Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

For as long as they’ve been together, Bask have called Asheville, North Carolina home. But ever since they came rumbling down from the Land of the Sky, it was clear that these Southern trailblazers were cut from a different neck of the woods. On their upcoming fourth album, the band take Heavy Americana to a whole new dimension. The latest single from The Turning revolves around “The Traveler”, a mysteriously ageless gunslinger who refuses to go down amidst a mind-melting blaze of glory.

“This song introduces one of the main characters behind our new album”, Bask says. “You’re sure to be banging your head, just in 9/4”.   

The video for “The Traveler” was directed, filmed and edited by Eric Bader. It was produced and designed by Caroline Bader.

Additional video credits
Starring
Joshua Robbins as The Host
Andy the Doorbum as The Magician
Erik Button as The Fox
Caroline Bader as The Witch
Henry Bader as The Child
The Puppet as Himself

The Turning comes out next Friday, August 22, 2025 on Season of Mist.

Pre-order & Pre-save: https://orcd.co/basktheturning

To kick off this heavy and heady new frontier, Bask are touring the East Coast next week. Hear them perform songs from The Turning during the album’s first trip out on the road. 

The Turning 2025 East Coast Tour 
August 20 – Atlanta, GA @ 529 [TICKETS]
August 21 – Savannah, GA @ El Rocko [TICKETS]
August 22 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel [TICKETS]
August 23 – Raleigh, NC @ Chapel of Bones [TICKETS]
August 24 – Richmond, VA @ Fuzzy Cactus [TICKETS]
August 26 – Philadelphia, PA @ MilkBoy [TICKETS]
August 28 – Searsport, ME @ Starboard Lounge [TICKETS]
August 29 – Providence, RI @ Parlour [TICKETS]
August 30 – Wallingford, CT @ Cherry Street Station [TICKETS]
August 31 – Boston, MA @ O’Briens [TICKETS]

Bask continue to grow by literal leaps and conceptual bounds. “The Traveler” takes off like an outlaw on the run with riffs that kick back harder than a double-barreled shotgun — only for the snare to come marching in like a prisoner being led to the gallows. “There’s nothing wrong with playing in 4/4”, drummer Scott Middleton admits, “but if you’re not exploring, then you’re missing out on a world of opportunity”. 

Whereas Bask’s previous treks were inspired by tall tales, The Turning spools forth from the most fantastical corners of their imagination. “When we started writing this album, the songs were twangy, but also spacier and more psychedelic than anything we’ve done before”, says vocalist and guitarist Zeb Wright, who is also the band’s lyrical guide. “And so I asked myself, ‘What does this feel like? What do all these things come together and make?”. Following a retreat to Echo Mountain Recording with producer Kenny Harrington, they returned with the answer: a 40-odd minute, sci-fi opus that stretches not just across dimensions but generations in man’s never-ending quest for immortality.

In keeping in line with its far-out concept, The Turning truly straddles the line between cosmic and country. Just as the video for “The Traveler” puts a surreal twist on the classic talk show format, the album’s latest single also introduces a colorful wrinkle in the form of Bask’s newest member Jed Willis. “These guys have become friends and brothers to me over the past decade or so”, Willis says. His pedal steel glows with all the natural beauty of a Harvest Moon above the song’s down-home melodies, though its dimension-hopping desperado needs help getting out of Dodge in order to avoid another run-in with the long, cold hand of fate.

“Don’t be frightened of me“. Wright belts with clean and clear conviction, though an organ-provoked premonition reveals that the intentions of “The Traveler” aren’t so honorable. The doomy breakdown doesn’t open the pit but an all-consuming black hole.

“We’ve been through so much together”, bassist Jesse Van Note reflects. “We were robbed in Sweden. A tire literally fell off our van while we were driving. During COVID, we didn’t get together as much. We’re also older now and there are challenges and responsibilities that come with that. I have two kids. Some of us have bought houses. We’ve all been through marriages and different relationships. For things to snowball on top of the band one after another, it kind of had us feeling like maybe this was the end of our era”.  

While its story line is admittedly “out there”, The Turning does hit close to home. The album’s dwellings on family, aging, death and rebirth were cast in a deeper, darker light when Bask returned for mixing and mastering after Hurricane Helene reached Asheville. “The Traveler” ends with its boots one step closer to the grave. But the band still ascend amongst the stars with a shredding solo that defies the laws of physics.

“Seeing this album finally come to light is therapeutic for us”, guitarist Ray Worth says. “The Turning is Bask at our finest. It’s our most cohesive and heartfelt effort, an ode to our mountain home in the sky”. 

