-sounding, almost Jack Blackian melodic ease — to a purposefully grandiose instrumental emotive evocation.

But Homme et. al. can’t necessarily account for the upstrummed Clutch boogie blues in “Do the Twitch,” which foreshadows the rougher edge in the guitar on “No One’s There” while doing something else stylistically, or any of side B’s per-song excursions, be it that first part of “Pictures of the Past,” the lean into what would be commercial alt rock if not for the punch of fuzzy bass beneath it on “Not Sure” (an Idiocracy reference?), “La Mirada” delivering on its desert acoustic promise with echoing vocals and loosely Middle Eastern scales, or the 10-minute finale “Cold Feet” pondering a meeting between The Claypool Lennon Delirium circa “Blood And Rockets: Movement I, Saga of Jack Parsons” and beloved Toronto head rockers Quest for Fire, with a little more of that Monster Magnet swagger-stomp bookending for good measure.

Songwriting, in addition to the basic ‘is-heavy’ factor of most of the material, is what’s tying Something Better together, but perhaps unsurprisingly for a band who’ve released a bunch of standalone single-tracks, each inclusion feels like it was written with its own intent — the business-up-front rockers in the title-track, “Do the Twitch,” “Rabbit Hole” and “No One’s There,” and the contextual expansion that takes place over “Pictures of the Past,” “Not Sure,” “La Mirada” and “Cold Feet” — and arranged together for a full-album flow. This is a classic method and Karma Vulture, while modern in their sound, employ it well, recalling defunct Texas rockers Heavy Glow in their considered approach while retaining a persona of their own.

Particularly as a first long-player, Something Better is all the more appreciable for the band’s aesthetic reach, and the sense of craft behind it — as well as being self-produced — speaks to the potential of the group to carry their accomplishments here forward to whatever might come next, if that’s more short releases or a second album down the line, or, more likely, both. I won’t say there aren’t any debut-record stumbles — “La Mirada” feels like fertile ground for editing at five minutes, and I can’t get Matchbox 20 out of my head when I hear “Not Sure,” which stings a bit in the ol’ frontal lobe — but those are well outweighed by what Karma Vulture are able to manifest in terms of both concept and performance.

Catchy straight up heavy rock and roll, looking to directly engage an audience as it sets out on a path of songwriting and creative growth sound like something up your alley? If not, I might ask what masochistic impulse has you still reading this. In any case, Karma Vulture‘s set forth with poise and surety on Something Better, and give the impression of knowing what and who they want to be as a group. To want more from it or them, given the quality of the end-result produced in what might eventually come to be seen as a formative stage of their progression, feels unreasonable, unwarranted. In short, dudes are on their way.

“No One’s There” premieres on the player below, and PR wire info follows. Please enjoy:

Pre-orders:
https://karmavulture.bandcamp.com

Karma Vulture is a Desert Rock power trio, originally from Joshua Tree, now based in Nashville. Consisting of singer/bassist Conor Spellane, guitarist Will Hammond, and drummer Ben Foerg, the band has a familiar yet idiosyncratic sound, blending elements of stoner rock & 90s grunge, with hints classic rock, psych, and modern alternative rock for good measure. The band executes their earworm hooks and hammer dropping riffs with equal aplomb. Or in other words: It’s super heavy, super catchy, and super dope.

Founded in late 2018, the band hit its stride with the addition of Foerg on drums, and released its first EP with their current lineup in early 2022. Death By Comfort was recorded by Norm Block (Mark Lanegan, Brian Jonestown Massacre) in Spring 2020 just as the world was shutting down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They finished it remotely thru the pandemic, with mixing engineer Joshua Martinez, and then used the remaining months of the lockdown to record their first full-length LP, Something Better, which drops on April 28th, 2023.

Karma Vulture:
Conor Spellane: Bass, Vocals
Will Hammond: Guitar
Ben Foerg: Drums, Backup Vocals

Karma Vulture on Facebook

Karma Vulture on Instagram

Karma Vulture on Spotify

Karma Vulture on Bandcamp

Bent Knee Records on Facebook

Bent Knee Records on Instagram

Bent Knee Records on Bandcamp

Between March and June, Nashville’s All Them Witches will play special full-album sets in various ‘major market’ cities across the US, on what’s not quite a tour and not quite not. The records in question are inarguable. From 2013’s Lightning at the Door (review here) to 2015’s Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (review here), which was their first LP for New West Records, to 2017’s pointedly lush Sleeping Through the War (review here), the hardest part is choosing which one you’d want to see them play most. And if you can only make one night, well, they’re doing two sets per show, so maybe you’ll still get “Open Passageways” with Allan Van Cleave on violin at the Sleeping Through the War date. That’s what I’m gonna hope for, anyhow.

