Aircraft are cool, huh? I think many of us had some sort of fascination with them when we were young. Media and stories with or about them were abundant for someone growing up in the ’80s and ’90s too, making a connection with them even easier and more fun. For me, video games were the biggest draw. I remember playing Top Gun for the NES, Gradius III for SNES, Air Combat for PS1 (Ace Combat in Japan), and a smattering of others, my favorite arguably being Star Fox 64.
Indifferent Engine have this specific nostalgia on missile lock given the video for their latest single, “Crashing Into A Hillside In The Dead Of Night”, a song we’re premiering today. It’s an emotional post-hardcore missive not unlike At The Drive-In, Deftones, or Cave In, but their specific energy is wholly enginey, indifferently so. And hey, we’re happy to share that with this new song, the band have signed to one of our faves, Church Road Records, to get their debut album out called Speculative Fiction! Let’s celebrate by giving this video a scan:
Immediately, the care and attention to the video’s aesthetic screams a love for video games (the SEGA logo boot screen parody at the beginning is especially tickling). That much is apparent, but the short story that unfolds in the video is also weighty and complementary to the song’s sorrowful disaster. A ceaselessly picked guitar raises the anxiety for a dogfight to die for while the melodies and vocals throughout the track create an emotional mold by which the song is measured. It’s atmospheric just like the video itself and the song’s many segments and modes show a band not looking to get pinned down by any limiting genre descriptors with a heart on one sleeve and a dagger sheathed in the other.
Some more context on the track:
‘The song was inspired by vocalist and songwriter Adam Paul reading a book about an air disaster, 052 Heavy, which was an airliner that crashed after it ran out of fuel. The overall conclusion into why the accident occurred was that the airport was busy due to weather conditions and so the plane was kept waiting to land for too long – but that the pilots, knowing they were running out of fuel, for some reason couldn’t bring themselves to just tell air traffic control that they needed to land right now. The song funnels in that feeling of not standing up for yourself but wishing you had or could.’
As the band raise the throttle in preparation for Speculative Fiction‘s takeoff, Paul’s skills as a game dev will be put to great use as a literal video game is in the works to help promote it. What’s more, there will be an actual Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis here in the States) cartridge being sold as merch in tandem with the album’s release. It’s clear Indifferent Engine know how to hype up an album for us nerds, but the star of the show will certainly remain their metamorphizing music that stows away simple tropes and conventions in favor of alternative approaches to their brand of post-hardcore that truly makes a mark.
Congrats to Indifferent Engine for signing to one of the best labels out right now! You can follow them on Facebook and Instagram, and check their Bandcamp for their awesome EP Canis and future work I’m sure. Speculative Fiction is due out this spring.
