North Carolina regional band veterans. A Sunday jam that wouldn't quit. That's the origin, and it tracks.
This self-titled debut album is a dead-serious commitment to the psychedelic and hard rock ethos of the late '60s and early '70s. Recorded at Sonark Media in Hillsborough, NC. Chris von Sneidern... San Francisco singer-songwriter-producer... contributes vocals to several tracks. Not a minor addition.
Neither is what happened during recording. Drummer Tony Boutin was diagnosed with pharyngeal cancer mid-session. Chemo. Radiation. The band kept working. Boutin came back, finished his drum parts, and the album got done. That context doesn't evaporate when you hit play.
Focus track "The Veil" opens with a drum transient fill before distorted rhythm guitars flood the stereo field in a driving 4/4 groove. Mid-range frequency saturation runs thick throughout. Then at 2:21, the lead guitar cuts through... high-register filter sweep, single vocal tracking pushing into audible strain at the bridge and climax. No harmonic doubling to cushion it. The fade-out strips everything back until that modulated lead guitar is nearly all that's left. “The Veil” feels like the second coming of a powerful supernatural force, and it’s an outstanding performance.
