HOLY WARS break down new album ‘Shadow Work/Gentle Work’ monitor by monitor

We at all times knew we wished this to open the album within the spirit of ego demise, however not with out acknowledging the bodily actuality of demise too — particularly with grief working by way of a number of tracks. A protracted and punishing “journey” in Joshua Tree grew to become the doorway into that.

I used to be misplaced in questions of identification and the roles we play in society, and thru this sense of optimistic nihilism I used to be left questioning what any of it actually means.  This compelled me to look inward and ask myself some exhausting questions by way of shadow work, and that’s what this monitor invitations the listener to do as nicely.

We had been enjoying “O Dying” in numerous varieties through the early years of Holy Wars, at all times with a dramatic intro. With this album, it felt proper to convey it again with up to date manufacturing and set the tone.

“I Really feel Every part” is the primary official music we began writing for Shadow Work / Gentle Work. It was at all times meant to be a callback to our first launch as a band, I Can’t Really feel a Factor. After years of progress, therapeutic, touring and a number of death-and-rebirth cycles, I wished to replicate on the trail it took to get right here — the disassociation, the anger, the ache, and finally, acceptance.

It took years to really feel something. Now, with “I Really feel Every part,” it’s a name to not bury your self within the void, however to face it and transfer by way of the feelings, regardless of how overwhelming they really feel.

I additionally love that the primary lyric is “Reveal myself,” deliberately following the ego demise of “O Dying.” It felt proper for the following monitor to be about seeing your actual self for the primary time.

With this being on the Shadow Work facet of the album, I wished to instantly deal with the shadow self. “Shadow Walker” got here to me as this fantasy-book-type character, however actually, it’s the voice in your head, formed by the affect of others, dictating how you’re feeling, the way you look, the way you act, the way you suppose till you grow to be a deepfake of your self.

It’s a sort of manufactured confusion — a monster we don’t even understand we’ve created. The music is a name for saving, for reality and readability… for one thing actual. Whereas society would fairly preserve us asleep and managed, this music was written as a begging for an awakening. 

This one got here collectively fairly quick. We have been writing with Cody Quistad of Wage Conflict and had an prompt move. Lyrically, I wished to seize a poisonous relationship that felt like a jail. Escaping it led to threatening moments the place the final phrases spoken felt like a curse. That very same 12 months, each of my dad and mom handed unexpectedly.

I held onto that ache for too lengthy, giving it energy. “Crucify” grew to become a technique to reclaim that energy, channeling the anger I carried for years into one thing that would lastly transfer me ahead. As a substitute of burying it, I confronted it for what it was and commenced to heal by confronting the trauma head-on.

When folks hear this, I hope it offers them the energy to let go of a dangerous particular person or state of affairs.

This one I fought for early on, and I’m so blissful it made the album. From the demo, I knew it was one thing particular — there’s such uncooked emotion in it. I like the grunge nature of the music, and the best way it explores obsession.

It was written from a spot of envy, need, invisibility and that longing to be with somebody — and even grow to be them. I wished to trip the wonderful line of that duality: how love and hate are the identical hearth, only a completely different burn. Love is the sunshine, hate is the shadow, each coexisting.

I leaned right into a darker lyrical tone, writing from a extra parasitic standpoint about how one can need somebody so deeply that it turns into one thing consuming.

I can’t wait to play this one dwell.

This one has a really completely different tone. The that means behind “I’ll Fuck on Your Grave” is unintentionally for the Saltburn followers and leans aggressive — particularly with a lyric like “I’ll bury you face down and I’ll fuck in your grave.” However we knew we wished to distinction that and make it one of many vibiest songs on the document.

I wished it to really feel like driving down an open freeway, hand-surfing the wind. Nick and I’ve at all times cherished Santo & Johnny’s “Sleep Stroll,” and we pulled inspiration from that, together with Radiohead’s “Exit Music (For a Movie).”

This was written for the individuals who attempt to break you — the liars, the thieves, and those who make the most of your kindness. I’ve skilled that concept that “kindness is perceived as weak point,” and on this music I let the craze come by way of. I leaned into the villain position as a technique to reclaim energy.

This one is an outlier, for my part, and closes our Shadow Work facet of the album. I like it a lot, it heals me.