Tracklist
1. Chasm (1:30)
2. In the Heat of the Dying Sun (4:57)
​3. The Traveler (4:06) [WATCH]
4. The ​Cloth (4:12)
5. Dig My Heels (5:33) [WATCH]
6. Unwound (7:02)
7. Long Lost Light (6:52) [WATCH]
8. The Turning (6:33)

Psychedelic rockers have wrangled with the laws of spacetime since time immemorial, but for Bask, the past half decade has felt like falling through a prolonged series of black holes.

Before the pandemic knocked 2020 for a loop, the band were all set to traverse North America’s dusty ol’ trail with kindred spirits Elder. Flash forward roughly four years and they were fixing to tour Europe when another disaster struck their idyllic mountain town. The climb to reach album number four wound up taking one hell of a trip. But on The Turning, Bask bring Heavy Americana to a whole new dimension.    

“The past five years have been challenging for all of us”, the band says. “So seeing this album finally come to light is therapeutic. The Turning is Bask at our finest. It’s our most cohesive and heartfelt effort, an ode to our mountain home in the sky”.  

For as long as they’ve been together, Bask have called Asheville, North Carolina home.  Drummer Scott Middleton and axeman Ray Worth were already jamming up a storm, when in 2013, they tag teamed with bassist Jesse Van Note and vocalist/guitarist Zeb Wright after the two arrived in The Land of the Sky. “We’ve been a band longer than we’ve been with our spouses”, Van Note acknowledges with a gold-toothed smile of appreciation. And yet, after 12 years in the same city, Bask still sound of their own time and place. Sharing bills with High on Fire, Black Tusk and Weedeater has led some metal archivists to peg them as stoners, though it was clear right away that these trailblazers were carved from a different neck of the woods.  

“I’m quite sure I haven’t heard anything like it”, Metal Storm admired after filling up on Bask’s first full-length American Hollow. Second helping Ramble Beyond expanded the band’s homebrewed heaviness into crushing peaks and leaf-strewn valleys. “It’s tuneful, heavy, full of heart and soul and wanderlust” noted Invisible Oranges before adding, “and above all, a killer fucking rock album”.  

“It’s really exactly what you want from a musical artist: a group of people creating their own sound that isn’t aping anyone”, Heavy Blog is Heavy sang in praise of the aptly titled III, which took a more snow-sheened path at the direction of Matt Bayles, who’s served as studio sherpa for Pearl Jam, Mastodon and Minus the Bear. “This is the kind of band you want to see grow”.  

Bask continue to grow by literal leaps and conceptual bounds on The Turning. “I think that’s where the magic is for us”, Van Note muses. “We’re not put in a box”. Following a retreat to Echo Mountain Recording with producer Kenny Harrington, the band have returned with a concept album that truly straddles the fence between cosmic and country. “Zeb did a lot of work behind the scenes to help Kenny bridge the gap between the polish of our last record and the warmth of Ramble Beyond“. In the spirit of a Hollywood Western, the opening track sets a sizzling scene. Distant cries of trumpet stir beneath ominous drone, as if blown with the wind through a mountain chasm. Only then, like a lone ranger, does “In The Heat of the Dying Sun” appear over the blood moon horizon. “I was born to ride”, announces Wright with booming cleans as bass circles the wagons with the earthshaking force of an asteroid.  

The Turning remains grounded in the natural-born sounds of Appalachia, which pokes its prickly head through the sludgier chords of “The Cloth” like a black bear swimming upstream. “We all like heavy music and half of us grew up around folk and bluegrass”, explains Wright, “but this album leans into that mix even further”. Despite starting with boots firmly planted in Tampa Bay death metal, lead single “Dig My Heels” strides through kudzu-covered fields of prog before bounding for the great beyond. “Scott called me out”, Worth laughs when asked about the song’s origins. “Instead of writing to my riffs like we’re known to do, his drumbeat took the reins on this one”.  

“There’s nothing wrong with playing in 4/4”, Middleton admits, “but if you’re not exploring, then you’re missing out on a world of opportunity”.  

While they’ve always been a tight-knit group, Bask’s immediate universe has also expanded. Granted, Jed Willis was already part of the band’s orbit, having helped put a bow on their last album. He’s also chipped in on tour with merch and driving duties, but The Turning welcomes him as an official member. “It’s hard trying to add someone when you’ve had the same four guys in a van for 12 years”, notes Van Note. Indeed, it’s a testament to their dyed-in-the-wool chemistry that the album’s initial thread was teased out in one go. Chugging riffs lock horns with a sideways galloping before folding seamlessly into pastoral space rock, though “Unwound” didn’t fully come together until laced with Willis’ aching bends of pedal steel. “He’s done a really good job of shining when we want that sound”.        

