POST DEATH SOUNDTRACK

credits:
Stephen Moore – vocals, guitars, lyrics
Jon Ireson – engineering, bass
Casey Lewis – drums, mixing, mastering

Following the release of 2019’s experimental industrial opus ‘It Will Come Out of Nowhere’, Canadian duo Post Death Soundtrack has returned in vicious form.
Abandoning their former industrial style, they’ve cut the electronics to conjure a raw ‘doom-grunge’ sound with elements of thrash and hardcore punk.
Their new single ‘Lowdown Animal’, the second to be released from their upcoming album, is uncensored, uncompromising and threatening like a pack of hyenas sneaking through the savannah.
Steve:
“The Hyena has become a kind of symbol for the band. With lions, tigers, and bears, you have a good idea of what to expect from their brute strength. But hyenas represent the outsider, the unwelcome drifter, the cursed sneak. ‘Lowdown Animal’ is a relentless charge, capturing the outsider mentality of someone who faces abandonment and depression, someone who is unwanted and perhaps unexpected.”
Jon:
“Although our main goal for this record was to explore slow, sludgy doom ideas, a few heavy rolling tracks came out like this one. Steve came into the session with some great elements. That unhinged, driving Stooges kind of vibe. The dual lead guitars in the half-time section are great and the push and pull that Casey did with the drums really brought the whole thing to life.”
Vancouver-based psychedelic grunge doom duo Post Death Soundtrack craft a dense electric symphony of heathen guitars, brazen bass and a bubbling cauldron of vicious sounds.
The score to the untamed plains of the subconscious.
This lays the groundwork over which the inimitable Steve Moore showcases his crushing vocal performances.
In each piece, he takes from his hall of faces to embody the essence of a theme, be it scathing fury or enlightened ambivalence.
Balancing ferocity and serenity, surrealist absurdity and earworm familiarity.
Conceived in grubby back rooms and underground clubs of inhospitable Calgary, Canada, Post Death Soundtrack initially took inspiration from the same forces that drive young obstinate bands in cities like DC and Austin and Detroit.
The cognitive dissonance between the forces that run their town and the forces that run their lives.
The original duo of KENNETH BUCK and STEVE MOORE took aim squarely at the hypocrisies of government, religion and mainstream ideology with blinding rage but also tongue firmly in cheek sarcasm.
The debut album, 2008’s Music as Weaponry, pulls together the wild, brash industrial of Skinny Puppy and Ministry with the hypnotic trip-hop textures of Portishead and Massive Attack to deliver an engrossing indictment of Western culture and an offer to rise above its trappings.
On the heels of the release of Music as Weaponry, JON IRESON was recruited to the lineup, adding his own brand of mesmerizing psychedelia to the mix.
Now with one foot on the coast in Vancouver, the group set out to create what would become their deep dive inward, The Unlearning Curve.
Ireson’s affinity for 60s and 70s psychedelic rock, as well as the nebulous electronica that came out of Britain from the likes of Underworld and a techno-age David Bowie, allowed Buck and Moore to take their vocals further down the rabbit hole to fever dream mantras and mad hatter ravings.
COLIN EVERALL was brought on board to fill in on drums for a handful of rare live dates but would also end up contributing his haunting piano piece ‘Through the Gates’ over which Moore takes the listener on a perilous journey to the ‘other side’.
Relocations, breakups, releasing other projects and a daunting bout with cancer led to the album getting shelved for 3 long years.
In 2016, the loose ends were tied up and The Unlearning Curve was unleashed, forging a new brand of psychedelic industrial.
A concept album that persisted the notion of seeking beyond the material and the corporeal.
Post Death Soundtrack were back with their most ambitious and vitriolic collection to date, ‘It Will Come Out of Nowhere’.
The group, now streamlined back to a duo, has Ireson at the reins of the sprawling production while Moore takes us on a trip through his tempestuous psyche.
The 11 unforgiving tracks explore when calamity comes knocking unexpectedly on your door inspired by betrayal, divorce, personal loss and other blind-sided knocks to the ego.
Doom, hip-hop and Indian raga all leech into the groundwater giving the album an unparalleled sonic breadth.
The sardonic trudge-hop of the lead single ‘Chosen Sons’ takes woozy mellotron strings and splices in cryptic samples, digital dive-bombs, a serene Arabian breakdown and a punishing final statement amid the roars of beasts.
‘Expect No Sympathy’ opens with a hoard descending on a village in a surreal wild west scene before launching into a tirade of cold justice.
Trumpeting guitar leads and flurries of piano lead the traitor to the gallows.
Hip-hop meets doom metal on this stomping hell ride.
Redemption can be found on the B side of the record with the Indian cadence of ‘Benediction’ (featuring Lyndsay Johnston) or the zen freedom of ‘Pathless Land’ but the final word comes in the form of the devastating ‘Bridge Burner’.
A ten-minute epic that boils over with venomous indictments.
The fiery eruptions of the song’s opening tirade thicken to oozing lava as the juggernaut slows to a pummeling, sludgy crawl, eventually turning to stone.
Their new release takes a completely different form, abandoning all electronics in favor of a raw, guitar-driven grunge doom sound as evidenced in their latest singles ‘Icy Underground’ and ‘Lowdown Animal’.