Doom/Stoner Metallers EARTHBONG are preparing to release their fourth album Salutations To The Cultivators and it's shaping up to be their heaviest and most impressive record to date. Taking a more Psychedelic and Spaced Out sound for this record which allows EARTHBONG to still be themselves for a collection of stunning melodies and PISSED OFF Doomed Out Aggression when the times call for it.
EARTHBONG's previous albums have been warmly and lovingly received by the Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal community and this record will be no different.
I was given the chance to catch up with the guys and it's been a long time since we last featured them. So read on for a great interview with the mighty EARTHBONG
Hi guys. Thanks for doing the interview. How are things with you today?
You’re welcome, thank you for having us! We’re doing good, trying to make the most out of the time before the release. We’re planning a video shoot for the 2nd single, if everything goes according to plan it’s gonna be a great video. Besides from that we’re preparing for the shows in October and November and work on some new ideas already.
For folks not in the know, can you give a brief history of how the band came together and where is it today?
Selly: We started the band because we all wanted to do something doomy. I knew tommy over some friends of my earlier music project, and I knew he would be perfect to work with on some slow stuff. I think I met Claas at our first jam with Tommy. The vibe instantly felt really good to me and if I remember correctly, we wrote maze crawler at that first session.
A few weeks after that SLEEP played a show in Hamburg and we all went there. After the show we were really hyped to continue with our own project, and we agreed to follow the smoke towards the riff-filled land and chose a similar sounding path as an inspiration for our own band (even though it was not yet clear that it would become one).
Over the years we grew more confident about what we want in our sound, how to write songs and how to accomplish things together as a band. Also, our workflow became a bit more planned I would say.
Claas: Absolutely agree on the “more planned” part. Tommy and I met shortly before we started with Earthbong and started another band called Kombynat Robotron with which we’re pretty active too. Ever since we started these bands we wanted to play shows, write songs, go on tour and all that stuff that you do when you’re in a rock band.
And we’ve been doing this with two bands for over eight years now, so I think it’s kind of a natural process to get a bit more professional over the years. At least we’re trying to do that. We’re working with pøj pøj, a berlin-based booking agency for about a year now. Until that point we did everything ourselves and it’s a great thing to have someone taking care of booking because that is a large part of what being in a band is about when you want to play shows.
How would you describe your own sound?
Selly: Our sound could maybe be described as a mix of Sleep and Electric Wizard with more noisy and psychedelic aspects. Add a little bit of black/death spice to that and you get close.
Claas: Would be a shame to not quote Mike Scheidt here who once said: “They’re a Bongzilla-Sleep-Milkshake. But they get it. They are their own thing.” I think that sums it up pretty good.
Where did the name “EARTHBONG” originate from.
Selly: I was making jokes with a friend about all the names of the stoner space and we were like “what would be heavier than a bong mixed with the earth?” Also there is a way to smoke weed through a hole in the ground. We call it smoking an "Erdloch" which means basically earthhole. It wasn't that far for us to come up with Earthbong after that thought.
You have your amazing new album “Salutation to the Cultivators” due out for release in October 2026. What can people expect from the album as it’s quite different to your previous albums.
Selly: It is a bit different but not so much as you couldn't recognize our style of making music.
People can expect a slow, hazing and heavy experience like our previous records, but I think we made some noticeable improvements in our songwriting skills.
So in a way this is the natural progression of our sound. I wouldn’t say we planned it that way but we’re happy with the result.
I would say it’s heavier, thicker and more menacing but also showing a different side to the band especially with the Post-Doom and Psychedelic aspects. Was that something you’ve always wanted to do and did this feel like the next stage to take for your creative evolution as a band.
Claas: Thank you! As doom band we’re always trying to make our riffs as heavy and menacing as possible, glad to hear that it worked! I think what Selly said before about the new album being “the natural progression of our sound” is a pretty good description though. Because you mentioned the psychedelic aspects: We’ve always been experimenting with long build-ups and psychedelic parts in our music because we want to create songs that we would enjoy listening.
You named the album “Salutations to the Cultivators” after the classic “Giza Butler” track by the legendary SLEEP. Why did you choose that name for the album.
All: When we wrote the songs we felt like the inspiration for the riffs came from different directions within our genre. The main-riff of Bug felt like something that Conan would do, whereas Third Eye had a more Electric Wizard-like feeling and Herbal Saints is more Sleepy. We thought that it’d be nice to salutate not only to the cultivators of the weed but also to the cultivators of the genre. It’s our way of honoring these great bands.
I recently read that you feel that this is your most accessible record to date. Can you elaborate on that description. As I feel this record features some of your heaviest songs to date.
All: Maybe it is not the most accessible album for people who are not into that kind of music, but apart from the heaviness most of the songs on the new album are built like classic songs with variations of the good old verse/chorus/verse scheme. Compared to our approach to songwriting on our previous albums we felt like we were writing pop music sometimes.
The album does have a more progressive and cinematic feel. Was that another thing that you guys wanted to try differently for this album.