Any single night or all three, there’s no wrong answer. You’ll recall All Them Witches spent 2022 touring and unfurling their ‘Baker’s Dozen’ singles project (posted here), which was completed last month. One awaits word of a follow-up to 2020’s Nothing as the Ideal (review here), but, you know, if they maybe wanted to take a month to catch their collective breath first, it’d be hard to hold that against them.

Tickets are on sale Friday, as per their socials:

THREE NIGHTS. THREE RECORDS. TWO SETS EACH NIGHT.

Tickets available Friday at 10am local time: allthemwitches.lnk.to/3N3R

Join us for an evening (or three) with All Them Witches. Each night, for three nights, we will play a different record front to back – “Lightning At The Door,” “Dying Surfer Meets His Maker,” or “Sleeping Through The War” – and an additional standard set. A very limited amount of three night tickets will be available. See you there.

All Them Witches is:
Charles Michael Parks, Jr – bass, vocals
Ben McLeod – guitar, vocals
Robby Staebler – drums, vocals
Allan Van Cleave – Rhodes piano, keys, violin

http://allthemwitches.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/allthemwitches
https://www.instagram.com/allthemwitchesband/
http://www.allthemwitches.org/

All Them Witches, Lightning at the Door (2013)

All Them Witches, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (2015)

All Them Witches, Sleeping Through the War (2017)

Today brings the final two installments of All Them Witches‘ Baker’s Dozen singles series. The Nashville four-piece throughout 2022 have been issuing one song at a time on the last Friday of each month, and I guess rather than keep it going into January, they opted for a blowout. No complaints. Both cuts are available to stream in the videos below and are linked through to various digital outlets. I don’t know if they or the whole collection will make their way to Bandcamp or not, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable.

As they have all along, in this series and out of it, the band explore disparate ideas in sound in the last two Baker’s Dozen singles. “Mama is a Shining Star” is an initially-drumless, proggy wash of melody laid out across 10 minutes of psychedelic drone swells, woven violin, even some processed vocals, and gorgeous, true-to-title shimmer set to a procession that breaks past its halfway point to more minimalistic fare, holding a waveform pattern that hints at more until its eventual fade — the hidden messages delivered after the hypnotized state is induced. Their experimentalist side coming forward, satisfyingly as long as you don’t go into it expecting a hook or drummer Robby Staebler‘s restless shuffle, it recalls some of the loop-based movements on 2020’s Nothing is Real (review here), and is encouraging in its freeform style of further adventures to come.

“Real Hippies are Cowboys” pairs organ and pedal steel with layers of electric guitar and bass over its instrumental eight-minute stretch, which rises gradually out of initial lines of guitar and does have more of a full-band feel, drums and all. It’s not their first foray into twang by any means, but it does make a point of its delve into country-psych leaning more toward the one, then the other in its later reaches, while staying loyal to both sides before the jam shows itself out in fading fashion. If that’s to be the epilogue of Baker’s Dozen — 13 of 12, as it were — then the underlying message of All Them Witches remains consistent in their unpredictability. Throughout this entire series, one has never really known what’s coming next. For a band who’ve been around more than a decade now, have enjoyed more success and influence than most ostensibly ‘heavy’ acts in that time and have six full-lengths under their collective belt, that they can keep their audience guessing without sacrificing the quality of their work shouldn’t be discounted as a consideration. They keep winding up in new places, thankfully.

The entirety of Baker’s Dozen is streaming below in the various players. The last two songs are first, then the rest all the way back to January’s “Blacksnake Blues,” in suitably jumbled order.

Enjoy:

All Them Witches, “Mama is a Shining Star”

All Them Witches, “Real Hippies are Cowboys”

Mama is a Shining Star: https://allthemwitches.lnk.to/shiningstar

Real Hippies are Cowboys: https://allthemwitches.lnk.to/realhippies

allthemwitches.lnk.to/soon

Tour On Sale Now:
https://allthemwitches.lnk.to/tour

Subscribe: https://allthemwitches.lnk.to/subscribe

All Them Witches is:
Charles Michael Parks, Jr – bass, vocals, acoustic guitar
Ben McLeod – guitar, vocals
Robby Staebler – drums, vocals
Allan Van Cleave – Rhodes piano, keys, violin

