Holy Fawn, 4 September 2022

Holy Fawn is a band based in Tempe, Arizona. They are most commonly described as a shoegaze band, but this quartet doesn’t seem particularly interested in applying labels to their music, which they’ve described simply as “loud heavy pretty noises.” Shoegaze, ambient, post-metal and blackgaze are all accurate ways to describe their dense and layered sound—soft, dreamlike ambience will often explode into ground-shaking walls of sound just to dissipate back into something more musing and softly atmospheric. The quiet stretches lend depth and contrast to its metal-influenced outbursts, which have earned them a reputation as a must-see live act.

Ryan Osterman’s vocals exist in the midst of these layers, sometimes floating high and clear above the gloom, and other times mingling with it and even becoming lost in the din. Alexander Rieth (bass), Austin Reinholz (drums), and Evan Phelps (guitar) comprise the rest of the group.

Lyrically and thematically, Holy Fawn is absorbed by the power of the natural world; this reverence for the dark and wild woods is echoed even in the band’s name. They garnered attention and acclaim with their first two releases (Realms and Death Spells, respectively) before dropping the surprise EP, The Black Moon, in January 2020.