Premiere: –(16)– ‘Forgeries Vol 1, 1972–1984’ – New Album Drops Tomorrow, 1st May
Few bands have carved out a path quite like –(16)–. For more than three decades, the Southern California veterans have dragged sludge, hardcore, punk, noise-rock and straight-up heavy metal through their own cracked lens, turning every influence into something uglier, weightier and unmistakably theirs.
That instinct to reshape rather than simply replicate sits at the heart of their latest release, Forgeries Vol 1, 1972–1984, a covers album that feels less like a nostalgic detour and more like a look under the floorboards at the songs that helped build the band in the first place.
What makes the album so compelling is that –(16)–don’t approach these tracks with museum-glass reverence. Instead, they pull them apart, rough them up and force them through the same grimy, low-slung machinery that has powered their own catalogue for years. It is a record rooted in admiration, certainly, but also in transformation – a reminder that the best covers are never just copies, they are arguments, reinterpretations and sometimes outright acts of reclamation.
Today, The Shaman is pleased to premiere Forgeries Vol 1, 1972–1984in full, so turn it up and hear –(16)– making someone else’s history sound entirely their own…
More On –(16)– & ‘Forgeries Vol 1, 1972–1984’
There comes a point in every band’s life when originality stops being a virtue and honesty takes the wheel. On their 11th long-playing record, Forgeries Vol 1, 1972–1984, –(16)–return to the impulse that first dragged them into loud rooms and bad ideas: the urge to steal what we love and make it semi-unrecognizable through devotion.
They have partnered with Heavy Psych Sounds Records to release a collection of covers that function less as homage and more as a possession to be given away. The artwork, rendered by the ever-amazing Marald, completes the ritual, iconic, unsettling, and unafraid.
They’ve always believed that a great cover is not mimicry but revelation. It’s finding a song that’s already lived inside you since youth and letting it crawl out, bruised and changed. From the early ’90s onward, –(16)–have treated covers as translations rather than as replicas, acts of tribute and emulation, filtered through distortion, fatigue, and lived experience. These are songs that taught us how to stand, how to fall, and how to keep going.
In our collective head, this album exists because these songs demanded it. Because they screamed copy me, and we listened. In the end, Forgeries Vol 1, 1972–1984stands as both a thank you note and a theft, a reminder that all music worth a damn is borrowed, broken, and passed on between friends.
The selections on Forgeries Vol 1, 1972–1984span eras and attitudes, unified not by genre but by necessity. Each track is a document of obsession, of influence absorbed and re-expressed without permission.
Forgeries Vol 1, 1972–1984 Tracklist:
01. Can’t Get Enough (Scorpions)
02. Nausea (X)
03. Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll (Blue Öyster Cult)
04. Rotten To The Core (Rudimentary Peni)
05. Mother Mary (UFO)
06. Tragedy (Bee Gees)
07. Bloodstains (Agent Orange)
08. Beat My Head Against The Wall (Black Flag)
09. St. Vitus Dance (Black Sabbath)
10. Foreign Policy (Fear)
11. Rocket Ride (Kiss)
–(16)– is:
Bobby Ferry – Guitars, Vocals
Alex Shuster – Lead Guitar
Barney Firks – Bass
Dion Thurman – Drums, Percussion
Forgeries Vol 1, 1972–1984, a covers album dragged through –(16)–‘s grimy, low-slung sludge machinery, releases tomorrow, 1st May, through Heavy Psych Sounds. Vinyl pre-orders are available on the label’s webstore here and digipak CD here, while digital downloads are available on Bandcamp.
Label: Heavy Psych Sounds
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
