Since their formation in 2018, US desert rock/heavy stoner band Blue Heron have been utterly committed to sharing massive riffs. Although parts of their 2024 full length ‘Everything Fades’ were a little more accessible from a vocal perspective, on a musical level, the album retained the kind of heaviness fans had come to expect, cementing the band’s reputation as one of the underground scene’s best and most intense acts.
Continuing a run of yearly new releases since 2022, ‘Emulations’ is a stop gap affair, combining four newly recorded tracks with a blistering live session, but it shouldn’t be considered a “filler” in any way.
The lead track, ‘Grey’ (a Fudge Tunnel deep cut) translates well in the hands of Blue Heron, presenting a perfect example of the band’s brutal style. A quick burst of feedback introduces an incredibly intense sludge metal riff, where a wall of distortion appears as important as the riff itself. Lurching through the mid tempo head-nodder, the melody plays out like an old Crowbar outing colliding with Conan. The sheer volume is such, you can hear the notes breaking up under the wall of fuzz, creating something utterly classic for the style. Adding to the extreme heaviness, vocalist Jadd Schickler offers an extreme growl, bringing everything closer to the work of a classic doom band. There are moments during the verses where the guitars fall away to reveal a huge but perfect bass sound, adding a grungy element to the sludge, and an occasional clean vocal also brings something a little more accessible. Accessible in this case, of course, is purely relative: Blue Heron spend the majority of these six minutes delivering the aural equivalent of a truck running over your face, peaking with a repetitious riff and hardcore shouting, just in case you’ve not been pummelled quite enough after the first five minutes. Those hoping for something just a little lighter also get a small amount of respite, since the instrumental interlude trades in some of the intense qualities for some perfectly delivered desert rock vibes, allowing drummer Ricardo Sanchez an opportiny to fill a few bars with tribal influenced, cymbal-free rhythms, and for guitarist Steve Schmidlapp to drop in some bluesy howls. This track is a collaborative affair in every sense. Despite the band adopting a really dense sound almost throughout, each of the members brings something of great importance to the piece, resulting in what could be a Blue Heron classic, despite being written by someone else back in the 90s.
That kind of love is applied to the rest of the studio material here, despite not all of it being written by the band themselves. ‘Marigold’ – a slow, groove-laden piece (and a Blue Heron original) – melds a Sabbath-esque riff with extra volume, working a classic stoner/doom riff throughout, really showcasing Steve’s huge guitar tone. Here, the heaviness is contrasted by a cleaner vocal, although various filters have been applied to lend the performance a deep psych feel, and that blend of extreme heaviness and trippiness results in something that’s almost perfect from a stylistic viewpoint. Chorus-wise, this is huge, capturing Schickler’s voice doing its damnedest to capture something that falls between the young Ozzy and classic Chris Cornell. Between that and a superb riff, this is definitely worth hearing, but it’s the instrumental break that actually makes the track, when, in lieu of a traditional guitar solo, Chris throws out arcs of distorted sound against a steady beat. There’s so much atmosphere colouring the latter part of this performance that the heavier elements are balanced out perfectly. Whether you’re already a Blue Heron fan or coming to them new here, this is likely to impress.
A recording of Clutch’s ‘The House That Peterbilt’ takes the source material and heavies it up by about fifty percent, with Steve sharing a wall of distortion that’s in keeping with the rest of this release’s studio material. A couple of the original cut’s bluesier flourishes are a little lost in the noise, but in showing off Blue Heron as a pure musical force, it’s a cover that works fine enough, being a decent fit with Jadd’s fierce growl, before a brilliant take on Floor’s ‘Find Away’ contrasts a wall of fuzz with a perfect, clean croon, creating a brilliant juxtaposition that proves extreme heaviness can capture a great melody. The extra heaviness applied here makes this genuine deep cut sound like extension of the Acid Bath and Rosetta universes, albeit with much better vocals. As far as this set’s covers go, this is a definite highlight.
As for the live material, when heard with no overdubs, Blue Heron sound even fiercer. The title cut from ‘Everything Fades’ blends huge bluesy tones with a huge amount of distortion throughout, and although Steve’s guitar dominates in places, it’s great to hear Ricardo’s drums cutting through with a little more life, whilst the recording’s natural feel gives Jadd’s (still forceful) vocals a little more room to breathe. Of note here is the number’s quieter moment where Jadd drops the rawness and unleashes a blues drenched cry that sounds like the ghost of Mark Lanegan, before Steve fills the remainder of the track with a perfect, bluesy solo and a very confident delivery of the number’s main riff.
‘Day of The Comet’ (originally from the split with High Desert Queen) is blighted in places by an obscenely loud snare, but in terms of all round performance, its another take that shows Blue Heron to be a natural force, with Steve sharing the ultimate blues-doom riff, and the band never rising from a slow, almost lumbering groove that works a little better in its raw and unfiltered state. ‘Futurola’ provides a highlight of the short set, since there are moments where Steve peppers the relentlessly fuzzy riff with bluesy tones that unleash his inner Iommi, and Jadd sounds as if he’s relishing every moment to share a relatively clean, slightly anguished vocal. In terms of heavy desert rock/fuzzy blues rock, it’s a tour de force that shows off a very talented band, but that’s offset by the less accessible ‘Swansong’ where a devastatingly slow riff really gets put through its paces, and Jadd sounds ready to burst. It’s a harder listen, but a solid example of Blue Heron’s doom blues aesthetic. It’s well played, for for the more casual listener, it might make for a fairly laborious six minutes. When it comes to live performance, these guys sound so much better when they allow for a little more of a groove to take hold. That said, those who like the doomier aspects of the Blue Heron sound should still glean some enjoyment from such a weighty closer.
The bulk of these tracks present Blue Heron in fantastic shape; it’s been touted as a stop gap, but they’re anything but marking time until their next album is unleashed into the world. With its mix of originals, covers, studio work, and (mostly) fantastic sounding live material, it’s an excellent overview of the band’s uncompromising sound, guaranteed to please fans and floor the merely curious. A recommended listen.
October 2025