Smoke was founded in 2019 by Dalton Huskin, Braxton Landrum, and Alex Thurston. Six months later, Ben Gold was added to the band, forming the line up as it is known today.
-Alex Thurston: Drums
-Dalton Huskin: Vocals/Guitar
-Ben Gold: Guitar
-Braxton Landrum: Bass
The band mixes the heavy fuzz of doom metal with the deep sounds and groove of psychedelic rock. Smoke's first full length album was recorded at Fainting Goat Studio in Bedford, Virginia, and was mixed and mastered by Ben McLeod of All Them Witches fame.
The album titled Groupthink is a concept album about the dangers of groupthink, specifically in the context of cults throughout modern history. This idea is explored throughout the album, with each track focusing on a particular cult or religious group.
Track one, Groupthink, sets the stage for the album. "Worry no more, your mind is not your own", introduces a central theme that carries throughout the album. Listeners come upon cloaked figures who bring the entity known as the "Light Bringer" into the world to judge humanity's fate. Namely, humanity's ability to obtain and utilize knowledge and their inability to freely give it with nothing to gain for themselves.
Track two, Temple, is about the Jonestown massacre of 1978. The lyrics take on the role of Jim Jones himself. The lyric that sticks out as a true theme for the song is, "Your God is here, for he is I."
Track three, One Eyed King is the story of Shoko Asahara, the founder and leader of Aum Shinrikyo, the cult that was responsible for the largest domestic terrorist act in Japan's histotry in 1995. The song is a long epic about the power vacuum left after World War II, how that allowed a group like Aum Shinrikyo to rise to power, and their use of sarin gas to attack the subway systems of Japan.
Track four, Davidian dives into the religious thinkings and dogma of the Branch Davidians of Waco, Texas. David Koresh was the leader of the group throughout the entire Waco siege, which was a 51-day stand-off between the cult and federal authorities. The lyrics took reference from the Branch Davidians religious texts, comparing the compound's fall to "Babylon's final breath", and describes the tanks and guns used during the siege: "Iron rolls to the gate, modern spears, the harlot's bait."
Track five, The Son of Man discusses the Manson Family. The lyrics sound like things Mason himself would say to his followers: "Go and seek, all the seekers, seeking the seekers, and bring them back to me."
Track six, Supplication of Flame tells two stories. The first story being the true story of the French-Canadian cult, The Knights of the Solar Temple. The Solar Temple was a group consisting of two leaders who seduced followers from the upper echelons of society. In the 1990s they commited multiple acts of ritual murder/suicide across multiple countries, eventually bringing an end to their group. The second story is a fictional tale of knights entering into a small town and destroying the townspeople's way of life by converting them to a new religion, then convincing the people they must fight for their new god.
Track seven, TELAH is the final track on the album. TELAH stands for "The Evolutionary Level Above Human". The acronym was used by the sci-fi cult known as Heaven's Gate. The lyrics in this song also take the point of view of the cult's belief system and tell the story of the epic battle between humanity and gods from outer space.
The album Groupthink is not meant to glorify these personalities and belief systems that lead people to their deaths, but is instead meant to show the ridiculousness and danger of these groups that were allowed to flourish. The victims of these cults were not gullible or stupid, but instead were seduced (mentally, and in some cases physically) with the promises of connection, love, and salvation. As the groups got increasingly dangerous, it was easier for the victims to go along as they had already invested so much of their lives and identities.
While cults are extreme cases of groupthink, this concept is not isolated in the extreme. People fall prey to group think every day through political systems, religion, and influences from society. When one can identify group think, one is less likely to fall prey to it.
We invite you to do your own research on these cults and make connections between the lyrics on these tracks and the thread of groupthink throughout history.