Like the grime clinging to those gnarled, grasping hands on the cover of the debut album Failure, Subside by Australia’s Départe, dark emotions hold all of us in their grip from time to time, and sometimes perpetually. In the band’s words, those “feelings of guilt, loss, anxiety, fear, and defeat… are intimate, almost claustrophobic, clinging to us like dirt – we hold them close, swallow them, hide them away like scars for fear of the shame that comes from the exposure of weakness”. Départe plumb the depths of those emotions on Failure, Subside, yet as you’re about to discover, they do not drown in them.
The album won’t be released until October 14 of this year, but to begin introducing you to it, we are working with Season of Mist to bring you the premiere of a song called “Vessel“. At the risk of giving away something surprising and significant about the song, we introduce it through this comment by vocalist/guitarist Sam Dishington:
“Our new track ‘Vessel‘ is a reaction to deeply entrenched feelings of isolation and futility. It deals with the despair of being stranded in that place, that void, and even still finding peace, stillness, and victory, drawing you out into the light. From a musical standpoint, ‘Vessel‘ is quite broad, touching on many of the elements you can expect to hear throughout the rest of the album. Dark, crushing and dissonant, yet in the same breath powerful and emotive.”