Imagine the same day your tour is supposed to begin your car gets broken into. With gear and equipment stolen, your resolve is stretched almost to the breaking point. The temptation must surface to simply surrender, pack up what’s left, and start the long journey home. But then tour mates volunteer to lend you their instruments. Organizers work together to figure out the newly complicated logistics. Friends, family, and fans pool resources into crowdfunding. With all this support you overcome obstacles, play that first cathartic show, and launch into a successful tour. This is screamo. This is DIY. This is the hardcore community in action.
After a somewhat rocky start, Sonagi rallied into a brilliant West Coast outing that led up directly into the release of their brand new EP. Everything is Longing is the follow-up to their outstanding 2022 debut Precedent. The Philly screamo band features members from Closer, The Saddest Landscape, Capacities, and Pique. As with their full length, the EP is a showcase of the wide ranging talent Sonagi brings together.
“Rain Shadow” opens up Everything is Longing with a bit of feedback, guitar chugs, and desperate screams. Typical screamo fare to be sure, but after about a minute it all slows down. A bass line comes to the front in this meditative repeating pulse that carries alongside a mellow guitar melody. Meanwhile the vocals become distant and removed leading into an instrumental break only to return with a refocused intensity. It’s a stellar opener and a strong track in general.
The music video for “Rain Shadow” simultaneously embraces and pushes back a bit against the simple ‘band in a room’ rock video cliché. Snap cuts of lead vocalist Ryann Slauson in boldly alternating shirts of black, white, stripes, and bright orange are jarring. The rest of the band vibes along unchanged, which, coupled with the noisy background layer, makes for an overall surreal effect. The outdoor industrial shots holding up oversized lyric sheets were also extremely clever. But it’s the dual vocal breakdown near the end of the song that really steals the show.
Sonagi have this ability to wander with a purpose that never feels forced. Their strength is built on shifting sand. Zooming in and out from languid instrumental passages to hyper focused blasts of emotional intensity. By leaving plenty of space to explore organically their transitions naturally feel comfortable and their execution effortless.
The instrumentation on Everything is Longing is superb. The members of Sonagi play off one another churning out an impressive symphony of noise. Especially by effectively utilizing a second guitar for added depth. “Polite Excuses” for example has these killer false stops. The unsettling guitar riffs hit like waves flowing in and out. The drums crash all around spraying cymbal fuzz overhead. Ultimately, these tidal elements smash against one another in a pummeling ending that capitalizes on the fluid back and forth movement of the track.
Ryann Slauson and backing vocals from guitarist Harim Jung oscillate between menacing screams to near spoken word passages, by turns whiny anguish and forceful outrage. With lyrics that alternate between the poetry of deeply personal passages like the opening of “Grief Tourist”: ‘Through all this noise/you kept looking for me/who’s left and who’s leaving/these months could they belong to someone else/falling feathers/a copy of a copy/now is it our turn/to hold a stone of the labyrinth’s wall/is it my turn?’ And cutting one-liners primed for shouting along with. ‘An impossible task!’ and ‘Everything is longing!’, exclaims “Rain Shadow”, while “Stairs As A Weapon” howls ‘The process is the punishment!’
“Grief Tourist” starts off noodly, sort of meandering into a build-up of force. The vocal feature by Erica Schultz of Nuvolascura is subtle. Whereas Ryann and Harim are pleading at the fore, Erica is haunting in the background, almost wailing along to the post-rock dance of guitars. It’s an effective pivot which Sonagi launches out of into a crashing crescendo of drums.
Throughout Everything is Longing, the drum work by Keean Mansour is impassioned and engaging, but the heights reached at this closing zenith are without parallel. The power “Polite Excuses” ends with is carried through to devastating effect on the second half of “Grief Tourist”. It’s like all of the tension building up as the EP has ebbed and flowed along is finally being released. A powerful ending for a powerful project.
If Precedent was a rich and hearty main course, then Everything is Longing is a dense and tasty appetizer. Every song is heavy with impact and laden with meaning. The EP is an enjoyable if brief treat that will leave you hungry for more.
