Maryland rock band Clutch have released “Beware The Fever,” the new single from their fourteenth studio album, Wasted Lands, out January 22, 2027, through the band’s own Weathermaker Music. The song brings banjo onto a Clutch record for the first time. The band have also announced the Give The People What They Want 2027 US headline tour, with Corrosion of Conformity, Agnostic Front and Chuck Ragan as special guests.
Pre-order Wasted Lands here.
Banjo, Ghost Towns and a Fever
Following “The Drifter Returns” and the title track, “Beware The Fever” takes Neil Fallon’s storytelling to the ghost towns of Appalachia and central Pennsylvania, places where industrial decline and supernatural unease live side by side. “They’re the perfect backdrop for all manner of strangeness,” Fallon says. The song started as a joke:
“I played some random melodies on a poorly tuned Deering Goodtime banjo and JP put a hip-hop beat to it. I thought that would be the end of it. Boy was I wrong. As a result of this, I now spend a lot of my free time watching banjo tutorial videos.”
Neil Fallon
Drummer Jean-Paul Gaster says the music came together in less than 20 minutes, starting from a drum loop, with Fallon adding banjo, electric guitar and bass for the chorus. The banjo on the album is the original take from that first demo, recorded at the Doom Saloon in January 2026. “This song is easily one of my favorites on the record,” Gaster adds.
About Wasted Lands
Written and recorded at the Doom Saloon in Frederick, Maryland, Wasted Lands reunites Clutch with producer Machine for the first time since 2015’s Psychic Warfare, their fifth album together. It is the band’s first full-length since 2022’s Sunrise on Slaughter Beach, and it was written with the stage in mind after the band scrapped two earlier batches of songs that felt too studio-bound.
Tracklist: The Drifter Returns, Stage Fright, Loaf ‘N Jug, High Class Action Lawsuit, Chestburster, Beware The Fever, Wound Collector, Colorado Fuel and Iron, Streets Are His, The Green Skull, Wasted Lands, The Message Is Clear.
Give The People What They Want 2027 Tour
The tour opens February 5 in Honolulu and runs until April 4 at Brooklyn Steel, with stops at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and Los Angeles’ The Wiltern. Corrosion of Conformity, Agnostic Front and Chuck Ragan play all headline dates. Honolulu has local support, and the March 20 Mojave Experience festival in Joshua Tree does not include the support acts. Artist presales start today, November 10, at noon ET, and general sale begins Friday, November 13, at 10 AM local time. Tickets are at clutchmerch.com.
- Feb 5: Honolulu, HI, The Republik
- Feb 27: Green Bay, WI, Epic
- Feb 28: Cleveland, OH, Agora Theatre
- Mar 2: Pittsburgh, PA, Stage AE
- Mar 3: Grand Rapids, MI, GLC Live at 20 Monroe
- Mar 5: Detroit, MI, The Fillmore Detroit
- Mar 6: Chicago, IL, Ramova Theatre
- Mar 7: St. Paul, MN, Palace Theatre
- Mar 9: Denver, CO, Fillmore Auditorium
- Mar 10: Salt Lake City, UT, Rockwell at The Complex
- Mar 12: Portland, OR, Roseland Theater
- Mar 13: Seattle, WA, Showbox SoDo
- Mar 14: Vancouver, BC, Queen Elizabeth Theatre
- Mar 16: Sacramento, CA, Channel 24
- Mar 17: Los Angeles, CA, The Wiltern
- Mar 19: Las Vegas, NV, Brooklyn Bowl
- Mar 20: Joshua Tree, CA, Mojave Experience
- Mar 21: Phoenix, AZ, The Van Buren
- Mar 23: Austin, TX, Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
- Mar 24: Dallas, TX, House of Blues
- Mar 26: Lake Buena Vista, FL, House of Blues
- Mar 27: Atlanta, GA, The Eastern
- Mar 28: Nashville, TN, Ryman Auditorium
- Mar 30: Raleigh, NC, The Ritz
- Mar 31: Richmond, VA, The National
- Apr 2: Philadelphia, PA, The Fillmore Philadelphia
- Apr 3: Uncasville, CT, Mohegan Sun Arena
- Apr 4: Brooklyn, NY, Brooklyn Steel
Before that, Clutch tour Australia with Corrosion of Conformity in late January, with shows in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide’s Froth & Fury Festival.
Our Take
A banjo on a Clutch record sounds like a gimmick on paper, but this band has always pulled from blues and country, so it fits. Pairing them with Corrosion of Conformity, who we covered recently, plus hardcore veterans Agnostic Front, makes this one of the strongest rock packages of early 2027.
