US heavy psych doom riffers Black Lung sign a worldwide deal with Heavy Psych Sounds for their new album
Photos by Shane K Gardner
Baltimore, Maryland based heavy psych doom riffers Black Lung have signed a worldwide deal with Heavy Psych Sounds for their new album.
Pre-sale + first track premiere: March 23rd, 2022.
Says the band: “We are very excited to start this new chapter of the band by signing to Heavy Psych Sounds. Since I met Gabe almost a decade ago on tour with The Flying Eyes, I’ve been blown away by how HPS has grown into a name brand of the heavy music world through the sheer ambition. During the long pandemic slumber, we’ve been busy at work on the upcoming album and crafting a fresh sound with our first ever bass player, Mac Hewitt. We can’t wait to unleash this new album and new lineup onto the world through our partnership with Heavy Psych Sounds.”
Courtesy of Purple Sage PR:
In the winter of 2014, the trio of Adam Bufano, Elias Schutzman (both founding members of The Flying Eyes) and multi-instrumentalist Dave Cavalier emerged from Baltimore as Black Lung. The band quickly set themselves apart in the crowded field of psych-doom and heavy-blues bands by eschewing a bass guitarist, instead finding the backbone of their sound in the interchange of fuzzed-drenched guitars, deep driving drum beats, and Cavalier’s raw, blues-tinged vocals. Following the release of their self-titled debut in 2014, Black Lung was named “Best New Band” by the Baltimore City Paper, and embarked on their first European tour. The tour was capped with a performance at the Rockpalast Crossroads Festival, broadcast on German national television.
In 2016 Black Lung released their sophomore album, »See The Enemy«, on Noisolution Records. Produced by J. Robbins, guitarist and frontman for post-punk icon Jawbox (and producer for The Sword and Clutch), »See The Enemy« saw the band building on the strengths of their debut while at times pushing into garage-psych territory in the vein of The Black Keys and Jack White. They followed the release with a headlining European tour, notably appearing at Freak Valley Festival and Desertfest Belgium alongside bands like Graveyard, Dead Meadow and All Them Witches.
After several more years of touring and songwriting, Black Lung returned with »Ancients« in 2019. Produced by Frank Marchand (producer for The Obsessed), »Ancients« found the band taking even more adventurous departures from doom and psych-rock tropes. “This isn’t a heavy blues album, nor is it a melodic psych-doom fest, it’s a glorious alchemy,” (Ghost Cult Magazine). The album was followed by another successful release tour in the EU and in late 2019, guitarist Adam Bufano amiably departed the band. Shortly thereafter, guitarist Dave Fullerton (member of the post-rock trio Deaf Scene) joined the fold only to find the world turned upside down by Covid-19.
Despite the setbacks and ripples of doubt across the whole of the music industry in 2020 and 2021, Black Lung pushed forward with their new lineup and quietly stayed hard at work on their fourth album. For the new release, the band was inspired to leave behind the power trio convention and add bass player Mac Hewitt (ex-The Flying Eyes) into the mix. Produced by J. Robbins and mixed by Kurt Ballou (member of Converge and Grammy winning producer for High On Fire), the new album will drop in 2022 on Heavy Psych Sounds Records.
Black Lung is:
Dave Cavalier – Guitar, Vocals
Elias Schutzman – Drums
Dave Fullerton – Guitar
Mac Hewitt – Bass
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well