"The closer I get to the zeitgeist, the sicker I feel / Every day's the 7th Seal / I shiver off the tritones / I told you I loved you, and then I told you I'm scared..."
The sonic / thematic confusion, delusion, metaphoric realizations of "The Pattern is the Pattern" by San Antonio, TX based Empty Heaven is painfully and beautifully emo. Emo post hardcore, emo punk, emo gothic rock with other blended genre blending. A wonderful tropicalia of all those things with art rock and baroque pop too. An angst filled fusion and confusion bomb lit as you wait for it to explode any moment. Is it wordy? Oh yeah. Do the thrown pitches connect? To me some of the sinewy bits of word play feel like matters of rhythmic convenience, like rhymes as rap, as a part of flow versus meaning but the overall meanings or interpretations by those who listen and pick the ripened lyrical fruit is, surely in the end, rich in meaning (at least to me). Consider the word play shallow or deep or both within the context of the bending distortions, the throttling drums and the hoarse cut throat vocals and it is artfully powerful, is intriguing, is magnetic. Musically, the masterful punch from the pummeling drumming, the booming, thumping bass lines, the guitars that have a particularly metal sheen. Not only metal as heavy metal but, at times, like the feeling of sheet metal bending of tense metal ringing within the artful guitar distortions. Such a textured production masterfully rendered.
Tonally and sonically I thought of an amalgam of artists like Los Campesinos!, Jeff Rosenstock and Tropical Fuck Storm and you might think of other kind of sonic D.N.A. The sense I have before reading liner notes is that we are all led and fed things that cause us from a young age to be part of a larger system that sucks the life out of us, our individual meaning. The system the Patterns lead us to a place when we grow old and wonder not only where die our lives go but what the fuck did we accomplish and why are we sad. Fuck me, ha.
LINER NOTES reveal the back story as:
[Picture it: the darkest time of your life, lost, alone in a big city that feels like it's swallowing you whole. "The Pattern is the Pattern" is a song that questions the very nature of mental illness: is it all chemical and material, or does one's environment play a significant role? Perhaps they collaborate in an undoing. It's a heavy song with a shoutalong chorus.]
AND reading the seeds and the questions posed by Empty Heaven is so intriguing and makes me think harder. I will still feel what I need to feel while listening to this powerhouse of angst.
"The Pattern is the Pattern" is from Empty Heaven's latest album, "Laughing".
-Robb Donker Curtius
https://soundcloud.com/emptyheavenmusic
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_cX3RtR9E83GL9wLGcSJA
https://emptyheaven.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/_emptyheaven_
https://twitter.com/empty_heaven
Empty Heaven is a band and a place. It has a sound that is at turns aggressive and sensitive, chaotic and tranquil, held together only by sets of razor-sharp lyrics. Empty Heaven is a space in the middle of conscious life and dreaming, where anything goes, whether it's a song about alien abduction, hypnotic instrumental piano passages, or spoken-word sections revealing painful memories. Empty Heaven formed in 2020 in San Antonio, TX, quietly crafting their art during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a diverse sound palette, stories to tell, and an energetic performing style just waiting to see the light of day, Empty Heaven is working tirelessly to bring you to their place.
Tonally and sonically I thought of an amalgam of artists like Los Campesinos!, Jeff Rosenstock and Tropical Fuck Storm and you might think of other kind of sonic D.N.A. The sense I have before reading liner notes is that we are all led and fed things that cause us from a young age to be part of a larger system that sucks the life out of us, our individual meaning. The system the Patterns lead us to a place when we grow old and wonder not only where die our lives go but what the fuck did we accomplish and why are we sad. Fuck me, ha.
LINER NOTES reveal the back story as:
[Picture it: the darkest time of your life, lost, alone in a big city that feels like it's swallowing you whole. "The Pattern is the Pattern" is a song that questions the very nature of mental illness: is it all chemical and material, or does one's environment play a significant role? Perhaps they collaborate in an undoing. It's a heavy song with a shoutalong chorus.]
AND reading the seeds and the questions posed by Empty Heaven is so intriguing and makes me think harder. I will still feel what I need to feel while listening to this powerhouse of angst.
"The Pattern is the Pattern" is from Empty Heaven's latest album, "Laughing".
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://soundcloud.com/emptyheavenmusic
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_cX3RtR9E83GL9wLGcSJA
https://emptyheaven.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/_emptyheaven_
https://twitter.com/empty_heaven
Empty Heaven is a band and a place. It has a sound that is at turns aggressive and sensitive, chaotic and tranquil, held together only by sets of razor-sharp lyrics. Empty Heaven is a space in the middle of conscious life and dreaming, where anything goes, whether it's a song about alien abduction, hypnotic instrumental piano passages, or spoken-word sections revealing painful memories. Empty Heaven formed in 2020 in San Antonio, TX, quietly crafting their art during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a diverse sound palette, stories to tell, and an energetic performing style just waiting to see the light of day, Empty Heaven is working tirelessly to bring you to their place.
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