As Midwestern black/shoegaze outfit CHROME WAVES and New York City-area’s hostile alchemist GRIDFAILURE prepare to independently release their split album next week, new tracks from both artists have been posted at Bandcamp.
CHROME WAVES delivers nearly thirty minutes of their ominous, blackened rock, with two original tracks and their rendering of the bleak classic “The Eternal” by Joy Division, recorded and mixed at Disorder Recordings in Indianapolis, Indianapolis, with James Benson providing vocals, Jeff Wilson performing bass, guitars, programming, synth, and vocals, and guest Roman Pinter of Nott providing saxophone. GRIDFAILURE‘s David Brenner deploys an assault of instrumentation infused with field recordings and layers of confrontational vocals, offering five originals and a harrowing rendition of the seminal Today Is The Day hymn “Temple Of The Morning Star,” which he performed and recorded at The Compound in Valley Cottage, New York. The record was mastered by Dan Emery at Black Matter Mastering in Nashville, Tennessee (Kool Keith, Benjamin Tod, Krieg) and the cover art designed by Brenner with photography of Wilson’s and his own.
Wilson writes of CHROME WAVES‘ massive “A Fair Wind” which leads the record, “Opposed to our full-length endeavors which are comprised of straight-up, dialed-in song structures and vocal hooks, these splits/EPs we’ve been doing are more ambient/experimental to see exactly how far we can take things. This split with our dear friend in GRIDFAILURE is no different. This is our homage to genre bending innovators; Pink Floyd, Bohren And Der Club Of Gore, Joy Division, and the like. We’ve added saxophone, slide guitar, more acoustic, more piano, exaggerated song lengths, and vocal effects just to name a few elements this time around. This is a fifteen-minute slow burn, please stay with us until the end. We’re overjoyed with the result and we hope you are too. New record in June, see you on the road.”
Brenner offers of GRIDFAILURE‘s “Day Terrors” single, “My tracks for this split with my allies in CHROME WAVES depict the sounds of suffering. Wide awake, with no warning in the middle of the day; pain slams into the back of my head like a searing icepick being jammed behind the ear resulting in an audible scream. Rain brings the pressure, pressure brings the stab; the human is left in stunned, shocked pain, sometimes only for a few miserable seconds, and some for grueling hours. This is the tormented and unpredictable living daymare of Lyme Disease, and this song is the auditory rendering of that feeling. ‘Night is not what I despise, for it’s here in the light where true fear lies.'”
New Noise Magazine notes how, “CHROME WAVES has pushed itself further into the ethereal realm of blackgaze,” wall dubbing GRIDFAILURE‘s material, “ominous and tortured decadence that shed light on the fractured existence of humanity.”
Stream CHROME WAVES’ “A Fair Wind” HERE and GRIDFAILURE’s “Day Terrors” HERE.
The split album will see digital release via both act’s Bandcamp pages next Friday, March 27th with a limited physical version to follow. Find preorders via CHROME WAVES HERE and GRIDFAILURE HERE.
The split serves as a precursor for CHROME WAVES‘ impending second LP. The band has completed recording and will release the album this summer following its mixing and mastering by Billy Anderson.
GRIDFAILURE will release the second installment in its five-album Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery series through Nefarious Industries this spring, with collaborative releases with Fyrhtu, Pornohelmut, Feel Happiness, Interstitia, Rack, Megalophobe, and more to follow.
Both band’s upcoming live dates have been canceled or postponed.
https://www.facebook.com/chromewavesofficial
https://chromewaves.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/chromewavesofficial
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB17eizC5-BzxJE2xrtcEtg
http://www.facebook.com/gridfailure
http://www.gridfailure.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/GRIDFAILURE
https://www.instagram.com/gridfailure
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRbk4oQvuhLgZmUZ1hyceog