Indica Blues (Universal Heat Death)

5 hours ago
5 min read

Released: 2026

Genre: Stoner rock, Psychedelic, Heavy psych

Sounds Like: Bonehawk, Iota, Black Elephant

Homeland: UK

What makes Universal Heat Death elite and sit atop OHMs Peak?

Universal Heat Death is an energizing blend of raw stoner rock and melodic psychedelic fuzz, highlighted by a wealth of jamming.
The vocals have a classic muffled tone that blends perfectly with the music.
The production possesses a raw and authentic sound that captures the essence of a live performance. This unique ambiance enhances the overall experience.

Track Listing:

Universal Heat Death 3:36
The Raven 4:35
Bloodsands pt.1 5:13
The Slow Descent into Hell 2:29
Debt Ridden Blues 7:42
Bloodsands pt.2 7:29
So Low 6:06

Dive deeper into Univeral Heat Death with our Q&A with Tom Pilsworth, Singer/Guitarist.

OHMs Peak: Universal Heat Death is a massive, echo‑laden journey—equal parts classic stoner rock, cosmic doom, and melodic psychedelia. Your sound feels both familiar and forward‑thinking. What influenced the band’s sonic direction leading into this album?

Tom Pilsworth: I should start by saying that we recorded this album in 2024. Four years after the previous album, We Are Doomed. In that time longstanding guitarist John Slaymaker left to re-join Caravan of Whores (great band check them out) and Lewis Batten joined us. So that was a period of change and must have influenced the sound.

We allowed ourselves to be a bit more experimental, which you can hear in the “Bloodsands” tracks, and also Debt Ridden Blues, which Lewis wrote the music for and is about as close to real blues as we’ve ever come!

I’ve always been quite influenced by the first Queens of the Stone Age record - the clean simplicity of those tracks. So that’s probably where the ironically titled “Slow Descent into Hell” came from.

But really we have so many different influences in this band, everything from Killing Joke and Kyuss to Pink Floyd and The Who. Stoner rock and doom is where our playing styles converge when we jam in the studio, but it's nice to pull it in different directions sometimes.

OHMs Peak: “Bloodsands Pt. 2” absolutely floored us. The way it erupts with that percussive surge, the swirling echo, and the sense of momentum—it’s such a unique and powerful moment on the record. Can you walk us through the creation of this track and how it evolved into the album’s standout centerpiece?

Tom Pilsworth: Andy, our bassist, wrote the music for this one and when I asked him he said “It just sounded cool at the time… A faint groove to propel it along with enough breathing space in the verses for some all important silence.”

It was quite a difficult one to put together as I remember so I’m glad it came off. Andy was mucking around with this “Phrygian dominate” scale and his noodlings first produced the “Bloodsands PT.1” track, which I think we put together basically by jamming it out in the studio.

Then he came up with this different set of riffs using the same scale and it produced another great jam, but we weren’t sure what to do with it.

So later on he came up with the other parts like that chunky chorus riff, and put it into a rough structure. At that point I usually try to come up with a theme and lyrics… I knew I wanted to write something about Boudica, a British tribal Queen, as it's such a cool topic for a doom band - her rebellion against the Romans which took them by surprise. I bought some old historical fiction book off eBay about her life and raided that for inspiration. Then we started putting it together in the practice studio. It was a struggle at first, especially getting the vocals right, in that unusual scale. But the end result was a really immersive track, so it was worth the effort. Now we are in the process of re-learning it to play live!

OHMs Peak: Indica Blues has built a reputation for immersive, high‑energy live shows. What has been your most memorable performance to date, and what made that night particularly special for the band?

Tom Pilsworth: If there’s high energy I think it’s mostly coming from Rich who is a whirlwind behind the kit at our shows!

Our most memorable gig by a long way has to be playing Desertfest London. It was always a bucket list thing for us - the band was basically founded to be a part of that scene but it took a really long time to get in there. The venue was packed like no other gig we’ve played and the backline was unbelievably loud. And nothing broke! Which is unusual for us. Unforgettable experience.

OHMs Peak: Your sound is rooted in stoner rock, doom, and heavy psych, but it also stretches into melodic and atmospheric territory. What band outside of those genres would you love to tour with—one whose audience or energy you feel would complement your own?

Tom Pilsworth: Personally I’d love to support Amyl and the Sniffers. I think the energy they bring to live shows is just unreal. We’re more of a close your eyes and listen kind of band. But we could certainly make a great warm up act.

OHMs Peak: The album artwork for Universal Heat Death is striking and cosmic, perfectly matching the scale of the music. Who developed the concept, and what meaning or story does the imagery hold for you?

Tom Pilsworth: It was Rich who first mentioned the concept of the heat death of the universe (in which the universe will expand to the point at which there is no energy left - and no life) in band practice. He works on nuclear fusion projects so actually knows about this stuff! As soon as he started talking about it, I thought that sounded a great title for an album. And it makes sense - the last album was partly about nuclear war. So where do you go after the end of humanity? You have to talk about the end of the universe itself. It wasn’t easy to find an appropriate artist but we found Reza Afshar, a great sci fi illustrator - check his stuff out on instagram.

OHMs Peak: Indica Blues is stranded on an island with only a solar‑powered turntable and a pair of majestic solar Bluetooth speakers. The band can collectively choose only one album to bring. Which album do you all agree on?

Tom Pilsworth: You’ll be pleased to know we took this question very seriously, and after a lengthy and bitter debate, during which Black Sabbath Vol.4 was cast into the sea because “I’m not listening to ‘Changes’ on repeat on a desert island!”, we finally settled on Earthless - Rhythms From a Cosmic Sky.

Indica Blues are:

Tom Pilsworth – Guitar, Vocals

Lewis Batten – Guitar

Andrew Haines-Villalta – Bass

Rich Walker – Drums

Released on Majestic Mountain Records

Follow Indica Blues: Facebook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peS1Qqb0xZc