Blue Heron - Everything Fades

Blue Heron – Everything Fades
Release Date: 27th September 2024
Label: Blues Funeral Recordings
Bandcamp
Genre: Stoner Rock, Desert Rock, Stoner Doom.
FFO: Big Fuzz, Kyuss, Clutch, Valley of the Sun.
Review By: Mark Young

When it’s done right, stoner rock can be some of the best music you will hear. The combination of those fuzzed-out guitars with a voice that sounds like it has taken a bath in honey can take you out of yourself and give you respite from a world that is constantly reminding you of how shit life can be. Blue Heron is such a band, and their latest opus, Everything Fades is a class collection of riffs that tug at certain emotions whilst being delivered within a massive sound.

Null Geodesic puts that voice in the centre, with Jadd Shickler’s world-weary vocals setting us up for the glorious tunes that follow as title track, Everything Fades comes in. Isolated drums with a classic descending motif that bursts into fuzzed out noise. It’s clear that they have got their finger pressed firmly on what makes great stoner rock with the massive tone, steady rhythm and a lead break that reminds of QOTSA in their blue period. It shows that in the right hands, the genre still has a lot to say. Swansong, lowers the boom next with an arrangement that shakes the ground, and some of the sweetest vocals I’ve heard in ages. Check the run at 2 minutes of how they bring it all together, its classic rock at it’s finest. I love that they don’t rely on just having a super tone, especially when they have a weapon of destruction in those vocals that boost the material like it does. We Breathe Darkness is a slow crawl with a storming build, and I need to mention the band here. Each member is just on point, from the constant rolling drums of Ricardo Sanchez, the rumbling bass of Steve Schmidlapp and the guitar of Mike Chavez, who between them mix in the subtle and the heavy and make it sound as natural as putting one foot in front of the other.

Dinosaur, with its ringing chords and a lighter than desert air melody line moves and wants you to move with it. The balance between allowing Jadd to continually pull the song along, with the drums laying down, provides space for the guitars to dip in and out – it’s spot on! Trepidation is a Wah-soaked instrumental that I don’t actually mind. It works within the overall context of the album and allows for a reset of sorts before they bounce back in with Clearmountain and its feedback laden introduction. It’s just the sort of track that is needed, shaking us up as it they drop what is my favourite track. It has that special touch to it, a melody that works so well while as a collective they keep on pushing it forward, always building. I think the way that they put each song together is top class, it’s heavy without it being boring, and each player knows what they need to bring in order to keep that level of quality in place. Bellwether is another example of this, the quiet that breaks into the loud is something that isn’t new, but the way they do it sounds so good. There is always one eye on dropping a killer passage, ones that make you want to play it. That is the mark of great songs and Blue Heron has done it from start to finish. Speaking of finishes, they hit us with a short blast of fuzz goodness with Flight of the Heron, a quick instrumental that brings the curtain down to great effect.

This is a great album, with songs that land straight from the off and each one possessing an arrangement that grabs you and makes you listen. It sounds amazing, and for fans of this genre, as well as those who dig their music having a smidge of psych / doom too, it is a worthy purchase, and it is one you will come back to again and again.