Pretty funny how a naturally occurring phenomenon, mushrooms growing in a circle, can evoke such a hysterical/alarmist response from we big-brained hairless apes. Hence, said circle becomes a “fairy ring” where (pick your favorite) witches gather to dance, the devil (ahem) churns his milk, or tiny mystical creatures live. The Evansville, Indiana Faerie Ring is sort of the musical embodiment of all of that: an intoxicating, fantastical trad doom quartet—James Wallwork (guitar/vocals), Kyle Hulgus (guitar), Alex Wallwork (bass), Joey Rhew (drums)—with an otherworldly sound (probably due to the influence of pixies or elves or maybe half-orcs).
The band’s sophomore full-length, Weary Traveler, follows up 2019’s The Clearing, and offers up a fuzzed-out collection of suitably lead-footed metal. It’s psychedelic, thunderous and relentlessly heavy, with echoey vocals bouncing between the mountainous riffs. The new album was recorded at Postal Recording Studio in Indianapolis by Alex Kercheval (of Coven) and is set for release April 14 on CD, vinyl and digitally via King Volume and Wise Blood Records. On the day of release it will be free—pay what you want—via the band’s Bandcamp page. Place your orders here.
Here’s a quote from guitarist Kyle Hulgus about some of the unorthodox “instruments” used on the the new album:
“We needed a striking steel sound, therefore I found myself in the booth with a doobie hanging off my lip hitting an iron skillet with a hammer into a vintage $20,000 Telefunken Mic, and then cooking dinner in it an hour later. We lived in the studio for a week, tweaking, experimenting and squeezing every bit of juice out of all the tools at our disposal. What really blew our minds was the pan strike turned out to be in the same key that we were playing and slid in the mix perfectly. Lightning in a bottle kept getting captured over and over like that. I fully credit this to the freedom we had at Postal. Sleeping next to a small fortunes of tape machines, seeding crazy ideas into our dreams.”
