Red Fang – Deep Cuts 

Red Fang is an American stoner metal/ heavy rock band from Portland, Oregon. Formed in 2005, they are composed of Bryan Giles on guitar and vocals, Aaron Beam on bass and vocals, David Sullivan on guitars, and John Sherman on drums. The band’s discography includes: 2006’s Tour EP 1, 2007’s Tour EP 2, 2008’s Self Titled, 2011’s Murder The Mountains, 2013’s Whales And Leeches, 2016’s Only Ghosts, and 2021’s Arrows. They also have splits, singles, compilations, and various other recordings. I did a Top 5 on Friday post about Red Fang where I ranked their albums (check it out here). Deep Cuts is the latest release and it’s a whopping twenty six song compilation that celebrates the twenty year anniversary of the band.

The press kit for the album states: “Celebrating 20 years as a formidable force in Heavy Rock, RED FANG return with Deep Cuts! The collection highlights the band’s trajectory throughout the last two decades and features non album tracks, singles, B-Sides, rarities, and more! Tracks like “Antidote”, which appears on vinyl for the first time, was previously featured in RED FANG’s mobile game “Red Fang: Headbang!” spill onto the comp; elsewhere, a demo of the band’s legendary track “Wires” is available for the very first time. Deep Cuts features other rare material, including cover songs from Wipers, No Talent, Dust, and Tubeway Army!Deep Cuts was released on March 14th 2025 on Relapse Records and contains nearly one and a half hours of music. 

Instead of diving deep into each individual track on Deep Cuts, I am going to highlight certain songs (mostly ones I never heard before) that I find interesting as this collection highlights the band’s twenty year existence. I was lucky to hear Red Fang pretty early on when the 2007 Tour EP 2 came out. The five songs, “Prehistoric Dog”, “Reverse Thunder”, “Night Destroyer”, “Suicide”, and “Humans Remain Human Remains” was my introduction to the band. All great songs but “Suicide”, originally from the 70’s rock band Dust was exceptional. The bass breaking solo in that song is fantastic! Deep Cuts has “Suicide” included (track 21) and that is a wonderful thing.

The collection of songs included on this compilation are a great mixture and there a good number that I have not heard before this release. “Weird Polly” (track 4) is a raw jamming instrumental and “Hollow Light” (track 5) is an electronic sounding, mellow atmospheric song that is very interesting. “Black Hole” (track 9) is a heavy psych rocking song that has a nice driving flow. “Champ Chugger” (track 11) is a minute and a half of just guitars fuzzing some metallic sounding rhythms. “Ice Ice Baby” (track 12) is a bizarre electronic jam of sorts that dabbles in some noisy industrial sounds. “It’s Always There” (track 13) is a cool rocker that is pretty straight forward with some cool guitar squealing leads. The demo version of “Wires” (track 16) is totally raw and different from the album version. The iconic song shows us where it all started from with the different musical transitions and what not. “In 5 With Keys” (track 17) is a cool jazzy like instrumental. “Bad Places” (track 18) is a nice rocker with a hardcore edge to it. It has a cool sonically charged guitar lead and includes some distorted vocals too. “Forgot To Write” (track 19) is a short and strange one. “Endless Sea” (track 20) was a single from 2022 and incorporates interesting prog sounds and riffing with different singing styles. It’s pretty off the wall in a good way and shows the musical diversity that Red Fang are capable of producing. I think of fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons for some reason, with this track.

 “OMG OMD” (track 22) is another strange and somber song that is new to me. It explores electronica sounds with weird seanced vocals. “50’s Tremors” (track 24) is a quick thirty second guitar interlude, or something to that effect. “AGB Fruit” is yet another bizarre electronically enhanced rhythmic type of sound. The final track (26) on Deep Cuts is called “Feeder”. It’s a six and a half minute song that has a mesmerizing and doomy chug riffing to it. It has elements of heavy psych and atmospheric sounds taking place, along with airy guitars and metallic riffing. It’s a diverse animal to say the least and again opens another side to Red Fang that is not usually exposed. It’s definitely a cool experimental piece of music that closes out this monumental collection of songs appropriately.

Overall, this is an excellent display of diversity that Red Fang has created and achieved in over two decades now. The opening track “Antidote” is a rip roaring way to start this collection off. The song alone captures the many facets of the Fang. Each song will garner a piece of history with this excellent band. I can’t wait to hear brand new material from them but this collection will suffice in the meantime. For all fans of Red Fang, old and new, dig into this and witness the greatness that they bring.

https://redfang.net

https://redfang.bandcamp.com/album/deep-cuts

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