deathcrash search for hope on captivating new single “People thought my windows were stars”

Opening with samples from an American Counseling Association educational video, an undercurrent of uncertainty and numbness rings through deathcrash's new track from the start. Hard-to-place voices tail off, soft and detached in nature, hanging from gentle guitar melodies that rise to meet vocalist Tiernan Banks’ drifting nostalgic lyricism.

Recorded in a single long night on the eve of lockdown, the 15-minute track feels fitting for the current climate. Nervousness and uncertainty abound in themes of loss and self-reflection, before spoken samples stutter back into the foreground to growing discordant melodies. As distortion takes hold, the swelling listlessness starts to feel like drowning, and it’s both terrible and heavenly all at once.

"Whether or not the words manage this, we felt that the song gets across a sense of hopefulness,” the four-piece explains. “Musically and lyrically, this track seems to sum up fairly well what a lot of our songs are about, and so it seemed like a good place to start."

With only a handful of songs to their name (but see also: vocalist Tiernan Banks' ventures with Joscelin Dent-Pooley, aka Jerskin Fendrix, in the form of an annual valentine's day record), deathcrash seem like a refreshing break from the angry post-punk of late. While the new track might float adrift in haunting nostalgia, with clear influences from the likes of Slint and Mogwai, their overarching, guitar-led warmth appears intent on carving a path towards comfort.