Appalachian heavy rockers Bask announce new full-length album »The Turning« and premiere music video for cosmic & country-tinged lead single »Dig My Heels«!
Asheville, North Carolina based psychedelic heavy rockers Bask have announced their fourth full-length album, »The Turning«, which will be released on August 22nd, 2025 via Season Of Mist.
Watch a music video for the first single »Dig My Heels« below!
Tracklist:
01. Chasm
02. In The Heat Of The Dying Sun
03. The Traveler
04. The Cloth
05. Dig My Heels
06. Unwound
07. Long Lost Light
08. The Turning
Courtesy of Season Of Mist:
Ever since they came rumbling down from the Blue Ridge Mountains, it was clear that Bask are cut from a different neck of the woods than their fellow Southern trailblazers.
“It’s really exactly what you want from a musical artist,” Heavy Blog is Heavy wrote about the band’s previous album, “a group of people creating their own sound that isn’t aping anyone.”
The climb to reach album number four wound up taking the Asheville natives on one hell of a trip. But »The Turning« takes Bask’s homebrewed Heavy Americana to a new dimension. While its lead single starts with boots firmly planted in familiar metallic pastures, »Dig My Heels« leaps into the great beyond thanks to a gentle nudge from the band’s newest member.
“We’ve been through so many trials and tribulations together over the past five years,” Bask says. “We were knocked down by Covid, then by Hurricane Helene. Seeing this album finally come to light is therapeutic for us. »The Turning« is Bask at our finest. It’s our most cohesive and heartfelt effort, an ode to our mountain home in the sky.”
Watch the video for lead single »Dig My Heels« HERE.
»The Turning« comes out August 22, 2025 on Season Of Mist. Pre-order & pre-save HERE.
To kick off this heavy and heady new frontier, Bask are touring the East Coast later this summer. Hear them play »Dig My Heels« and other songs from »The Turning« during the album’s opening run out on the road.
The Turning 2025 East Coast Tour:
August 20 – Atlanta, GA @ 529
August 21 – Savannah, GA @ El Rocko
August 22 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
August 23 – Raleigh, NC @ Chapel of Bones
August 24 – Richmond, VA @ Fuzzy Cactus
August 26 – Philadephia, PA @ MilkBoy
August 28 – Searsport, ME @ Starboard Lounge
August 29 – Providence, RI @ Parlour
August 30 – Wallingford, CT @ Cherry Street Station
August 31 – Boston, MA @ O’Briens
For as long as they’ve been together, Bask have called The Land of the Sky home. “We’ve been a band longer than we’ve been with our spouses,” says bassist Jesse Van Note. »The Turning« is still rooted in Appalachia’s rugged terrain. The album was recorded at Echo Mountain Recording with producer and fellow Asheville fixture Kenny Harrington, who’s also worked alongside Manchester Orchestra. »Dig My Heels« quickly settles into a sunbaked groove with riffs that are as chiseled as red clay. But once drummer Scott Middleton takes the reins, the band’s new single bounds off in a proggier direction.
“This song stemmed from Scott calling me out,” laughs guitarist Ray Worth. Instead of following Worth’s headbanging leads, the band let Middleton’s sideways gallop be their guide. “There’s nothing wrong with playing in 4/4,” Middleton acknowledges, “but if you’re not exploring, then you’re missing out on a world of opportunity.” As »Dig My Heels« rounds the corner into the chorus, what should appear but a country field of paisley countermelodies.
“We all like heavy music and half us grew up around folk and bluegrass,” says vocalist and co-guitarist Zeb Wright, “but »The Turning« leans into that mix even further.”
Despite the global pandemic and a natural disaster hitting their hometown, Bask have grown by literal leaps and conceptual bounds on »The Turning«. While they’ve have always been a tight-knit group, this is the band’s first album to welcome Jed Willis as an official member. Granted, Willis was already part of their orbit, having put a bow on their last album and chipped in on tour with merch and driving duties. But while a light touch, his reassuring presence launches »Dig My Heels« into the stratosphere. Floating amidst a constellation of twinkling chimes and keys that fall like stardust, his pedal steel softly swirls with all the colors of the Milky Way.
“That part just sort of flowed out of me,” Wright says about the single’s mesmerizing middle section. “It was when we were working on »Dig My Heels« that I first asked Jed to lay some steel down on this record. But after hearing how he opened up a new dimension within this song, I felt like we could have him play all over »The Turning«. The songs were twangy but also spacier and more psychedelic than anything we’ve done before.”
“These guys have become friends and brothers to me over the past decade or so,” says Willis. “Our music journeys have become intertwined, creating a solid and welcoming foundation that made my transition into the band feel like a natural next step for all of us.”
Adding a headier dose of heaviness also influenced the concept behind »The Turning«. The album’s story arc truly straddles the fence between cosmic and country with a 40-minute saga that spans not only genres but generations in man’s never-ending quest for immortality. »Dig My Heels« marks its first major turning point. “When you’re riding with death / no one’s following,” remarks its mysteriously ageless gunslinger before riding off into the intergalactic void with our spurred heroine in hot pursuit. But despite being admittedly “out there”, the album’s dwellings on family, aging, death and rebirth hit close to home. Cosmic scale tipped by Van Note’s heaving bass line, the song ends by crashing down with all the supernatural force of a waterfall on Mars.
“»The Turning« was a challenge,” the band says, “but we weathered the storm and came out the other side with a beautiful album that sounds like Bask.”
The video for »Dig My Heels« was created by Humanoire.
Recorded & produced by Kenny Harrington at Echo Mountain Recording.
Mixed by Andrew Schneider at Acre Audio.
Mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music.
Cover artwork by Mitch Meseke.
Photography by Garrett Williams.
Line-up:
Jesse Van Note – Bass
Scott Middleton – Drums
Ray Worth – Guitar
Zeb Wright – Guitar/Vocals
Jed Willis – Pedal Steel
Guest musicians:
Clay White – Trumpet
Franklin Keel – Cello
Alex Taub – Piano, Hammond B3 Organ
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well