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Riding high on the success of their 2024 sophomore album "Everything Fades", Blue Heron has announced a string of European tour dates this October, including performances at two key scene festivals. With nine shows alongside the likes of Gnome, Mephistofeles and High Desert Queen, the band will bring their blistering desert rock to stages across Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium for the first time ever.
Along with announcing their first live appearance in Europe, Blue Heron has also been revealed to be taking part in Magnetic Eye Records' latest Redux Series installment, paying homage to industrial rock crossover icons Nine Inch Nails. Magnetic Eye has launched a Kickstarter in support of the project, with other initial artist reveals including Black Tusk, Daevar, Abrams, Grayceon and IAH. More info on the NIN Redux project and Kickstarter can be found at this location.
Blue Heron's "Everything Fades", released last September, landed at #6 on Worship Metal's 50 Best Stoner and Doom Albums of 2024, #8 on The Obelisk's Best of 2024 Year-End Poll, and #13 on the Doom Charts Top 100 Albums of 2024. The record was described as "rooted in the mood and verve of the High Desert" by Doomed & Stoned and "an emotionally charged and truly breathtaking style of down-tuned weedian magic" by Outlaws of the Sun, and the band is anxious and ready to deliver their songs live and in person to European fans of American desert heaviness.
Blue Heron European tour 2025
Oct 10 - Karlsruhe (DE) Alte Hackerei w/ High Desert Queen
Oct 11 - Munich (DE) Keep It Low Festival
Oct 12 - Arnstadt (DE) Rockjungfer
Oct 13 - Bamberg (DE) Live Club w/ Submarin On Mars
Oct 14 - Hagen (DE) Werkhof Hohenlimburg w/ Stargo
Oct 15 - Rotterdam (NL) Roodkapje w/ Mephistofeles, High Desert Queen
Oct 16 - Tilburg (NL) Little Devil w/ Gnome, Tankzilla
Oct 17 - Trier (DE) Rothaus
Oct 19 - Antwerp (BE) Desertfest Belgium
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Their guitarist and singer were founding members of Spiritu, possibly Albuquerque, New Mexico's first desert rock band, whose brief burn in the early aughts included a Jack Endino-produced LP, a European tour with Clutch, Spiritual Beggars and Dozer, and a compilation appearance alongside Entombed and Mastodon. Their debut LP "Ephemeral" arrived in May of 2022 via Kozmik Artifactz in Europe and Seeing Red Records in the USA. Substantial appreciation in the underground led to performances at Ripplefest Texas and Monolith on the Mesa and opening slots for The Well, Elder, Black Mountain, Ruby the Hatchet, Howling Giant, Heavy Temple and The Obsessed, along with a swath of positive reviews throughout the heavy media.
In May 2023, Blue Heron dropped three new tracks on a split LP with friends and fellow southwestern riff-purveyors High Desert Queen for Ripple Music’s Turned to Stone series, with cover art by award-winning comic and poster artist Johnny Dombrowski. The bands embarked on a short tour in August 2023, before they set to work on their next full-length.
Released in the fall of 2024, "Everything Fades" expands on their unyielding desert sound with a new slab of propulsive, sun-scorched riff-heaviness. Balanced between laid-back, meditative atmospherics and heavier, more aggressive lunges, Blue Heron’s cruising jams and gritty stoner romps call to mind echoes of Kyuss, Clutch and Monster Magnet, as well as modern contemporaries Valley of the Sun and Greenleaf. "Everything Fades" is available now through Blues Funeral Recordings.
BLUE HERON is
Mike Chavez - Guitars
Ricardo Sanchez - Drums
Steve Schmidlapp - Bass
Jadd Shickler - Vocals
Blue Heron links
Ricardo Sanchez - Drums
Steve Schmidlapp - Bass
Jadd Shickler - Vocals
Blue Heron links
Blues Funeral Recordings links
Thanks to Purple Sage PR for the details.
