
Chaotic grinders The Wind in the Trees (ex-The Heads are Zeros, Whenskiesaregray) recently released a split with likeminded band Thin, and now they’re gearing up for their own new full-length album, their first since their 2019 debut LP A Gift of Bricks from the Sky. It’s called Architects of Light, and it’s due July 15 via Twelve Gauge Records (pre-orders launch 6/1 at noon). It was engineered and mixed by Kevin Bernsten (Praise, Pianos Become the Teeth, etc), and it offers up 14 tracks, including the 72-second lead single “Parasitic Dawn,” which premieres in this post. It hits like a jackhammer to the skull and never lets up once, with all kinds of discordance and noise worked into the song’s shapeshifting attack. Give it a listen below.
Talking about the new record, guitarist Dave Gill says, “This record was really different for us because we didn’t nail down every little thing before we went into the studio. I’m normally super stressed about getting every part exactly right before we start recording but we left a lot of the songs more open ended to see what would work once we started tracking. Some of my favorite songs on the record were heavily shaped by chance ideas we had in the studio or our producer Kevin Bernsten pulling out something like an old broken tape echo for the one part where you get to breathe for a moment before the walls cave in.”
Vocalist Brandon Winter says, “For me, the difference from the first record is the amount of time I had to pen the words. I had ample space to build something conceptually, to create a narrative that would amplify the intensity of what Dave was writing. After the concept was thought up I think it really helped mold what we pushed for in the final product, lyrically and musically and artistically.”
Dave adds, “On A Gift of Bricks from the Sky we just dumped an entire record in Brandon’s lap and he had to write lyrics all at once without being in the room for the writing. This time we were talking about album concepts the whole time and Brandon’s alien apocalypse idea brought everything together and became the framework for the whole record that sent us off in a different writing direction for some really bleak sounding parts.”
Here’s the new track:
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25 Chaotic Hardcore, Mathcore & Sasscore Albums from the 2000s That Are Seminal Today
Black Cat #13 – I Blast Off! (2000)
The Sawtooth Grin – Cuddlemonster (2001)
Racebannon – In the Grips of the Light (2002)
The Blood Brothers – March On Electric Children (2002)
Orchid – Orchid (aka “Gatefold”) (2002)
Since By Man – We Sing the Body Electric (2003)
"We sing the body electric/Sickness says hold on/Would you like to dance, dance, dance?"
That's how Since By Man open "A Kid Who Tells on Another Kid is a Dead Kid" (probably an Over the Edge reference but not a Nation of Ulysses cover), with Sam Macon raising his voice to a harsh shriek on "dance, dance, dance" and totally embodying flamboyant hardcore in the process. That line also gives this Milwaukee band's Revelation-released debut LP its title, and -- for a subgenre that prides itself on shamelessly verbose poetry -- it makes sense that a band would name their album after a Whitman poem. Throughout We Sing the Body Electric, Since By Man deliver a shapeshifting soundscape that bounces between melodic math riffs, clean-sung hooks, and bludgeoning metalcore, sounding like a cross between The Blood Brothers, Botch, and Poison The Well (who Since By Man guitarist Brad Clifford later joined). It's often a fast, frenzied, constantly-in-motion record, but it sets itself apart from dime-a-dozen mathcore with a few atmospheric, slow-burning songs that veer closer to Jupiter-era Cave In. I don't know if this particular album is a big influence on the current punk scene or not, but it sure sounds like it could be; it combines a lot of different sounds that have been coming to prominence in recent years. Some parts of this album sound like early 2000s post-hardcore in a nutshell, but other times it feels genuinely ahead of its time.
The Locust – Plague Soundscapes (2003)
Ed Gein – It’s a Shame That a Family Can Be Torn Apart by Something as Simple as a Pack of Wild Dogs (2003)
An Albatross – We Are the Lazer Viking (2003)
Daughters – Canada Songs (2003)
HORSE the Band – R. Borlax (2003)
Fear Before the March of Flames – Art Damage (2004)
Showbread – No Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical (2004)
The Great Redneck Hope – Behold the Fuck Thunder (2004)
The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower – Love in the Fascist Brothel (2005)
The Number Twelve Looks Like You – Nuclear. Sad. Nuclear (2005)
The Jonbenet – The Plot Thickens (2005)
XBXRX – Sixth In Sixes (2005)
Letters In Binary – Pretty and Perpendicular (2006)
Phoenix Bodies – Raise the Bullshit Flag (2006)
Me and Him Call It Us – Loss (2006)
Genghis Tron – Board Up The House (2008)
Duck Duck Goose – Noise, Noise and More Noise (2008)
Heavy Heavy Low Low – Turtle Nipple and the Toxic Shock (2008)

