(written by Islander)
In this feature we are taking a few large steps off the various beaten, broken, and thorn-shrouded paths we usually follow in our musical meanderings around here. The connections to those paths, such as they are, derive in part from the person who made the music you’re about to hear.
That person goes by the name “twi” in this new project, but we can disclose that the person is the Slovakian musician and vocalist also known as Twisted in the experimental industrial doom/death metal band 0n0, whose music we’ve written about repeatedly over the last nine years (here’s the proof of that).
The name of the new project is hspdn. hspdn‘s first release is Heyday’s Ruin, a four-song, 18-minute work set for release open May 23rd and self-described as “an EP about climate and personal crises”. What we have for you today is the premiere of its title song.
Here are the song’s lyrics:
hey! we’re the ones to blame
hey! heyday’s ruin
hey! wash away with flame
hey! heyday’s ruin
no, it can’t go on like this forevermore
unfeasible
no second chances anymore
irreversible
hey! we’re the ones to blame
hey! heyday’s ruin
avarice, callous thirst
malicious zeal enforced
slanderous treachery at its worst
our own kindred cursed
hey! we’re the ones to blame
hey! heyday’s ruin
hey! wash away with flame
hey! heyday’s ruin
nay!
(abuse and enframe)
(nay!)
Those words are clear and clean-sung rather than growled or screamed. They carry across the upper reaches of the music, which is also the range where the guitars sizzle and glitter, cascading and slowly writhing in dense waves. The vocal melody is also one that catches in the head.
Those layered stratospheric sounds are both spellbinding and distressing, and become further textured when a slithering lead guitar begins to wail in the song’s back half. Nearer the end, the vocals and drums vanish and the music becomes ethereal and astral, echoing like chimes and drifting like glistening space dust, with only the murmuring of the bass to contemplate (along with us) this strange aural vision.
Even before that, the bass is a mysterious and musing presence in the song, more subtle than every other ingredient but still attention-grabbing. But it’s mainly the big booming and clattering drums that will get heads moving and legs jumping as the song proceeds.
You might be inclined to classify the song as a type of alternative rock and ambient music, shadow-shrouded and star-strewn. Thoughts of Jesu and Type O Negative might come to mind. I found it captivating.
The EP includes three more songs (“Not Good Enough,” “Forget,” and “Unrest“) each of which harnesses similar ingredients (and a few more) but in subtly different ways. The heavy, concrete-cracking rhythms of each one are compulsive. The vocals are equally compelling. The collage of backing tonalities provides rich textures that paint unearthly portraits — portraits of often frightening splendor.
The glistening, high-flying sounds of “Not Good Enough” are celestial, providing another contrast with the body-moving beats and the dark, muted corrosion that’s also happening within the music. Some of those sounds entrancingly whistle and warble; others ring like piano keys.
“Forget” is more dark and depressive in its mood, but becomes rhythmically vivid as the drums hammer and tumble, and it includes new tones and permutations as well as soloing that sets the mind swirling.
And the closer, “Unrest“, is an ambient instrumental piece that’s vast, like a slow glide through wondrous nebulae, grand and glorious in its musical panoramas, but ultimately threaded with an ethereal melody that channels a kind of yearning melancholia.
Heyday’s Ruin was composed and recorded by twi at lu69 studio in 2024 e.v. It was mixed and mastered by Matej Turcer and includes photos by acidmilk.
The EP will be released digitally, and on tape by the Bratislava-based label Jablká ďaleko od stromu. For more info, check out the links below.
hspdn:
https://hspdn.bandcamp.com/album/heydays-ruin
https://www.facebook.com/hspdn
https://www.instagram.com/hspdnsk
Jablká ďaleko od stromu:
https://jablkadaleko.blogspot.com/
https://jablkadalekoodstromu.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/jablkadalekoodstromu
https://www.instagram.com/jablkadalekoodstromu/