I won’t keep you long here. Today is the last day of this Quarterly Review. It’ll return in July, if all goes according to my plans. I hope in the last seven days of posts you’ve been able to find a release, a band, a song, that’s hit you hard and made your day better. Ultimately that’s why we’re here.

No grand reflections — this is business-as-usual by now for me — but I’ll say that most of this QR was a pleasure to mine through and I’ve added a few releases to my notes for the Best of 2025 come December. If you have too, awesome. If not, there’s still one more chance.

Quarterly Review #61-70:

Daevar, Sub Rosa

While Sub Rosa still basks in the murky sound with which Köln-based doomers Daevar set forth not actually all that long ago — they’re barely an earth-year removed from their second LP, Amber Eyes (review here), and just two from their debut, 2023’s Delirious Rites (review here) — there’s an unquestionable sense of refinement to its procession. “Wishing Well” moves but isn’t rushed. Opener “Catcher in the Rye” feels expansive but is four minutes long. It goes like this. Through most of the 31-minute seven-songer, including the “Hey Bacchus” strum at the start of “Siren Song,” Daevar seem to be working to strip their approach to its most crucial elements, and when they arrive at the seven-minute finale “FDSMD,” there’s a purposeful shift to a more patient roll. But the flow within and between tracks is still very much an asset for Daevar as they take full ownership of their sound. This is not a minor moment for this band, and feels indicative of future direction. Something tells me it won’t be that long before we find out if it is.

Daevar on Bandcamp

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

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Rainbows Are Free, Silver and Gold

The follow-up to Rainbows Are Free‘s impressive 2023 outing, Heavy Petal Music (review here), Silver and Gold is the Norman, Oklahoma, six-piece’s fifth album since 2010 and second through Ripple Music. With nine songs that foster psychedelic breadth and tonal largesse alike, the album still has room for frontman Brandon Kistler to lend due persona, and in pairing sharp-cornered progressive lead work on guitar with lower-frequency grooves, Rainbows Are Free feel ‘classic’ in a very modern way. They remain capable of being very, very heavy, as crescendos like “Sleep” and “Hide” reaffirm near the record’s middle, but emphasize aural diversity whether it’s the garage march of “Fadeaway,” the barer thrust of “Dirty” or “Runnin’ With a Friend of the Devil” earlier on, of which the reference is only part of the charm being displayed. Rarely does a band so obviously mature in their craft still sound so hungry to find new ideas in their music.

Rainbows Are Free website

Ripple Music website

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Minerall, Strömung

The pedigreed spacefaring trio Minerall — guitarist Marcel Cultrera (Speck), bassist/synthesist Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt (Sula Bassana, Zone Six, etc.), and drummer Tommy Handschick (Kombynat Robotron, Earthbong) — return with two more side-long jams on Strömung, captured at the same two-day 2023 session that produced their early-2024 debut, Bügeln (review here). If you find yourself clenching your stomach in the first half of “Strömung” (19:35) on side A, don’t forget to breathe, and don’t worry, opportunity to do so is coming as the three-piece deconstruct and rebuild the jam toward a fuzzy payoff, only to raise “Welle” (20:24) from its minimalist outset to what seems like the apex at the midpoint only to blow it out the airlock in the song’s back half. That must have been one hell of a 48 hours.

Minerall on Bandcamp

Sulatron Records website

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Deathbird Earth, Mission

By the time its five minutes are up, “Resources 2.0” has taken its title word and turned it into an insistent, chunky, noise-rocking sneer, still adjacent to the chicanery-laced psych of the song’s earlier going, but a definite fuck-you to modernity, evoking ideas of exploitation of people, places and everything. Philadelphia duo Deathbird Earth — first names only: BJ (Dangerbird, Hulk Smash) and Dave (Psychic Teens, etc.) — offer three songs on Mission, which has the honesty to bill itself as a demo, and from “Resources 2.0” they move into the sub-two-minute “Mission 1.0,” more ambient and laced with samples. The only song without a version number in its title, “Dead Hands” finds the duo likewise indebted to Chrome and Nirvana for a burst-prone, keyboardier vision of gritty spacepunk, vocal bite and all, but honestly, Mission feels like the tip of an experimentalism only beginning to reveal its destructive tendencies. Looking forward to more.

