Clutch had never put a banjo on one of their records until Neil Fallon picked up a poorly tuned Deering Goodtime at the band’s rehearsal space in Frederick, Maryland. Drummer Jean-Paul Gaster added a hip hop beat, and Fallon figured that was about as far as the idea would go. Instead, the banjo part he played that afternoon opens a new chapter for the band. “Beware the Fever” arrived November 10 alongside dates for Clutch’s Give the People What They Want! headline tour.
Gaster remembers the instrumental demo taking less than 20 minutes. Fallon recorded the banjo at the Doom Saloon in January 2026, then added electric guitar and bass to build the chorus. Gaster kept playing the demo, curious about what Fallon might sing over it. He got his answer months later in preproduction with producer Machine. Fallon had drawn on the ghost towns of Appalachia and central Pennsylvania to write about a fever moving through town. “They’re the perfect backdrop for all manner of strangeness,” he said in the band’s announcement.
The banjo on the finished track is the one from that January demo. The song follows “The Drifter Returns” and the title track from Wasted Lands, due January 22, 2027, on Clutch’s own Weathermaker Music. It’s their fourteenth studio album and their first with Machine since 2015’s Psychic Warfare.
Corrosion of Conformity, Agnostic Front and Chuck Ragan join the headline run. All four acts are booked for March 2 at Stage AE in Pittsburgh and April 2 at The Fillmore Philadelphia. The Philadelphia show falls on the tour’s final weekend, followed by Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut on April 3 and Brooklyn Steel on April 4.
The routing includes a few different bills. Clutch play The Republik in Honolulu on February 5 with local support, followed by their rescheduled Green Bay show on February 27. Negative Approach takes the Agnostic Front slot in Cleveland on February 28. Clutch’s March 20 appearance in Joshua Tree is part of the Mojave Experience festival, which also lists Corrosion of Conformity on its lineup.
The artist presale begins Tuesday, November 10 at noon ET, with local and venue presales following at 2 p.m. ET. Knotfest and Blabbermouth presales open Wednesday, November 11 at 2 p.m. ET. Presales end Thursday, November 12 at 10 p.m. local venue time. The general sale begins Friday, November 13 at 10 a.m. local venue time.
