New album Objects Without Pain arrives on the 15th September on double LP/CD/Digital
Seattle noise rock band Great Falls sign to Neurot Recordings to release their new and fourth album, Objects Without Pain on the 15th September. Today they share the first track from it “Trap Feeding” about which the band comments, “the song is about the anxiety and stress of trying to do something that would possibly be much better for you but then surrendering to the fact that you just aren’t brave enough.”
LISTEN TO “TRAP FEEDING” VIA BANDCAMP HERE
For over a decade, vocalist/guitarist Demian Johnston and bassist Shane Mehling (who also played together in the early-2000s noisecore band Playing Enemy and the experimental duo Hemingway) have honed their sludgy, overwhelmingly intense brand of heaviness, punctuated by delectably discordant riffs, terrifyingly low, thwacking bass lines, and mesmerisingly tight percussion. Setting them apart from the murky sea of sludge metal and AmRep-inspired noise-rock bands, is their ability to paint a deeply, utterly human story through an all-out assault on the senses: an art the band has perfected on Objects Without Pain.
The album is their Neurot debut, and also the first LP featuring drummer Nickolis Parks (Gaytheist, Bastard Feast), who joined the band prior to the release of their exhilarating, cacophonous 2023 EP, Funny What Survives.
Heavy, crushing, and unhinged, Objects Without Pain takes us on a bleak, purgative journey through a separation – a snapshot of the turmoil and indecision that occurs after the initial realisation of someone’s misery, and before the ultimate decision to end a decades-long partnership. From the foreboding intro riffs of “Dragged Home Alive” to the end of the 13-minute closer “Thrown Against The Waves,” its eight tracks explore the thoughts that come up when a person is staring down the barrel of blowing up their life: How did this happen? Is it too late for a new life? Will the kid be OK? What will make me happier: familiar torment or unknown freedom?
“It’s less about creating a safe space and more about pushing Demian to talk about it in a less poetic way,” Shane describes when asked about the ways in which the band allowed vocalist Demian to open up about these deeply personal issues. “It’s really him trying to move away from generalities and flowery prose… he just tried to speak openly about it without worrying about how lyrical it was.” This raw and to-the-point approach to lyric writing reflects the nature of their music – not shying away from the ugly and difficult realities of life.
Shane describes his relationship with Demian as “best friends/platonic life partners,” which explains how this band can feel like an appropriate outlet for these musings. “As Demian, only half-jokingly says, he can’t afford therapy so this is pretty much what he does instead.”
Shane comments on the album’s close, “The final lines are meant to wrap up the album: ‘take care, I sing this, with love, with love.’ It was meant to look over the whole album and reflect on how there isn’t really anger or resentment about what has happened but just an acceptance, and there is still love; it’s just that love cannot always be enough.”
The album ends with an emotionally crushing barrage of riffs, bringing beauty into the noise, and welcoming love and acceptance into its pain.
OBJECTS WITHOUT PAIN TRACK LISTING:
1 – DRAGGED HOME ALIVE
2 – TRAP FEEDING
3 – BORN AS AN ARGUMENT
4 – OLD WORDS WORN THIN
5 – SPILL INTO THE AISLE
6 – CEILINGS INCH CLOSER
7 – THE STARVELING
8 – THROWN AGAINST THE WAVES
Objects Without Pain was recorded at Studio Litho and mixed at Antisleep by Scott Evans (Kowloon Walled City, Yautja, Thrice, No Lights) and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Obituary, Sunn O))) -16-), with art/layout by Demian Johnston.
Neurot Recordings will release Objects Without Pain on 2xLP – Gold Vinyl in the US and Clear Vinyl in Europe, with the label webshop carrying both variants – as well as CD and digital platforms on September 15th. Find preorders/presaves for all formats here.
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