Comprising just three tracks, Still‘s 2019 EP Reprieve made ridiculously effective use of its runtime, offering up a truly intoxicating strain of extremity that straddled sludge, black metal and hardcore with a mere hint of hope amongst all that gloom coming through some brief glimpses of atmospheric post-metal. Nevertheless, it was a raw and unrefined release that left us wanting more. Naturally, we’ve been excited by the prospect of a full-length ever since. Now, it’s finally on its way thanks to the ever reliable Trepanation Recordings, who will be putting { } (good luck referring to this one in IRL conversations) out in a month’s time.
Today we’re thrilled to be able to bring you a brand new track from the release in ‘Pendulous Spirit’, which launches out of the gate with intent powered by desperate cries, lurching riffs and a driving rhythm. It serves as a good introduction to the album’s unique sound, which offers a sort of progressive and yet dissonant blend of blackened hardcore and post-metal.
“I wrote ‘Pendulous Spirit’ after I read an article about self harm,” explains the band’s Jack Green. “It seemed appropriate for this record that addresses different facets of self destruction. The song is an attempt to describe the dichotomy of self harm. Using physical destruction to cope with emotional destruction. One type of pain to offset another. It makes no sense and yet has an uncanny symmetry. A yin and yang type mirroring. As such the mirror became the main theme. One that is endlessly vast but also contained within the self. A mirror that represents both the emotional capacity to experience pain and the cause of the pain; an echo chamber of suffering.
“It feels like an intuitive marriage of theme and music. The track has a lot of youthful energy that I think somehow resonated with the fact that self harm is often realised in a person’s youth. The song feels like a kind of primal honesty. Saying that life is hard and there isn’t a nice easy way out. The way out is often ugly and punishing but at least it is a way of making our own choices. Pushing ourselves into a new state and hopefully in that uncharted territory we might find freedom.”
Band member Fraser Briggs adds: “This track came into being with minimal resistance. We often labour over tracks for weeks or months but after I presented the parts to the group, things very quickly fell into place. When we write songs we usually try to avoid overt genre tropes or at least try our best to disguise them! With ‘A Pendulous Spirit’ the collective feeling was very much, ‘nah, just let it rage…’”
{ } is out 24th September via Trepanation Recordings. Order now.
Words: George Parr
