Serial Hawk Premiere “Of Decay” from Searching for Light; Announce US Tour
Posted in audiObelisk on September 10th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Seattle trio Serial Hawk release their debut full-length, Searching for Light, on Sept. 18 via Bleeding Light Records. The four-track, 38-minute LP splits neatly into two sides, but that’s pretty much where the “easy” ends, unless you count the apparent simplicity with which the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Will Bassin, bassist Adam Holbrook and drummer Sean Bulkley enact a groove on top of nodding riffage. The bulk of Searching for Light is very, very heavy, and I’m not going to take that away from it, but even more than the weight of its impact or the edge of bombast in rolling opener “Desolate” that reminds ever so slightly of defunct chaosbringers Akimbo, Searching for Light is immersive. More than that. It’s a record that opens wide and takes you in as it sets out on this course, sometimes fluid, sometimes jagged, loud, quiet, shouting, mourning, on and on across this river of contrasts that are made to work smoothly with each other.
Side A brings three tracks in “Desolate” (9:06), the shorter “Lying in Wait” (3:55) and “Of Decay” (7:05), and side B is comprised entirely of the 18-minute title cut. Throughout, the band benefits greatly from the natural recording style of engineer/mixer Robert Cheek (Chelsea Wolfe, Tera Melos) at Red Room Studios and ExEx Audio, but it’s more about the changes in the songs themselves, which work on top of a foundation of newer-school heavy riffs without losing a sense of atmosphere only bolstered by the strange, eerie 
realness of Samantha Muljat and Sara Winkle‘s cover art. In being sandwiched by “Desolate” and “Of Decay,” “Lying in Wait” could have easily come across as an afterthought or an interlude, but it’s a major factor in the ambience of the record overall, and some of the slower, crashing movements around the halfway point in “Of Decay” seem to be mirroring similar ideas, layers of guitar teasing melody through the pummel and expanding the breadth even further as Serial Hawk make their way toward a how-did-we-get-here final movement of plodding lumber.
All of this, of course, pushes the band toward the inevitable focus point that is “Searching for Light” itself. The title-track, closer and longest singular piece is as ambitious as it is sprawling, but still maintains its landing force, pushing through a minimal, quiet opening into a patient stretch that sets up the build to the album’s final payoff, every bit worthy of the investment of time and the punches to the gut Serial Hawk deliver along the way. It’s the kind of debut that makes it easy to forget it’s a debut, but I have my doubts that the band are finished working in long-form songwriting. If they wanted to, there’s nothing evident here that makes me think they couldn’t get up to a single-song album. They’re halfway there, and while they’ve worked hard to get to this point across a prior demo, EP, live record and single, as well as several cross-country tours, they’re still really just at another starting line with Searching for Light. One hopes they continue searching.
I’m thrilled today to be able to host the premiere for “Of Decay,” which as standard procedure dictates you’ll find on the Soundcloud embed below. Beneath that, you can dig into the dates for Serial Hawk‘s upcoming release tour, which starts Oct. 1 and will once again take them from coast to coast. Have riffs, will travel.
Enjoy:
Seattle, Washington’s hypnotically heavy three-piece sludge/doom act SERIAL HAWK will release their long-awaited debut, Searching For Light, via Bleeding Light Records September 18th. The band’s penchant for punishing, building riffs and reputation for bringing live audiences to their knees with a wall of sound has been encapsulated in this long-awaited album, which will be available on vinyl, CD, and digital download.
Serial Hawk on tour:
10/01 – Boise, ID – The Shredder
10/02 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Underground 3
10/03 – Laramie, WY – Baby Hospice
10/04 – Colorado Springs, CO – Flux Capacitor
10/05 – Omaha, NE – O’leavers
10/06 – Minneapolis, MN – The Hexagon
10/07 – Chicago, IL – Burlington Bar
10/08 – Dayton, OH – Blind Bobs
10/09 – Syracuse, NY – Gorham Brothers Music
10/10 – New Haven, CT – Crunch House
10/11 – Brooklyn, NY – The Acheron
10/12 – Philadelphia, PA – TBD
10/13 – Washington, D.C. – The Pinch
10/14 – Atlanta, GA – The Basement
10/15 – Birmingham, AL – The Firehouse
10/16 – Houston, TX – Rudyard’s
10/17 – Austin, TX – Sat – The Lost Well
10/18 – TBD
10/19 – Santa Fe, NM – The Cave
10/20 – Phoenix, AZ – Yucca Tap Room
10/21 – San Diego, CA – Tower Bar
10/22 – Oakland, CA – Golden Bull
10/23 – Sacramento, CA – Cafe Colonial
Serial Hawk via Instagrammophone
