End Of Mirrors is the forthcoming full-length from Oakland-based dark punk conjurors
ALARIC. Set for global release on May 6, 2016 on CD, vinyl, and digitally via Neurot Recordings, and on cassette via Sentient Ruin Laboratories, the record was captured and mixed by Skot Brown at Kempton House Studios and provides an emotional and deeply physical journey through inky, blackened sonic murk, devoid of all hope. Oppressive, gloomy, and epically grandiose, each of the seven psalms comprising
End Of Mirrors is at once beautiful and unsettling.
As a precursor to its release, today Invisible Oranges offers up third movement, “Mirrors” for communal ingestion noting, "Though they boast Russ ‘Mr. Hate’ Kent of Noothgrush fame,
ALARIC is not the type of metal band you would normally find on this website—or a metal band at all, for that matter. Though definitely doomed in their own unique way,
ALARIC is a post-punk band at their core, but
End Of Mirrors is no
Mesh & Lace goth club party anthem. Maintaining a sluggish tribal beat for the majority, ‘Mirrors’ reaches the lowest levels of despondency – psychedelic, woozy, and cold – before reaching a rabid and aggressive conclusion. The groundwork set by bassist Rick Jacobus and drummer Jason Willer meld the simplicity of a strong, locked-in rhythm with enough space for their own tasteful finesse, be it a brief, memorable cymbal flourish or a room-filling sympathetic drone. Kent’s shimmering, sharp guitar work maintains a cutting fuzz, countering Willer and Jacobus’s rich, smooth sound and creates a striking melodic counterpoint with Shane Baker’s distinctly groaning voice. Though I had previously asserted that
ALARIC had achieved their peak with their contribution to their 2012 split with fellow gloomers Atriarch, ‘Mirrors’ sets the bar higher.
ALARIC is night music for aging punks – the sound of the last call at an emptied, dimly lit bar slowly purging its last denizens. To quote a song from a previous Alaric release, ‘the sadness goes on,’ and it certainly does.”
Delve deep into “Mirrors,” now playing at Invisible Oranges at THIS LOCATION.
And if you missed it, sample “Angel,” still streaming at Cvlt Nation, at THIS LOCATION.
For various End Of Mirrors preorder bundles go HERE.
ALARIC -- featuring within its ranks current and former members Of Dead And Gone, Pins Of Light, Noothgrush, Hedersleben and UK Subs -- 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.
“…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.” – Cvlt Nation
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