Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the better part of the past year, you’d likely be familiar with Grand Rapids, MI-based psych rock trio HEATERS have become a JOVM mainstay act for a sound that draws from 60s psych and garage rock. Earlier this month I wrote about “Centennial,” and “Garden Eater,” the first two singles off the trio’s highly-anticipated sophomore effort Baptistina continued to cement the trio’s reputation for gorgeous period-specific psych rock — “Centennial” continued along the veins of the material on Holy Water Pool as the band paired dense layers of shimmering guitar chords played through tons of reverb and effects pedal, ethereal vocals, propulsive drumming and a throbbing bass line in a towering and anthemic psych rock song that feels as though it may descend into cacophonous chaos — but with a towering swagger that gives the song an effortless, larger-than-life feel. The album’s second single “Garden Eater” was an epic and sprawling song with has a lengthy introductory section featuring dense layers of shimmering guitar chords and propulsive drumming that slowly fades into a dreamy and contemplative fade out before a slow build up of an atmospheric section consisting of subtly droning guitar chords and vocals — and interestingly enough this section sounds as though it were indebted to Directions to See a Ghost-era The Black Angels before fading out with tons of reverb in wha many arguably be the most expansive song they’ve released to date.
Interestingly, the album’s third and latest single “Elephant Turner” is a tense and buzzing towering squall of noise paired with throbbing bass with the vocals submerged a bit into the shimmering and sludgy mix, that sonically reminds me of the aforementioned Black Angels, complete with some blistering and mind-melting guitar work paired with a propulsive rhythm section — before ending with a gentle fadeout.