Deathbird Earth on Bandcamp

Deathbird Earth at SRA Records

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Thinning the Herd, Cull

Approaching the 20th anniversary of the band next year, now-more-upstate New York heavy rockers Thinning the Herd return after 12 years with Cull, their third album. Guitarist/vocalist Gavin Spielman in 2023 recruited drummer Rob Sefcik (Begotten, Kings Destroy, Electric Frankenstein, etc.), and as a trio-sounding duo with Spielman adding bass, they dig into 11 raw, DIY rockers that, as one makes their way through the opening title-track, “Monopolist” and “Heady Yeti” and “Burn Ban” — themes from not-in-the-city-anymore prevalent throughout, alongside weed, beer, life, getting screwed over, and so on — play out in fuzzbuzz-grooving succession. Two late instrumentals, “Electric Lizard of Gloom” and the lush, unplugged “Acustank,” provide a breather from the riffs and gruff vibes, the latter with a pickin’-on-doom kind of feel, but across the whole it’s striking how atmospheric Cull is while presenting itself as straightforward as possible.

Thinning the Herd website

Thinning the Herd on Bandcamp

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Phantom Druid, The Edge of Oblivion

Let The Edge of Oblivion stand for the righteousness of anti-trend doom. You know what I’m talking about. Not the friendly doom that’s out there weed-worshiping and making friends, but the crunching doom metal proffered by the likes of Cathedral and Saint Vitus. Doom that wore is Sabbathianism as a badge of honor all the more for the fact that, at the time they were doing it, it was so much against the status quo of cool. Phantom Druid‘s fourth album is similarly strident and sure of its approach, and yeah, if you want to say some of the chug in “The 5th Mystical Assignment” sounds like Sleep, I won’t argue. Sleep liked Sabbath too. But the crawl in “Realms of the Unreal” and the dirge in instrumental “The Silent Observer” tell it. This is doom that knows and believes in this form, and is strident and reverential in its making. That “Admiration of the Abyss” caps could hardly be more appropriate. Hail the new truth.

Phantom Druid on Bandcamp

Off the Record Label store

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The Grey, Kodok

Some context may apply. Kodok is the third long-player from adventurous Cambridge, UK, heavy post-rock/metallers The Grey, as well as their first outing through Majestic Mountain Records, and though much of what the band has done to this point is instrumental and that’s still a big part of who they are as 11:45 opener/longest track (immediate points) “Painted Lady” readily demonstrates, there’s a clear-eyed partial divergence from the norm as guitarist Charlie Gration, bassist Andy Price and drummer Steve Moore welcome guests throughout like Grady Avenell, who adds post-hardcore scathe to “Sharpen the Knife” ahead of the crushing “CHVRCH,” also released as a single, or fattybassman and Ace Skunk Anasie, who appear on the duly textural “AFG,” which also rounds out with a dARKMODE remix. Not a typical release, maybe, but not not either as the band do more than haphazardly insert these guests into their songs; there is a full-length album flow from front to back here, and while they purposefully push limits, the underlying three-piece serve as the unifying factor for the material as perhaps they inevitably would.

The Grey on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records store

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Sun Below, Mammoth’s Tundra

With a forward lumber marked by rigorous crash and suitably dense tone, Sun Below‘s apparently-standalone 12-minute single Mammoth’s Tundra tells the story of a wooly mammoth being reborn — I think not through techbro genetic dickery, unlike that dire-wolf story that was going around last week — and laying waste to the ecosystem of the tundra, remaking the food change in its aggro image. Fair enough. The Toronto trio likely recorded “Mammoth’s Tundra” at the same Jan. 2023 sessions that produced their Sept. 2023 split, Inter Terra Solis (review here), and whether you’re here for the immersive groove that rises from the gradual outset, the shred emerging in the second half, or that last meme-ready return of the riff at the end, complete with final slowdown — what? you thought they’d leave you hanging? — they leave the Gods of Stone and Riff smiling. Worship via volume, distortion, and nod.

