Music Industry News

Acclaimed Aotearoa heavy-psych duo Earth Tongue release their highly anticipated sophomore album Great Haunting – out now, Friday 14 June via In The Red Records.

“We are proud to announce the sophomore album by New Zealand’s Earth Tongue, an incredible heavy rock two piece that is guaranteed to melt faces.” – In The Red Records

Great Haunting sees the duo Gussie Larkin (vocals, guitar) and Ezra Simons (vocals, drums) reach for new heights and horrors, possessed by relentless riffs and demonic distortion. The album represents an evolution from Earth Tongue’s first album Floating Being (2019), and offers a sonic world that is both unmistakably Earth Tongue yet distinctly different from their previous release as the band enter their faster, more energetic era. Across the nine tracks of Great Haunting, themes of 60s and 70s horror movies prevail, but it’s the brutal wall of sound with layers of guitar fuzz, soaring harmonies, oscillating vintage synths and drum fills that will remain long after the credits roll.

Great Haunting was performed live and recorded over multiple sessions at Jonathan Pearce’s (The Beths) Karangahape Road studio in Auckland, New Zealand. Many songs were rewritten during recording, with a few dropped entirely as the band paid careful attention to ensure that the album took listeners on a clear journey, with each song feeling like it was part of the whole.

The bond shared between Larkin and Simons brings an added dimension to their creative process both in the studio and on stage. “Being in a relationship brings an extra element of trust to the band” says Larkin, “There is a kind of telepathy that goes on between us when we are playing live, especially with tricky starts and stops. When we record we sing together, on opposite sides of the room. It helps us lock in and makes it a way more fun to record – especially when we got to scream “DEAAAAAATH!!!” to each other during the recording of the song ‘Nightmare’.”

The band are currently halfway through a 50-date tour of Europe, supporting American multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Ty Segall, as well as performing at a number of major alternative music festivals across the continent. Their show count for this year is already high, having supported stoner rock royalty Acid King throughout Europe in May, and three arena shows in New Zealand supporting Queens of the Stone Age.

Earth Tongue unveils the album focus single and music video for ‘Nightmare.’

Directed by Levi Strauss Cranston and filmed alongside the video for recent single ‘Out of this Hell’, The ‘Nightmare’ video follows Larkin as she spirals further into isolation sickness, tormented by a faceless figure in a black cloak.

“This is an unusual track for us,” says Simons of the song, “It’s an upbeat, high-energy track with a hectic and aggressive feel… it’s about someone avoiding their conscious life by escaping into their nightmares, and it was one of the very last songs to be added to the album.”

Check out all things Earth Tongue below:
Linktree
Facebook
Instagram

Photo credit: Warren Rodricks