Claas: In terms of songwriting and sound I think that’s the result of playing together for more than eight years, constantly playing shows, working on new ideas and also on our equipment and sound. We wanted the new album to be a bit different from our previous albums because we didn’t want to get stuck and repeat what we already did.
For the recording we’ve been working with our friend Felix Margraff (who also recorded the latest Kombynat Robotron album btw) for the first time and I think he’s to be credited for the cinematic feel too. Except for the vocals and some additional guitar layers we recorded everything live and Felix did a great job capturing our live sound in that room.
Your albums have had a great response within the Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal community. Has this surprised you at how your music has been received and appreciated by the wider underground scene.
All: There were definitely some surprises over the years (the event that led to the next question is a great example for that!). To me it feels as if the response we got from the doom community grew with every album and with our efforts to be known to a bigger audience.
We put a lot of work in this band over the past eight years, not only in the music itself but also in our artworks and merch, having a recognizable social media presence, networking etc. pp. – if we hadn’t done anything and still got the same amount of attention from the community, we’d be more surprised.
That doesn’t mean that I think because of all the work we put in this band we deserve the attention and that we’re taking everything that happened to us for granted – on the contrary. But with the knowledge of everything we did to get that attention I’d say thankful might be a better fitting word.
I love the quote that Mike from YOB said about you guys - "they get it”. Did that blow your minds when you heard about that quote.
Claas: It totally did! I remember that morning when I woke up to a message from Tommy that said “Mike Scheidt talked about us in a podcast?!”. Like, we’re just a bunch of guys from northern germany playing slow riffs, how did he even find us?
Looking back, would you change anything about your previous albums?
Claas: Looking back on One Earth One Bong I sometimes think that if we took some more time with finding our sound the album could be much heavier and therefor somewhat “better”. If we took more time in finding a label and understanding how releasing an album actually works that could’ve helped with reaching more people from the start. But we really wanted to make an album and get it out into the world and didn’t give a shit about the rest. I mean, the band was formed in May, we recorded OEOB in October and released the album in december so that was a pretty fast start.
But in the bigger picture looking back on everything we did so far I don’t think I’d change anything because I like to think of life and art as a process and I enjoy listening to bands that keep evolving rather than listening to bands who seem to do everything just right from the start and I enjoy looking back on what we did some years ago and contemplate what led to the changes we’ve made over time.
Was this a hard album to write and record for.
All: The first versions of Third Eye and Bug were recorded in 2023 so we’ve been sitting on them for a while and only had to do some minor adjustments when we prepared for the recording session. Some parts of Herbal Saints also existed for ages but it took us a lot of time to find the right frame for them. But in general I’d say the creative process of writing songs isn’t something we’re struggling with.
Time is the limiting factor because we’re all working full- or part-time, Selly and Tommy are both in long-distance relationships and Tommy and I are busy with Kombynat Robotron too. The recording itself wasn’t hard either. So far all our albums have been recorded live in a weekend session. We arrived at the studio on Thursday evening, set everything up, spent Friday recording the songs and did vocals and additional guitars on Saturday. It’s always great to do the additional stuff on Saturday because we usually end up with adding some last-minute ideas we never thought about before.
The artwork is excellent. Who designed this artwork and how much involvement did you have within the final design(s).
All: Thank you! The artwork for Salutations to the Cultivators was designed by our dear friend Rino Pelli. Rino did the artwork for all our studio albums and for most of our merch. He is a great artist and illustrator who has also worked for bands like Have a nice life, Black Wing and our friends in Olgod, Eremit or Purple Dawn.
We have a group chat where we discuss ideas. Usually we start with a rough idea, sometimes we even try to draw something ourselves. Then Rino comes up with some sketches that we discuss and then he does something that we love. Then he spends some weeks thinking about it and sometimes he redraws everything because he isn’t satisfied with the texture of the smoke and when he’s finished it looks just great! Thank you Rino!
You’re teaming up with The Lasting Dose Records for this release. (Along with Evil Noise Recordings who you’ve worked with previously). How did you join forces with The Lasting Dose Records. One of my favourite underground labels.
All: We know Jan and Sabine for some years now, originally through our mutual friends and now label-mates Daevar with whom we played some of their first shows back in 2023.
TLDR is also home to our friends Ultrablut. When Jan and Sabine were playing in our hometown Kiel with Grin last year, I just asked Jan if he’d be interested in releasing our next album and he said yes.
Did you have any other offers from different labels to release the album.
All: Nope, we didn’t. But we didn’t try to find another one that hard after we knew that The Lasting Dose is up for it. But: If you’re reading this and you’re running a label in the USA and want to work with us for a US-release of Salutations to the Cultivators and maybe our earlier records too – get in touch with us!
Can you advise if you’ve played or currently playing in other bands so folks can check out your other musical projects.
Claas: Hehe, I’ve mentioned Kombynat Robotron a couple of times before, that’s a Kraut/Noise/Psych band where Tommy plays drums and I play bass. We still have some shows left this year including Rockpalast Festival and Keep It Low in Munich and we’re playing a UK-tour in April 2027 with the Kombynat.
