[Photo by Raul Varela]
This Friday, May 6th, Oakland-based dark punk alchemists, ALARIC, will unveil their long-anticipated End Of Mirrors full-length. Set for global release on CD, vinyl, and digital formats via Neurot Recordings, and on cassette via Sentient Ruin Laboratories, the record was captured and mixed by Skot Brown at Kempton House Studios and provides an emotional and deeply physical journey through inky, blackened sonic murk, devoid of all hope.
In advance of its release, Revolver offers up the record in all its unsettling, gloom-ridden glory at THIS LOCATION.
For various End Of Mirrors preorder bundles go HERE.
In a recent investigation of ALARIC‘s End Of Mirrors, No Clean Singing notes, “if you are looking for something that is dark, aggressive, and more left-of-center than your typical metal band these days, then this is worth your time,” further elaborating, “Aggression is a key component of their sound; even in the album’s more passive moments, it’s still bubbling under the surface like a serial killer staring at himself in the mirror.” Nine Circle concurs, “End Of Mirrors is a study in all that is great about nearly three decades of largely British driven rock. The darkness, despair and questioning of existence aside, the music is damn catchy and hummable. Simply put, End Of Mirrors is 2016s version of Gold’s No Image – an album that doesn’t fit squarely within the metal genre yet will factor largely in the community’s conversation for years to come.” Cvlt Nation champions, “…a deathrock opera that brilliantly sews together the dusky emotivity of Bauhaus and Christian Death, the punishing and bleak atmospheres of Killing Joke and of the heaviest punk bands, and the desolate and hopeless atmospheres of the most crippling doom,” while Aural Aggravation elaborates, “As a whole, it’s a dark, almost apocalyptic sweep of sound. Sitting alongside the recent releases by Se Delan and Madame Mayflower, 2016 is starting to look like the year goth is reborn. Forget darkwave and all that cal: emerging from a protracted period of social and economic turmoil, uncertainty, unrest, fear, and an all-pervading sense of existential trauma, we’re back in the late ’70s and early 80s, and this is the real deal.” Abysmal Hymns hails a record that’s, “as heavy sonically as it is aggressive…. While this band might have come into my consciousness when the death rock revival rolled into the inner webs, a song like ‘Angel’ makes it clear that to dismiss this band as death rock is dramatically over simplifying it even at the most morose. The ghostly quality to this song doesn’t make you feel like you are sharing needles in West Hollywood on Halloween night. It is more expansive in the way it haunts you. It’s going to take a few more listens before this slow working drug is fully in my system, but it lives up to the legacy they began…” Adds Invisible Oranges of the band’s “Mirrors” single specifically, “Though definitely doomed in their own unique way, ALARIC is a post-punk band at their core, but End Of Mirrors is no Mesh & Lace goth club party anthem. Maintaining a sluggish tribal beat for the majority, ‘Mirrors’ reaches the lowest levels of despondency – psychedelic, woozy, and cold – before reaching a rabid and aggressive conclusion. …Though I had previously asserted that ALARIC had achieved their peak with their contribution to their 2012 split with fellow gloomers Atriarch, ‘Mirrors’ sets the bar higher. ALARIC is night music for aging punks – the sound of the last call at an emptied, dimly lit bar slowly purging its last denizens. To quote a song from a previous Alaric release, ‘the sadness goes on,’ and it certainly does.”
ALARIC, who recently opened for Neurosis on one of their three special thirtieth anniversary shows in San Francisco in March, will bring their unsettling odes to the stage next month on a near-three-week stretch of live dates still in their plotting stages. Additional live confirmations to be announced in the coming days.
ALARIC:
6/15/2016 The Complex – Los Angeles, CA w/ Ides Of Gemini
6/16/2016 TBA – Long Beach, CA
6/17/2016 Womb Room – Las Vegas, NV
6/18/2016 The Quarry – Bisbee, AZ
6/19/2016 Meow Wolf – Santa Fe, NM
6/20/2016 TBA – Austin, TX
6/21/2016 TBA – Houston, TX
6/22/2016 Three Links – Dallas TX w/ Pinkish Black
6/23/2016 TBA – Oklahoma City, OK
6/24/2016 Hi Dive – Denver, CO
6/25/2016 Fraternal Order Of The Eagles Lodge – Ogden, UT
6/26/2016 TBA – Boise, ID
6/27/2016 Highline – Seattle, WA
6/28/2016 Obsidiak – Olympia, WA
6/29/2016 High Water Mark – Portland, OR
6/30/2016 Starline – Sacramento, CA
7/01/2016 Elbo Room – San Francisco, CA
ALARIC – featuring within its ranks current and former members of Dead And Gone, Pins Of Light, Noothgrush, Hedersleben and UK Subs – began their voyage in 2008 with an eye toward creating moody and compelling music unlike any other. Beginning with influences from such progenitors as Killing Joke and Christian Death to the darkest, heaviest punk bands and the most epic psychedelia, the band has dedicated itself to creating a singularly shadowy electric guitar-driven music. ALARIC‘s previous releases include a debut single Animal/Shadow Of Life (FYBS/ Buried In Hell Records, 2010), a self-titled LP (20 Buck Spin, 2011) and a split 12″ LP, with Atriarch (20 Buck Spin, 2012).
For coverage of ALARIC contact liz@earsplitcompound.com with all North American requests, in Germany contact ansgar@community-promotion.com and across the rest of Europe contact lauren@rarelyunable.com.
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