New Mexico's desert rock torchbearers BLUE HERON drop their new single "We Breathe Darkness" today! Their new studio album "Everything Fades" will be available on September 27th through Blues Funeral Recordings.
About the song, frontman Jadd Shickler says: "Most of our new record's lyrics are about mortality and time passing. 'We Breathe Darkness' is about a ghost who's trapped in the afterlife but hasn't accepted it yet, wishing he can still get another chance at living. It's more literal than metaphorical, but there's an implied idea about living in the moment and recognizing what you have while you have it. Musically, desert rock is our stock in trade, but everyone in the band digs a broad range of stuff. After going for a straight-up rocker with our first single, you can hear our affection for more atmospheric stuff here, even dipping in a bit to post-metal territory. This is the last song we finished before heading into the studio to make the album, and it's definitely the one with the most surprising twists as it builds."
BLUE HERON expand on their unyielding desert sound with a new slab of propulsive, sun-scorched riff-heaviness. "Everything Fades" finds the band reveling in low-tuned roil and amplifier hum, churning out swerving grooves as if the primordial spirit of the desert itself compels them.
Balanced between laid-back, meditative atmospherics and heavier, more aggressive lunges, BLUE HERON’s cruising jams and gritty stoner romps call to mind echoes of Kyuss, Clutch and Monster Magnet, as well as modern contemporaries Valley of the Sun and Greenleaf. Full of rhythmic intensity, sledgehammer riffing, and vocals ranging from clean and moody to howling and raw, "Everything Fades" covers a wide expanse of musical ground that shows how familiar influences can always be molded into inventive, exciting new forms. Stream Blue Heron's latest single "Everything Fades"!
Surrounded by endless horizons, BLUE HERON formed in 2018 out of a compulsion to fill the vastness with massive volume, saturating their piece of desert with rolling, thunderous riffs, drums that pummel and swing, deep, thrumming tones and vocals that rip and roar.
BLUE HERON’s guitarist and singer were founding members of Spiritu, possibly Albuquerque, New Mexico's first desert rock band, whose brief burn in the early aughts included a Jack Endino-produced LP, a European tour with Clutch, Spiritual Beggars and Dozer, and a compilation appearance alongside Entombed and Mastodon. Their debut LP "Ephemeral" arrived in May of 2022 via Kozmik Artifactz in Europe and Seeing Red Records in the USA. Substantial appreciation in the underground led to performances at Ripplefest Texas and Monolith on the Mesa and opening slots for The Well, Elder, Black Mountain, Ruby the Hatchet, Howling Giant, Heavy Temple and The Obsessed, along with a swath of positive reviews throughout the heavy media.
In May 2023, BLUE HERON dropped three new tracks on a split LP with friends and fellow southwestern riff-purveyors High Desert Queen for Ripple Music’s Turned to Stone series, with cover art by award-winning comic and poster artist Johnny Dombrowski. The bands embarked on a short tour in August 2023, before BLUE HERON set to work on their next proper album with a summer 2024 release date in mind.
BLUE HERON is
Mike Chavez - Guitars
Ricardo Sanchez - Drums
Steve Schmidlapp - Bass
Jadd Shickler - Vocals
BLUE HERON links
Website⎜Facebook⎜Bandcamp⎜Instagram⎜Spotify
