“The inspiration behind that is, the antagonist in Ghostbusters was whatever it wanted to be. And that's what Sean [Murphy, bass] and I wanted for this project,” says guitarist Nick Kossor. “We can do whatever we want to do. We can write whatever kind of music we want to write.”

That philosophy has propelled Gozer over the past several years to rise to a position of prominence in the Northeastern heavy music scene, particularly in the NY Capital Region which the band calls home. Gozer’s unique sonic style keeps the band at the forefront and ever-busy, with a tireless gig calendar that’s only shaped the group into a tighter unit over time.

“The bottom line is, I just want to write music that you can nod your head to. For me, the most important aspect of it is the riff and just the head nodding,” says Kossor. “How do you define stoner rock? Part of me thinks, write a good riff that gets your head nodding.”

Gozer’s own specific approach to creating those sounds has a lot to do with the diverse interests of the band members, who each bring something different to the table. Kossor says he takes inspiration from the stoner/doom scene—bands like The Sword, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, and Green Lung—while bassist Sean Murphy and drummer Nick Masucci lean more metal. (For example, Masucci cites death metal heavyweights Sanguisugabogg as a favorite.) The end product is music that regularly pushes genre boundaries and expectations.

But riffs can only take a band so far—a great frontman is another essential piece—and in 2025 Gozer took a major step forward, introducing veteran Upstate NY vocalist Jackson Tollerton (Frozen Sun) as the band’s new singer. In addition to his powerful onstage presence, Tollerton immediately brought new creative life to the band’s latest material, as well.

“We gave him a blank canvas. We had a bunch of songs; we just scrapped any vocals we had from them and were just like, ‘Okay, here are these songs. What do you like? What do you hear?’ And it was very interesting, because some of the tracks that he picked are now singles for us,” says Murphy, the band’s core songwriter. “In fact, the two singles that we released recently—‘Monolith’ and ‘Timewalk’—a fun little factoid is both of those were probably going to get scrapped with our previous singer, because none of us could come up with anything that we liked. Jackson came in and those were immediately two of the ones he liked the most. It's just interesting how those ended up being much more his style.”

The band quickly found that their new singer was a dream fit on a personal level, too. Most obviously, Masucci and Tollerton shared an instant bond over the classic role playing boardgame Dungeons & Dragons, setting the stage for Gozer’s current thematic leanings.

“It’s nice to have Jackson in my corner with this. I definitely push the fantasy aspect of it,” says Masucci. “I personally love that. I've been playing D&D my whole life; my dad grew up playing it in the ’80s and raised me on it. So I love doing that. I think going forward, the ‘fantasy rock’ label is what we're going for.”

And indeed, the fantasy element comes across loud and clear in the lyrics to the band’s latest material, especially “Timewalk.” A longtime fan of spellcasters, Tollerton wove a story in the track that tells of a wizard desperately trying to seek immortality, however possible.

“This wizard has spent hundreds and thousands of years searching throughout different dimensions, and books, tomes, scrolls and grimoires, looking for a way to live forever; trying to juice out every ounce of energy and magic into that pursuit,” says Tollerton. “At the end of the song, it kind of becomes the snake eating its tail. You're chasing something that can't ever actually be attained, and you sometimes destroy yourself trying to chase such unobtainable or greedy goals. That was one of the first times that the band really had a chance to see that I wasn't just writing about fireballs and stuff. I like to put some messages in between the swords and sorcery, if I can.”

So now with the group creatively firing on all cylinders, Gozer plans to release their second full-length studio release, Twilight Fortress, later this year. Produced and engineered by veteran boardsman Tim Lynch at The Recording Company in Sloansville, NY, the new album marks the next stage for Gozer, and hints at a future that is only just getting underway now.

“The album is called Twilight Fortress, and it fits very well with some of the themes Jackson has, in terms of some of the fantasy stuff. My whole focus is just trying to get this out,” says Murphy. “This album is drastically better than the first one we did, in terms of production, in terms of song quality, everything.”

The group plans to play some key shows this year in support of the release—namely as hosts of the stoner/doom oriented first-annual Joint Jam Festival, to be held October 10 at Putnam Place in Saratoga Springs, NY. Beyond that, Murphy says the group already has nearly enough material for a third album, which he’s already masterminding as Gozer’s next grand sonic adventure.

“Honestly, once Twilight Fortress is out, it’s going to be like, ‘Okay, how do we build upon that? How do we top that?’ I already have like six to seven demos,” he says. “Because this has been kicking around for so long because of the lineup changes and things like that, we already have Gozer album No. 3 in the works. I've already actively begun writing for that, because it can never stop.”