Photo by Ricky Mina
Watch YOUR SPIRIT DIES’ “Starless” video HERE. Stream the track HERE.
South Carolina metal/hardcore titans YOUR SPIRIT DIES will unleash a brand new, three-song EP, It Is Well…, on May 22nd through MNRK Heavy. The EP serves as a follow-up to last year’s critically adored My Gnawing Pains Will Never Rest full-length.
Offers vocalist Brandon Byars, “With this new material, we’ve settled into what we’ve sought for several years. The intention of YOUR SPIRIT DIES was never to be simply pastiche, but to take the influences that shaped us early on and view them through a modern lens and I think we’ve succeeded. It’s heavy, dark, melodic, and everything that YSD should be.
“Working with producer Randy Leboeuf [Kublai Khan, Boundaries, Dying Wish, Chamber, Orthodox, The Acacia Strain, etc.] on this project was awesome,” he continues, “We went with a decent amount of demo material to pick and choose from and only really used two or three parts. A lot of the writing came really naturally, and we had these songs in their final forms in a matter of a couple of days.”
In advance of the release, today the band unveils the EP’s lead single, “Starless.”
“We tried to do a short concept with this release, again utilizing religious imagery,” says Byars. “‘Starless’ is the first part of a two-part story focusing on the aftermath of those condemned to exist on earth in an Armageddon-like event. To be clear, this is not a ‘turn to God’ story from Sunday school. If anything, it retains a message of questioning and doubt of an all-loving God who’d leave his beloved creation in ‘the starless dark.’”
Watch YOUR SPIRIT DIES’ “Starless” video, directed by Robbie Grantham of Angle Media, HERE. Stream the track HERE.
It Is Well… will be released digitally. Find presaves HERE.
It Is Well… Track Listing:
1. Starless
2. When Peace, Like A River
3. Whispers In Omen
Small towns across America are home to countless untold stories, and Greenville, South Carolina is no exception. With a population just over 140K, this city may be small, but it’s big on spirit. YOUR SPIRIT DIES, hailing from this very place, channels that humble yet fierce energy, embodying an underdog work ethic and an unstoppable fire.
The band’s MNRK Heavy debut, My Gnawing Pains Will Never Rest, released last Spring, not only leaned into influences as diverse as At The Gates, Killswitch Engage, Napalm Death, and Godflesh, but they also culled inspiration from giallo horror classics a la The Beyond. Wrote Decibel Magazine, “…My Gnawing Pains Will Never Rest hearkens back to the heyday of Jasta-hosted Headbangers Ball. More specifically, they embody the precise moment of transition between Myspace and Facebook as cutting-edge music promotion tools. In an ocean of Knocked Looses and Code Oranges, YOUR SPIRIT DIES’ earnest love letter to the Ozzfest second stage milieu in pleasant and refreshing…The band’s great strength is in their ability to replicate the full spectrum of that genre’s various tropes and – this is the hard part! – arrange and deploy those tropes to maximum effect.” Added New Transcendence, “With the pure intensity and stunning instrumental dynamism, it should come as no surprise that YOUR SPIRIT DIES hosts a strong and powerful vocal element as well. With harsh, belted screams capable of both piercing yells and blistering low bellows, the vocals throughout My Gnawing Pains Will Never Rest are exactly what they need to be. Sincere at times, scalding and primal at others…an outstanding release…”
It Is Well… is a taste of what’s next to come in the forever compelling YOUR SPIRIT DIES trajectory.
YOUR SPIRIT DIES:
Brandon Byars – vocals
Tyler Dorman – guitar
Hunter Lenoir – guitar
Killian Dawson – bass
Keenan MacNeal – drums
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