Oklahoma-based heavy merchants RAINBOWS ARE FREE unleash their doom-laden and fierce new track “The Gift”, streaming right now on Ghost Cult Magazine. Their fourth album “Silver and Gold” will be released on March 7th on Ripple Music.
About the song, guitarist Richie Tarver comments: “The idea for “The Gift” arrived to the band initially through our space synth guru, Josh Elam. Josh, our resident Master of Technology (MOT), was messing around with some kind of mash-up tool for some promo video we were doing, and he rehashed one of our earlier songs, playing a 15-second clip of it backwards and sideways. The hypnotic repetition of the riff caught my ear and we took that initial riff and built a song around it. It also features one of my favorite guitar solo moments on the record.”
Vocalist Brandon Kistler adds: “I had just listened to God’s Country by Chat Pile for the first time, and Josh had come up with this riff loop. It is mainly about a partnership received and perseverance, at least that’s how it seems to me. Josh says it’s a vampire song, which seems to work as well.
Rainbows Are Free‘s sonic pedigree appears on the rock n’ roll family tree at the point where proto-metal and heavy psychedelia shared a common apocryphal ancestor before branching off into their own distinct lineages. Their fourth studio record “Silver and Gold” is a dark-tinged, heavy offering that immediately conjures a sense of foreboding right out of the gates – a comforting dreariness that the band embraces to channel their sonic attack. They are at peace here, if not at home.
The sonic assault continues as the band pummels the listener with crunchy guitars erupting into explosive leads that ride upon a driving rhythm section, held together by a lattice of spacey synth and guitar atmospherics. Rainbows Are Free’s soundscape is further cemented by lead singer Brandon Kistler’s soaring, crooning, and at times snarling, vocal fury. In all, the heavy psych alchemy at work on the album is apparent in their multi-faceted sound that spins proggy riffs, sexy groove magick, garage surf-rock, and even a death metal inspired ripper into “Silver and Gold” as a varied, but cohesive listening experience.
Watch Rainbows Are Free’s latest video for “Sleep” at this location!
Rainbows Are Free formed in late 2007 as the conglomerate of several long-time heavy rock bands from Norman, OK. In February 2008, they self-released an eponymous demo EP featuring the track “Are You Dead”, which catapulted the band into the burgeoning heavy psych scene of the era. A year later they began work on a full- length album, Believers In Medicine, which was released in April 2010 on Guestroom Records Records (GRR). They followed up with their second album on GRR in 2014 with the release of Waves Ahead of the Ocean. In 2019 Rainbows saw an international release with their fourth studio offering, Head Pains, on Italian doom/stoner/sludge label Argonauta Records (Arenzano, GE), followed by a live retrospective album in 2023 with the release of Heavy Petal Music on California-based heavy psych/stoner/doom juggernauts, Ripple Music.
Often appearing in costumed stage dress, the band, fronted by the soaring and snarling nigh 7-foot cyclone of weirdness that is Brandon Kistler, continues to shock and amaze fans by introducing an element of good- humored theatrics to accompany their live sonic assault. This is achieved in no small part due to the guitar prowess and songwriting of Richie Tarver, joined by the ambient soundscapes of Joey Powell on rhythm guitar and Josh Elam on spacey synth, and rounded out by the thunderous low end of Jason Smith on bass and Bobby Onspaugh on drums.
Rainbows Are Free continue to bring their unique brand of psychedelic heaviness on tour as they support the release of their upcoming studio album, Silver and Gold, due out Spring of 2025 on Ripple Music.
RAINBOWS ARE FREE is
Brandon Kistler – Vocals
Richie Tarver – Lead Guitar
Jason Smith – Bass
Joey Powell – Rhythm Guitar
Bobby Onspaugh – Drums
Josh Elam – Synths
RAINBOWS ARE FREE links
Website⎪Facebook⎪Bandcamp⎪Instagram⎪Spotify
RIPPLE MUSIC links
Website⎪Facebook⎪Bandcamp⎪Instagram
