Exclusive Album Premiere: Wildlights, self-titled (Members of ASG, Thunderlip)

When the promo stream for Wildlights’ self-titled debut album landed in my inbox and I pressed play, I thought, “Gee, this sounds a lot like ASG!” Then I read the accompanying bio, saw that the band consists of ASG frontman/guitarist Jason Shi and Thunderlip’s Johnny Collins, and it all came flooding back. We’ve been following this band since all the way back in 2012 when they first surfaced as Crusades and released an album under that name, and as they’ve released piecemeal tracks since then.

Wildlights is their first full album under the new moniker, and fans of ASG (or stoner- and sludge-infused hard rock in general) are absolutely going to love it. I’ve always loved Shi’s sense of melody and voice, and both of those are gloriously intact here. Honestly I’m not sure how Shi differentiates a riff that ends up being an ASG song from one that ends up being a Wildlights song because both bands sound so similar, but I’m not complaining: more music from Shi under any moniker is A-OK with me. And while I wasn’t previously familiar with Thunderlip, I’m gonna make sure I check them out as soon as this listen of Wildlights wraps up.

Stream Wildlights below and pre-order it here before its August 21st release on Season of Mist.