Currents - The Death We Seek [CD]

Sharptone

£14.38

Format: CD
ICPN: 4065629676827
Release Date: 05 May 2023
Genre: Rock/Alternative

Heady and ferocious, The Death We Seek is Currents at both their most powerful and most vulnerable. Songs like “Unfamiliar,” “Vengeance,” “Remember Me,” and “So Alone” are unflinching explorations of rugged emotional terrain. Currents are uncompromisingly heavy and as raw as a nerve exposed.

They’ve taken their visceral maelstrom on tour around the world, supporting bands like Ice Nine Kills, Parkway Drive, August Burns Red, Fit For A King, As I Lay Dying, and We Came As Romans. A combination of their diverse influences, channeled through unique perspectives and personal experiences, Currents alternate between thoughtful and unhinged. Those well-versed in the likes of Meshuggah, Vildhjarta, and Architects have embraced Currents with full-throated passion.

Currents is frontman Brian Wille; guitarists Chris Wiseman and Ryan Castaldi; bassist Chris Pulgarin; and drummer Matt Young. A winding DIY road through earlier lineups resulted in a series of self-released EPs, all leading to the band’s acclaimed debut album, The Place I Feel Safest (2017).

The five-song I Let The Devil In EP (2018) came shortly after, co-produced by Wiseman and Ryan Leitru (For Today, We Came As Romans, Like Moths To Flames). The pair also produced the band’s stunning sophomore full-length, The Way It Ends (2020). Metal Hammer praised that record’s mixture of rage, beauty, and electronic-laden melodic aggression as “immediately addictive”.

Leitru and Wiseman co-produced The Death We Seek, and the band’s guitarist engineered Wille’s vocals himself for the first time. Jeff Dunne (Wage War, Ice Nine Kills, Make Them Suffer) mixed, making for a massive yet nuanced slab that serves as a Currents mission statement going forward.

“Unfamiliar” is easily the most accessible song in the Currents catalog, though it doesn’t sacrifice any of the band’s integrity or intensity. Lyrically, it tackles all-too-relatable feelings of uncertainty and self-doubt. “I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager,” Wille says. “No matter how confident you are in your path, sometimes you have those days where you feel like you don’t know where it’s going. Hopefully, you are making the right steps to keep moving and always improve yourself.”

“The Death We Seek” was actually the first song composed after The Way It Ends. Conversely, the aggressive and cathartic “Vengeance” was written in the studio. “I like those extremes,” notes Wille. “It makes the record a collection of what was going on in our brains for that whole period.”

The lyrics are thoughtful yet accessible, eschewing easy sloganeering for depth. Massive breakdowns, a driving onslaught of riffs, and black metal-worthy beats juxtapose against moments of ambiance, tranquility, and stripped-back melancholy amidst the dense, weighty madness.

The band keeps a dedicated focus that ensures each release serves a purpose, with a cohesive journey from start to finish, as complete artistic statements vs. a disconnected batch of songs.

The somber “Remember Me” addresses the increasing partisan divide as the isolation of the worldwide pandemic set in. “Everybody went further into the echo chambers on their phones,” the singer explains. “It reached a high point during Covid. Some of my relationships fractured. I have my values, but now I am suffering because I was disconnected from my family. We can’t let politics tear us apart. The last line in the song is, ‘I will not let hate be my last sin.’”

“So Alone” is set in a post-apocalyptic landscape, with a sense of déjà vu. It draws inspiration from some of the serialized storytelling in gaming and other types of fiction. While not full-blown concept albums, “We have this loose story going on with the records, and each song can kind of tie in, in some way,” Wille says. “I like to put pieces in and make things that reflect the general story. It’s a loose concept, which started visually and expanded, beginning with “I Let the Devil In”

Across all three albums, in every live show, and with each increasingly cinematic piece of visual storytelling, Currents fearlessly search for meaning amidst uncertain chaos. Abuse, depression, neglect; no trauma spared. They also cast their gaze outward, offering no mercy to an exploitative system that inflicts harm on people, animals, and the Earth, with a weaponized bombast.

As New Noise rightfully declared: “CURRENTS is a band not to be ignored.”

CD Track Listing:1.The Death We Seek/2. Living In Tragedy/3.Unfamiliar/4.So Alone/5. Over and Over/6. Beyond This Road/7. Vengeance/8. Gone Astray/9. Remember Me/10. Guide Us Home