Doom soaked and dripping with dread _{by Madelaine Empson}

Hailing from Aotearoa and now based in Berlin, psych-fuzz troubadours Earth Tongue – Gussie Larkin (Mermaidens) and Ezra Simons (Soft Bait, Troy Kingi) – have unveiled their new album Great Haunting. The self-described “horrifying rock opera” harks and yowls back to New Zealand’s dark tradition of occult metal and features nine doom-soaked tracks dripping with dread.

Just one eerie example is the lead single Nightmare, accompanied by an electrifying montage of poltergeists in the kitchen, bloody bodies on the bed, and rural ritualism (read: a mind-bending music video directed by Levi Strauss Cranston, shot by Simons on 16mm Kodak motion picture film, and made with support from NZ On Air).

Launched amidst a monstrous tour of Europe and the UK, Great Haunting saw the duo score a win for Te Tino Kāhui Manu Taki o te Tau | Best Group and a nomination for Tā te Iwi | People's Choice at the recent Aotearoa Music Awards and is the album we can thank for their homecoming this month.

“We’re so excited to be coming home for these shows”, Larkin tells me. “I think our NZ fans can expect a classic Earth Tongue show with all the heavy riffs they could dream of, but with a little extra spice that has come from touring so much overseas.”

“Particularly pumped to be bringing the noise to the wonderful new Meow Nui” this June, Earth Tongue will be tearing it up on a rather auspicious date… Friday the 13^th! Fitting, for a band whose cult-like gigs are the stuff of your most electric, frenetic, hellishly hectic nightmares.