New York post-metal band GUHTS has released new single "Holy Hell" alongside an official, Halloween-themed music video.
"Holy Hell" appears on the quartet's sophomore album, Duality Reality, coming in 2027 on Silent Pendulum Records.
Stream the "Holy Hell" music video, here:
A spellbinding track that rumbles with all the hypnotic power of Julie Christmas fronting Gojira, new single "Holy Hell" serves as a perfect introduction to GUHTS's forthcoming new album. Ethereal and devastating, "Holy Hell" holds a vise-like grip on its listener's consciousness for five-and-a-half minutes straight, validating CVLT Nation's recent description of the band: "Visceral, post-sludge-rock ... Walls of heavy melody that trap me in a sonic room full of beauty, chaos, and righteous rage."
GUHTS vocalist Amber Gardner offers these thoughts on her band's sound and vision: "It’s not background noise. It’s something you enter into. Something you feel in your body. GUHTS is an emotional soundscape, heavy as fuck, but with a big touch of hope running through it. I'm interested in all the nuances of being human: grief, rage, love, loss, beauty, tension, connection, transformation, darkness and light."
For the "Holy Hell" music video, Gardner and her bandmates – guitarist Scott Prater, bassist Daniel Martinez, and drummer Aidan Schmid – found inspiration in a work of art that matches their own intensity: the "Holy Hell" video is a homage to Andrzej Zulawski's 1981 horror classic, Possession, recreating that film's harrowing train station scene with Gardner embodying the tormented character originally played by Isabelle Adjani.
"We were inspired by the subway scene in Possession," says Gardner. "The mind becoming fragmented, repeating patterns we haven’t recognized, and how I see that playing out across society. We filmed it during rush hour at the Beacon, New York, train station, with me screaming in the walkway with fake milk we had to clean up afterward. Almost nobody flinched and only one person checked on me, which became one of the most disturbing parts of making the video. People walking by or sitting there, waiting for the train, were so absorbed in their phones, they seemed disconnected from the reality happening right in front of them."
Gardner and Prater are not only musical collaborators, they are a married couple. Having first made music together in the band Witchkiss, the duo began experimenting in new ways in 2020, laying the foundation for what would become GUHTS. Their efforts culminated in the debut full-length, Regeneration, released in 2024. Gardner recounts: "We spent almost a year just messing around with different microphones, vocal layers, singing, screaming, failing and trying again. There weren’t any rules because we weren’t trying to create a particular kind of band. We were just curious about what was possible. Instead of trying to force it into something familiar, we got curious and followed it. And I think that’s still what GUHTS is. We’re still learning, experimenting and discovering what’s possible."
Engineered and mixed by Andrew Schneider (Cave In, KEN mode) and mastered by Alan Douches (Mastodon, Chelsea Wolfe), sophomore album Duality Reality is a series of nine songs mixing thunderous, ominous metal with Gardner's captivating vocals, a pairing that hits like fireworks painting streaks of color across a pitch black sky. The contrasts inherent in GUHTS's sound are what make it so powerful and, as Gardner explains, this embrace of contrasts extends to the lyrics as well: "The album title, Duality Reality, is about the contradiction of being human. We’re interested in what happens when you actually move through an emotion or feeling. What if darkness isn’t something we have to pretend isn’t there, in order to find light? What if rage can coexist with love? What if grief and gratitude can occupy the same body? What if destruction can become the beginning of creation? That tension runs through these songs, heaviness and vulnerability, screaming and melody, chaos and intention, darkness and hope. Because duality is the human experience."
Tracklist:
1) Holy Hell
2) Currents
3) April 16th
4) Duality Reality
5) Blood
6) Infection Point
7) Rising Falling
8) You Will
9) Be Well
Lineup:
Amber Gardner - vocals
Scott Prater - guitar
Daniel Martinez - bass
Aidan Schmid - drums
Upcoming shows:
December 4 - Brooklyn, NY @ Lucky 13 Saloon
Engineered and mixed by Andrew Schneider (Cave In, KEN mode) and mastered by Alan Douches (Mastodon, Chelsea Wolfe), sophomore album Duality Reality is a series of nine songs mixing thunderous, ominous metal with Gardner's captivating vocals, a pairing that hits like fireworks painting streaks of color across a pitch black sky. The contrasts inherent in GUHTS's sound are what make it so powerful and, as Gardner explains, this embrace of contrasts extends to the lyrics as well: "The album title, Duality Reality, is about the contradiction of being human. We’re interested in what happens when you actually move through an emotion or feeling. What if darkness isn’t something we have to pretend isn’t there, in order to find light? What if rage can coexist with love? What if grief and gratitude can occupy the same body? What if destruction can become the beginning of creation? That tension runs through these songs, heaviness and vulnerability, screaming and melody, chaos and intention, darkness and hope. Because duality is the human experience."
Tracklist:
1) Holy Hell
2) Currents
3) April 16th
4) Duality Reality
5) Blood
6) Infection Point
7) Rising Falling
8) You Will
9) Be Well
Lineup:
Amber Gardner - vocals
Scott Prater - guitar
Daniel Martinez - bass
Aidan Schmid - drums
Upcoming shows:
December 4 - Brooklyn, NY @ Lucky 13 Saloon
Photos by Joseph Maran
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