Advertisement
Nashville’s Howling Giant has nothing to prove. Music City’s preeminent heavy jammingpsych-wizards formed a decade ago and have been on an enviously productive upswing ever
since. With four EPs, a split LP and two full-length records under their belts, not to mention a
relentless touring ethos that finds them spreading the riff gospel far and wide, Howling Giant
transfix with gorgeous, harmony-laden vocal hooks while hitting listeners square in the gut with
snaking, progressive grooves no one saw coming.
Since the 2023 release of their exquisite and widely acclaimed album Glass Future, Howling
Giant has taken to the open road over and over, co-headlining a European odyssey with fellow
Magnetic Eye Records vibe-hounds Heavy Temple and entrancing North America in support of
heavyweights like Elder, The Obsessed, Black Tusk and Mars Red Sky. The solidified trio of
Sebastian Baltes (bass/vocals), Tom Polzine (guitar/vocals) and Zach Wheeler (drums/vocals)
have honed their craft to a diamond-hard point, still bringing fiery fervor like every show is their
first and intensity as it if might be the last.
Now expanded to a four-piece with the permanent addition of Adrian Zambrano on guitar and
synths, the band is poised to unleash their third album Crucible & Ruin. Electrified by a dual-axe
attack and an absurd wealth of hook-driven, hard-driving melodies, the record is massive,
mercurial, and ready to meet the moment.
Crucible & Ruin finds Howling Giant embracing more ethereal textures and wide-open spaces,
which makes the hammer-drop of each churning riff and whip-crack drum fill hit that much
harder. The mellow sections are smoothly psychedelic sailing, like the pensive restraint that
opens “The Archivist” or the contemplative instrumental “Lesser Gods,” but then they turn out a
stuttering bruiser like “Beholder I - Downfall” that’s built around such a toweringly heavy groove
that it might have its own weather system. More importantly, at the core are such impeccable
songwriting chops that listeners will almost instantly feel they’ve known these songs forever.
Having brought the thunder to hundreds of audiences, each player lays down his licks in
generous, sympathetic lockstep. Baltes’s bass lurks and lashes with swooping swings, while
Wheeler’s drumming lands in a perfect sweet spot between Dave Grohl and Neil Peart.
Polzine’s and Zambrano’s guitars paint a widescreen palette of laser-focused hooks and
beautiful atmospherics, from the heaving bounce of “Melchor’s Bones” and the nervy dual-guitar
overlay of “Scepter & Scythe” to the mile-wide grin of a groove that pops up toward the end of
“Hunter’s Mark.” Across the album, multiple voices mingle in golden harmonies that float atop
the earthbound pummel of the instrumentation.
Howling Giant has nothing to prove, yet they’re still out there doing the damn thing. Crucible &
Ruin is heavy music in pursuit of lightness, and points toward a better world by staying deeply
present in every tricky fill, every songbird riff, every canyon-deep groove, every desperate
refrain. Like daybreak poised to crest the horizon, the world waits for Howling Giant’s twisting,
searching, soaring new album with fervent hope.
Advertisement
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
1520 Grand Boulevard, Kansas City, Missouri 64108, United States
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
