While Red Fang’s fourth album immediately stands out as their first full-length since 2016’s Only Ghosts, it seems to hearken back to the Sludgy aspects of their earliest ventures. Tracks like ‘Unreal Estate’ and the title track reflect strong Melvins circa (A) Senile Animal vibes with their trudging riff patterns and eccentrically howled vocal lines. ‘Fonzi Scheme’ and ‘Days Collide’ elaborate further the former putting in a particularly potent stomp and the latter benefitting the most from the disorienting atmosphere.
October is always a big month. It’s basically a month-long party for me with the greatest holiday in existence, Halloween, and my birthday is only a few days beforehand. In my experience, October is also a great month for new releases from bands that I love. This year, Portland, OR based stoner metal/rock band Red Fang return with their fourth studio release entitled Only Ghosts (Relapse Records). It’s different from their previous releases, but that’s part of what makes this album as entertaining as it is.Continue reading →
Portland rock madmen Red Fang, who just celebrated their tenth anniversary as a band, are heading into the studio with Ross Robinson (Soulfly, Korn, Slipknot, Fear Factory) at his studio in Venice Beach, CA to record the follow up to Wales And Leeches (2013). The new Red Fang album will release on Relapse Records, later this year.
Commented drummer John Sherman:
“I’ve never been more excited about making a record in my life. The writing process for this album has been super fun and full of energy and good vibes. And the opportunity to work with Ross Robinson is so crazy – I’ve got goose bumps just talking about it!!”
Robinson also commented:
“Red Fang is the extreme mix of cool, wisdom, fire, life dedication and taste. I’m stoked to see who they are at the deepest level on tape; anyone touched by Red Fang swim in coolness, they are true messengers of inspiration.”
Last fall Aaron Beam gave Ghost Cult exclusive insights about their new album and what it might sound like.
“Yeah for sure. We’ve already got three songs that are totally done, and we’ve got pieces of…I don’t know…30 more songs worth of material. We’ve got to start as soon as we get back from this tour we’re gonna lock in and start bashing out the songs and turning them into finishing them. We have studio time tentatively booked for end of February or beginning of March.”
“We’re really buckling down now. These tour things come up and A) you’ve got to make money and B) we wanted to try out these songs on the road as well and dial them in a little bit better and see how they’re working. That really helped a lot.”
He gave a preview of the new material that is in the process of becoming the new Red Fang album. “You’ll probably be able to find some YouTube videos of some of the new songs. We’ve played them on this whole tour. One of them is called ‘The Shadows’ and it’s actually on this seven inch we’ve already put out. We’ll do an updated version of it.”
“There’s a new song that I’m super excited about that we’re playing on this last tour that’s kind of a slower, a little dirtier songs but it has this more Russian Circles kind of thing that happens half way through it. It’s got some surprises.”
“We’re still experimenting and branching out and trying new things always. It’s clearly going to be a Red Fang record but with some stuff you haven’t heard before.
As the band wends their way down from Portland to California, their will play two shows before hitting record on the new album.
