Since Clutch has never achieved anything resembling mainstream success or acceptance, it’s had to settle for rabidly zealous fan worship. It seems the perfect revenge for a band that’s endured an almost endless cycle of being courted and signed by an excited label only to be advised to change its image and steer its progressive Stoner Rock boat toward the radio mainstream, with the band’s subsequent failure resulting in being dropped by said label.
So it has to be the most delicious irony that the Maryland quartet has maintained its Hard Rock/Alt Metal direction — played at a concussive volume that would shred a drone at 500 feet — and has circumvented any future corporate counsel by starting its own label, Weathermaker Music, for its last three stellar albums, including the 2015 pummelfest Psychic Warfare.
Since the band’s inception nearly a quarter century ago, Clutch has only shifted personnel twice — frontman Neil Fallon took over for original vocalist Roger Smalls almost immediately, and the band (Fallon, guitarist Tim Suit, bassist Dan Maines and drummer Jean-Paul Gaster) added keyboardist Mick Schauer in 2005 for a three-year stint. Without bowing to any ill-considered advice from any label — the group has recorded for seven of them — Clutch has released 11 studio albums (averaging a release nearly every two years). The band even had two hits with the same album. In 2011, Clutch reissued its DRT album Blast Tyrant, which had debuted at No. 15 upon its original 2004 release; the reissue, salted with unreleased tracks and acoustic takes, reached No. 26 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Hard Rock chart.
All of this has been accomplished while the band has toured relentlessly behind each new release. Fallon proved his indestructibility two years ago when he announced that Clutch would have to postpone its Earth Rocker tour due to his critical need for neck surgery to correct two herniated discs. Fallon had the operation in September and the band was back on the road the following month. That’s the level of dedication that Clutch brings to its fans, and that’s why its fans are legion.
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This article appears in Dec 30, 2015 – Jan 5, 2016.