Moon Tooth, who released their highly-praised album “Phototroph” (Pure Noise Records) in May of 2022, celebrate both guitar player Nick Lee’s recovery, and the one year anniversary of the 11-song album, with a May 20th, 2023, outing at The Brooklyn Monarch.
In late July, as the band was slated to play a New York date with Cave In, Nick began experiencing seizures, landing in a medically-induced coma and spending over a month in the hospital. Nick ultimately received the diagnosis of Limbic Encephalitis, with his band members, and the music community as a whole, rallying around Nick as he underwent treatment, and thankfully, recovered from the surprise illness.
“The way myself and the rest of Moon Tooth see this situation is we could hide from the mystery brain disease for another six months, a year, six years; or we could face it directly this Spring and do what we do best, which is play a killer live show alongside some of our best friends”, says Nick. “We’ve been working our asses off to get back to tip top shape and I have been fortunate enough to have the most incredible support base a person could hope for in blood, family, and health, so let’s hang May 20th and truly make up for some lost time”!
Moon Tooth is now celebrating not only Nick’s good health, but the Long Island-based band’s return to live performances. Tickets for their May 20 show at The Brooklyn Monarch are on-sale this Friday at 10 am eastern, here.
The band has also released a video for “Grip on the Ridge” (watch it below), once again working with Director Tom Flynn who created The “Goodfellas” inspired clip for “Alpha Howl”, the vampire-infused video for “Carry Me Home”, a colorful, psychedelic offering “The Conduit” and the narrative piece for “Nymphaeaceae”.
“Conceptually, ‘Grip on the Ridge’ deals with something that will undoubtedly be revisited in future recordings of ours”, vocalist John Carbone explains. “While writing this record, my family was dealing with the sudden and unexpected passing of my Uncle. With my family being as tight-knit as we are, personally experiencing that and especially watching my cousins endure it after having already lost their Mother ten years prior was more terrible than I can convey. The song reflects not only a person having to face that horror, but also the monumental question of ‘Where do we go from here?’ It reflects the desperate grasp for the will to go on”.
Moon Tooth have been praised for their unique spin on prog/metal, with Rolling Stone saying “not since the early days of Mars Volta has a rock band managed to sound so wildly adventurous”, Pitchfork noting that the “band bursts with enthusiasm and rabid energy, as if Mastodon’s apocalyptic visions were replaced with cosmic wonder”, and Revolver dubbing them as “awe-inducing”. Metal Injection said of “Phototroph”: “Moon Tooth has finally fully realized the incredible potential that has been obvious to anyone closely following their already impressive career… if Moon Tooth never cut another track, they could rest assured that they have recorded what is as close to a perfect album as any metal band can hope to lay down”.
“Phototroph” is available here, both via various limited-edition vinyl variants, as well as digitally.
Weblinks:
moontooth.org
www.facebook.com/moontoothband
