The digital age is here to stay, and while it does provide plenty of good things for all of humanity, it sure as shit also has a rather putrid underbelly that gets plastered on all of our faces daily. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of effort to try to focus on the better things when the vile stuff is just so much more scorchingly striking and somehow more algorithm friendly. If you are here reading this article however, there’s a good chance that you are aware of these things and are pulling your weight by having the attention span to read and listen to things, while understanding the poignant downsides of the endless feeds and the side effects of the make-believe of having everything on your fingertips yet without being able to grasp anything. Fight the good fight, consume ethically, overcome morally, let’s get to the good music at hand next.
Vaelthunder is the solo outfit of the Lisbon-based M. Pires (formerly of The Voynich Code), gearing up to release his debut Expose / Exist on September 4, and today, we’re delighted to bring you the premiere of the single “Hollow Passenger” off of this record, that has been a decade in the making, and thoroughly explores the subject matters underlined in the opening paragraph and much more. So without further ado, hop on board and drift away into the project’s sludgy metalcore world for a few minutes;
Expose / Exist can be characterized as a concept album, where Vaelthunder brings into focus the fact that the modern world is bereft of attention spans, and everything seemingly revolves around the idea of vain content, making you numb while trying to catch your fleeting second in the spotlight, losing yourself somewhere in the feed in the process. So, in other words, an extremely identifiable concept to all of us in one way or the other. All the songs on the record delve into their own notions, “Hollow Passenger” being about how disinformation gets only fueled by the fires against it, and how sometimes silence is the most acute weapon available us.
“Hollow Passenger” itself, however, is far from silent. Throughout the three and a half minute barrage of cutting grooves and steady clobbering, Vaelthunder delivers and takes no prisoners while at it. The top notch production is lively and crystal clear without being clinical, all instrumentation’s nicely underlined and distinct, while the vocals are on the front and center mixing and matching various flairs together effortlessly. The song’s a stretch more dark and abrasive when compared to the previously released singles, but that really only drives home the point that the entirety of the album itself is crafted well and features enough nuances to feed any appetite, in only the positive senses.
To guarantee you won’t miss a thing and get to consume the full feed the second its released, keep tabs on Vaelthunder via Instagram and pre-order/pre-save the record over here. While the forewords are extremely conscious about the fact that the project and album exist in the exact climate it criticizes, we can still collectively do our due diligence and lift the things that actually matter above the digital noise.
