EPK – The Reticent – please (2025) – Generation Prog Records
Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations[.]com
“The wide variety of approaches to progressive metal that The Reticent is known for is present and will most likely satisfy fans of the previous albums. The intensely personal storytelling and tragic autobiographical concepts of previous albums are also present and will again take fans on a journey. I believe fans will hopefully be able to see themselves reflected in the experiences I try to describe in this album.
“please” is a journey through the many battlefields of mental illness. From hiding such conditions from others (“The Concealment”) to insomnia (“The Night River”) to panic attacks (“The Bed of Wasps”) to not being believed (“The Scorn”) to depression (“The Riptide”) to the edge of suicide (“The Chance”), the album takes them through these nuanced and explosive states of mind as Chris reveals to the listeners what it is like in his mind.” – The Reticent
For fans of Opeth, Cynic, The Contortionist, Wilderun, Devin Townsend
Band: The Reticent
Album Title: please
Release Date: November 13, 2025
Label: Generation Prog Records
Genre: Progressive Metal
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Thereticent.net | Facebook.com/thereticentmusic | Youtube.com/@TheReticent | Instagram.com/The.reticent.band
Thereticent.bandcamp.com | Spotify
“A taut, compelling progressive metal opus.” – Angry Metal Guy (2020 – The Oubliette)
“A narrative masterpiece. 10/10” – Rock Magazine (2020 – The Oubliette)
“Something all fans of music will want to experience.” – Metal Temple (2020 – The Oubliette)
“Prog’s most emotionally gut-wrenching band returns!” – Metal Storm (2020 – The Oubliette)
“One fact is incontrovertible: songwriter Chris Hathcock is a genius.” – Legacy Magazine (2020 – The Oubliette)
“Undoubtedly one of this year’s best albums, if not THE best album.” – Scream Magazine (Norway) (2020 – The Oubliette)
“As beautiful as it is sorrowful, masterful instrumentals and intense sounds accompany the story of this concept album that explores the slow descent into oblivion that sufferers of Alzheimer’s disease experience. Fans of metal will come for the riffs, and stay for the depth of atmosphere and storytelling. You’ll be left pondering existence after one of the best albums of the year.” – Cave Dweller Music (2020 – The Oubliette)
The Oubliette was included on numerous “best of” lists and was called The Most Essential Progressive Metal Album of 2020” by RTMBA Magazine. More recently The Oubliette was included on Metal Injections 10 Extremely Underrated Progressive Metal Albums list and their 10 Extremely Underrated Metal Albums of the 2020s list.
[Download Album Cover | Download Album Lyrics]
Band: The Reticent
Album Title: please
Release Date: November 13, 2025
Label: Generation Prog Records
Genre: Progressive Metal
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Track Listing:
1. Intake – 1:45
2. The Concealment (Those Who Don’t Want To Wake) – 6:06
3. The Night River (Those Who Can’t Rest) – 6:55
4. Diagnosis 1 – 2:18
5. The Bed of Wasps (Those Consumed With Panic) – 5:47
6. The Scorn (Those Who Don’t Understand) – 8:12
7. Diagnosis 2 – 2:39
8. The Riptide (Those Without Hope) – 6:09
9. The Chance (Those Who Let Go) – 6:52
10. Discharge – 2:56
Album Length: 49:45
Album Recording Credits:
All instruments and vocals performed by Chris Hathcock except
– Lead Guitar and Additional Acoustic Guitar by James Nelson
– Guest Vocals on “The Bed of Wasps” by Brian Kingsland
– Narration by Vienna Gloom
All songs written by Chris Hathcock
Produced by Chris Hathcock
Engineered by Chris Hathcock
Drums engineered by Jamie King
Mixed and Mastered by Jamie King
Album Artwork by Joscelyne Hauserman
Band Line Up:
Chris Hathcock – Vocals, Guitar
James Nelson – Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals
Paul McBride – Bass, Backing Vocals
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About The Album Artwork:
Depression is like a riptide. Tireless and constant, a current pulling you away from shore. The water, the depression, calls to you to surrender and to let go.
About the album as a whole (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):
“please” is a journey into the battles with mental illness that its author struggles with to this day. Mental illness is something that gets swept under the rug most often. People will often say after a suicide that they “wish they had known” or “wish the person had said something,” while frequently those who speak up face chastisement or even ridicule. Many disorders create a storm in their amalgamation as one piles on, having to hide one’s illnesses with sleeplessness and panic attacks and depression, and not being taken seriously when you do speak up – these all can contribute to a person feeling they have no way out. The epidemic of suicide is a reflection of this. “please” is chosen as the title because that is the universal term applicable to all of these experiences – it is a supplication as we beg for sleep, beg for attacks to stop, beg for help, beg for it all to end. The undertaking of this album was a means for songwriter Chris Hathcock to navigate his own intense suffering and find a way to keep going when what he wanted to do was just let go and vanish into oblivion.
Track by Track (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY)
1. Intake – This introductory track sets the scene for the mental illness epidemic and what it is like to live with it, featuring audio from psychologists and suicide survivors. The piano previews the melody and progression in “The Concealment”
2. The Concealment (Those Who Don’t Want To Wake) – This track is about what those struggling have to do to survive: hide. We learn to say we’re fine so we can get along. But then at the end of the day, the emptiness, the pain, etc., it all washes over us like a tide. With 1 in 4 adults experiencing a mental health crisis yearly, but 70% of them not seeking or able to get help, the notion of “we are lonely” refers to how we may be suffering similarly in silence right next to others feeling the same. Musically, the song is a dynamic progressive metal song that features interlacing harmonies, all culminating in the final giant crescendo as the song reaches its emotional climax.
3. The Night River (Those Who Can’t Rest) – Insomnia can take many forms, so in this case, it is represented by the nagging thoughts (hence the constant whispers in the left and right speakers during the verses). The lyrics begin very verbose and articulate before the exhaustion and fear turn to the notion of never sleeping again. The music is a bit more animated in the vein of prog rock, with many sections being exclusively tapped before it gets more aggressive as the desperation sets in.
4. Diagnosis 1 – This is an examination of the symptoms of a panic attack and panic disorder. The sounds are meant to enhance the feeling of anxiety.
5. The Bed of Wasps (Those Consumed With Panic) – Aggressive, technical, and desperate, this song features the heaviest and most metal moments of the record pulling from death and black metal and near constant odd time signatures. The dissonant sounds and odd rhythms are meant to keep the listener uneasy so that they may feel some of the panic attack. The lyrics are actually made from cutting out pieces of statements made by patients who suffer from panic disorder. The song culminates in the desperate refrain of “please stop” – something any sufferer will have begged.
6. The Scorn (Those Who Don’t Understand) – This song is decidedly more groove-oriented in keeping with the almost mocking tone of the lyrics. Lyrically, the song takes the perspective of someone who does not understand what it is to have major depressive disorder or suicidal ideation. As such, they instruct the listener to “just get over it,” pointing out “it’s all in your head.” The presence of more major chords and straightforward grooves is the world that those who don’t understand live in. Exotic hand percussion and string instruments like the oud are introduced in this song, making it feel further removed from the others.
7. Diagnosis 2 – This is an examination of the symptoms of major depressive disorder. The sounds this time are more dull and listless, almost calm. The ocean can be heard slowly fading in as it goes on transitions to The Riptide.
8. The Riptide (Those Without Hope) – This song features the thinnest texture of all of the songs on the album, made up only of keyboard, guitar, and vocals. The theme of water plays out sonically and lyrically as depression is represented as both an undertow pulling someone under the surface of the water and a riptide pulling them far from shore. The depression washes away all hope and won’t let go, so the sensation of drowning begins.
The guitar solo in the song is also done with the tone knob completely rolled down, creating a more muted sound like we would hear underwater.
9. The Chance (Those Who Let Go) – This song is a perspective on suicide from the vantage point of someone who feels it is their only way out. As such, the song takes on a peaceful, almost hopeful feel in both harmony and melody. This is to represent the peace that comes from knowing that their suffering will soon be at an end. There remains conflict, however, in both how the narrator hesitates as well as distant pleas of “help me please,” indicating that this is something he is struggling with. Suicidal people don’t actually want to die; they just want to escape – they want the pain to stop. The lyrics begin painting pictures of a place without pain, representing the fantasy of release that people feel on the edge of suicide. The music is more intimate here with acoustic guitars and brushes on the drums that transition to a melody that repeats over and over but builds more and more each time, culminating in a large crescendo mirroring that of The Concealment, but it is suddenly cut short, and we are left with silence, suggesting that the narrator did, in fact, pull the trigger.
10. Discharge – The title here is a double entendre, and its meaning depends on how the listener wants to interpret it. A person could be discharged from a hospital or clinic, and a firearm can also be discharged. A broken piece of the melody from The Concealment (and Intake) plays against a more somber droning background while we hear from a suicide survivor describing losing her husband. From there, we hear from two different psychologists giving perspectives on what affects and impacts suicide. This piece is a reflection on the aftermath of suicide.
