Photo by Kate Rose
“I wrote it during and after a losing battle with alcohol, and a lot of this deals with the despair and darkness I discovered in that time. I felt defeated, physically and mentally, and was drifting into ever-deepening depression.” – Grant Netzorg, IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS
Stream IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS’ “Endless Well” HERE.
Denver sludge/doom metal alchemists IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS will release their stunning A Crack In Everything full-length on July 11th, today unveiling the record’s first single and preorders.
IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS traffics in sonic catharsis. Their music inhabits the strange fringes between sludge metal and sprawling spaghetti western scores, constantly striving for visceral power and raw intensity, contrasted with eerie, spare instrumental passages. While previous works focused largely on occult and esoteric themes, A Crack In Everything, the band’s fifth long player, delves deeply into themes of personal struggle, depression, and grappling with addiction. Threads of esotericism still weave their way throughout the record, however A Crack In Everything stands apart as a deeply personal effort.
Comments guitarist/vocalist Grant Netzorg, “A Crack In Everything takes its title from my favorite Leonard Cohen song, ‘Anthem,’ from his masterpiece, The Future. The chorus includes the line, ‘There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.’ This suits the overall themes of the album perfectly. I wrote it during and after a losing battle with alcohol, and a lot of this deals with the despair and darkness I discovered in that time. I felt defeated, physically and mentally, and was drifting into ever-deepening depression.
“Despite this, I tried to remain creatively active as I was going through it. While most of the material from those lowest moments was insufferable garbage, we were able to glean some pearls of anguish from it and transmute them into songs we liked. This album often deals with horrors of crippling addiction, but there are glimpses of the way out through personal transformation. I recognized that killing myself slowly but surely made me a poor excuse for a father and husband and resolved to claw my way out of those shadows. There is a crack in everything –that’s how the light gets in.
“Thematically, light as a sort of metaphysical prima materia has been an ongoing theme throughout our last several releases: Lux, Ain-Soph Aur (‘Limitless Light’ in Hebrew), and Merging In Light. While we don’t have light in the title itself, it is there by implication. Here the light functions as a force of salvation, peering with some difficulty, but inevitably, into the darkness. In this sense it reminds me of a Hebrew phrase a Kabbalist teacher of mine shared with me: ‘Dlayt atar panui meenay,’ which translates roughly to ‘there is no place empty of (the divine).’ This light pierces even the darkest depths.
“The record, as a whole, also functions as a sort of ‘cord-cutting’ ritual. The gist of this operation is that one envisions all undesired elements of themselves personified as a sort of grotesque being. This being is tethered to them, and the heft of this ritual is severing that connection and banishing this being.”
In advance of the release, today the band unveils their first single, “Endless Well.” Netzorg elaborates, “This song has its musical roots in the song ‘Moonlight On Vermont’ by Captain Beefheart, off the album Trout Mask Replica. There’s a great, jangly riff which opens that tune, and in the back of my mind I always thought that it could be tweaked into an immense, heavy groove. So we wrote the intro riff around that idea, and the song began to develop from there, but that is where the resemblance ends.
“Lyrically, this song deals with the anxiety, exhaustion, sense of defeat, and maladies both physical and mental that accompany heavy alcoholism. The opening lines, ‘Wasted and worn, running on fumes. Watching the horizon for the mushroom cloud blooms,’ are about daydreaming for some cataclysm to come along and wipe the collective slate clean. There’s a glimmer of hope in the ending lines, however, which seek to crawl out of this self-imposed hole: “Resurrection, or perhaps rebirth? A fierce rejection of this state: inert.“
The track also features guest vocals by Goya’s Jeff Owens. “When I initially asked him to contribute,” Netzorg recalls, “he mentioned that all my initial choices around cadence, melody, etc. were pretty much what he would have gone for, so he tried out some other approaches in lieu of just doubling my takes. This resulted in some cool, soaring melodies that remind me of some of my favorite bangers from the grunge era. It’s definitely not a direction I’d have thought to have taken the material, and it’s stronger for Jeff’s choices here.”
Stream IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS’ “Endless Well,” featuring Goya’s Jeff Owens, HERE.
A Crack In Everything was recorded at World Famous Studios in Denver, Colorado and engineered by Pete deBoer. All songs were tracked to tape on a vintage Neve console “big and complex enough to oversee a lunar landing, or just lunatic riffs.”
The record features artwork by tattoo artist Mike Lawrence (mikeillustrated.com) and will be released on CD and digital formats as well as two vinyl variants:
Deluxe Vinyl Set: Ltd. 100 copies on Gold On Black vinyl. Features a die-cut, matte black outer sleeve with black-on-black spot gloss printing, which conceals the full cover illustration by Mike Lawrence within. Comes with the following exclusives: necklace featuring the ITCOS cross; vinyl slipmat featuring Mike Lawrence’s cover illustration; a signed and numbered block print featuring art surrounding the themes of the record, carved, and printed by Grant Netzorg.
Standard Vinyl: Ltd. 400 copies on White On Black vinyl. Features a die-cut, matte black outer sleeve with black-on-black spot gloss printing, which conceals the full cover illustration by Mike Lawrence within.
Find all preorders at the IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS Bandcamp page HERE.
In conjunction with the release of A Crack In Everything, IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS will take to the streets for a nine-date run of Midwestern live dates which include a performance at Unhinged Fest in Denver with Knocked Loose, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Garden, Health, Converge, Terror, and more. In August, the band will play a record release show with Palehorse/Palerider and Cronos Compulsion with more dates to be announced in the coming weeks. See all confirmed dates below.
IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS Live:
7/15/2025 Reverb Lounge – Omaha, NE w/ Profanatica, Weaving Shadows, Unidad Trauma
7/16/2025 7th Street Entry – Minneapolis, MN w/ Lungs, Blue Ox, Cache
7/17/2025 Sleeping Village – Chicago, IL w/ Djunah, Masonic Wave
7/18/2025 Bremen Cafe – Milwaukee, WI w/ Temporal Autonomy, Dog Skull
7/19/2025 Racoon Motel – Davenport, IA * Festival Date Bands TBA
7/20/2025 Pizza Works – Peoria, IL w/ Aseethe, Night Mother, Lark’s Tongue
7/22/2025 The Sinkhole – St. Louis, MO w/ Daybringer
7/23/2025 Kirby’s – Wichita, KS w/ Leech Fetish, Motion Sick
7/26/2025 Unhinged Fest – Denver, CO w/ Knocked Loose, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Garden, Health, Converge, Terror, more….
8/09/2025 The Bluebird Theater – Denver, CO * Record Release Show w/ Palehorse/Palerider, Cronos Compulsion
IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS formed in 2011 as a two-piece sludge/doom-focused project between guitarist/vocalist Grant Netzorg and drummer JJ Anselmi, author of the books Doomed To Fail and Heavy. While Anselmi soon moved to California to pursue teaching and writing, the duo recorded the band’s debut together that year, releasing it in early 2012. The sound quickly evolved beyond the confines of sludge/doom, and they continue to paint from a broad palette of influences across the heavy music spectrum. Netzorg has continued on with the project, releasing four LPs, including 2020’s critically acclaimed Lux, an EP, and a standalone single since their inception. In 2023, drummer Andy Thomas (Only Thunder, Tin Horn Prayer) joined Netzorg and bassist/lap steel guitarist Ben Pitts (Nightwraith, Abhoria) to begin work on this year’s A Crack In Everything.
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