Check Out A Snarling Tease From The Acclaimed Fort Worth Duo’s Upcoming Relapse Records LP — Its First Full-Length Release Since 2015.
Welcome to Song of the Day, where we hip you to all the new local releases you should be caring about. By highlighting one new North Texas-sprung tune every week day, our hope is that you’ll find something new to love about the rich and abundant DFW music scene five days a week.
Pinkish Black – “Until”
RIYL: Something to list in the fourth tier of that “Heaviest Objects in the Universe” meme.
What else you should know: At long last, Fort Worth’s beloved Relapse Records-signed Pinkish Black is back. Gearing up for the June 14 release of Concept Unification, the band’s first full-length effort since 2015’s Bottom of the Morning, the duo has been gracious enough to tease fans with three new tracks, which already more than make up for the four-year lacuna in their discography.
“Until” is the briefest of these three tracks — but, despite the brevity, it offers ample indication of the band’s sonic direction.
Here, dreary synth instrumentation sets a dark ambience as these meaty, distorted bass guitar notes kick in following a brief bass-intensive drum riff. Keyboardist Daron Beck’s post-punk-influenced vocals sound muddled in reverb, and somewhat drown in all the cacophony. But that’s not negative criticism; if anything, Beck’s articulate vocal performance somehow counterbalances the suppression of such manipulations, and couldn’t possibly be a more fitting match for the backing instrumentation.
This song certainly has its progressive sensibilities, but make no mistake: It’s also a crusher. There’s a reason why this duo has been hand-selected to open for other heavy greats like Sleep, Eyehategod, Ghost and Boris (among many other giants of the genre) in recent years.
You’ll be able to see what makes the band such a live draw when it celebrates the release of Concept Unification at Fort Worth’s Main at South Side on June 22. But in the meantime, for god’s sake, listen to “Until” below.
It slaps.
Cover photo courtesy of Relapse Records.