======================================================
FUN FACTS – STORY ANGLES
1. The album was written in 6 months, drums were recorded for this album (and the next album) in one singe day, all other instruments (guitar, bass, keys) were recorded in two days, but the vocals took two weeks and at the end of it Chris had injured his larynx to the point that the fear was he would require surgery and potentially couldn’t sing again. He had to go over 6 weeks without speaking and even in his teaching job he had to communicate 100% nonverbally. Thankfully, he recovered for the most part.
During the filming of the video for The Concealment, one particular scene called for Chris to violently destroy a room. During this scene, Chris got a bit too into the moment and ended up breaking two toes, spraining three others, and partially tearing his left rotator cuff. To make things worse, he had to perform at Progstorm Festival in Canada only 6 days after the injury – he performed with the broken bones and tears and by the end of the set, he was doubled over in pain. Due to the emotional and painful nature of The Reticent’s music, most fans in attendance didn’t realize he was injured in multiple places.
2. This is the first Reticent album to be almost completely engineered by Chris Hathcock himself. The drums were tracked at The Basement Studios with Jamie King (who mixed and mastered the album), but everything else was tracked at Hathcock’s personal studio, Silent Muse Studio. He had to record and perform by himself, which led to a lot of frustration, especially when he was tracking vocals.
3. There are numerous references to the work of clinical psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison hidden throughout ‘please.’ For example, The Concealment includes a line that begins “Night falls fast…” This is a nod to Jamison’s 1999 book Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide. The Night River features a reference to “an unquiet mind,” which is a nod to Jamison’s 1995 book “An Unquiet Mind.” Samples of Jamison herself can be heard speaking about suicide and mental illness during Discharge.
4. With the exception of The Bed of Wasps, all the songs were recorded using 6-string guitars, which is the first time The Reticent used mainly 6-strings since before 2016’s On The Eve Of A Goodbye.
5. BONUS: The gap between The Oubliette and please (5 years) is the longest gap between albums since The Reticent began.
L to R James Nelson (lead guitar), Chris Hathcock (Vocals, Guitar, Drums), Paul McBride (Bass)
Photo Credit by Justin H. Reich
Hailed as “prog’s most emotionally gut-wrenching” band, The Reticent began as a solo side project for its founder – multi-instrumentalist, Chris Hathcock. Already a
Grammy-nominated music educator, Hathcock sought to find a way of expressing some of the more painful sides of his life and as such, The Reticent became known for its tragically autobiographical concept albums. Records such as “On The Eve Of A Goodbye” and “The Oubliette,” displayed an ever evolving progressive metal approach and gave audiences a sobering, emotional, often devastating experience finding favor in particular with fans of Opeth, BTBAM, Porcupine Tree, and Cynic. Hathcock recruited in eminently talented performers such as James Nelson (Nospūn) and Paul McBride (Voraath) to help not only bring the albums to the stage but to further enhance the studio recordings which have now been consistently produced by Jamie King (Between The Buried And Me, The Contortionist). The Reticent has played notable festivals such as ProgPower USA, of which Metal Injection said they had “one of the most
heart-wrenching performances in ProgPower history” further noting “Despite being the opening act on day one, The Reticent received a standing ovation from the seated audience, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.” Upcoming festival performances for the band include ProgStorm Festival 2025 in Montreal, Canada. The Reticent’s last album, “The Oubliette,” was hailed as “a masterpiece,” “genius,” “devastating,” and included on several “Best of” lists for 2020 and being named “the number 1 most essential prog metal album of 2020.”
Discography:
2025 – please LP
2020 – The Oubliette LP
2016 – On The Eve Of A Goodbye LP
2012 – Le Temps Detruit Tout LP
2008 – Amor Mortem Mei Erit LP
2006 – Hymns for the Dejected Demo
Shared Stage with: Cynic, Atheist, Into Eternity, Swallow the Sun, Doro, Insomnium
Tours and Festivals:
2026 – ProgPower USA XXV – Atlanta, GA
2025 – ProgStorm Festival – Montreal, QC, CAN
2023 – ProgPower USA XXII – Atlanta, GA
2023 – Forget Me Not Tour – US
Artist Endorsements:
James Nelson – Ormsby Guitars
Paul McBride – Arachnid Cabinets, GHS Strings, Tsunami Cables
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