CLUTCH To Reteam With Producer GENE 'MACHINE' FREEMAN For Next Studio Album

Maryland rockers CLUTCH have reteamed with Grammy-winning producer Gene "Machine" Freeman (LAMB OF GOD, KYNG) for the recording sessions for their next studio album, tentatively due in early 2026. Freeman previously worked with CLUTCH on 2004's "Blast Tyrant", 2013's "Earth Rocker" and 2015's "Psychic Warfare" LPs.

In a new interview with That Fuzzing Rock Show, CLUTCH frontman Neil Fallon revealed that he and his bandmates are "currently working on the next record… Actually, we're gonna start our very first pre-production week this coming Monday with Machine," he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

Fallon went on to say that CLUTCH might "play a new song or two" on its upcoming June 2025 tour, "because it's always best to practice them in front of a live studio audience because that's a much more demanding proving ground than the studio…

"There's something to be said about things that you could do in a studio that are fun and irreplicable live to some degree, but it's easy to paint yourself into a corner," Neil explained. "And then you can't do that unless you're bringing 80 other people on tour with you, and we don't wanna do that. So, we'll see. I'm excited to play some of these songs."

Two months ago, Neil told the Mark And Me podcast about the progress of the songwriting sessions for CLUTCH's follow-up to the "Sunrise On Slaughter Beach" album, which was released in September 2022: "Yeah, we're writing now. It's taken longer than I think we would've liked to have, but to be honest, we toured a lot in the past three years, like really grounded down. When you come home from tour, you don't wanna turn around the next day and say, 'Let's get together and write a song.' Gotta take a bit of a break. And we took off maybe four weeks and then got back together. And we get together maybe once, twice a week for four or five hours. But again, it's, like you gotta write a lot of garbage to get to the good stuff. And it seems the less premeditated it is, those are the songs that end up as part of the canon, almost the accidental songs. Those are the ones that seem to be the best."

This past March, CLUTCH announced the second leg of the "Full Ahead Flank MMXXV" North American tour. Support on the trek, which will launch on July 30 in Little Rock, Arkansas, will come from BLACKTOP MOJO and THE INSPECTOR CLUZO.

The first leg of "Full Ahead Flank MMXXV" will take place in June, with special guests TYLER BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN and Nate Bergman.

CLUTCH has been writing new music on and off around its touring commitments, preparing for what will be the band's fourteenth studio LP. Although CLUTCH previously announced it was working with producer Tom Dalgety once again, those plans appear to now have been abandoned.

Fans keen for the latest tidbits should sign up to CLUTCH's newsletter, News From The Doom Saloon, via their official web site. Its recent instalment exclusively revealed two working titles for new songs: "Church Of The Mountain Wolf" and "Wild Kingdom".

CLUTCH shares more in common with THE GRATEFUL DEAD, RUSH and THE ALLMAN BROTHERS than their heavy riffs and heady twists-of-phrase might suggest. Because like those bands, the supporters who adore CLUTCH are there for the experience, community, and authentic connection. To love CLUTCH is to feel a sense of ownership, membership, and belonging.

Seneca Valley High School classmates Neil Fallon (vocals),Tim Sult (guitar),Dan Maines (bass) and Jean-Paul Gaster (drums) share an unshakeable musical and personal bond now three decades strong. Shaped by the same region which birthed BAD BRAINS, MINOR THREAT and RITES OF SPRING, CLUTCH crafts hyper-literate and libertine jams informed by hardcore fury and fuzzy, athletic, stoner rock.

Live shows over the years include tours with SLAYER and SYSTEM OF A DOWN and more recent co-headlining treks with DROPKICK MURPHYS, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE and MASTODON. Like SLAYER or IRON MAIDEN, CLUTCH outlasted rock bands anchored to "hit songs" and the pressure of replicating them. The foursome from Germantown, Maryland, isn't bound by trends. Across thirteen studio albums and assorted releases since 1991, they've earned a reputation as one of the best around.