ABRAMS' Zach Amster on Loon, Rage, 10+ Years of Heavy Rock & DesertFest London

ABRAMS guitarist and vocalist Zach Amster joins The Sonic Road Podcast to break down Loon — the Denver heavy rock band's most aggressive and emotionally raw album yet, out April 17th on Blues Funeral Recordings. 🎵 ABRAMS "Loon" — Out April 17th on Blues Funeral Recordings Order the album here: Blues Funeral Recordings (US orders): https://www.bluesfuneral.com/products/us-orders-abrams-loon-deluxe-vinyl-editions Bandcamp: https://abramsrock.bandcamp.com/album/loon SPKR Shop (Euro/UK orders): https://en.bluesfuneral.spkr.media ABRAMS on Instagram: @abramsrockband 🔔 Subscribe to The Sonic Road Podcast for weekly deep dives into rock and metal: https://linktr.ee/thesonicroad 📲 FOLLOW THE SONIC ROAD PODCAST: Instagram | TikTok | Facebook | X → @thesonicroad Loon isn't a polite evolution. It's a gut punch. After a decade of building one of the American heavy underground's most devoted fanbases — through five albums and stages shared with Khemmis, King Buffalo, Unsane, and Emma Ruth Rundle — ABRAMS have made the record that demands your attention. Zach unpacks every inch of it. 🎸 What's inside this episode: — The sonic fury behind Loon and why it hits harder than anything ABRAMS has made before — How the band evolved from post-hardcore aggression to the melodic, crushing heavy rock they play today — Zach's musical DNA: Fugazi, Seattle grunge, Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age, Mark Lanegan, At the Drive-In, Mars Volta & A Perfect Circle — His vocal transformation from screaming to the powerhouse clean singing on Loon — How COVID changed ABRAMS' writing process forever — Recording 14–15 songs in 14 days — and the tough cuts that didn't make the album — Gear deep dive: solid-state amp rigs, Ampeg Venture bass, and the tones behind the wall of sound — The Denver heavy music scene and why it's one of the best underground communities in the US — Blues Funeral Recordings and why it was the right home for this band — ABRAMS' first-ever European dates, headlined by DesertFest London (May 2026), plus US tour plans If you're into Torche, Cave In, Converge, Hum, Quicksand, Mastodon, or Baroness — ABRAMS belong at the top of your playlist. Loon is the record that changes the conversation. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ CHAPTERS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Intro 00:37 Denver Roots & Getting to Know Zach 02:07 Musical Influences & the Shift to Clean Vocals 04:48 Why Musicians Never Stop 05:28 The Denver Heavy Rock Scene 08:08 ABRAMS' Sound & Why Blues Funeral Was the Perfect Fit 09:39 Band History & Current Lineup 11:30 How COVID Transformed Their Writing Process 14:45 Recording 14–15 Songs in 14 Days 16:50 Soundgarden Deep Dive & Vocal Inspiration 18:23 Surprising Influences & the Science of the Hook 21:49 Gear Talk: Solid-State Amps, Pedals & Ampeg Venture Bass 26:01 Signing to Blues Funeral Recordings 27:39 Touring Economics & the DIY Heavy Rock Community 29:17 How Touring Has Changed Over the Years 29:59 ABRAMS' First International Run & DesertFest London 30:40 RippleFest Stories & Festival Life 32:11 Introducing Loon 32:27 How "Loon" Got Its Name 34:03 The "Last Nail" Breakthrough 35:33 Why Great Albums Need Patience 40:12 Dark Lyrics, Meaning & Writing From Rage 42:27 Balancing Heavy Riffs With Melodic Hooks 44:38 The Two-Week Studio Sprint 46:30 "Sirens," Weird Tunings & Studio Experiments 49:30 Mixing, Mastering & Final Sound Decisions 51:35 Europe, DesertFest London & First International Goals 53:30 US Tour Plans 55:20 Vinyl, Pre-Orders & Where to Find ABRAMS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #ABRAMS #Loon #BluesFuneralRecordings #HeavyRock #RockPodcast #TheSonicRoadPodcast #ZachAmster #DenverRock #DesertFestLondon #PostHardcore #StonerRock #NewAlbum2026 #MusicInterview #HeavyMetal #Torche #CaveIn #Converge #Shoegaze #UndergroundRock #MusicPodcast