2025 saw the amicable demise of Colorado power duo INTHEWHALE, but like a phoenix rising from the ashes, guitarist/vocalist Nate Valdez and drummer Eric Riley were quick to bounce back, bringing in additional personnel to give us an equally impressive Graveyard Choir.
Designed by Valdez as an outlet for his love of “more traditional songwriting” and inspired by experiences working in his family’s mortuary business, Graveyard Choir’s sophomore effort, The Wake, was released on November 1, 2025, one year to the day after the release of the band’s debut full-length studio album, Restorative Art.
With the addition of the haunting vocals of Jen Riley, wife of drummer Eric, and bass provided by Thom Whitney, it’s on Graveyard Choir’s second release, polished like a brand new granite headstone, that the band truly finds their sound.
The record kicks off with “Stone,” a dirty blues track that sounds like it belongs in a juke joint with visuals of hounds, empty bottles, and a handful of stones. This method of painting pictures with lyrics continues throughout the album.
The second track, “Ride On,” was written by Valdez as a letter to his young son as “a reminder that losing your way is part of the journey, as long as you keep moving.” Themes of change, rebirth, and hope continue to be echoed on “Dirt Floor,” a powerful exploration of mortality and peace that introduces another recurring theme throughout the record: religion.
“Edge of Town” is a haunting and intense acoustic ballad about a woman struggling with life and her complicated relationship with God. Like a series of stained glass mosaics in an old church, sonic imagery is manifested through lyrics like “she smokes a pack of Marlboro Reds and curses his name,” “sleeps under the stars because she wants to see heaven,” and most notably, “she talks in tongues and swears she’s met Jesus.”
This album takes a dynamic, hairpin turn with “Duane’s Midnight Ride,” a high-octane rocker based on the late Allman Brothers guitarist Duane Allman about an indulgent anti-hero who, according to the lyrics, two years prior crashed his motorcycle, “head first into a truck” after travelling “faster than the devil could even fly.” The track is highlighted by the relentlessly catchy line of “let’s ride.”
Additional storytelling is found on “The Ballad of Marty Bergen,” with lyrics based on a tragic murder suicide that took place in 1900, and “16 oz Hammer,” is a song loosely based on Colorado Hammer Killer Alex Christopher Ewing. “Hard Rain,” a feel-good country song about a protagonist who, after feeling hopeless, is comforted by his mother’s reassurance that the “storm won’t rage on forever.”
Perhaps the most sensitive moment on The Wake can be found on “Coffee Cups,” an endearing old-timey country love song in which the narrator lovingly recounts to his partner images of “singing at the top of your lungs,” “dancing on the salt flats,” and, as the title suggests, “drinking wine out of coffee cups.”The album concludes with boisterous garage rocker “Nazis Took Away My U.S.A.,” an equally fun and angry, chantable anthem about commonly shared frustrations surrounding the country’s current political climate.
In all, The Wake is a ten-song masterpiece about change, rebirth, regret, forgiveness, love, and hope, with lyrics that elicit clear and vibrant visuals, painting pictures that culminate in a sonic museum of sorts. Or, perhaps, an old church basement.
At times soft and solemn as a funeral, while at others loud and raucous enough to raise the dead, The Wake truly solidifies Graveyard Choir’s place as one of the most noteworthy bands in the state of Colorado and beyond.
