photos by Erica Torelli
Chicago post-rock trio SWEET COBRA prepares for the November release of their fifth LP, Threes, as a collaboration between their Hawthorne Street Records and Pax Aeternum. Today, BrooklynVegan is hosting an exclusive video premiere of the album’s lead single, “Coats.”
Trying to describe or label SWEET COBRA would be doing them a disservice. At this point, they’ve accomplished the rare task of developing their own unique voice in a choir of thousands. Threes is simply an honest rock album that harkens back to the day that musicians got together in a room and created with no agenda aside from organizing noise. There are a lot of familiar sounds, but nothing is on the nose. With Threes, SWEET COBRA has truly broken the mold for what is expected of punk-influenced bands and left the door open for other acts in the heavy spectrum of music to follow.
Aside from the tonal variety heard in the instrumentation on the album, the production displays a wide range of timbre as well. This is in thanks to the broad cast of engineers who helped capture the recording. Threes was recorded at Earth Analog by Matt Talbott (Hum), with initial tracking done at Electronical by Allen Epley and Eric Abert (Shiner, The Life And Times), with mixing handled by Kurt Ballou (Converge) at Godcity Studio, mastering handled by Magnus Lindberg (Cult Of Luna), and the cover art created by Bill Connors. Joining drummer Jason Gagovski, vocalist/bassist Timothy Remis, and guitarist/pianist Robert Arthur Lanham Jr., Matt Talbott provides additional guitar on “Soft 11,” and Sarah Olmsted adds backing vocals to “Wet Brain.”
The album’s opening track “Coats” serves as an overture for the winding sonic trajectory that Threes follows. The song represents where SWEET COBRA has come from and where they are heading. The instrumentation trudges along after its frantic, percussive introduction, acting as an aural representation of the cold, solitary stroll that is described in the lyrics. Clocking in at just under four minutes, the song captures many of the themes of the compositions to follow. It encompasses heavy and melodic elements, while being pushed forward by a steady rhythmic backbone.
The direction, cinematography, costume design, film art, and editing for the “Coats” video was handled by Katie Kapuza, with Maddie William Katsoudas as the featured dancer.
Drummer Jason Gagovski writes, “‘Coats’ is a song that was sort of accidentally written. We had gotten together to practice for some upcoming shows, with no intention of working on new material just yet and were just messing around on our gear and getting sounds. That main drum part just came to me, and Remis immediately started playing the bass line – almost like we already knew it. It kind of goes back to why we are in a band together in the first place – those moments where you just tune into the inspiration that’s coming from the people in the room and follow it without an agenda and see where it goes without thinking too hard. This song is the first in the batch that comprises the album, and it helped set the tone of how we wanted to approach and capture the songs.”
BrooklynVegan writes with the “Coats” premiere, “The song blurs the lines between punk, metal, and alternative rock…”
Check out SWEET COBRA’s vibrant video for “Coats” first at BrooklynVegan RIGHT HERE.
Threes will be released digitally through Pax Aeternum on November 11th, with the vinyl version to follow via the band’s Hawthorne Street Records in early 2023. Find digital preorders HERE and vinyl preorders HERE.
Stand by for additional audio previews, live dates, and more to post over the weeks ahead.
For the better part of the past two decades, SWEET COBRA has been seasoning their brand of thundering rock music with a full spectrum of sonic influences. Since their debut album Praise in 2004, they have continuously reinvented themselves with each installment in their catalog, growing from a hardcore/punk foundation through the land of post-hardcore into truly uncharted territory. With 2015’s Earth, SWEET COBRA established themselves as a multi-faceted tonal weapon, with the ability to stand alongside the heaviest metal acts one second and drop in as a house band at a country-western dive bar the next.
Threes is the fifth studio album from the veteran band and is a snapshot of an ever-evolving act at this present moment in time. While SWEET COBRA has done much to shed their punk-rock labeling, they still operate as such with many of the songs being written spontaneously at rehearsals over the last few years. What began as a spur-of-the-moment recording session to capture a few of the songs in their infancy, has developed into one of the most eclectic ten-song rock albums in recent history. The songs run the gamut from fast-paced, eccentric chaos to steady, meticulous aural beauty. While it may seem like a departure for a band who has been branded as a metal/hardcore act for years, listeners who have been paying attention will recognize that SWEET COBRA has long been capable of this caliber of diverse recording.
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