Release Date: July 18th 2025. Record Label: Hellbender Vinyl. Formats: DD/Vinyl
Natural Order - Tracklisting
1.It Hunts The Shadows
2.The Cosmic Egg
3.Assiduous Gnaw
4.Spine of Dusk
5.Tooth and Claw
6.The Liminal Flow
7.A Narrow Path
8.Pillar of Dawn
Members
Trevor Richards: Guitar
Allison Kacmar Richards: Bass
Mark Lyons: Drums
Review
Natural Order is the latest and fourth record from Instrumental Psych/Doom/Stoner Rockers The Long Hunt where the band explore the NUMBER FOUR in multiple and highly original ways on this album. The band explains:
“In many philosophical and spiritual traditions, the number 4 is associated with the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water, which are seen as foundational to the world and physical nature. It's a number often linked to order, structure, and natural cycles, such as the four seasons and the four phases of the moon.”
So this record is quite conceptual in places which allows The Long Hunt to add a Drone Rock element to their music whilst keeping their trademark use of Psych, Doom and Stoner Rock instrumental sounds. There’s added levels of Alt Metal and Shoegaze momentum to their music which gives Natural Order quite a modern and forward thinking approach. The sound does become quite Progressive with the band switching to a trippy Stop/Start way of delivering their music which comes across surprisingly well on the opening batch of tracks of It Hurts The Shadows, The Cosmic Egg and Assiduous Gnaw where the Post-Rock melodies are quite soothing, haunting and wonderfully aggressive at the same time.
Taking cues from the likes of Karma To Burn, Colour Haze, Yawning Man and Monomyth but adding their own soulful identity into their musical surroundings. The record becomes dominated slightly by a classic Nineties atmosphere which gives The Long Hunt an unpredictable quality and fearless drive into creating areas of soulful Instrumental Doomed Out Stoner Rock.
An epic slice of Post-Doom aggression appears out of nowhere which allows the stunning rhythm section of Allison Kacmar Richards on Bass and Mark Lyon on Drums to generate an eerie Desert Rock attitude which moulds the musical and creative landscape for Trevor Richards epic guitar work to play some intense grooves along the way. When everything is put together, The Long Hunt are quite unbeatable with their majestic Psychedelic and Spaced Out passages. Throw in some Pink Floyd and ELDER classic sonic exploration on the later stages of the record especially on tracks such as: Spine Of Dusk, The Liminal Flow and A Narrow Path propelling the listener into full on Psychedelic Stoner Rock bliss.
The Long Hunt excels at playing fast-paced sounds and slowly pitched harmonies which constructs quite a gloomy atmosphere with great moments of Classic Hard Rock which sees the band develop a unique style of Instrumental Rock music. Natural Order is quite understated and I wouldn’t blame The Long Hunt to go way OVER THE TOP with epic progressive jams but they keep the whole flow quite soulful, organic and with real warmth emitting from the speakers.
Natural Order is expertly recorded and produced with The Long Hunt demonstrating once again why they’re one of the most essential Instrumental Stoner Rock bands we currently have within the underground scene. If you want an album with haunting poetic Post-Rock moments and full on aggressive Stoner Rock/Metal extended grooves then this is the place to be.
Words by Steve Howe
Links
Thanks to Desert Bloom PR for the promo.
