One of the most straight up unholy things I’ve heard this year is Tethered To Doubt with their debut release Disavowal. This is pure hellfire reigning down from Texas and straight into your nightmares. Charring up an immoral amount of static and grit that black metal is known for, while incorporating a deep black pool of sludge and a nefarious amount of noise. The lawless fills and constant drum blasts build colossal towers of rhythm to do battle with their sinister riffs that’re drenched in murky distortion. Sonically thicker than osmium, the nightmare fuel that Tethered to Doubt produce is a very viscerally audible version of creepy pasta.

Taking influence from Ostraca, Beau Navire, Kayo Dot, Ash Borer & Gnaw Their Tongues (just to name a few), this bands’ sound is thiccer than Texas toast. The frontman at the helm of the project, Ben, had a few words with us about the album they self released earlier this year, Ben tells Not Just A Phase of their writing process with Tethered To Doubt and where the band is headed on their path ripping into 2025..

“This is our first release as a band and it took a long time to come out, we’re very proud of it and hope people connect with it. My song writing process is hard to describe, some of our songs are years old while others are relatively newer. One thing that is important to us is that we are not bound by genre. I'm as influenced by screamo as I am by black metal, grindcore, post-metal, power electronics, etc. All of these lend themselves to our sound as we continue to experiment.”

“EACH SONG ON DISAVOAWL IS ABOUT SOMETHING DIFFERENT. SOME ARE PERSONAL STORIES ABOUT TRAUMA, WHILE OTHERS CRITIQUE THE ABSOLUTE FAILURE OF THE IDEA OF ‘COMMUNITY’.

OTHERS PAINT THE PICTURES OF NO FUTURE. THE ALBUM IS ABOUT DESPAIR AND PERSONAL STRUGGLE, BUT IT’S ALSO ABOUT THE GILMMERS OF HOPE THAT EXIST ALL AROUND US IF YOU LOOK HARD ENOUGH.”

- BEN @TETHEREDTODOUBT

HOW WAS DISAVOWAL RECORDED?

“We recorded everything live with our friend lamb in our house (who also mixed & mastered this release). We threw it together mostly in one day. The cabs were mic’d in the garage and bathroom while drums were put together in the living room & kitchen. Then I did vocals, overdubs, noise, and samples before adding the finishing touches.”

ANY SHOWS OR TOURS COMING UP?

“Our goal for this summer is to go on a mini run in July around Texas and to play around Austin more.”

ANY CLOSING WORDS FOR OUR READERS?

“Life is a long, miserable suicide that ends in catastrophe but it doesn't have to be that way. Lean on each other and forgive one another. TTD will never die.”

Follow Tethered To Doubt on their insta, link below, to keep up-to-date with their upcoming shows and their very bright-yet-extremely-dark/blackened-and-sludgy-noisy-as-fuck-future of making gloriously evil and heavy tunes.

Tethered To Doubt is Ben on vocals, guitar & samples, Zoe on Bass, and Josh on drums.