Red Fang embodies the high-energy, freewheeling ethos of traditional rock through their intense, stoner-tinged compositions. The Portland, Oregon quartet, featuring Bryan Giles, Aaron Beam, David Sullivan, and John Sherman, came together in 2005 and centers its straightforward, riff-driven rock & roll on guitars alone, avoiding any progressive tendencies. Punk-driven momentum binds the pieces, transforming the stoner grooves into dynamic motion and propelling tracks forward with rowdy momentum. The group achieved broader recognition in 2013 via its third full-length, the Billboard-charting Whales & Leeches, then sustained its direct, high-impact approach across later releases including Only Ghosts in 2016 and Arrows in 2021.
The band issued its self-titled debut on Sargent House in 2009. For the follow-up, Red Fang collaborated with Chris Funk, the multi-instrumentalist and producer associated with the Decemberists. That alliance yielded Murder the Mountains, which appeared on Relapse in 2011. The partnership resumed for Whales & Leeches, released in fall 2013, where it registered on the Billboard 200. The next year the quartet appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, with musical director Paul Shaffer joining onstage, and in 2016 delivered the well-received fourth album Only Ghosts, again through Relapse. Five years afterward came Arrows, another weighty, melody-rich collection of unyielding stoner metal tracks.
