Back in 1991, Seattle trio Earth demonstrated that heavy could also be unconventional, particularly in regard to instrumentation. They created their cacophony with two basses, guitar and a drum machine. New Orleans doom gaze trio, Guts Club is following it own unique path as guitarists Alex Dimef and Lindsey Baker (who also handles vocals) run through both guitar and bass amps to attain their crusty heavitude, while drummer Ronna Sandoval plays a kit without a snare, replaced by a second floor tom. The result, as evidenced on their new track, “Cliffs/Walls” is a thick squall of distortion and feedback backed by a slow, steady pounded pulse, and anguished vocals.
The 10-minute track was recorded live in (mostly) one take by Nick Pope at Color Tone Studio in New Orleans. It’s the first single and title track from Guts Club’s upcoming album, Cliffs/Walls, set for digital release on January 13, 2023. You can preorder it here.
Here’s what the band had to say about the track:
“’Cliffs/Walls’ is a meditation on grief and how we navigate a world overflowing with extreme loss and devastation. Some of us let it pass through us, some leap directly into it, others fight it, violently, until we’ve surrounded ourselves with walls too brutal to overcome. There is no resiliency; it is just knot after knot of trauma that we can only attempt to loosen or avert.”