All Them Witches, “Hush, I’m on TV”

All Them Witches, “Holding Your Breath Across the River”

All Them Witches, “Tour Death Song”

All Them Witches, “Tiger’s Pit”

All Them Witches, “6969 WXL The Cage”

All Them Witches, “L’Hotel Serein” official video

All Them Witches, “Acid Face” official video

All Them Witches, “Blacksnake Blues”

All Them Witches, “Fall Into Place” official video

All Them Witches, “Silver to Rust” official video

All Them Witches, “Slow City” official video

All Them Witches on Instagram

All Them Witches on Facebook

All Them Witches on Bandcamp

Not to take anything away from the odd bit of 18-minute jamming or languid bluesy psych me generally, but this one is an easy immediate favorite from All Them Witches‘ ongoing ‘Baker’s Dozen’ singles project that has found them posting a new track every last Friday of each month throughout 2022. The song reminds of the edge that was best about pre-nü metal ’90s rock radio — heavy alt vibes — and the title “Hush, I’m on TV” feels very much in line with the somewhat tongue-in-cheek view the Nashville-based once-again-four-piece have always seemed to have regarding their own success, up to and including a seemingly abiding skepticism of how that is defined.

Whatever they may think of the response they’ve garnered from a fanbase built up over the last decade-plus, All Them Witches continue to do that work and do it exceedingly well, distinguished among their generation and among the most reliable yet unpredictable active bands I can think of in the realm of heavy music, certainly of the last 15 years, if not longer. Their work is a thing to be appreciated, and their ability to be self-reflective without seeming indulgent or any more navel-gazing than their aural sarcasm wants to be is only pay off why.

Dig this one a lot. Dug the last one — the whole year’s worth are below — and will probably dig the next one. I think we get two more of these? Fair enough. Here’s number 11, Bettie Page and all.

Enjoy:

All Them Witches, “Hush, I’m on TV”

allthemwitches.lnk.to/soon

Tour On Sale Now:
https://allthemwitches.lnk.to/tour

Subscribe: https://allthemwitches.lnk.to/subscribe

All Them Witches is:
Charles Michael Parks, Jr – bass, vocals, acoustic guitar
Ben McLeod – guitar, vocals
Robby Staebler – drums, vocals
Allan Van Cleave – Rhodes piano, keys, violin

All Them Witches, “Holding Your Breath Across the River”

All Them Witches, “Tour Death Song”

All Them Witches, “Tiger’s Pit”

All Them Witches, “6969 WXL The Cage”

All Them Witches, “L’Hotel Serein” official video

All Them Witches, “Acid Face” official video

All Them Witches, “Blacksnake Blues”

All Them Witches, “Fall Into Place” official video

All Them Witches, “Silver to Rust” official video

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One need not look farther than the painting by Gustave Doré used for its cover art to reason that the intention of Nashville trio Sapna — also all-caps: SAPNA — on their self-titled debut is toward immersion. And sure enough, the four-song, 48-minute outing plays into that in headphone-ready fashion, with coursing threads of drone and effects, manipulated feedback and various otherworldly noisescapes, all while maintaining a heavy meditation such that, when opener “The Vessel” (12:16) seems to blossom after five minutes of initial drone into its wall-of-fuzz and nodder groove, vocals calling out a chorus laced with twisting delay, the weight feels so complete as to remind of earlier Ufomammut‘s cosmic innovations.

The band would seem to have been born out of the more vintage-minded Red Feather, in which all three members — guitarist/vocalist Kevin Conlon, bassist/vocalist Ryon Westover (also of ElonMusk, etc.), drummer Logan Kirby — featured, but the direction here is purposefully atmospheric, a take on heavy post-rock that, with production by Westover at Grey Gardens and, for “The Vessel,” by Andy Putnam at The Flamingo, a mix by Ben McLeod (All Them Witches, Westing), and mastering by Mikey Allred at Dark Art Audio (All Them Witches, Across Tundras), comes to life with a dirt-psych vibe even as it never seems to quite touch the ground. Whether or not there’s actually any synth I don’t know — they don’t list any, and one struggles to think of a reason they’d keep it secret — but if there isn’t, then the image of pedal boards a city block wide comes to mind.

In any case, that’s not a complaint as “The Vessel” unfurls itself with deceptively-paced movement, seeming glacial while holding what in most contexts is probably a rock tempo in Kirby‘s drums; the quintessential “rolling right along.” If the band’s goal is immersion, one can only call Sapna an outright success. The LP — due for vinyl release in 2023 through St. Louis-based Infinite Spin Records — makes you feel like you’re swimming through it.

