Black Skies + Caltrop Fall US Tour

Friends through the North Carolina Triangle Area heavy music scene, Black Skies and Caltrop were obvious tour mates as the two both share psychedelic sludge leanings and Southern heavy rock roots. This November, the two bands will hit the road for a coast-to-coast tour. Black Skies will be touring in support of their newest full length release, “On The Wings Of Time” and Caltrop will be touring in support of their newest full length, “ten million years and eight minutes”. 

10.30 • The Get Down (Asheville, NC) (Black Skies only)
10.31 • Sidecar (Lexington, KY)
11.01 • Reggie’s Music Joint (Chicago, IL)
11.02 • Gabe’s (Iowa City, IA)
11.03 • The Sandbox (Omaha, NE)
11.04 • Aqualung’s Community Music Space (Denver, CO)
11.05 • Burt’s Tiki Lounge (Salt Lake City, UT)
11.06 • The Shredder (Boise, ID)
11.07 • The Comet (Seattle, WA)
11.08 • Plan B (Portland, OR)
11.09 • Little Red Lion (Eureka, CA)
11.10 • Hemlock Tavern (San Francisco, CA)
11.11 • Blue Cafe (Long Beach, CA)
11.12 • Yucca (Tempe, AZ)
11.13 • Burt’s Tiki Lounge (Albuquerque, NM)
11.14 • The Conservatory (Oklahoma City, OK)
11.15 • Arrow Bar (Texarkana, AR)
11.16 • Buccaneer (Memphis, TN)
11.17 • 529 (Atlanta, GA)
11.18 • Chapel Hill Underground (Chapel Hill, NC)

About Caltrop ”Ten million years and eight minute”s, the long-awaited Holidays for Quince Records follow-up to Caltrop’s much-loved 2008 debut full-length World Class, finds North Carolina’s titans of Southern psych-rock in rarefied form, exhibiting the confident and focused sound a band achieves only after years of playing together in the same room.

Caltrop’s live-in-the-studio approach may bring to mind classic heavy hitters like Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath and The Allman Brothers, but unlike lesser bands on a similar trip, Caltrop carefully shapes their songs so that each riff follows its predecessor with an uncanny logic: the effect is that of an impossibly heavy object carried ever-upward on delicate, silken wings.

Ten million years and eight minutes was recorded and mixed by Nick Petersen (Horseback, Bellafea, Des_Ark, Ben Davis) in Caltrop’s hometown of Chapel Hill and mastered by James Plotkin (Isis, Earth, Horseback, SUNNO))), Pelican, Khanate.) Building on the melodic psych-rock of World Class, this record sees the band “reaching farther and with more confidence” (The Independent, January 2012).


Simultaneously crushing and uplifting, Caltrop’s ten million years and eight minutes makes believers of us all.


Praise: “North Carolina hypnotists give modern Isis-leaning post-metal a shaggy SST make-under.” – Spin

“With thick, fuzzed out riffs leading the charge on most of their songs, Caltrop exists at the improbable intersection of Sabbath and the Allman Brothers Band, creating detuned, psychedelic dirges with a soulful Southern blues/rock inflection. Add a touch of the long-form, post-metal song structures of bands like Baroness and Earth, and you begin to see what makes the group tick.” – Allmusic.com

“Caltrop rebuilds blues-based heavy metal with big eyes focused through ambition and musical maneuvers carved in perfection … [World Class is] arguably the best full-length album released by any band in this state this year.” – The Independent

“Caltrop is, without a doubt, the most talented band I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing live … Within the first couple of minutes of their set, I had to pick my jaw off the floor.” – Doomgrinder

Black Skies, Chapel Hill, NC power trio has been tuning down and turning up since late 2005, constantly evolving their aural offerings of psychedelic sludge. With a combination of the foreboding heaviness of blues based proto-metal, the spry attitude and approach of punk, and the dynamics of progressive rock, their songs often project a dark & urgent energy.

Black Skies self-released their debut EP in August 2007, Aqua Dogs b/w Family Man 7″ put out by Chapel Hill vinyl label Sirena Discos in Spring 2008, self-released Hexagon CD EP in 2008, a limited edition 12″ of Hexagon released in 2009 on Chicago vinyl label, I’m Better Than Everyone Records, a live tape via Sirena Discos in 2010 and self-released full length On The Wings Of Time recorded by Kyle Spence in 2011. The band is currently working on a new material with release plans to be announced.

Black Skies has been a very active part of the heavy music scene in their region since 2005 and have toured extensively during this time including two full US tours including dates in Canada and a ton of regional tours opening for bands such as Boris, Russian Circles, Kylesa, Big Business, and Harvey Milk among others and a spot at SXSW 2009 and Hopscotch 2012.

Black Skies is: Kevin Clark (guitar/vocals), Tim Herzog (drums), and Michelle Temple (bass/vocals).

“Black Skies’ conglomeration of doom, hard rock, and post-metal will appeal to a variety of listeners, and perhaps be an early step in putting Chapel Hill on the heavy metal map.” – Harvestmoonmusic.com

“We encounter Black Skies in its full, hypnotic glory — as a band that can both take you to the top of the mountain and knock you back down the other side.” – Clclt.com

“a devastating, psychedelically washed package of eight songs that’ll strike a chord with fans of bands such as Kylesa, Black Tusk and Rwake.” – Meatmeadmetal.com


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