This one begins the Gentle Work facet of the album and acts as a response to our first monitor, “O Dying.” It lives within the aftermath of that ego demise, peeling again layers of identification and the intuition to outlive. It explores the necessity to create that means and goal as proof of existence, and the hope that some a part of us carries on past this life.

I’ve at all times cherished this line Chuck Palahniuk writes in Invisible Monsters: “Nothing of me is authentic. I’m the mixed effort of everybody I’ve ever recognized.” This felt deeply related to the thought of identification being formed, distorted, and influenced by the whole lot round us.

The lyrics come from a POV of standing so near the sting that your world begins to bend. In that breath, there’s a second of reality. Sonically, the music feels lighter, quicker, and brighter, setting the tone for Gentle Work.

Co-written with Josh Gilbert of Spiritbox, this was so enjoyable to jot down. It’s quick and aggressive, however catchy as hell. I keep in mind that day feeling fully overfed by the media and the way, in a single doomscroll, you may be taken on an emotional whiplash from pleasure to disappointment to anger to envy. That break up second from “aww” to “fuck you” is extremely unhealthy, however it’s the world we’re dwelling in now.

The overexposure, overconsumption, oversaturation…we’re locked into this satan in our palm. “Kill the Gentle” is the burnout music for all of it. It tiptoes the sting of these darker ideas: the urge to unplug fully, to vanish from the system.

Sonically, the music feels brighter than the burden of the lyrics, which is the juxtaposition [guitarist producer] Nick [Perez] and I like most. We by no means wish to simply depress. We wish to empower, or on the very least say, “I really feel this fashion… do you’re feeling it too?”

Following the burnout in “Kill the Gentle” and that need to surrender, “Ceremony” explores that very same feeling by way of a extra ritualistic lens. I typically get misplaced within the thought of parallel realities, the place completely different variations of us live out the alternatives we didn’t make. “Ceremony” holds onto the hope that one thing higher exists — if not now, then perhaps within the subsequent life.

We began enjoying this one dwell in Europe earlier than it was launched, and the gang immediately responded. Everybody started leaping and moshing on the breakdown. It felt so particular, like we have been all on this shared cathartic state collectively. From that response and the messages that adopted, we knew this music was one thing particular.

This was our first music again after the lack of my sister. After taking time to grieve and heal, it will definitely felt prefer it was time to return and end the document — however lyrically, it was exhausting to consider anything.

Right here I used to be once more, besides this time the household who made me was gone. I went by way of the rollercoaster of grief over again, even feeling a way of survivor’s guilt that I’m nonetheless right here. I spiraled into questioning the purpose of something. The life I had been dwelling, and the particular person I used to be, began to really feel like a reminiscence that was fading extra every day.

After questioning religion and difficult the concept that we reunite after we cross on, “Every part You” grew to become a stream-of-consciousness launch attempting to course of all of it. Like different songs on the album, and with the Gentle Work facet leaning sonically brighter, we wished to steadiness that with the damaged nature of the lyrics.

This one ties up the household loss in a neat little “you’ll must unpack this in remedy” bow. It was written about my estranged brother, who was a part of the inspiration behind our band identify, Holy Wars, after disowning our household for not following his cult-like faith.

I’ve witnessed a metaphorical holy struggle inside my circle of relatives for many of my life, beginning in adolescence, and I’ve wished to jot down about it for a very long time. We’ve had the “Holy / Unholy” idea for years, however I stored it near the chest.

This album seems like a metamorphosis — a launch of long-held trauma. This felt like the correct time to lastly say it, not as a blanket assertion on faith however from my expertise of how perception — when taken to extremes — can divide, management, and destroy the very factor it claims to guard.

This one is precisely what it’s titled: a metamorphosis. It closes the album and leaves us with a way of hope for what’s subsequent. I wanted that in my very own life, and it felt proper for the ultimate music of Shadow Work / Gentle Work to hold that sense of transmutation, darkness into mild, one life ending so one other can start.

I used to be going by way of my very own transformation whereas penning this, and I do know I’m not alone in that. Perhaps folks will really feel that in the identical method.

“Metamorphosis” leans industrial in its manufacturing, with a flip within the bridge the place a few of our hip-hop influences come by way of. The monitor takes its time. It doesn’t rush or drive a breakdown. It strikes extra like a scenic route, and I believe it ends the whole lot on a peaceable notice.