It’s been almost two years since California hardcore band Initiate released their excellent Cerebral Circus LP, and they just returned with a great new single that really screams “we’re back.” The nearly-four-minute “Too Much” really leans into the band’s Touché Amoré-ish hardcore-meets-post-hardcore side, with underlying jangly acoustic guitars, post-rocky atmosphere, and tons of impassioned fury. It was produced, mixed, and mastered by Zach Tuch, and the drums on this one were played by Militarie Gun’s Waylon Trim. A music video is coming Friday, but meanwhile, you can stream the song below.
Initiate vocalist Crystal Pak also guests on the upcoming EP from Church Tongue, whose guitarist Nicko Calderone is also in Knocked Loose. Deafheaven’s George Clarke and Twitching Tongues/God’s Hate’s Colin Young guest on that EP too.
UPDATE: The video is out now, and Crystal Pak put out this statement:
Hey guys, Crystal here.
With a ceasefire upon us and our music video coming out tomorrow, I felt compelled to share a few thoughts.
When I wrote Too Much, my hope with this song was that it guides the listener to begin internal dialogue with themselves, because the song is written about my own internal dialogue in regards to how destructive and careless the media has been with Palestinian lives. Too Much touches the dark and the light, how the constant exposure to death makes me feel like living to see the next day is incredibly bleak, but when you do find the light in that dark place, it permeates through.
We reached out to Sandy and John(@imsmartandfun and @wavelengthrender), who approached the task of the visualization of the song with so much care. They showed us the poem, Because of Us by Em Berry(@skinhungry) and we knew we needed gauze to be the focal-point of our video. What I didn’t realize until filming, is how fierce this gentle piece of fabric was against the elements. Through water, ice, wind and fire, it took on a lot but held strong. It was my own epiphany; my own tiny, tangible glimpse of understanding the survival of an entire group of people.
And with that, it’s forever and always – Free Palestine.