Tommy also has an ambient/drone solo project called Fungal Dimension and he plays drums in a psych/jam band called Minerall with Marcel/Speck on guitars and Dave/Sula Bassana on bass
Which bands, artists or albums inspired you all to pick up a musical instrument and to become a musician.
Selly: In my Childhood I had basically no contact with Rock or Metal. Probably my most direct exposure would be ace Ventura 1 with the scene with Cannibal corpse but my childmind could not comprehend what was happening. When I turned 11 I changed schools and got a lot of new friends who showed me stuff in the Punkrock and Metal Genre.
Also Tony Hawks Proskater opened up new Horizons for my musical growth. But still, I think Slipknot (especially with the Iowa Record) made me want to play metal music myself really bad. It took a few years but with the tender age of 14 I could borrow a bass of a friend and I joined a metal Project. With no skills but a lot of enthusiasm.
Claas: When I was about 12 or 13 most of my friends played instruments and I thought that was really cool and of course wanted to be cool too so I told my parents that I wanted to play guitar and formed a band with friends shortly after that. My older brother was into punk rock and my bandmates were into Nirvana so this is where I started.
Tommy: I started listening to my father's classic rock records at an early age and was fascinated by Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Steppenwolf, and the like.
So, rock music was a part of my life from early on. When my older brother eventually brought home a Metallica CD, I got hooked on heavy metal. From there, the music got progressively heavier and more aggressive, eventually leading me to drone and doom metal.
In addition to playing in various school bands that covered rock and metal songs, I had a cool drum teacher who showed me just how heavy jazz can actually be.
Sleep's 'Dopesmoker' album is 95% responsible for my drumming style in Earthbong, that is something I cannot deny.
What are your high points and low points with EARTHBONG or your musical career in general?
All: High points: At our very first show in November 2018 with Eremit the power in the venue went out and through the smoke we heard someone yell: “That’s not music! That’s just sick!” I think that set the tone for everything we’ve been doing since then. Of course the australia tour we played with our friends Lucifungus in April 2025, playing ReykjaDoom Festival in Iceland, and generally being in a band with friends for so long and playing heavy riffs to people who enjoy heavy riffs!
Low points: The thing about low points is that they usually become great stories after some weeks. At least so far we didn’t have bad experiences that didn’t turn into great stories.
What is the creative process or setup within the band? Do you write the music together or do certain people within the band do that?
Claas: I get most ideas for riffs when I’m noodling on my guitar at home. Usually I record these ideas and when a riff is “ready” I bring it to the rehearsal and show it to the others and we jam on it and Selly and Tommy add their ideas to it. We record all new ideas with a zoom recorder so we can listen to them at home which helps a lot because you can listen to an idea like it’s not your own and think about what it needs to become a song you’d enjoy.
Sometimes it takes only a couple of weeks until a new song is ready, sometimes we have an amazing riff but no idea how to make a song out of it and then it takes months or even years until we eventually get back to is and combine it with something we came up with recently.
What is the local Heavy Metal scene like in your home town of Kiel, Germany. Does this allow you to perform gigs on a regular basis and do you have a local scene that you're actively involved with?
All: Kiel has an active music scene, but it feels like the metal, punk and stoner communities tend to stay within their field and don’t go to shows of other genres that often. Despite having a university and some cool venues it’s been getting really hard to get people in Kiel to go shows, especially after Covid. We’re just an hour away from Hamburg and we’ve played Hamburg way more often than we played Kiel.
In the past there was an association with which we organized shows for heavy bands and I did the booking for a club in Kiel once but all that fell apart due to different reasons and at the moment we’re not that much involved in our local scene. Tommy and I have been thinking about organizing a couple of shows for bands we like but at the moment we don’t enough time for it.
Will you be performing any gigs to promote the upcoming album locally or further afield.
All: We’ll celebrate the release of Salutations to the Cultivators in Oslo at the legendary Hostsabbat Festival on October 24th and we’ll play Hamburg (MS Stubnitz) on November 19th, Berlin (neue Zukunft) on November 20th and Munich (Black Mantra Festival) on November 21st. In Hamburg and Berlin we’re playing with our friends Frost, Pisse & Elend, an antifascist black metal duo that’s also from Kiel. Their singer/guitarist Feli did some vocals on Third Eye and already joined us live – let’s see what happens in Hamburg and Berlin!
Before you go, do you have any words of wisdom for your new and potential fans out there.
All: Just the usual: Keep supporting the underground, go to see bands live, buy merch and LPs directly from the artists, buy presale tickets of possible, be kind to each other aka don’t be a dick and worship the riff! Thank you very much for having us, thank you very much for reading all this if you did and thank you for listening to our music!
Words by Steve Howe and EARTHBONG
Thanks to Purple Sage PR for arranging the interview.
Salutations To The Cultivators is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl via The Lasting Dose Records
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