The Chemical Mind returns from the lowest abyss imaginable. With its 2022 album GLOSSOLALIA, which is nothing short of a life-altering experience, the extremes grew to a harrowing, concerning level. Before that, 2020 brought That Benign Terror, a harbinger of existential cataclysm that would only be explored on a surficial level with that album. 2019 was the signaling horn of The Chemical Mind with Beneath the Shadow It Casts, a delicate and emotional trial through realms that ultimately calmed despite its harsher proclivities – we loved it here at EIN. Today, the project is calling forth great change.
The new single we’re premiering, “Silent Prophet”, is way more than just a good new song from a beloved project, it’s a sincere and complicated attempt to acknowledge the growth and realizations of the self. The catalyst to all of this is made clear with some additional context from the band:
‘The Chemical Mind returns with “Silent Prophet,” the first single from their fourth album NACHTRÄGLICHKEIT. This track sees The Chemical Mind leaning even further into the dissonant, avant-garde black metal sound established in their 2022 album GLOSSOLALIA, layering shrieking synthesizers with crushing metal instrumentation to create an intensely suffocating atmosphere. Releasing Winter 2025, NACHTRÄGLICHKEIT aims to recontextualize the thematic progression of the band’s first three albums in light of frontwoman Gretchen Krueger’s ongoing gender transition, offering a candid confrontation with the violence of becoming.’
Coming to terms with yourself and who you are is such a visceral journey on any level. If you approach with honesty and good intent to do the work of digging deep into your past, traumas, motivations, and goals, it will be difficult. “Silent Prophet” is, for better or worse, the ultimate soundtrack to that – a clawing, abrasive, tangible discomfort that’ll be all too familiar to many people. Just like the reflections of self though, it’s multifaceted, understanding of the complex nature that’s inescapable and unignorable. Sonically, this manifests in the song’s different sections: a harsh noise black metal ballet, off-kilter rhythms that bring out inner voices like a snake charmer, and a drugging of the mind leading to a zombie-like deflation of function and coherence at the end that’s beyond ominous. ‘Dissonant’ as a descriptor lacks the power to summarize what’s going on here.
In the context of The Chemical Mind, you can hear each of the band’s three main phases represented by each LP completely rebuilt. I don’t mean this literally – this isn’t a lazy remake or remix using anything from previous work – it’s all in the tones and approach. The atmospheric sun peaking through the leaves of tall trees from Beneath the Shadow It Casts turns a darkened, apocalyptic red with fires cast down to burn the protecting foliage. The forlorn yet still legible tumult of That Benign Terror is cut and shifted to dizzying degrees with how “Silent Prophet” handles uneven rhythms and melodies. The beyond overwhelming horror captured on GLOSSOLALIA is still apparent, but not retread, Krueger’s sundering voice spitting and wailing into the air as the world falls apart around her. If previous The Chemical Mind work is to be seen as the unraveling of the truth, the journey to bare-faced honesty that unwraps our true selves like a gift, then “Silent Prophet” is the reckoning with all that was discovered over those years as new wounds are made. It’s messy, abrupt, dense, seemingly insurmountable, and infinitely intriguing. It’s also well worth the effort.
I wanna send a big, heartfelt thank you to The Chemical Mind for sharing this special moment with us and allowing us to play a small part in the unveiling of this new musical and personal era. NACHTRÄGLICHKEIT will be out soon enough in early 2025 and, let’s be real, already clinched its way onto my personal AOTY list for next year. You can follow Gretchen Krueger on Instagram, YouTube, and Bandcamp for future news and music from The Chemical Mind and more.
