On their new six-track EP Love & Anxiety, the Copenhagen, Denmark-based post-hardcore/ screamo group Disillusionist deliver what sounds like a musical portrait of intense grief.
Get a first look below at a new music video for “Funeral Plans,” the closing song from the compelling release!
The ache that the new record reflects sounds all-consuming, because Disillusionist stay intense — and they even roll out a series of jarring breakdowns — so there’s fiery passion fueling the trek. The central perspective seems to alternate between voraciously aggressive lunges and an overpowering fog of sobering tension, as though careening through some half-lit city streets before suddenly becoming unable to outrun what’s inside any longer. The dynamic range is unsettling.
Love & Anxiety sounds as though it charts a steady inward rise of debilitating emotional exhaustion, like a musical spotlight on quieter, strained feelings that are longing to be heard amid a surrounding melee. An increasing struggle to hold back inward pain — that’s what Disillusionist reflect, and their musical storytelling is startlingly compelling.
Generally, the group performs punchy post-hardcore, although those heavier moments lend the music an impactful metallic edge. The rhythms seem to shake throughout the work, as though capturing a mixture of — as the title suggests — anxiety and general malaise.
Love & Anxiety instrumentally evokes something like a struggle to find security — the rhythms are strong, but the wrecking ball-like unease feels insurmountable. “Shibuya,” the album’s second track, features some poignantly dramatic dynamic shifts, while follow-up track “Dysphoria” has noticeably rapid rhythmic turns, introducing an ever-so-slight hint of whimsy before crashing down into the rattlingly heavy breakdown that closes the track. Love & Anxiety is always musically gripping, and the energy keeps it captivating.
“Funeral Plans” features the most restraint of any song on the record, sticking to a meditative vibe driven by rapidly moving but tactfully distant-sounding percussion. The track as a whole runs on weighty, resonant atmosphere, settling into a place of extended tension and ending with what sound like organ tones. The video for the song showcases an illustrated version of the album’s lyrical story, which includes a funeral for a loved one who died by suicide and concludes with an anguished pledge from the speaker that “this time, I will stay.”
Press material explains the following about the track: “‘Funeral Plans’ takes place during the final chapter of the story that is told throughout Love & Anxiety. We are inside the mind of our disdained protagonist as he’s at the funeral of his girlfriend Hope, who has recently committed suicide after a long and arduous struggle with depression – a theme that reverberates through the songs on the Love & Anxiety. The video is a cinematic representation of the aftermath of these traumatizing events.”
“At first we weren’t sure if the song would make the cut – it has a very different sonic character from the rest of the songs,” Disillusionist share, discussing “Funeral Plans.” “But after an encouraging discussion with our record label we decided to include it on the EP. The song bears a tremendous narrative weight and we thought it would be fitting with a big symphonic closing track.”
Love & Anxiety is available via Over The Under Records. Check out the release on Bandcamp at this link and nab the record on vinyl here.
Check out the video below!
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