Sunnycide from St. Catharines, who play music on the edge of hardcore and sludge, dropped the double single “Angels Weep // From Ash” on October 1. With these two songs, the musicians keep progressing toward their darker selves.
Harmonized noise, caught during a rehearsal, gave life to “Angels Weep”. The musicians shaped it enough to add to their setlist. However, the composition was finalized only after its previously unrecorded second part was tested live and approved by the band’s audience. Together with “From Ash”, the two tracks represent the primordial cycles of falling and rising, destroying and creating, decaying and growing, according to the musicians.
“[The songs] are connected by the stories of those who are punished for their courage to resist the bigotry of the powers that be. Both songs call for an existence beyond the self and encompass the myriad ways in which we forge our own hell through the ignorance of our true nature and the choice to tread the paths of others instead of carving our own.
“Angels Weep” illustrates the idea of something beyond humanity feeling utterly powerless and bereft as it witnesses the horror of those living in filth and squalor; literally and spiritually, bearing the silent knowledge that the only one who can truly help them is themselves.
“From Ash” is about recognizing the illusion of difference and realizing that all perceived obstacles are merely gifts we disguise to build our character and shape our human experience. It’s about weaponizing pain and suffering with a vision beyond “-isms” and a cemented refusal to drown in a “self”-deprecating, “self”-authored narrative,” the musicians tell Musiknights.
The band worked on the songs at Deadquarters Studio with engineer Marco Bressette, who also produced their previous EP Nothing Left to Mourn. After the latter came out, the artists solidified as a five-piece.
“We try to write as thematically, holistically, and collaboratively as possible; that way, we can all mould the song and feel connected to it in our own individual way,” Sunnycide add.
After three recent joint shows with Apple of Basilisk and Drofnosura in Ottawa, Montreal and Milton, the band focused on working on their first LP.
“Angels Weep // From Ash”, released independently, is available on cassette by Bleed Weed Records.
Sunnycide are a sludge/hardcore band that formed in Niagara in 2015. At first, they played doom and sludge, but eventually reshaped their sound. The current lineup is Dawson Chamberlain on guitar, Christian Harford on bass, Brandon Biancaniello on drums, Nathanial Lamondin on guitar and vocals, and Andrew Biancaniello on vocals.
Sunnycide online:
https://www.instagram.com/sunnycidehc
Cover photo — Bandcamp