The hard rock scene has never seen a supergroup like Crystal Fairy. At The Drive-In’s Omar Rodríguez-López, Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover of The Melvins, and Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes have joined forces to form a true band of titans. To hear how powerful it is when all four of the members get in a room together, take a listen to their self-titled debut album below.
Crystal Fairy formed after the Melvins and Le Butcherettes shared a run of tour dates together. Bender and the boys bonded over a love of Bikini Kills and movies from their childhood, while Rodríguez-López just so happened to be traveling with the bands as a documentary photographer. After the trek ended, the foursome found themselves recording in Los Angeles and later in El Paso. The results are a hard-hitting sludge metal album that somehow sounds louder than the sum of its parts.
“It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done,” Osborne told Rolling Stone about Crystal Fairy. “I guess the one thing I really liked was being able to write songs that Teri could sing. I think she’s an unbelievable talent. It was a privilege to me to be able to write songs and then have somebody write lyrics and sing along to melodies that I’d written in such a great way. It’s not something that I take lightly. At all. I love it. It was a joy and a pleasure to work with Teri. One of the high points of my career to me.”
Crystal Fairy will officially be released on February 24th via Ipecac Recordings. The band was forced to cancel their first scheduled live dates, though Crover told RS they’re working on rescheduling. “Trying to work on redoing everything. Unfortunately we’re all in other bands, so things get a little confusing.”
Crystal Fairy Tracklist:
01. Chiseler
02. Drugs on the Bus
03. Necklace of Divorce
04. Moth Tongue
05. Crystal Fairy
06. Secret Agent Rat
07. Under Trouble
08. Bent Teeth
09. Posesión
10. Sweet Self
11. Vampire X-Mass
