Band Line Up 2019

As the moniker cryptically suggests, the music of ALL HAIL THE YETI evokes a hair-raising mixture of superstitious ritual and trippy backwoods folklore. It’s all drenched in the countercultural, mind-smashing, gut-punching bile of likeminded spiritual shamans like Acid Bath and Eyehategod, with the down-tuned sludge of stoner rock, and an electric injection from four-on-the-floor classic rock pioneers. 

ALL HAIL THE YETI summons a primal underground spirit shared in communion with horror convention attendees, metal festival-goers, and outlaws of all stripes. The Hollywood, California storytellers have their boots firmly planted in the cinematic anarchy of the modern exploitation masters, who bucked the studio systems, and their fingers scratching and clawing into the underbelly of Americana.

As mysterious as the thought-provoking handmade monuments that dot lonely roads, as fearsome yet enticing as the forks that beckon travelers to choose their next adventure, ALL HAIL THE YETI’s third album is a meditative road trip to the brain. Highway Crosses is a defining work of haunted power, filled with songs that traverse treacherous musical mountains with animalistic urgency and focused rage. 

Assembled with the obsessive DIY concentration of Freddy Krueger’s bladed glove or a batch of moonshine, ALL HAIL THE YETI made their mark in clubs and theaters a decade ago, until the larger international metal community could no longer ignore them. Songs like “The Art of Mourning,” “Suicide Woods,” and “Daughter of the Morning Star” are anthems for road-tripping vagabonds and cubicle crushing drones alike, touching a nerve with those who brave (or dream about) a life outside the box.

It’s a style of music and approach to songwriting and performance that has made ALL HAIL THE YETI equally at home in front of diverse crowds, sharing touring bills in the United States and Europe with bands like In This Moment, Motionless In White, Max & Iggor Cavalera, Hollywood Undead, 36 Crazy Fists, and Life Of Agony.

Minus HEAD Records proudly reissued the band’s self-titled debut, followed by the incredibly well received Screams from a Black Wilderness (2016), an anthology of original campfire tales comprising a creepy but nonetheless inviting sonic wilderness, produced by heavy tastemaker Matt Hyde (Slayer, Deftones, Hatebreed). 

Highway Crosses was made in collaboration with versatile Grammy-winning producer Warren Riker (Lauryn Hill, Santana, Michael Jackson), best known by metalheads for his work on the second and third albums by New Orleans supergroup DOWN and heavy slabs from Crowbar, Cynic, and the UK’s Cathedral. Songs like “Slow Season,” “Highway Crosses,” and “Felo De Se” mine the strengths of All Hail The Yeti’s already impressive catalog, with fresh vibrancy and raw ambition. 

“Slow Season” is a product of two different songs conceived for the album that were merged together, a lyrical contemplation about sanity and survival, when one finds themselves stranded alone. “Highway Crosses,” which like “Felo De Se” was co-written with Jorel Decker of Hollywood Undead, bucks All Hail The Yeti’s often unconventional structures for a more stripped-down almost Mötley Crüe style approach. Lyrically it’s the tale of a murderous lycanthrope that’s part An American Werewolf in London, part The Hitcher. Album closer “Nuclear Dust” is a continuation of sorts of “Nemesis Queen,” from the previous album, as 200-ft. tall killing machine monsters rule Earth.

Heavy music adherents weaned on anything from Metallica and Pantera to metalcore, Southern groove, black metal, or stoner grind will find a home among the All Hail The Yeti faithful. Film fanatics who worship Stanley Kubrick and John Carpenter have reasons to celebrate Highway Crosses as well, as the songs are fashioned with similar analog angst and obsessive craftsmanship. Whether kicking back at the Bucket of Blood Saloon in Nevada or reading true crime books in Deadwood, ALL HAIL THE YETI is the perfect soundtrack for the outsider. If rock is a big beach bonfire, ALL HAIL THE YETI are the creeps huddled in the backwoods.