Howling Giant – Crucible & Ruin
Release Date: 31st October 2025
Label: Magnetic Eye Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Stoner Rock, Prog Rock.
FFO: Mastodon, Black Orchid Empire, Baroness, High On Fire, All Them Witches, Torche.
Review By: Paul Franklin
Nashville collective Howling Giant are back with their third full length release, and this time they’re bringing more to the table. More chunky riffs, more melodic atmospherics and more bluesy vibes.
They also now have more members, having added guitarist/synth player Adrian Zambrano to their ranks, the extra guitar adding even more punch to the band’s sound, which means that Crucible and Ruin delivers a slightly more aggressive approach compared with its predecessor.
Lyrically, the album explores the story of the clash of a novice deity against the forces of primordial chaos as an overarching theme that loosely connects the songs. Musically, it’s a multi-layered, textural amalgamation of stoner metal/psych rock that encompasses the progressive (Archivist) through the instrumental interlude (Lesser Gods) to huge doomy riffs (Beholder II: Labyrinth).
This album is the band’s first recording in a full professional studio environment (vs. their previous home-studio setups). This helps hugely with the clarity and gives extra punch and high-end bite, particularly on tracks like Hunter’s Mark and Archon. Although, the cleaner approach to recording does highlight what has been described as a “divisive element”, namely the band’s predilection for triple-vocal harmonies, which may not appeal to purists who prefer the grit and rawness of more underground stoner acts.
However, this is very much down to personal preference, and is only one of the many layers in the “onion-like” structure of this album.
If you’re a fan of Howling Giant’s previous releases this will give you more of what you love, if you are a newcomer this is a great place to start.
(3.5 / 5)
