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Salad Days Magazine | April 29, 2024

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NARROW HEAD RELEASE NEW SINGLE / VIDEO ‘GEARHEAD’

NARROW HEAD RELEASE NEW SINGLE / VIDEO ‘GEARHEAD’
Salad Days

FORTHCOMING ALBUM ‘MOMENTS OF CLARITY’ OUT FEBRUARY 10 VIA RUN FOR COVER RECORDS. NORTH AMERICAN TOUR 2023, DATES W/ WHITE REAPER. 

On Narrow Head’s latest single ‘Gearhead’, the band approaches new depths of heaviness. Fueled by a massive riff that nods towards the pure evil, “everything is bigger in Texas” attitude, the band unravels syncopated bursts of pummeling kinetic energy, weaving between subtly gripping melodies and utterly bleak breakdowns in unison. Frontman Jacob Duarte (also of Skourge, Sexpill) tells, “This is the type of song I’ve always wanted to write. A hardcore song with a catchy hook. If you ever wanted to describe our sound to someone; start with this song.” Solitude, melancholy, and revelation bleed into each other throughout Narrow Head’s, ‘Moments Of Clarity’, transporting the listener through a vast terrain of emotional spaces. Traversing the depths of towering, churning riffs, bouncing, lock-grooved rhythms, and crystalline, gorgeously constructed hooks, the Houston-based outfit puts on a masterclass in the art of writing songs that match the pain, pleasure, and confusion of modern living. Each track is sentimental without being precious, heavy without unnecessary griminess, pop-forward without letting the listener off the hook easy: these songs ask for some form of hurt or desire to be paid back to them in return, some promise that the listener is putting equal skin into the game. The record’s title came to Duarte in an ambient, almost haunting fashion. The months surrounding the release of Narrow Head’s prior record, ’12th House Rock’, were marked by a series of personal losses and spiritual trials. Throughout the writing process of this most recent record, the turn of phrase “moments of clarity” appeared to materialize wherever Duarte looked in an almost serendipitous fashion. The notion of moments clarity seemed to coalesce as if it were a totem to the desire to keep on living, a counterweight to the self-inflected damage and depravity that defined much of ’12th House Rock’’s lyrics. “The phrase created a space for me to reflect upon my own life” Duarte admits, “since our last record I’ve had plenty of moments of realization like that… when you experience friends dying, you’re forced to see life a little differently.” With ‘Moments Of Clarity’, the band’s third full-length, Narrow Head dashes away any shadow of romantic nostalgia or indulgent self-deprecation. Channeling equal parts pop-star conceit and weathered sobriety, the band has, in the truest and most basic sense, arrived at a record that only they could have written. ‘Moments Of Clarity’ does not speak to or build upon the past. Rather, it cuts straight to the heart of the matter, taking the struggle, brilliance, and mystery of contemporary life as its direct subject.

‘Moments Of Clarity’ Tracklisting:

1- The Real
2 – Moments of Clarity
3 – Sunday
4 – Trepanation
5 – Breakup Song
6 – Fine Day
7 – Caroline
8 – The World
9 – Gearhead
10 – Flesh & Solitude
11 – The Comedown
12 – Soft To Touch

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Narrow Head Live Dates:

Feb 04: Baton Rouge, LA – Chelsea’s Live
Feb 05: Birmingham, AL – The Firehouse
Feb 06: Nashville, TN – The Blue Room at Third Man Records
Feb 07: Lexington, KY – The Burl ~
Feb 09: Indianapolis, IN – The Hi-Fi ~
Feb 10: Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall ~
Feb 11: St. Louis, MO – Delmar Hall ~
Feb 13: Houston, TX – Warehouse Live Studio ~
Feb 14: Austin, TX – Scoot Inn ~
Feb 15: Dallas, TX – Granada Theater ~
Feb 17: Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad ~
Feb 18: Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom ~
Feb 19: San Diego, CA – Music Box ~
Feb 21: Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre ~
Feb 22: San Francisco, CA – August Hall ~
Feb 24: Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theatre ~
Feb 25: Seattle, WA – The Crocodile ~
Feb 26: Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre ~
May 13: Las Vegas, NV – Sick New World Fest

~ w/ White Reaper, Taipei Houston

Photo by Nate Kahn

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