“These guys have become friends and brothers to me over the past decade or so”, Willis says. “We’ve shared rehearsal spaces, explored new sounds and collaborated on various side projects. Our music journeys have become intertwined, creating a solid and welcoming foundation that made my transition into the band feel like a natural next step for all of us”.  

“When we started writing The Turning, the songs were twangy but also spacier and more psychedelic than anything we’ve done before”, adds Wright, who also performs as the band’s lyrical scribe. “And so I asked myself, ‘What does this feel like? What do all these things come together and make?”  

The answer? How about a 40 odd minute, sci-fi opus that stretches not just across dimensions but generations in man’s never-ending quest for immortality. “Sorry, this is gonna get a bit heavy”, Wright warns before walking us through the ins-and-outs of Bask’s latest yarn. Whereas the band’s previous treks were inspired by tall tales, The Turning spools forth from their own fantastical imagination. The album’s spurred heroine, known simply as The Rider, has her extraterrestrial world turned upside down by “The Traveler”, a mysteriously ageless gunslinger who needs her help getting out of Dodge. “Don’t be frightened of me”, he pleads, though the breakdown’s doomy, organ-provoked premonition suggests his intentions aren’t so honorable. Maze-like twists are revealed at every self-referential turns as the star-crossed outlaws try and outrun the changing of the seasons. However, despite being admittedly “out there”, the album’s dwellings on family, aging, death and rebirth hit close to home.  

“We’ve been through so much together. We were robbed in Sweden. A tire literally fell off our van while we were driving”, Van Note reflects. “Because of COVID, we didn’t get together as much, either. We’re also older now and there are challenges and responsibilities that come with that. I have two kids. Some of us have bought houses. We’ve all been through marriages and different relationships. For things to snowball on top of the band one after another, it kind of had us feeling like maybe this was the end of our era”.  

In fact, The Turning was almost lost to the sands of time. Bask finished tracking just a few weeks before Hurricane Helene reached Asheville. “It was terrifying”, Worth remembers. “We had a hard time getting in touch with each other. I climbed a hill to get cell phone reception. One of the guys was still unaccounted for the day before we were supposed to leave for Europe”. While they feel fortunate to have sustained just a flooded practice space, the storm’s aftermath did seep into the album’s mixing and mastering sessions with Alan Douches. “It would be naive to think that a life-changing event didn’t color the overall tone”. With a wearisome gait, “Long Lost Light” drifts through a ghost town haunted by salooning piano and high, lonesome fiddle until it’s swept like sawdust into the void.  

“It’s the heaviest and most challenging song”, Wright says about the album’s emotional centerpiece. Though not the last song written for The Turning, it became the missing piece almost by design. “We worried it was going to be too hard for us to listen back to”, Van Note shares, a sentiment that Worth echoes. “You can feel the pain in every note”. But fellow Asheville native Franklin Keel helped them turn the tide with his deeply melancholic churns of cello. “The way Franklin bends the note, right as things get heavy”, Van Note points out, ” it acted like a release for us”.  

When pressed, Wright stops short of concluding that The Turning has a happy ending.   “Honestly, it’s almost in spite of that”, he responds in reference to the surprise family reunion that sets its final showdown in motion. If we’re left with a cliffhanger, then the myriad ways in which the albums keeps us guessing are perhaps fitting. After all, much like their hometown, the band are just starting to feel as if things are turning around. “Cleaning up our practice space was such an emotional experience. It was heart-wrenching but also heartwarming at the same time. It led us to re-appreciate each other and our community”. Just as our heroine discovers her hidden powers, the title track ends with the newly mounted five-piece stampeding toward the next frontier. “I danced through age and fire”, Wright belts, backed by everything Bask have always stood for: mountainous bass, tumbling drums, blazing leads, and a sunburst of pedal steel.  

“Music is an emotional outlet, but at the end of the day, it’s also a way for us to hang out with our best buds”, the band says. “The Turning was a challenge, but we weathered the storm and came out the other side with a beautiful album that sounds like Bask”.  

Line-up:Jesse Van Note – Bass
Scott Middleton – Drums
Ray Worth – Guitar
Zeb Wright – Guitar/Vocals
Jed Willis – Pedal Steel

Guest musicians
Clay White – Trumpet
Franklin Keel – Cello
Alex Taub – Piano, Hammond B3 Organ

Recording Studio 
Echo Mountain Recording

Producer 
Kenny Harrington

Engineer
Kenny Harrington

Mixing Studio
Acre AudioMixing

Mixing Engineer
Andrew Schneider

Mastering Studio
West West Side Music

Mastering Engineer
Alan Douches

Follow Bask
Official website: www.baskband.com
Bandcamp: https://basknc.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/basknc
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baskband/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebandbask
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/44JvnzLiXzAtiMSDJTnFC7
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/bask/20926626