Graywave “Rebirth”

LP - $14.65 / CD - $6.50
LP UPC: 5060852561086
CD UPC: 5060852561093
STREET DATE: 6/24/22
CAT #: CRR122
LABEL: Church Road

Surfacing from ethereal and dreamier planes, UK shoegaze and dreampop act GRAYWAVE are one of the latest additions to the Church Road Records roster. Following on from their 2021 debut EP proper, Planetary Shift, GRAYWAVE is set to release their second extended play, Rebirth, on June 24. Formed in Birmingham, UK in 2019 as a solo venture and creative outlet for Jess Webberley, GRAYWAVE has already amassed a steady stream of singles and qualitative short form releases - drip feeding fans a highly ambitious and modern take on dreampop and shoegaze’s storied sonic spectrum. Returning in 2022, Rebirth is the most revealing and entrancing look into GRAYWAVE’s evolution as an artist. Trading in some of the lo-fi tendencies of her earlier output, Rebirth sees Webberley embrace darker soundscapes and sonic weight across the release’s five tracks. GRAYWAVE’s latest effort is a confident seizing of identity and assured meeting point for the project’s initial potential and newfound blossoming. Opener, Build, and Rebirth’s title track rattle with rhythmic unease and confrontation, as Webberley’s voice drifts between somnolent hypnosis and arresting command. Elsewhere, Closer and Exoplanet effortlessly tie together 90s influence in the vein of Cocteau Twins and Drop Nineteens with a modern touch similar to US contemporaries Citizen. Following their recent union with Church Road Records, 2022 will see GRAYWAVE continue to shine across the UK live circuit. Having already sold out hometown shows, as well as getting through to the latter stages of the Isle of Wight Festival’s ongoing musical showcase that offers a spot on the festival’s New Blood stage, and performing with UK hardcore upstarts Cruelty. Living up to its name, Rebirth is already proving to be a fruitful time of growth for Webberley and GRAYWAVE’s creative self-actualisation - offering fans new and old the most conceptually realised iteration of the project’s limitless avenues of artistic promise yet.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Build
2. Rebirth
3. Exoplanet
4. Red
5. Closer

FOR FANS OF:
Emma Ruth Rundle, Citizen, Drab Majesty

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bigLOVE "Crusaders of Joy"

LP - $16.60 / CD - $8.00
STREET DATE: 5/27/22
CAT #: CRR110
LABEL: Church Road

Shrouded in mystery, abstracted by endearment and drenched in tone, bigLOVE are set to make their presence known to the wider world on May 27 with their debut album, titled Crusaders of Joy, via Church Road Records.

Across the anonymous project’s four song inaugural release, bigLOVE marries atmospheric sludge and themes of eternally unconditional devotion in the name of all that is to be cherished in this waking world of ours. bigLOVE establishes their vision of the genre on highlight tracks Harnessing the Nectar from the Queen Bee and At One With - with both songs wielding Thou-esque lead guitar lines and all the sonic weight of Alice In Chains’ doomier cuts. Vocally, bigLOVE counterbalances the saccharine nature of their melodies with corrosive and hymnal omnipotence.

In an effort to eliminate unnecessary self-scrutiny and create instinctively, bigLOVE recorded Crusaders of Joy as it was being written - with the release's final takes being recorded moments after each part was finalised in the writing. Recorded between 2019 and 2020 before being mastered by UK audio savant Lewis Johns at The Ranch, Crusaders of Joy possesses a preternatural warmth in it’s production that beguiles as well as engulfs. The debut full length is adroitly tied together thematically by Maria Nemm’s (Holy Fawn, Slow Crush, Anthetic) album cover photography, adding another dimension to bigLOVE’s enigma of obscurity and ubiquity.

In the context of the modern age paradox of instantaneous connection and spiritual disconnect, Crusaders of Joy triumphs in it’s harnessing of love as philosophy, as it spiritualizes sludge and doom metal’s sonic weight to transcendental heights. Across the vast ocean of time, love remains at the core of all it is to be human.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Harnessing the Nectar from the Queen Bee
2. A Grand Declaration of the Gods
3. At One With
4. Forever Intimate

MARKETING POINTS:

• Featuring Justine Jones and Sammy Urwin of Employed to Serve

FOR FANS OF:
Thou, Cathedral, Godflesh

Heriot "Profound Morality"

LP - $15.95 / CD - $8.00
STREET DATE: 4/29/22
CAT #: CRR120
LABEL: Church Road

Following their 2021 addition to the Church Road Records roster and a string of single releases throughout the year, UK metal upstarts HERIOT have announced the release of their first EP proper - titled Profound Morality. Due for release on April 29, Profound Morality is eight tracks of uncompromisingly polymorphic extreme metal, hardcore and industrial music.

Heralded as one of Kerrang! Magazine’s sounds of ‘22 and labeled as ones to watch by the likes of Metal Hammer and Revolver - not to mention praise from none other than Machine Head’s Robb Flynn - to say that HERIOT’s debut record is highly anticipated would be an understatement in the wake of a recent UK tour support slot alongside labelmates Svalbard.

