photo by Malte Riis
Nefarious Industries presents Stumbling Through The Walls, the explosive second album from Aarhus, Denmark-based progressive/avant noise rock trio HIRAKI. Confirming the new LP for early April release, the label has issued the cover, artwork, track listing, preorders, and the lead single, “The Alarmist.”
As a part of Denmark’s flourishing underground scene for dark and heavy music, the HIRAKI trio deploys an aggressive style of progressive synthpunk from the edge of the abyss. The band presents this sonic assault to accompany the inevitable fact that our world is sick, and we all take part in maintaining the fucked up systematic structures. Encouraged by boundless acts like Daughters, Street Sects, and The Body, the band relies on gnawing synthesizers, ripping guitars, and crushing drums to deliver the foundation from which the vocals burst forth, with concepts about corrupted data and moral decay.
Having honed their talents into an impenetrable sonic maelstrom on stage and on record, HIRAKI has secured themselves in the Danish scene and showcase even more unhinged and explosive on their second album, Stumbling Through The Walls. And make no mistake – the band has a lot on their mind this time. Tilt the structure!
Stumbling Through The Walls was recorded and produced by HIRAKI themselves in their Cube Of Eternal Doom Studio – constructed in an old farm in Skødstrup – then mixed by Klaus Q Hedegaard Nielsen (Oxx, Fossils, Beta Satan), mastered by Emil Thomsen at ET Mastering, and completed with artwork by Jon Gotlev/No Heroes. The album also features guest vocal contributions from Cara Drolshagen (The Armed) on “Common Fear,” Rikke Fink on “New Standards,” and Anders Jørgen Mogensen (Gullo Gullo, KLoAK) on “Peach Lung.”
With the first Stumbling Through The Walls single, HIRAKI’s Jon Gotlev writes, “’The Alarmist’ is both a beginning and a conclusion. It’s the perfect entry point to the turmoil sound and atmosphere of the new album. At the same time serving as the final track of the sequence with a grim narrative about people who create panic to a degree where they themselves don’t know what is even up and down anymore. Ultimately leading to the inevitable dispute: Where is the moral when you need it?”
Stream HIRAKI’s “The Alarmist” at the Nefarious Industries landing page for Stumbling Through The Walls RIGHT HERE.
Stumbling Through The Walls will see release on all digital platforms and on LP in a run of 300 copies through Nefarious Industries on April 9th, with a collective of independent labels across Europe co-releasing the vinyl. Find preorders and links to all partners HERE.
Watch for additional audio premieres, official videos, and more to be issued advancing the release of the album over the weeks ahead.
Stumbling Through The Walls Track Listing:
1. Common Fear
2. Wonderhunt
3. Proto Skin
4. New Standards
5. Blossom Cuts
6. Mirror Stalker
7. Peach Lung
8. The Alarmist
HIRAKI emerged in 2016 following the hiatus of progressive rock act Liserstille, where Jon Gotlev and Tue Schmidt Rasmussen recruited longtime friend and collaborator Tim Frederiksen to form a noisy band very unlike anything else in the Danish scene at that time. In May 2017, the band’s debut album, Modern Genes, was self-released digitally, on cassette, and as vacuum-packed art prints. Later, the band released the album as a split LP with Copenhagen post-hardcore act We Are Among Storms.
Having shared the stage with several of the most interesting acts from the Danish scene for hard music such as Hexis, LLNN, We Are Among Storms, Telos, Heathe, now labelmates Oxx, and others, following the release of Modern Genes, HIRAKI was selected for Danish webzine Blastbeast.dk’s annual showcase, The New Shit, which included live concerts, press coverage, and a broadcasted radio feature. In February 2019, the band was selected as support for US act The Armed, resulting in their first live shows in Germany.
Besides the music, HIRAKI focuses on a strong visual profile, including several DIY videos for the debut album. All artwork is made in-house, mainly by Jon Gotlev, who works as visual artist under the name No Heroes.
HIRAKI:
Jon Gotlev – vocals/synths/noise
Tue Schmidt Rasmussen – guitars
Tim Frederiksen – drums/backing vocals
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