Sun Below on Bandcamp

Sun Below’s Linktr.ee

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Tumbleweed Dealer, Dark Green

It’s been nine years since Montreal’s Tumbleweed Dealer released their third album, but as the fourth, Dark Green offers instrumentalist narrative and a range of outside contributions to expand the sound and maybe make up for lost time. Across 10 tracks and 39 minutes, bassist/guitarist Seb Painchaud, synthesist/producer Jean-Baptiste Joubaud and drummer Angelo Fata broaden their arrangements to include Mellotron, Hammond, Wurlitzer, Rhodes and other keys as well as what basically amounts to a horn section on several tracks, the first blares in “Becoming One with the Bayou” somewhat jarring but coming to make their own kind of sense there and in the subsequent “Dragged Across the Wetlands,” the sax in “Body of the Bog,” and so on. These elements seem to be built around the core performances of the trio, but the going is remarkably fluid despite the range, and though it seems counterintuitive to think of a band who might end a record with a song called “A Soul Made of Sludge” as being progressive and considered in their craft, that’s very clearly what’s happening here.

Tumbleweed Dealer on Bandcamp

Tumbleweed Dealer on Instagram

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NYTE VYPR, Plutonic

Electronic dub, pop, death metal, glitchy electronics, krautrock synth, malevolent distortion, some far-off falsetto and some throatgurgling crust — it can only be the always-busy anti-genre activist Collyn McCoy (Unida, High Priestess, Circle of Sighs, etc.) mashing together ideas and making it work. To wit, “Alkahest” (17:36) and “Witchchrist” (16:03) both engage in sound design and worldmaking, take on pop, industrial and metallic aspects, and are an album unto themselves, hypnotic and experimental, the latter marked by a darker underlying drone that lasts until the whole song dissipates. “Necrotic Prayer” (7:28) feels more like collage by the time it gets to its surprise-here’s-a-ripper-guitar-solo-over-that-circa-’92-industrial-beat, but it still has a groove, and “Plutonic” (8:30) moves through static drone and seen-on-TV sampling through death-techno (god I love death techno) to croon, churn out with a sci-fi overlord, and finish with piano and voice; a misdirected contemplative turn worthy of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. McCoy is a genius and the world will never be ready for these sounds. That’s as plain as I can say it.

NYTE VYPR on Bandcamp

Owlripper Recordings on Bandcamp

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Thinning the Herd in a social media post not so long ago referred to their style as “lawnmower metal.” It was a joke, but clearly the New York band is enjoying the upstate life and all the richness not-the-city has to offer as they inch toward the release of their new album, Cull, sometime this year. “Sarcophagus Dust” is the follow-up single to “Trampled by Deer” (video posted here), which was posted in February, and if it’s a case of the band putting out songs as they’re finished, building the full-length as they go, well, they’d hardly be the first. It’s 2024. What the hell even is an album, anyway?

They’ve teased a few other songs from Cull to come as well — the third single is apparently called “Harley Davidson”; I haven’t heard it yet — but the snarl and swagger of “Sarcophagus Dust” speak for themselves, with a professed lack of sleep and the roll of Gavin Spielman‘s riff punctuated by Rob Sefcik‘s crash, lo fi in the production but clear enough to get their point across to be sure. It doesn’t sound like a lawnmower, but it does layer in a noisy lead to coincide with the downer bounce of its finish before fading out. There’s no pretense, no proggy indulgences to be made, nothing overly showy about it except maybe in the soloing where it should be, and its attitude is less about itself than the song but still heavy in mood. It’ll make sense when you hear it, and “Sarcophagus Dust” makes a solid teaser for the record as well since it’s under four minutes long.

