Texan blackened sludge/post-hardcore power-trio Glassing channel all their insular intensity into »Circle Down«!
Austin, Texas based blackened sludge/post-hardcore trio Glassing has released the third and final single »Circle Down« taken from their fourth full-length album, »From The Other Side Of The Mirror«, due out April 26th, 2024 via Pelagic Records.
Tracklist:
01. Anything You Want
02. Nothing Touches You
03. Defacer
04. Sallow
05. Nominal Will
06. Ritualist
07. As My Heart Rots
08. Circle Down
09. The Kestrel Goes
10. Wake
Courtesy of Pelagic Records:
Heavy veterans Glassing have released »Circle Down«, the final, furious single taken from the band’s fourth full-length album, »From The Other Side Of The Mirror«, which is set to be released on 26th April through Berlin’s Pelagic Records.
Born of Austin’s underground musical melting pot; Glassing erupted onto the scene in 2017 with punishing drums, searing angular feedback and frontman/bassist Dustin Coffman’s sandpaper screams setting out to redefine the idea of heavy music to better reflect increasingly heavy times. Having overcome every grisly obstacle in their path, 2022 saw the band enlist formidable drummer Scott Osment (Deaf Club, Planet B) who bolsters Coffman’s gut-punching basslines and provides the perfect foil for guitarist Cory Brim’s razor-sharp playing style.
Photo by Ismael Quintanilla
More discordant, more distorted and angrier than ever, »From The Other Side Of The Mirror« is a metaphysical foray into the fractured, warped impressions of ourselves that exist only in the minds of others. »Circle Down« is a potent distillation of this theme; a musical manifestation of a withdrawal into oneself. As the last track written for the record, »Circle Down« captures the band at the peak of their creativity and intuition with resounding dynamic space interspersed between incendiary blast beats and thunderous, angular guitar breakdowns as Coffman’s lyrics spiral ever inwards until the song all but tears itself apart.
The accompanying video perfectly captures the reflexive nature of »Circle Down«. A fragmented montage of numerous live renditions of the track, the video showcases Glassing’s visceral formidability whilst hinting at the themes of obsession, (im)perfectionism and duplicity that reside within the heart of the whole record.
»From The Other Side Of The Mirror« invites us inside to take a hard and heavy look at ourselves from an alien, uncompromising and often unsettling perspective. The album explores the convergence of self-destructive introspection and the unwelcome understanding that no one ever reveals how they really see you or, as Coffman puts it, “You might catch your reflection from time to time, but you’ll never know who put it there, them or you.”
»From The Other Side Of The Mirror« is out on the 26th April.
»Circle Down« is out now.
Glassing on »Circle Down«:
Dustin Coffman: “This was the very last song we wrote for the record, Cory had this really cool beat-down riff that we wanted to integrate and once we figured it out it quickly became one of our favorite parts of the record. Lyrically, »Circle Down« is about cycles of seclusion and hyper fixation. I don’t like going outside or really doing anything at all so I tend to just erode alone in my room. If there isn’t a reason to leave I won’t so there will be days on end where I don’t even go outside and my music gives me something to obsess over.”
Cory Brim: “We had finished the initial tracking for this record and felt we needed one more song to make the album complete. We flew Scott to Austin for one last “Hell Week” as we called it, where we locked ourselves in our new practice room at Sonance Rehearsal Studios to write what would be »Circle Down«. That space is pretty special, just buzzing with what seems like every bad ass band in Austin. We’d take breaks from writing and hang out with other bands and friends there, the God Shell dudes for example. Portrayal of Guilt practices next door to our room. We even recorded the song downstairs in Andrew Hernandez’s studio. Just a special place in Austin to create and document our music.”
Credits:
Video shot by Matt Darcy and Nich Huft
Edited by Frank Huang
Recorded & mixed by Andrew Hernandez at Arroyo Audio
Mastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios
Pre-order / stream / download here: https://orcd.co/glassing
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well