Self-described as “Death Western,” SpiritWorld are also the aural vision quest of Stu Folsom, a Las Vegas native who has taken the intensity of that blasted desert heat and given it a voice on the band’s debut Pagan Rhythms.
The record was dubbed “a blistering piece of pure evil” by Stereogum, while Brooklyn Vegan called it “a vicious, whiplash-inducing racket.” Loudwire praised it for “bringing strong rock ‘n’ roll vibes to a sound that’s seriously heavier and hardcore-inflected, predicated on an elbow-swinging rhythm and a bit of a dusty road flair alongside a gravely vocal bark.”
Pagan Rhythms wasre-released on November 5 via Century Media Records and is now available physically for the first time outside of North America. Get it here.
Today, SpiritWorld have premiered the video for “Unholy Passages” over at Decibel.
Watch it here.
“‘Unholy Passages’ is the JAM!,” says Folsom. “If I could pick one song off of Pagan Rhythms to show people, this is it. 270 BPM of hella nasty riff vomit!!! Just when you think, ‘Okay, this song fucks, I’m diggin’ it…,’ it drops another banger riff on you. It’s even got the Hellraiser, ‘Do I look like I care what God thinks?’ breakdown sprinkled with some field recordings of a monsoon season thunderstorm I recorded on my cell phone to top it off!”
He continues, “When I made the visualizer for it, everything was still on lockdown, so a real video was out of the question. I knew I needed something striking to compliment the song, so I pivoted down the rabbit hole of archival footage sourcing old rodeo footage, go-go dancers, and occult rituals. Enjoy!”
SpiritWorld are releasing an exclusive, bone-colored vinyl version of Pagan Rhythms with alternate artwork via Decibel’s site. It arrives on April 22, 2022 and celebrates the band’s appearance at the Decibel Metal & Beer Fest in Los Angeles, set for December 10 and 11, and on the Decibel Magazine tour this coming winter.
