Tag: Soft Kill

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Soft Kill Releases a Gorgeous and Deeply Personal Meditation on Life and Death

With the release of 2015’s Heresy and 2016’s acclaimed Choke, the members of Portland, OR-based post punk act Soft Kill, currently comprised of Tobias Grave (vocals/guitar/synths), Conrad Vollmer (guitar), Owen Glendower (bass) and Adam Bulgasem (drums) had spent a an increasing amount of time on the road; in fact, they have been on rather extensive touring cycle through North America and Europe to support Choke. Interestingly enough, the band announced a series Pacific Northwest tour dates with Harms Way, just as they officially dropped their latest album Savior.  

Savior may be the most personal album the band has ever written and recorded, as much of the writing was inspired by a real life experience: as the band was returning from tour, Tobias Grave’s pregnant wife began to bleed out in the van. She was eight months pregnant, and practically in the middle of nowhere, far from a hospital or any other medical facility. The band raced through the night, eventually winding up in the emergency room of Sacramento’s UC Davis Trauma Center, where surgery was performed to try to save the lives of both the mother and the then-unborn child. Although the surgery went well, the baby’s lung collapsed on his second day of life causing him to flatline. Grave was forced to standby and watch as doctors and nurses struggled to keep his newborn son alive with a series of blood transfusions, breathing and feeding tubes. As his vigil turned into weeks, he purchased a guitar, borrowed a bass from a friend and began to write the material that wound up becoming Savior. Thematically speaking, the songs focused on loss and hurt — the tragic loss of his newborn son, his long battle with drug addiction, the tragedies and heartaches of life, the weirdly empty and ambivalent space between mourning and celebration, life and death that we all know far too well. In many ways, the album is written about a man, who has come to grips with the reflection of themselves, as seen in the eyes of their dying son — and as you’ll hear on the shimmering album single “Hard Candy,” the material manages to possess the palpable weight of devastating and senseless loss, and the acceptance of what it means to the song’s narrator and his life, making the song a gorgeous and mournful meditation on life and deat

Single Review by William Ruben Helms
Currently comprised of founding trio Brandon Pierce, a founding member of prog rock act Ancestors, who has had stints with Buried at Sea, Deth Crux, Night Horse and Portland,OR’s Soft Kill; Brandon’s wife Rachael Pierce, an accomplished vocalist, who spent years demoing pop songs for major labels; and Cameron Carlin, who also is a member of Black Mare, the Los Angeles, CA-based post punk trio GLAARE initially formed back in 2012 and since their formation, the band has received attention for featuring some of Southern California’s most accomplished musicians, as well as for a sound that possesses elements of darkwave, dream pop and goth-rock while revealing a meticulous songwriting approach through the release of 2014’s The Universe Is Machine, which featured former member Jason Watkins (keys), a 2015 split 7 inch with electronic duo Intimachine and a self-titled cassette EP last year.
To Deaf and Day, the up-and-coming Los Angeles-based post-punk trio’s full-length debut was released earlier this year through Dune Altar/Funeral Party Records, and from the album’s latest single “Desiree,” the members of GLAARE will further cement their growing local and regional reputation for a sound that’s deeply indebted to 4AD Records heyday, The Cure, Sixousie and the Banshees and others but with a subtly modern sheen.