HERIOT live up to their well-earned hype in spades across Profound Morality’s runtime. Early EP highlight Coalesence and the previously released Enter the Flesh belabour grind, industrial and hardcore’s sonic template into the ground with feverish intensity, as Jake Packer and Debbie Gough trade mercurial vocal barbs over tonally acerbic instrumentation. Elsewhere the band expand upon their artistic vision with cuts such as Abattoir and opener Abaddon, bringing together sonic textures not dissimilar to Justin K Broadrick’s Godflesh and Jesu projects.

Marrying disparate sounds from all ends of the broader metal spectrum is no easy task, which makes Profound Morality all the more powerful when taken in as a collective whole. Since their 2020 inception HERIOT have offered glimpses of their capabilities on bite-size releases, however, their latest work stands as a watershed moment for both the band and those who wish to draw outside of genre lines within abrasive music. With UK festival appearances at the likes of Bloodstock, 2000 Trees and Upsurge on the horizon, things are only just getting started for HERIOT.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Abaddon
2. Coalescence
3. Carmine (Fills the Hollow)
4. Near Vision
5. Mutagen
6. Enter the Flesh
7. Abattoir
8. Profound Morality

FOR FANS OF:
Fuming Mouth, NAILS, Portrayal of Guilt

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Svalbard "Discography 2012 - 2014"

LP - $19.40 / CD - $8.00
STREET DATE: 4/1/22
CAT #: CRR106
LABEL: Church Road

"Svalbard are a great example of a band who have done things The Right Way. Existing as a band for approximately 4 years before releasing their debut album, Svalbard played the slow and steady game, holding their cards relatively close to their chest. This enabled them to finely hone their craft over a number of 7”s, EPs and split releases, each time improving slightly on their songwriting and recording methodology, allowing themselves to experiment and push their sound in different directions along the way. This plan of attack enabled the band to consistently improve without the stringent spotlight, or pressure thereof, of an album. It also, rightly, seemed to keep people wanting more… "

TRACK LISTING:

1. Ripped Apart
2. Grayscale
3. Allure
4. Open The Cages
5. This Is The End
6. Flightless Birds
7. For What It's Worth
8. Melting Hands
9. Never Look Back
10. Pick Up The Pieces
11. Leave It
12. So Much For Meritocracy
13. The Damage Done
14. Anything Goes Nothing Stays

FOR FANS OF:
Alcest, Mew, Tragedy

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Helpless "Caged In Gold"

LP - $16.60 / CD - $8.00
STREET DATE: 3/25/22
CAT #: CRR113
LABEL: Church Road

Just short of five years on from their acclaimed 2017 debut album, Debt, HELPLESS return with their sophomore album - titled Caged In Gold, due for release on March 25 via Church Road Records. Furthering their sonic blueprint of grindcore and discordant noise, the South West, UK trio’s second full length shows that time has not blunted their penchant for extremity in the slightest.

Following tour and standalone show support slots alongside acts such as Full of Hell, Nails and Gatecreeper, as well as festival appearances at Download and Dreadfest, Dan Couch (guitar / vocals) found himself as the sole founding member of HELPLESS before bringing Caged In Gold to life. Fortifying their line-up with the additions of both Simon Walker on bass and vocals and Sam Trenchard on drums and vocals, the three-piece’s second full-length’s gestation period was a complicated but fruitful one.

Caged In Gold is the pith of all that HELPLESS are, as they lay down a gauntlet of ill-natured grind and vitriolic blackened riffs alongside cacophonously inharmonic rhythms. In less than 30 minutes, HELPLESS affirm their growing reputation as masters of callous brevity on cuts such as the jarring The Empty Gesture and frenzy-inducing Unseen Servant, before closing proceedings with complete despondency on the four-minute monolith The Great Silence.

As chock-full of technicality and cohesive malevolence as their sophomore effort is, there’s a starkness to HELPLESS’ sound that is captured in sobering fashion by Chris Nicholls’ painted artwork - a primal terror that lurks in all of us. Which, below the surface of all of HELPLESS’ fury, lies at the heart of the trio’s savage virtuosity.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Wraiths of Memory
2. The Empty Gesture
3. Suppression
4. Another Sunlight
5. Single File
6. Time Worship
7. Focus Group Extraction
8. Unseen Servant
9. Simulacrum
10. The Great Silence

FOR FANS OF:
Nails, Trap Them, Pig Destroyer

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Tuskar "Matriarch"

LP - $16.60 / CD - $8.00
STREET DATE: 2/25/22
CAT #: CRR115
LABEL: Church Road

Soundscapes shaped by moments of dark brooding doom and relentlessly riff-heavy and psychedelically charged movements. For Hodges and Dimmock the chemistry they share is unshakeable both live and in the studio. Their unmistakeable energy and ferocity has marked them out as UK sludge metal's most exciting prospects.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Matriarch
2. To the Sky
3. The Trees, The Trees, The Trees
4. Halcyon Gilt
5. Into the Sea
6. Shame
7. Grave

FOR FANS OF:
Mastodon, Sleep, Yautja, Baroness, Conan, YOB

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