I haven’t seen an exact release date for Cull yet, but that’s life, and I honestly don’t think Thinning the Herd need to or even really should be working to anyone’s schedule other than their own. Whenever it arrives, Cull will be the band’s first album in more than a decade, in addition to the first with the Spielman/Sefcik configuration, and as both of the to-date songs they’ve dropped from it hint, it’s gonna be a rocker. So much the better.

Enjoy:

Thinning the Herd, “Sarcophagus Dust” video premiere

“Sarcophagus Dust is the second single off the upcoming album “Cull” by New York’s own Thinning the Herd. TTH’s brand of heavy blues is often described as Doom, Sludge or Grunge and are often compared to Black Sabbath. TTH’s style incorporates elements of early NY/HC, traditional Blues and Stoner Rock.

Stay tuned for the next single entitles “Harley-Davidson” out at the end of June, marking the third single off of the antic aped album “Cull.

Video by Bert Crosby

Thinning the Herd are:
Gavin Spielman on Guitar and Vocals.
Rob Sefcik – Drums

Thinning the Herd, “Trampled by Deer” official video

Thinning the Herd on Facebook

Thinning the Herd on Instagram

Thinning the Herd on Bandcamp

Thinning the Herd website

Sometime in the near notnow, long-running New York heavy rockers Thinning the Herd will release their third album, which has been given the synonymous title Cull. The first single from the record, which is the band’s first in the 11 years since 2013’s Freedom From the Known (discussed here), “Trampled by Deer,” is also the first output from the band since founding guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and sometimes-the-only-dude-in-the-band Gavin Spielman brought in drummer Rob Sefcik last Fall. Known for his work in Begotten and Kings Destroy (pretty sure he was in Electric Frankenstein as well?), Sefcik hits hard and has no trouble emphasizing the nod in Spielman‘s riff, a strong C.O.C. influence roughed up by the recording but still able to put through a punch of bass and account for a divergence into acoustics behind and alongside its solo section.

The song’s three and a half minutes long, so the break doesn’t last, and Spielman‘s guitar scorches back with a shredding solo as the video takes us out to a snowy field and woods somewhere outside the city (Westchester?), splicing in shots of animals and hunting implications, life, death, the icy river and ancient, drowsy Appalachian peaks. These make a fitting accompaniment for the band’s take on heavy rock, which is naturalist in its own way, and if they’re drawing inspiration from this setting — I don’t know the circumstances behind the clip’s making, but some of it looks self-filmed on a phone camera, which makes sense in terms of the story they’re telling here even as an impression given — and basing Cull around that, it seems only suited to their aesthetic generally. This riff breathes. I dig that.

It’s been a while since Thinning the Herd put out a full-length, as noted above, but they’ve trickled out singles and videos in the time since Freedom From the Known, including the 2021 single “Wolves Close In” (posted here) that boasted a guest appearance on guitar by Pat Harrington of Geezer. No clue if that song will be on Cull or not, but at very least if it was you could say it was on theme with “Trampled by Deer.” Rough times out there in the forest.

More to come I’m sure as we get closer to Cull, but here’s “Trampled by Deer” with all its attendant freeze and groove. Right on.

Enjoy:

Thinning the Herd, “Trampled by Deer” official video

We’re super excited to bring you the first single to be distributed worldwide since the last record!

The song “Trampled by Deer” is about those moments in life when a positive change only to finds you mentally worse off. The track also features a minor guest spot from an old crony Cosmos Sunshine. He plays the shorter bluesy solo after my fast one, after the acoustic break.

We’re already hit in the tail of this single, next one drops end of next month entitled “Next Level”.

We hope you enjoy and add our tune “Trampled by Deer” to your playlist, download and stream that shiz!

