Artists like Low Flying Hawks, who cause a deep dive in a genre that’s overflowing with hidden gems, is a gem unto itself. In this case, not only did we jump back into LFH’s wealth of releases since 2016 but also poured over greats from Kyuss and recent outings from KIND to really feel the feels of this latest Desert Rawk masterpiece. Which it is because just knowing what came before will in no way prepare you with what’s to come on Fuyu.

“Kuro” is that sun rising on the horizon, that hum of the amplifiers before Marty strums that first chord at the beginning of Back To The Future, that foreboding wide shot over an area right before something biblical is about to go down…get where I’m going with this? And from that brief instrumental intro we’re off to the races beginning with “Subatomic Sphere” which is trippy in the way that earlier Monster Magnet used to be (The headier moments of Dopes To Infinity come to mind) before listeners get to wade in the heavy murk of the sprawling moodpiece known as “Monster” that eventually gets even more intense as it descends into a, ahem, monstrous cacophony of screams and shreds from EHA and AAL with Trevor Dunn’s bass and Dale Crover’s drums adding a fearful foundation.

“Midnight” kind of serves as a transcendent, introspective flip side to “Monster” which is similarly sprawling to the opposite extreme causing glistening moments of a musical mysticism. The title track begins with some swirling synth tones before devolving into a sludgy Doom-fest led by Crover and Dunn’s rhythmic synchronicity and accented by AAL and EHA’s guitar crunch, “Darklands” is mystical yet majestic, and then “Solar Wind” and “Caustic Wing” offer a massive chunk of this sonic sojourn, boasting almost twenty minutes split over these two tracks with the latter being a cranky crusher that’s fueled by maniacal riff work and slamming percussive hits and grooves and the former offering a softer, more elegant slab of deafening bliss.

“Winter Star” picks up the speed and the Space Rawk quotient, acting as a penultimate groovy little rawker with EHA’s gravelly voice echoing out over a sinister bass rumble from Dunn before “Nightrider” brings one more bout of unbridled Doom with lunging guitars and Crover’s cutting percussive mastery undercutting vox that are both dreamy and devilish.

Fuyu releases through Magnetic Eye Records on August 27th. Pre-orders are up now and can be perused and purchased by heading here. For the latest on Low Flying Hawks, follow them on the interwebs by clicking here, here, or here.