Exclusive Track Premiere: Othismos – “I Will Fade Away”
Italian crusters Othismos have recently begun the rollout of their first new album in ~6 years. Sharing a name with an ancient Greek wartime maneuver that roughly translates to “push,” this three-piece outfit has roots in noisy hardcore that, over time, began to resemble the earlier waves of black metal and, on this new record, a bit of atmo-sludge and grindcore. These genre touchstones are evident in Sottrazione‘s lead single, “Cops Are Not People.” This track, in addition to having a based-as-fuck name, is a flurry of blackened, dissonant punk riffs played with the weight and atmosphere of an Isis record.
But, for those of you in the audience without short-term memory loss may have remembered, we are here to premiere a Toilet Ov Hell exclusive track! The kind punks in Othismos chose to showcase the album opener, titled “I Will Fade Away.”
As you may have been able to glean from the dour-ass track title, this first song is primarily focused with a slower pace and hazy ambiance. Fog-walls of gloomy guitars fill out most of the space, complemented by a slowly-escalating drum performance and pained shrieks from the vocalists. For a band labeling themselves with the same genre as Martyrdöd and Funeral Chic, I’d consider this a bold track to introduce to the porcelain throne—seeming to exemplify their new incarnation as a group.
But what the fuck do I know? Here’s some words from that band themselves:
“I Will Fade Away” is a song that marked a shift during the writing process of the new album. We love speed and aggression, and we tend to go straight to the point; however, in this case, we let the opening riff, slow and melancholic, take all the time it needs. We also like that the song builds up in rhythm and intensity, reaching its peak at the end, hinting at what’s to come in the rest of the tracks.
We chose it as the opening track because it’s not the typical punch-in-the-face kind of song a punk band like us would normally use to start an album. We wanted to suggest a darker, more decadent atmosphere. Moreover, “I Will Fade Away” ties perfectly to the album’s title and, above all, to the cover art: a face disintegrating and fading away.
The lyrics are about just that: disappearing, fading away. It’s not merely the rather obvious observation that we will all disappear one day; it’s more of a wish, a hope to escape pain by vanishing from people’s eyes and thoughts. It’s what you wish for when you feel like you’ve endured enough.
We approached things differently this time. This is primarily a guitar-driven album, with the guitars more prominent than ever. In fact, many of the initial song ideas came from Luca, our guitarist, whereas on our previous album, they mostly came from Filippo (bass and vocals). That said, we always compose songs collectively. We’ve scaled back the role of the bass, which no longer acts as a sort of second guitar but instead fulfills its role as rhythmic support. The result is a more solid and perhaps less scattered album compared to the previous ones, with – relatively – less speed but greater cohesion. That’s exactly what we were aiming for.
Really interesting stuff to base a punk(-adjacent) record around thematically. The name Othismos fits the band well, as they seem to be aiming to push the boundaries of their genre.
Sottrazione releases December 16th, 2024.