Thinning the Herd are:
Gavin Spielman on Guitar and Vocals.
Rob Sefcik – Drums

Thinning the Herd on Facebook

Thinning the Herd on Instagram

Thinning the Herd on Bandcamp

Thinning the Herd website

New York heavy rockers Thinning the Herd have announced the addition of Rob Sefcik (also Kings Destroy, Northern Heretic, Begotten, etc.) on drums. In 2021, the long-running outfit led by guitarist, vocalist, songwriter Gavin Spielman presented the single “Wolves Close In” (premiered here) as the preface to what would then have been their first album in eight years. It’s now been a full decade since they released 2013’s Freedom From the Known, and the post from the band below doesn’t mention recording one way or the other, but it’s easy enough to imagine Speilman plugging away at it behind the scenes. No doubt having a drummer helps.

I don’t know how many times I’ve watched Sefcik play live, with Kings Destroy mostly but also Begotten, but he’s both a monster behind the kit and a classy player mindful of the songs in which he’s working. You might recall Thinning the Herd drummer Rick Cimato passed away in 2012 ahead of the 2013 album release, and Spielman has seen a few others come and go since. I don’t know what their plans are if there are any other than local shows, or even if bassist Wes Edmonds is still in the band, but here’s what they had to say:

Thinning the Herd would like to give a big horns up Welcome to Rob S. on the drums! Filling the shoes of previous drummers ain’t an easy task but he’s a bad ass – and up for it!

Rob’s played in many bands that rocked, and we are super excited to have a solid guy and heavy drum smasher in the band for the long haul. We look forward to bringing y’all new music and performing old tunes as well as the new heaters.

If interested in an interview or to book our band hit the DM.

Since 2006 TTH has y’all groovin’ on the sludgy New York Metal, and look how far it’s come!

https://www.facebook.com/THINNINGTHEHERD
https://thinningtheherd.bandcamp.com/
http://www.tthmusic.com/

Thinning the Herd, “Wolves Close In” (feat. Pat Harrington) official video

New York’s Thinning the Herd are moving toward releasing a new album later this year. That’s cool. What’s cooler though is they’ve got a new video to prove it. “Wolves Close In” heralds the first Thinning the Herd long-player since 2013’s Freedom From the Known, and in its instrumental sound and kind of mellow groove, one might be tempted to liken it to “Gaikatt Mountain,” for which the band premiered a video here last year, sort of as a way of announcing their return. The difference, of course, is this song is new and that one was from the album already seven years old, but if further enticement is required, a guest solo by Geezer‘s Pat Harrington certainly doesn’t hurt. More fuzz, you say? That’ll do just fine.

I don’t know in what direction founding guitarist/vocalist Gavin Spielman will ultimately be taking Thinning the Herd as they push through the making of this next record, but with “Wolves Close In,” the intent toward engagement with the natural world is clear. Watch it in the highest definition you can, and bask in the video’s green leaves, flowers in bloom, running water, smooth stones, tall grasses and drone footage of treetops. It’s lush and gorgeous and a reminder that summer means going outside. I would not expect the single track to speak for the entirety of the full-length to come, whenever it might show up, but it is hypnotically engaging just the same and bodes well in its overall flow. You know I’m a sucker for a video in the woods.

And while we’re on the subject, kudos to Thinning the Herd on having a video, in the woods, with a lady in it, and not having that lady be chased and/or killed in that video. Seems like a pretty basic thing, right? You’d be amazed. Lot of misogynist cult murder happening in clips these days. A break from that is refreshing.

Enjoy:

Thinning the Herd, “Wolves Close In” (feat. Pat Harrington) video premiere

The song was recorded by Gavin remotely during the pandemic in the summer of 2020. Written by G Spielman – this is a stripped down instrumental production focused on a more psychedelic bluesy sound. Garth on Drums, Gavin on Guitars, Wes On Bass, this tune features added lead guitar Pat Harrington of Geezer. The song can be found on TTH’s next self-titled drop slated this fall.

