Bask – The Turning

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · December 24, 2025

Bask is a heavy psychedelic stoner rock band from Asheville, North Carolina. Formed in 2012, the band has released four full length albums including: 2014’s American Hollow, 2017’s Ramble Beyond, 2019’s III, and their latest 2025’s The Turning. The current lineup consists of Zeb Camp on guitar and vocals, Ray Worth on guitar, Jesse Van Note on bass, and Scott Middleton on drums, with Jed Willis on pedal steel; who is now an official member, plus guests like Clay White on trumpet and Franklin Keel on cello for the recordings. The Turning came out on August 22nd on Season Of Mist Records. It contains eight tracks at forty minutes long.

“The Chasm” is a minute and a half fade in intro that sounds eerie. The guitars have a screeching dissonance and the song drifts right into “In The Heat Of The Dying”. It’s a progressive noise rocking track that strikes it hard and eccentric. It has a fantastic interplay of psychedelic bleedings and an avalanche of crushing riffs. Bask dazzles us with an amazing mix of sounds that are head-tripping and brutalizing. The powerful vocals are a great companion that works wonders to balance with the unconventional music.

The third track entitled “The Traveler” is a progressive and grooving jam of heaviness and ambience. The melody takes over when the vocals guide us into transcendence. The music is bizarre and powerful at every level and rocks on with cosmic vigilance. The buildups are amazing with the transitions reaching classic Pink Floyd levels. Songs like “The Cloth” carry a dark and mysterious vibe that is heavy and angular in its rhythmic execution. “Dig My Heels” is a killer track! It hits hard and heavy with powerful melodies and good chugging riffs. Camp’s vocals are great and carries an alluring catchiness to them. The music branches off with some orchestrated structures and softer melodies and drifts back with a prog-driven heaviness.

Bask crafts some of the most captivating and interesting music today. Songs like “Unwound” and “Long Lost Light” takes you on a sonic journey through musical transitions alternating with heavy and light tones. The beautiful vocals in “Long Lost Love” connect well with the more mellow rhythms that Bask are constituting. This is definitely a band that writes very deep and expansive songs that require a full immersion with no distractions. Each consecutive listen enhances my sheer enjoyment for The Turning. Bask are creating some amazing sounds utilizing different instruments like the pedal steel, trumpet, cello, organ and piano, etc. They are remarkable in their ability to produce such original music under the umbrella of stoner rock.

The final song is the title track called “The Turning”. It’s an another masterpiece in heavy progression with melodies that glides along with ease and efficiency. The vocals are dynamic and the music is expansive and interesting. Harmonies and blankets of atmospheric bliss are captured nicely within the song. Bask has made a great statement with The Turning. They are a few steps away from breaking apart from the genre and transcending into a singular musical entity. This is the work of a band that is 100 percent doing what comes naturally and creatively, and for that reason alone, I respect them a lot. The fact that they are producing such top quality songs that are excellent too, well that’s all that really matters as a fan, listener, and music lover.