New Supergroup Alert: Azusa, feat. Members of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Extol, Sea + Air
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling a Dillinger-Escape-Plan sized hole in my heart since they called it quits. Enter Azusa, the new creative force featuring ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan bassist Liam Wilson, Extol guitarist Christer Espevoll and drummer David Husvik, and Sea + Air vocalist Eleni Zafiriadou.
Shit, this is awesome. Azusa’s music embraces the frantic musical tangents that Wilson brings to the table and cuts no corners when it comes to good songwriting. In a sense, it feels more grounded than TDEP, slowing down and giving the listener a chance to breathe between spurts of erratic weirdness. It’s very thorough and well-executed; you can tell that this is a culmination of some incredibly talented minds. Wilson commented in an interview with Captured Howls:
“I recognize the music we write is complex on a few levels, but I guess that’s all relative or at least subjective. The drive for experimentation, for me at least, comes from simply always wanting to create a fusion of sounds and influences that I, as a fan of all different kinds of music, can’t find or haven’t been able to convey more clearly yet. I’m always consciously aiming to try and break new ground – however small that tectonic shift may be, aiming far outside my own comfort zone and conditioned norms in an effort to explore uncharted territory and chart it. That’s what I think the role of the artist in society is. I’m attempting to simultaneously destroy and create subgenres of music.”
Perhaps the most unique part is Zafiriado’s vocals. They drift from haunting to abrasive, adding another layer of emotional momentum to the twisting mass of sound. Azusa’s newest song, which you can stream below, highlights their more introspective side:
“’Fine Lines’ is a quiet storm in the shape of a song; an odd-time metal ballad wearing a pop disguise. Lyrically this song explores self-destructive tendencies and the fine line between dream and reality.”
I think it’s safe to say that we can expect a lot more awesome output from this band. Azusa’s debut, Heavy Yoke, comes out November 16 via Solid State Records in the U.S. Pre-order here and follow Azusa on Facebook.