Thinning the Herd on Facebook

Thinning the Herd website

It’s been a while since the last check-in from New York-based heavy rockers Thinning the Herd. It happens. Their last album was 2013’s Freedom From the Known and after that came out they went through a few lineup shifts as a band will, and already in 2012 they’d lost drummer Rick Cimato in a fatal auto accident, so yeah, after something like that, you might need some time. Still, led by guitarist/vocalist Gavin Spielman, the band have a new video for the instrumental track “Gaikatt Mountain” from the aforementioned 2013 LP, made in homage to Cimato, and I’m happy today to host the premiere for it. You’ll find it below, followed by some comment from Spielman.

The track itself unfolds as a mellow jam, beginning with light strings strumming and gradually moving into fuzzier terrain. You can hear the live feel that Steve Albini recordings are known for in the rhythm section, even as acoustic and electric guitars intertwine, the bass punching through insistently all the while. Its easy flow is contrasted soon enough with a quick shift to a rushing riff and tempo-surge progression. You’ll see in the video it’s when the shift happens from landscape to cityscape, and there’s live footage spliced in as well, but later on the drone shots return and make a fitting cap even as the shift to quiet ends up more permanent. As these cats always were, it’s no pretense heavy rock with some metal oomph behind it that asks little indulgence beyond four minutes of your time.

The album’s seven years old, so absolutely, you can find it streaming in the places where streaming happens.

Enjoy the video:

Thinning the Herd, “Gaikatt Mountain” video premiere

Gavin Spielman on “Gaikatt Mountain”:

The inspiration for this song came during a shroom experience in my early teens. It was just a warm up technique, a riff that bridged spirit and technique for me, rudimentary but a melody I never stopped playing. I played this tune in bands before Thinning the Herd, and it went by “Hard To See” and had lyrics, but abandoned them. I feel the main riff is pure Thinning the Herd stripped down to its bare bones, and somewhat of a departure from our heavy tone. It’s the only instrumental song we’ve put out, and I’m glad we did because it’s a reminder of an angel flying overhead, watching us.

This new video signifies our drummer Rick watching us, looking down upon our journey into the unknown, blessing us with understanding of knowledge, showing us the simplicity of birth and death, capturing the ephemeral experience in between.

GAIKATT MOUNTAIN by THINNING THE HERD: The 9th Song off the third record (FREEDOM FROM THE KNOWN) by THINNING THE HERD (on St. Mark’s Records). This tune is an instrumental written in 2011 specifically for the record.

Available through all major online retailers including AMAZON and Apple Music, Bandcamp and Streaming on Spotify.

Recorded by Steve Albini in Chicago
Mixed by Wes Edmonds
Mastered by Tony Gillis in NYC
All lyrics and music G. Spielman
Video Production by Green Pine Tree Studio

Thinning the Herd on Thee Facebooks

Thinning the Herd website

…Actually, there’s very little possibility they aren’t, but I always like to allow for some interpretation. Once a trio and now a four-piece, New York City heavy rockers Thinning the Herd have a new video for the track “Rabbits” from their 2013 full-length, Freedom from the Known. This isn’t the first time their videos have been featured here (see also last year’s “Never Wanted”), but the band continues to entertain, this time with a kind of invasion of alien monks, played of course by the band themselves, who travel in a reflective silver disc and seem to monk it up in varying ecosystems amid a wash of digital visual effects.

As the PR wire informs below, Thinning the Herd have a couple gigs in the works including one in Brooklyn with Geezer, Borracho and Moon Tooth that looks pretty choice.

Dig it:

THINNING THE HERD Releases New Video

Lineup Expands To Quartet

Mind melting NYC pillagers THINNING THE HERD have just completed their newest official video for their ripping anthem “Rabbits,” the track hailing from the act’s sophomore full-length album, Freedom From The Known. The self-produced epic new video is a more than five-minute movie starring the band –including Rick Cimato, the band’s previous bassist who tragically passed away last year (RIP) — with a shit-ton of CGI and special effects integrating visuals from across the universe into an amusing film depicting ancient wizard monks migrating to Earth by command of a flying disc.

