Photo by Scott Irvine
Atmospheric coldwave collective BLACKLIST is pleased to unveil their video for “Lovers In Mourning.” Now playing at Post-Punk.com, the track comes by way of the group’s new full-length, Afterworld, set to drop Friday, October 28th via Profound Lore Records.
Starting out as the flagship band of artist Pieter Schoolwerth’s Wierd Records imprint, BLACKLIST’s trademark sound is dense and dark, incorporating elements of shoegaze and heavy metal with coldwave. The members often cite influences like My Bloody Valentine and Motörhead alongside bands like Comsat Angels, Killing Joke, and The Sound, while singer Joshua Strachan’s (Vaura) lyrics split the difference between the anthemic manifestos of Manic Street Preachers and Sisters Of Mercy’s “Vision Thing.”
Issues Strachan of “Lovers In Mourning,” “A lot of strange and maybe seemingly unrelated things came together with this song. But with BLACKLIST I like to lean into those. Post-punk is, in some sense, a genre exercise, so there’s no point in doing it by-the-numbers. As with much of Afterworld, this song is about desire and longing, but also about feeling as if love might be impossible or forever out of your reach. Whether because of distance, isolation, or lots of bad luck, I think we all have hit those walls at one point or another.
“What started musically as an early Mötley Crüe/mid-‘80s Ozzy-style riff morphed really quickly into this wistful sounding thing when I kicked on the synth pedal. I had just finished the Meridiane record a few months earlier which is a dark ambient collaboration I did with Pieter Nooten (Clan Of Xymox) with guest appearances by Warren Defever (His Name Is Alive), and Kennedy Ashlynn (SRSQ, Them Are Us Too). Working with Pieter, I learned so much about arrangement and dynamics, so I decided to jump headfirst into a sort of Hounds Of Love big drums and strings feeling with this. It came together shockingly naturally.
“The chorus references ‘star-crossed lovers,’ a well-known expression from Shakespeare. But I think fewer people know that it’s a reference to astrology, to this idea that what you personally want isn’t mapped out in the future the stars foretell. So, when I say ‘stars crossed don’t mean anything,’ it’s about feeling doomed, but also rejecting that hopelessness. At the time, I found myself relating to very familiar vampire films like The Hunger in a new way, as characters who have experienced eons of isolation from the wider world, for whom love is complicated or maybe impossible. I became interested in this idea of paying a certain shameless homage to standbys like ‘Bloodletting’ by Concrete Blonde and ‘Black No. 1’ by Type O Negative while hopefully also pulling them into new territory, where once you peel back the meta-gothic tropes, there are layers of authentic inner life that connect to our deepest emotional turmoils.”
Writes Post-Punk of the clip, “The beautiful monochromatic video, directed by Joan Pope and filmed in Leipzig Germany, is set in a cemetery, as the band explores mausoleums and other tributes of lost love. Pope’s signature symbolism appears throughout, creating an eerie bridge between the mortal and spirit worlds.”
View BLACKLIST’s “Lovers In Mourning” video HERE.
Stream the band’s previously released singles for “Pathfinder” HERE, “The Final Resistance” HERE, “In Shadow Light” HERE, and “Nightbound” HERE.
BLACKLIST’s Afterworld will be released on CD, LP, and digitally. Find preorders at THIS LOCATION.
BLACKLIST will celebrate the release of Afterworld with a record release show at Mercury Lounge in New York City on November 12th with additional shows to be announced in the weeks to come.
BLACKLIST:
11/12/2022 Mercury Lounge – New York City, NY [tickets]
BLACKLIST’s debut LP, Midnight Of The Century – produced by Ed Buller (Suede, Pulp) – was released in 2009. The album’s focus was a rejection of what Strachan described as a fear of looming new forms of fascism aided by the rise of various political and religious dogmas. After a long hiatus, the band returned in summer of 2020 with the “Disorder” single, inspired by the racial justice protests in the United States, and the B-Side “No Secret Islands” which takes aim at the dystopian fantasies of tech billionaires.
In April of 2022 “The Final Resistance” was announced as the lead single from upcoming LP, Afterworld. Post-punk.com called it a “captivating and dense explosion of coldwave and unfettered emotion,” while Brooklyn Vegan said it “picks up where the band left off with widescreen scope and a call-to-arms chorus.” The album, produced by Strachan and mixed by Sanford Parker (Darkthrone, Yob, BLOODYMINDED) explores the possible meanings of love in a time of political and environmental collapse.
“…a reflexive head-mover, and the band pair its punchy and rumbling rhythms with ethereal coldwave melodies that shine and sear, and with post-punk-style vocals that veer from gloomy to elevating. A quickly addictive track, the song is taken from the upcoming new BLACKLIST album named Afterworld that will be out this coming fall via Profound Lore.” – No Clean Singing on “The Final Resistance”
“A triumph and genuinely something to get excited about in this shitty world…” – The Sleeping Shaman
“BLACKLIST crafts a blend of post/goth/death rock that is reminiscent of long-standing acts such as Killing Joke and Fields of the Nephilim… with a bit of razzle dazzle. There are some gorgeous classical guitar bits, well thought out use of synthesizer, and even a dash of saxophone… Most songs carry a dark and erotic energy, but there are some outliers that have catchy choruses and generally nice poppy elements. You might think this wouldn’t fit, but somehow BLACKLIST makes it work.” – Metal Epidemic
“…a dignified comeback..unwieldy but captivating… fodder for true old-school goth nightshades.” — Musikreviews.de
“The recently reformed BLACKLIST, featuring Vaura’s Joshua Strachan handling vocal and guitar duties, takes the idea of metallic goth rock and pushes it even more towards what can only be described as a ‘hair’ influence… With guitar-centric songwriting (approaching “riffwork,” in fact), this, as Strachan puts it, ‘Jake E. Lee riffs [sounding] like Simple Minds’ goth-hooks-meets-metal-hooks songwriting approach results in a fun (in the classical sense. You remember what fun is.), but still an atmospheric song.” – Invisible Oranges on “Nightbound”
BLACKLIST:
Joshua Strachan – vocals, guitar, synthesizer, saxophone
Ryan Rayhill – bass
Glenn Maryansky – electronic/acoustic drums
James Minor – guitar
Chad Dziewior – guitar
http://www.facebook.com/blacklistmusic
http://www.instagram.com/blacklist_vr
http://blacklist-motcx.bandcamp.com/music
http://www.profoundlorerecords.com
http://www.facebook.com/profoundlorerecords
http://www.instagram.com/profoundlorerecords
http://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com