Psych Doom Trio Blackout Rides Again on New LP ‘The Horse’

Cary Whittier.Brooklyn’s premier fuzzed-out doom band Blackout is back with The Horse, their second release on Riding Easy Records (out June 23). With just over two years since their previous self-titled album, the band seems to have moved into a more psychedelic and garage rock-influenced phase without giving an inch on their customary penchant for slow, crushing distortion and massive walls of feedback-laden clamor. The solid house in which Blackout built their signature sound now has a few extra rooms.

One of the great skills of any doom band worth their weight in Sabbath references is the ability to piece together simple parts in an impenetrably heavy way, and Blackout is doing exactly that with tracks like opener “Graves.” There’s a Stooges-like sensibility in the squealing echoes of the intro, but it quickly settles into a heavy trudge into psychedelia with some just-punk-enough segues to keep it from getting sleepy. There is no resting heavy on their laurels—the album hits hard the whole way through and burns slow into screeching embers with the eight-minute titular closer.

If heavy distortion and filthy psych rock are up your alley, stick The Horse in your summer soundtrack rotation—we’re streaming the whole thing below, and preorders are available now. If you’re anywhere within a stone’s throw of NYC, keep an eye out for the next one of their rare but formidable live shows, too.

Kelsey Zimmerman is doomed on Twitter.
Photo by Cary Whittier.