THINNING THE HERD continues to hook up shows in support of Freedom From The Known, with several late Summer and early Fall gigs locked and more in the works across the region. These pending shows will be the very first TTH performances as a quartet, as the longtime trio has just expanded, bringing in new blood Brian Murphey on bass and moving Wes Edmonds to second guitar. The rest of the current lineup is rounded out by drummer Garth Macaleavey, also Murphey’s bandmate in previous act Madame Trashy, and founding guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Gavin Spielman.

THINNING THE HERD Live:
9/13/2013 The Grand Victory – Brooklyn, NY @ Stoned Fry Day The 13th w/ Geezer, Borracho, Moon Tooth
10/26/2013 Webster Hall – New York, NY @ Stoned Halloween Show

http://www.tthmusic.com
https://www.facebook.com/THINNINGTHEHERD
http://www.reverbnation.com/thinningtheherd

NYC heavy rockers Thinning the Herd have had about as tough a couple months as a band can have, with the untimely death of drummer Rick Cimato over the holidays and questions as to whether or not the band would even continue on and release their Steve Albini-recorded sophomore full-length, Freedom from the Known. After soul searching and a series of tryouts, guitarist/vocalist Gavin Spielman and bassist Wes Edmonds have recruited Garth Macaleavey for the drummer position and will press ahead with not only putting the album out, but shows and new material as well.

As someone fortunate enough to see Thinning the Herd when Cimato was in the band, I can say the trio was definitely at their strongest point yet going into this album, and I’m glad to see it’s coming out and the band is going to keep going. Here’s word of the May 9 release for Freedom from the Known, courtesy of  the PR wire:

THINNING THE HERD Confirms Details Of Delayed But Anticipated New Album

Following a tumultuous several months of hardships and hard work, once again restructuring the band for the second time in a year, NYC’s THINNING THE HERD this week confirms the details of the band’s pending second full-length, Freedom From The Known.

Founding vocalist/guitarist Gavin Spielman had replaced the crew on TTH’s 2011-released debut full-length, Oceans Rise, recruiting a new rhythm section in 2012 with bassist Wes Edmonds and drummer Rick Cimato (ex-Locked In A Vacancy). The ultra-solid new lineup honed the newest songs, and shipped out to Chicago last Summer to record the sophomore album Freedom From The Known at Electrical Audio Studios with studio guru Steven Albini. The trio filmed a new video for the album, and as they were preparing to release the best THINNING THE HERD material yet, Rick Cimato was tragically killed in a head-on collision over the 2012 holiday season.

Mourning the loss of their friend, Spielman and Edmonds hosted several local listening parties of the album for local fans and friends to honor Rick and his family, then started the process of bringing yet another lineup together to execute the new songs live, proudly, as Cimato would have wished. Spielman recently crossed paths with Brooklyn drummer Garth Macaleavey, and after hitting it off, brought Garth into the THINNING THE HERD camp.

With nearly forty-five minutes of brand new material, the varied Freedom From The Known continues the THINNING THE HERD tradition of avoiding genre pigeonholing, merging their blues, jam, sludge and NYHC influences into their expansive doom/rock foundation. Lyrically the band explores as wide an array of topics; surviving everyday life, achieving a higher consciousness through transcendentalism, the existence of alien and otherworldly life forms and more. This is where party-hard buildups melt into boundary-free jam sessions; THINNING THE HERD is the pinnacle of prime underground New York City rock. Freedom From The Known will finally be released on the band’s own Saint Marks Records, just as their previous EP and Oceans Rise full-length were, on May 9th, 2013.

Live THINNING THE HERD shows and regional tour plans are in the works for the immediate future, and will be announced in the coming days and through the Summer months in support of Freedom From The Known; stay tuned.

Thinning the Herd, “Never Wanted” Video

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