Staffed by former members of Dutch bands the Devil's Blood and Astrosoniq, Molasses appeared at the end of the 2010s offering a mix of doom rock and soaring psychedelia that carried on the legacy of those two acts. A commission to write new music for the 2019 Roadburn Festival essentially served as their debut, and they released their first album, Through the Hollow, a year later. In the wake of the Devil's Blood's 2013 disbandment and the subsequent suicide of her brother and bandmate Selim Lemouchi, singer Farida Lemouchi spent several years collaborating with acts like Griftegård, Heretic, and Urfaust, while shying away from a frontperson role. At the suggestion of Roadburn artistic director Walter Hoeijmakers, she and former bandmates Oeds Beydals, Job van de Zande, and Ron van Herpen teamed up with Astrosoniq's Marcel van de Vondervoort as well as Bob Hogenelst (Birth of Joy) and Matthijs Stronks (Donnerwetter) to form what was essentially a Dutch doom rock supergroup. Named after a song from Selim Lemouchi's final project, Molasses made their debut at the Roadburn Festival in 2019, with a combined sound that honored their past projects while exploring a big, expansive heavy psych sound. Signing with the Season of Mist label in early 2020, they released their debut album, Through the Hollow, that October. ~ Timothy Monger