“A rocking gumbo masterstroke.” — Metal Hammer UK
“A densely-packed odyssey that illustrates its sci-fi settings with endlessly compelling songwriting and far-out atmosphere.” — Invisible Oranges
“If the world is ending — and the only reason it wouldn’t be is because it already happened — then at least we got one more Wo Fat album out of the deal.”
— The Obelisk
Listen to new album “The Singularity” now on The Obelisk
After over 16 years of slinging their Texas-sized psychedelic blues doom,
WO FAT is going stronger and rocking harder than ever, as they continue their swampadelic vision quest of overdriven, fuzz-laden riffage and jazz-minded jam explorations, and with six studio albums, a live album, and a couple splits under their belt, Wo Fat has gained a reputation as one of the premier US Stoner Metal bands. Starting with ‘The Gathering Dark’ in 2006, they have stayed true to the deep, dark blues that wails from within and have forged their riffs with a primal grooviness, giving them a consistency of style, even while they have progressed and matured as a band, with their musical forays getting heavier but also trippier at times.
2009’s ‘Psychedelonaut’ really began to solidify the WO FAT name, garnering them wider critical recognition, leading to releases with Nasoni and Totem Cat Records and then on to their two most critically acclaimed releases to date: ‘The Black Code’ (2013) and ‘The Conjuring’ (2014) on Small Stone Records, with ‘The Conjuring’ landing on NPR’s “Top Ten Metal Albums of 2014” among numerous other best-of lists. During these last few years, Wo Fat have made appearances in a number of iconic festivals in Europe and the US, Wo Fat teamed up with Ripple Records to release ‘Midnight Cometh’, a slab of riffage that is possibly their most daring psychotropic exploration of heaviness to date.
With voodoo drums beating and molten blues-tempered waves of guitar riffery, they are carrying on the WO FAT tradition of keeping things heavy and fuzzy, but also groovy, which, all too often, is a missing element in much modern heavy music. You can hear the echoes of field hollers and that oft-forgotten “way back yonder funk” that fuels the fire that burns deep in the swamp at the witching hour. You can feel the rush of living on the edge and glimpse a phantasmal Coltrane in your peripheral vision as they careen through improvisational jams. And all this with an unrelenting metal heaviness underscoring apocalyptic lyrics that conjure visions of the end of an age, and black midnight bargains and the consequences reap. While Wo Fat may be speaking a familiar language to the apostles of the riff, there isn’t anyone that sounds quite like them. WO FAT recently welcomed guitarist Matt Watkins and bassist Patrick Smith to their lineup, following the departure of their long-time friend and bass player Zack Busby.
