“…a magnificent aural monolith to gloom…” – Cvlt Nation
Oakland-based dark punk alchemists ALARIC will undrape their long-anticipated new full-length, End Of Mirrors, this Spring on CD, vinyl, and digitally via Neurot Recordings, and on cassette via Sentient Ruin.
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| Photo Credit: Raul Varela |
Oppressive, gloomy, and epically grandiose, each of the seven hymns comprising the offering provides an emotional and deeply physical journey through inky, blackened sonic murk, devoid of all hope.
In advance of its release, today Cvlt Nation offers up the first teaser from the record in the form of closing hymn, “Angel.”
“‘Angel' is the last song we wrote for the album and the first to be revealed,” reveals vocalist Shane Baker of the track. “The bass and drums push and pull in a waltz while a melodic lead guitar threads through. The narrative seems a story of a romance that is doomed when the narrator goes off to war. The endless eternal war. There was Eden and then there was the death of innocence. It relates to all falls from grace, which is just change. There is Lucifer and his angels falling from heaven, disappointed and heartbroken with their God as they vow to create a new world for themselves in Hell. And then there is hope.”
In advance of its release, today Cvlt Nation offers up the first teaser from the record in the form of closing hymn, “Angel.”
“‘Angel' is the last song we wrote for the album and the first to be revealed,” reveals vocalist Shane Baker of the track. “The bass and drums push and pull in a waltz while a melodic lead guitar threads through. The narrative seems a story of a romance that is doomed when the narrator goes off to war. The endless eternal war. There was Eden and then there was the death of innocence. It relates to all falls from grace, which is just change. There is Lucifer and his angels falling from heaven, disappointed and heartbroken with their God as they vow to create a new world for themselves in Hell. And then there is hope.”
Cvlt Nation champions, “a magnificent aural monolith to gloom – a deathrock opera that brilliantly sews together the dusky emotivity of Bauhaus and Christian Death, the punishing and bleak atmospheres of Killing Joke and of the heaviest punk bands, and the desolate and hopeless atmospheres of the most crippling doom.”
Hear “Angel” at THIS LOCATION.
ALARIC’s End Of Mirrors is set for global release on May 6th, 2016.
End Of Mirrors was recorded and mixed by Skot Brown at his Kempton House Studios. Brown -- who’s worked on previous ALARIC works -- provides an integral contribution to the offering in capturing the band’s vision and expanding upon it to manifest a soundscape that can be dark, unsettling, and complex while still giving the songs a chance to breathe and shine with extraordinary clarity.
Make no mistake, End Of Mirrors is no passive listen. Shane Baker’s lyrics are deeply personal yet universal in scope, reflecting hard times in a fallen world at a moment of monumental change in the lives of the band members. Drummer Jason Willer provides ALARIC’s percussive punishment, driving the band forward with power and finesse and then dropping down into a roiling boil of tribal toms. Bassist Rick Jacobus deals in woozy but solid lines that carry melody while simultaneously filling the sonic space with riding drone notes. Russ Kent’s guitar playing creates scintillating, cascading moments of beauty – his own “sheets of electric rain” — that open into crushing and aggressive distortion. It all comes together and twines around the atmospheric explorations of newly enlisted sound artist and experimental electronic musician Thomas Dimuzio who utilizes a Buchla Polyphonic radio tuner, modular analog synthesizers, and other non-traditional methods to create his art.
ALARIC began their voyage in 2008 with an eye toward creating moody and compelling music unlike any other. Beginning with influences from such progenitors as Killing Joke and Christian Death to the darkest, heaviest punk bands and the most epic psychedelia, the band has dedicated itself to creating a singularly shadowy electric guitar-driven music. ALARIC’s previous releases include a debut single Animal/Shadow Of Life (FYBS/ Buried In Hell Records, 2010), a self-titled LP (20 Buck Spin, 2011) and a split 12” LP, with Atriarch (20 Buck Spin, 2012). ALARIC, who recently opened for Neurosis on one of their three special thirtieth anniversary shows in San Francisco earlier this month, completed a full European tour with Cross Stitched Eyes last Fall and are currently plotting live assaults in support of End Of Mirrors.
Further info on End Of Mirrors, including preorder links to be unveiled in the coming weeks.
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