Country of origin: Germany Location: Memmingen, Bavaria Status: Split-up Formed in: 1995 Genre: Death Metal Lyrical themes: Death, Human failures, Social criticism. Downcast, Bristol, United Kingdom. 1,817 likes 1 talking about this. 'catharsis' OUT NOW - available on all major platforms booking: [email protected] 'the sheer effort, execution. Diverse influences, the need for musical expression and an approach with a different purpose and artistic profundity gave birth to the Croatian metal band Downcast Art. The journey of their creation began, conceptually, in autumn 2005 and after a few years of activity the band formed into a productive union which eventually resulted in.
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On this new record, their first in 25 years, Downcast offers a set that reflects that pivotal moment from years ago. Some of these songs, like “Sandpaper” and “Price”, were left unrecorded and you can hear where the band was going in their final days, laying wrenching emotion on top of dissonance and big chords. These songs still pull their weight.
As members Kevin Doss, Greg Doss, Brent Stephens, and Sean Sellers have evolved as musicians and humans over the last two and a half decades, the band builds on their foundation. “Four Arrows” draws listeners into the myth of California, and its present-day connections to the state’s violent beginnings. The oppression of indigenous peoples hasn’t ended at all, despite the attraction of its cities and the recreation in its landscapes. “Hiding in the Limbs” faces down the CEO’s of today’s big gun manufacturers, placing them all at the scene of every mass shooting. With so many dead, and the dollars still pouring in, it’s time for an accounting.
On the track “The Response from White America”, the band summons the real voices of African American mothers and fathers who plead with white people to care about the violence inflicted on their children. The last song of the album, “The World He Promised to Katherine”, about a terrible personal tragedy, aspires to the kind of catharsis that the band achieved in their live sets with the song “Hope”.
This isn’t light music. Downcast gets its weight from its style and its substance. This might not be for everyone, and that’s just fine. But, as both activism and hatred rise again and a new generation faces menacing uncertainties, this is exactly the weight that the current cultural moment requires.
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Track listing:
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From the Body
Expectationless
Nature of a Gun
Four Arrows
Hiding in the Limbs
Price
Mayday
The Response from White America
Sandpaper (A Song for Still Life)
The World He Promised to Katherine
Expectationless
Nature of a Gun
Four Arrows
Hiding in the Limbs
Price
Mayday
The Response from White America
Sandpaper (A Song for Still Life)
The World He Promised to Katherine
Downcast Band
There was a moment in the evolution of California punk and hardcore when the music took a hard turn toward politics and DIY ethics. This was a push against the restrictions of the previous decade– against the jock ideas about who could belong to punk, and about what punk could be. Love could be placed with anger. Sensitivity with frustration. Concerns about inclusion, sexual identity, privilege, and racial violence were better illustrated by really hard music.
Most important to the whole stance: Poses don’t fucking matter. Just be real. Be human.
In the middle of this moment, the California band Downcast put out a few records, played almost 200 shows over four years, and then was gone. Live, when everything connected, they left audiences standing quietly, sometimes crying.
Legendary hardcore label Ebullition Records, closely connected to Downcast’s sound and a heavy influence on their ethical stance, went on over the following twenty years to produce a catalog that still defines this strain of the hardcore music scene. Serious, smart, and unapologetic about giving a shit. All of this was before the bittersweet moment when punk went mainstream, when Nirvana pulled back the curtain on a rich underground scene, and ushered in an era of heavily filtered, safely redacted music.
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But music with heart still matters, just like it always has. It’s the perfect platform for a strong message. And this is why members Kevin Doss, Greg Doss, Brent Stephens, and Sean Sellers are picking up where they left off. This time around, Ebullition Records teams up with the pioneering noise label Three One G. No reunion. It’s another chance to put effort into a shared passion. This time around, Ebullition Records teams up with the pioneering noise label Three One G. There’s a good reason for this pairing; these are all the same people who came of age in the resistant, political, determined hardcore music of the nineties.