EPK – They Grieve – To Which I Bore Witness (2022) (Silent Pendulum Records)
Two-piece drone and gloom from Ottawa, Canada
Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@ashermediarelations[.]com
“We are very proud of how far we’ve come as a band since our last release. Although it’s been a painstaking process, having scrapped and then re-written most of it, we feel that the end result is a very clear step in the right direction for us. We took our time trying to get the details right, getting more comfortable and adept at filling sonic space as a two-piece. Specifically, we put a lot of work into blending our disparate drone and post-metal influences in a way that feels more natural and seamless than our previous efforts. Recording with Topon Das was a great experience, and certainly helped us bring the album to life. His engineering expertise allowed us to capture the intensity of our live performances without sacrificing the atmosphere. Additionally, Mike at Silent Pendulum records has provided us with a wonderful home for this album—he is at the forefront of new metal, and we’re excited to be a part of it.” – They Grieve
For fans of The Body, Cult of Luna, Bell Witch, Thou, Year of No Light
Album Title: To Which I Bore Witness
Release Date: February 24, 2022
Label: Silent Pendulum Records
Distribution: DistroKid
Silentpendulumrecords.com | Facebook.com/theygrieve | Instagram.com/theygrieve | Soundcloud.com/theygrieve | Theygrieve.bandcamp.com | Spotify
“In the song (To Which I Bore Witness) itself, the music lumbers like a wounded leviathan, staggering ahead with terrific heaviness through corrosive chords and pounding drums — and unexpectedly, it also gets significantly louder, all the better to crush the listener into submission. Enhancing the daunting atmosphere of the music, the vocals scar the senses with harsh howls of ruinous torment, and a guitar wails in bitter grief. Suddenly, just as the video’s protagonist lands on a barren beach (to meet her other self), the music dramatically changes. A slow piano melody ethereally rings in moody but mesmerizing fashion above a humming bass and steady beats. That interlude only seems to magnify the bruising impact of what follows it. The piano still rings, but the rough reverberations that surround it abrade like heavy-grit sandpaper, and the screams reach new heights of harrowing intensity. The drums boom, the chords scrape and moan, the feeling of immense desolation becomes staggering. The protagonist buries the box she removed from within forest roots and wanders away, alone.” – No Clean Singing
“As you can probably imagine from the song titles, They Grieve are not a happy band. The duo infuse a lifetime’s worth of depression and darkness into their music, drawing inspiration from acts like Grieve, Amarok and Burning Witch.” – Decibel Magazine (All That a Body Can Suffer off I Made My Sacrifice Accordingly)
“[…] a surprisingly nuanced take on sludge metal.” – Dreams of Consciousness
“Previously I had compared the music to an introspective journey. This feels more like sinking into quicksand.” – Metal Trenches (I Made My Sacrifice Accordingly)
[Download Album Cover | Download Album Lyrics]
Album Title: To Which I Bore Witness
Release Date: February 24, 2022
Label: Silent Pendulum Records
Distribution: DistroKid
Track Listing:
1. Wither (7:12)
2. Under the Weight (7:23)
3. If Light Should Appear (7:00)
4. To Which I Bore Witness (6:43)
5. Guided (3:18)
6. Weakness (8:01)
Album Length: 39:40
Album Recording Credits:
• All songs performed by: Deniz Guvenc & Gary Thibert
• All songs written by: Deniz Guvenc & Gary Thibert
• Produced by: Topon Das at Apartment 2 Studios
• Mixed by: Topon Das at Apartment 2 Studios
• Mastered by: Dave Williams at Eight Floors Above
• Album Artwork by: Pascale Arpin
• Additional tracks recorded by Alex Jakimczuk at Uppercut Studios
Album and Live Band Lineup:
Gary Thibert: Guitars, Bass, Vocals
Deniz Güvenç: Drums, Synthesizers, Piano, Vocals
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The album as a whole (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY)
“This album, both lyrically and musically, tries to capture the uncomfortable juxtaposition between weakness and weight. We are constantly trying to express the ways in which the ugliness and decay we see in the world sets itself down and plants its roots inside of us—how the weight of the world transforms into our own weakness once it has done so. We try to capture this feeling of juxtaposition and tension within the music itself by oscillating between ambient, textural drones and heavy, doom-laden riffs.” – Deniz
Track by track (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY)
1. Wither
This song, the album opener, was written twice. The decision to scrap the original version in its entirety was anxiety-inducing at first, but clearly feels like the right decision now that everything is said and done. We spent a lot of time fine-tuning the last half of the song, and the ending was one of our favourite parts to write—in fact, it is still one of our favourite parts to play live. Writing this song really forced us to get more comfortable with not only using samples in a live context, but also with blending and balancing tones and dynamics at the same time to ensure everything hits in the right place. Without our electronics, we would need 5 or 6 guitarists to pull this off on stage.”
2. Under the Weight
“This was the first song we wrote for this album, but it was completely re-written from start to finish. The process began while we were on a brief hiatus in 2017 during which time Gary was living and working across the country. We tried to write on our own and send demo recordings back and forth, but we quickly realized that this process simply doesn’t work for us. Nothing we came up with during that period sounded quite right. The distance really showed us how important improvisation and playing off of each other is for our writing process.”
3. If Light Should Appear
“Although this was one of the last tracks we wrote for the album, we feel that it is probably the most stylistically similar to our previous work. Especially the ending, where we lean more into the denser, dissonant wall-of-noise drones we wrote for our first EP. It is also one of the more aggressive and rhythmically diverse tracks on the album. The title of the song was inspired by a short line Anne Carson wrote in her introduction to If Not, Winter, her translation of Sappho’s collected fragments.”
4. To Which I Bore Witness
“Although this is the title track of our new album, it was one of the last songs we wrote. We had spent well over two years writing and re-writing nearly every other song on the album. At that point, we felt like we really started understanding what makes us sound like ‘us’, so this song came together seamlessly. Lyrically, we have always written one single piece to be split up and used for the entire album. To Which I Bore Witness is no different. The lyrics come directly from conversations we have as friends—more than a band, They Grieve is a space where we both can be vulnerable and open with each other about our experiences of grief, loss, and weakness in ways we simply can’t with other people. During the years we spent writing this album, we had many conversations about succumbing to depression—about how the ugliness and trauma we see in the world sets itself to work inside of us as individuals, plants its roots in us, and decays from without to within.”
5. Guided
“We’ve always been vocal about our love of classical minimalism and contemporary groups like A Winged Victory for the Sullen working within that realm. We do not see this track (which features only piano and one guitar) as an interlude or transition, but as something complete in-itself that expresses the same ideas as the other tracks on the record. Deniz’s piano part was recorded with Alex Jakimczuk at Uppercut Studios, and it was the only thing we recorded outside of Apartment Two with Topon Das. We love how Alex was able to bring out the natural harmonics and overtones of the piano and how Topon was able to blend the guitar layer into it.”
6. Weakness
“This track was yet another that we re-wrote in its entirety after performing it live. We spent quite a lot of time discussing the dynamic “narrative” of the song—how the slower, quieter introduction would crescendo into doom, how the dissonance of that doomy guitar riff would eventually evolve into harmony, how we would handle the sharp contrast between the much faster, intense ending and the swirling ambience preceding it. Of all the songs on the record, this one forced us to confront our limitations as songwriters the most.”
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BAND STORY ANGLES / FUN FACTS:
1. We’ve always loved collaborating with friends and family. Gary’s brother Cory filmed and produced both of our music videos, while Cory’s partner Linnea choreographed and performed in both. In the early days of They Grieve, we did a skill-swap with our good friend Pascale Arpin and her band Ultra Love: Gary recorded their first EP, and Pascale did the artwork for our album.
2. Although we’re a two-piece, we run the same amount of gear as a four or five piece band live.
3. We have been close friends for over a decade and have never considered adding other members to the band.
4. We chose our band name in a huge rush because our friends in Greber wanted us to play a show with them long before we were ready. We only had two songs written, and we messed them both up at the show.
Photo Credit – Ev Osmanovic
They Grieve is a two-piece doom, drone, and post-metal band based in Ottawa, Canada. Drawing influence from both minimalist ambient music and down-tempo metal, they blend warm synthesizers, electronics, and lofty guitar drones into mournful hymns and monolithic dirges with urgency, tension, and weight.
Members Gary Thibert and Deniz Güvenç formed They Grieve in 2015 with the intent to experiment with new forms and processes for songwriting, collaboration, and improvisation. Their first EP, I Made My Sacrifice. Accordingly, was self-recorded and self-released in late 2016. In 2018, it was re-released with an added bonus track and accompanying music video through Transcending Records.
They Grieve are set to release their first full-length album entitled To Which I Bore Witness. Recorded at Apartment 2 with Topon Das of Fuck the Facts, this album presents a marked change in the band’s sound. Moving away from the harsh-noise influence on their first album, To Which I Bore Witness unveils a much more refined approach to texture and atmosphere while simultaneously shifting to a slower, heavier pace.
Employing a nuanced sense of harmony, the result is an emotional, dynamic, and doom-laden take on post-metal.
Album and Live Band Lineup:
Gary Thibert: Guitars, Bass, Vocals
Deniz Güvenç: Drums, Synthesizers, Piano, Vocals
Discography:
2022 – To Which I Bore Witness (12” Vinyl) – Silent Pendulum Records
(2018) – I Made My Sacrifice Accordingly (CD re-release w/ bonus track) – Transcending Records
(2016) – I Made My Sacrifice Accordingly (cassette, digital) – Dwyer Records
Eyehategod, Come to Grief, Vile Creature, Author & Punisher, thisquietarmy, Set and Setting, Autarch, Greber, The Great Sabatini, Black Ships, Hammerhands, Botfly, Loviatar,Tours and Festivals:
2019 – Side by Side Weekend – Ottawa, ON
2019 – Apriliis Fest – Montreal, QC
2018 – Meltdown Fest – Saint-Catherines, ON
2018 – Gloomfest – Sherbrooke, QC
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