Howling Giant – ‘Crucible And Ruin’

Stoner / Psych

Magnetic Eye Records

Release Date – October 31^st 2025

review by Smudge Smith

Howling Giant return with their third full length album along with new member guitarist/synth player Adrian Lee Zambrano who adds a bit more power to the trio before. They say that lyrically this album explores the clash between a novice deity and the forces of primordial chaos.

Opener ‘Canyons’ is a melodic stoner/prog riot before the chuggier ‘Hunters Mark’ which benefits from the trio of vocals from singer/guitarist Tom Polzine, bassist Seb Baltes (son of Accept’s Peter) and drummer Zach Wheeler. ‘Archon’ gets proper heavy and steady before Baltes shows his chops on the two-minute instrumental ‘Lesser Gods’ where both guitarists get to lay down some simple lines over some soft synths. ‘Beholder I: Downfall’ comes racing out of the traps and gets proggier along with those three voices again before the 70’s groove of ‘Archivist’ takes you back to the time of cheese cloth and the smell of ‘Old Spice’ before the tasty guitar intro of ‘Scepter And Scythe’ flies off on a spidery riff and wonderfully melodic vocal line. ‘Melchor’s Bones’ is bigger and stomps around on a psych groove before the acoustic interlude of ‘The Obversatory’ leads to the dramatic power of ‘Beholder II:Labyrinth’.

I’ll be honest this took a few listens because there is so much going on in every song but once you have it it’s awesome. There’s loads you can take from this. Bigs riffs, mighty grooves and some superb melodic vocal lines but there are also loads of subtle sounds and passages that truly make the songs. I have always been interested in what Howling Giant will do next and this impressed me greatly. The songs are born out of jams and pieced together much like Pink Floyd used to do. There I cannot give a higher complement than to say maybe they are the modern day, Pink Floyd.

Track List –

Canyons

Hunters Mark

Archon

Lesser Gods

Beholder: Downfall I

Archivist

Scepter And Scythe

Melchor’s Bones

The Observatory

Beholder II: The Labyrinth