“The Vessel” is followed by “Oracle” (11:40), which begins similarly quiet on a fade-in — that sure sounds like a keyboard — but shifts more quickly, still smoothly, into feedback and its layered-over lead guitar intro shortly before two minutes in. At 2:30, the song doesn’t so much burst to life as pop like a lava bubble into its verse, with the vocals vague and echoing but a definite presence over the slower and, yes, molten, rolling procession. There are loosely cultish vibes, and perhaps that’s where the title came from, but the riff and the dirge that accompanies are the focus and despite something of a turn in ambience, the aesthetic in which Sapna are working renders the idea of an interrupted flow laughable.

The aesthetic is the flow. If the album isn’t flowing, it’s because you’ve hit pause. Go back and try again. A layer of backing vocals about six minutes in adds to the ethereal revelry of “Oracle,” giving a bright, classyc (that was a typo but I’m leaving it because it works) shimmer to the post-midsection unfurling, and the prominent buzz of the central riff of the song soon enough leads into a channel-spanning slow-scorcher of a guitar solo, vocals stepping back to allow due space before resuming in what on future releases might manifest as a full dual-vocal melodic wash and here feels nascent but still like an incantation.

There is a settling down as the bass rumbles forward. The song passes its 10th minute and soon gives way to residual distortion, the feedback from whence it came — did it ever leave? — and indeed, that keyboard-sounding maybe-keyboard returns, ending what will push the limits of a vinyl’s side A with trippy triumphalism, the band standing astride the landscape they’ve created and naming it thusly, maybe not interstellar conquerors or anything so implicitly violent, but explorers with a clear purpose of discovery and realization that feels as much about their experience of worship as that of the audience. So be it, shared.

Humming out a minimalist drone for its first minute and a half, “Veil” (8:02) rises like a morning star circa 1:40 with a stately line of feedback and holds back drums to let the vocals — more direct in the mix, more discernibly enunciated, still coated in effects — take a more featured role. By this point in listening, Sapna‘s hypnosis is in full effect, and even if the song is more than halfway over by the time the first gentle tap of a ride cymbal happens at 4:11, followed by a sweetly noodled, somewhat melancholic excursion of lead guitar, the time taken matters not even a little; patience is an asset. The solo grows in volume until at 6:42 there’s a crash-in and the heavier bass and ultra-fluidity reveals the payoff for what’s been a build all the while, happening almost without the listener realizing.

If you can hold your consciousness to it, that moment is especially glorious, but I’m not sure not-trancing out is the way to go. Choose your adventure. Considering the path they took to get there, the three-piece don’t dwell in that apex all that long, instead giving over to closer “SAPNA” (16:01), which like “The Vessel” before it sets its foundation in resonant drone before even letting the cymbals in on the flow, a first four minutes spent in meditation before the guitar announces the next stage, a motion gentle but not staid for the next minute or so leading into a heavier stretch that marches a bit in complement to the album’s beginning, with chug and stretch to coincide. Vocals enter after six minutes in, in what feels like a culmination carrying over the prominent positioning of “Veil” with the heft of “Oracle” and “The Vessel” in summary of many of the elements being cast throughout the entire procession.

They march like pilgrims, repeated lines about dust in the sun and holy light shining arriving, departing, a solo holding sway until at 10:52 they kick into another level of fuzzed fullness, another solo entering the left channel after 11 minutes in, the jam by then already pointed at the nearest star and gone. Crushing and soaring, Sapna give Sapna its due in both the ensuing crescendo and the drifting psychedelia of noise and drone that follows, the fadeout of “SAPNA” seeming to land at silence about 30 seconds before the track actually ends.

Maybe that’s the band giving the listener time to process what they’ve just heard, gently returning their audience to reality, or even mourning the passing of the album itself, or maybe not. In the end, the universe will die and nothing will matter. What I know is that the more one is willing to go with Sapna, the farther one will go. With their first release, Sapna not only bask in the tenets of longform heavy psychedelia, but underscore their rummaging-through-dimensions with a sense of purpose in itself; it is therefore it is because it is. The abiding worshipful feel of their tones and the construction of mood and world here aren’t to be understated, and neither is the potential for forward growth as they move beyond this initial offering. I won’t tell you how to hear it, only to approach with an open mind prepared to meet it on its own level for best results, which easily justify that effort.

SAPNA, SAPNA (2022)

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