A few days ago we were fortunate to come across the new EP release by Washington Straight Edge band ABSENTLIGHT. At first listen, it was a well-produced metalcore record very reminiscent of Misery Signals.
Except it's not that at all.
It's a deeply heartfelt rumination on grief, and it's an unbelievable emotional journey, one that we hope that you will take the time to embark on as well.
Following our first listen, we reached out to the band to learn more about them, and how this record came to be. For example, the band is actually two people, vocalist Izak and guitarist Baran. Together they recorded, mixed, and created all of the artwork for the record.
We spoke with vocalist Izak about how the record came to be:
OPEN EYES, was one of the very first demos we made, with no real thoughts or future plans this track ended up laying the groundwork for what would become the sound of “A Side Effect of Mourning”. Lyrically the song is quite the outlier in comparison to the remaining tracks of the EP. I wrote this track after removing myself from a very awful relationship. Since this was one of the first songs written, it was finished before I committed to the concept of the rest of the songs and the EP itself.
TRACKS 2-6, are about some of the different aspects of my struggle with a very deep and personal loss I faced when my best friend unexpectedly passed in 2020. Track 6, “scream to the sky” was recorded on what would’ve been his 24th birthday.
ABSENTLIGHT is life’s darkest moments and the most concise way I can put it is that these songs are about the constant push and pull of deciding to leave or choosing to stay.
All of the recordings were done by ourselves with our respective home setups. Baran would write an instrumental and I would track vocal parts over them and we’d send mp3 files back and forth until we came to the finished product. All mixing was done by Baran as well.
The art originated as an idea that I had as a drawing of a child crying in a dark corner with a looming presence watching from the adjacent corner. Baran then took that drawing and recreated it in Photoshop. All of the logos, iconography etc. were designed by [me].
I do want to stress that this project is completely DIY, we record with our own separate setups, with VERY limited funds. This project is Baran’s first time mixing, he learned to mix just so we can keep everything in house at no cost. The EP art was made in photoshop by Baran his first time ever using photoshop. I relearned how to use photoshop to make our miscellaneous art, everything that went into this EP was 100% passion driven and 100% us.
We very much hope you take the opportunity to listen to this record. Listen to the new record below, or check it out on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music, or YouTube Music:
