PREMIERE: Black Band Shirt – Proud Filth
Black Band Shirtocide
There is beauty in depression. It may not be easy to find, but through the overwhelming grief, through the tears of frustration, through the crushing darkness of life, there is something beautiful. It’s in the overwhelming bleakness where we can find something special, something that reaches deep within and grabs us. It holds us, like the embrace of a long-lost loved one and keeps us safe, even for just a few fleeting seconds. It is in the sacred place where one can find peace, even through the rage. It is also in this space where you can find Black Band Shirt’s Proud Filth.
Crushed between Deafheaven and An Autumn For Crippled Children, Proud Filth is the auditory exploration between peace and chaos. Elements of black metal, DSBM, and shoegaze lies the pained shrieks, focused riffs, and an unrelenting passion years in the making. Longtime Toilet Ov Hell podcast listeners and readers of the site will be thrilled to learn that our favorite boy Brenocide is the man behind this album.
Black Band Shirt says:
I will admit it’s a bit of an ass-showing for me to be premiering my own metal music on Toilet Ov Hell, although I can’t imagine doing it anywhere else. Any long-term listeners of Toilet Radio would know that when I exited the podcast last year as co-host, I cited one of the primary reasons for my exit being that metal was just something I was significantly less interested in. For a while – that was true. But it’s like they say; distance makes the heart grow fonder, and all I needed was time and space. Uh, okay, therapy and medication too.
I eventually spent weekends rekindling old friendships with people in my local scene and going to shows. I started re-listening to old favorites on my long commutes. Slowly but surely, my life-long appreciation for the genre started to re-emerge; especially in playing guitar and bass. Even if I did spend time practicing other styles of guitar in my free time, my fingers felt the most at home in heavier territory. The months since I left the podcast have been spent writing, practicing and recording the music I’m sharing on my debut EP as a solo artist.
“Black Band Shirt ” is a post-black metal project with an emphasis on wailing DSBM-style skramz, gritty, reverb heavy guitars, and indie/pop rock song patterns. You’re absolutely going to hear influences in this EP (as well as future releases in the can) that draw from the other bands and genres I enjoy outside of extreme music. The EP titled “Proud Filth” is thematically about the realities of my simple, working man’s life that I know best: giving your life and body over to your work, facing existential crisis, living in a dying town in a forgotten region, vice indulgence and simple heartbreak. Other bands with a similar blackened style either write lyrics that portray vibe through poetry, or they simply scream gibberish throughout. I decided early that every word I say on this record is going to be pointed, literal, and true-to-life; much like my favorite hardcore bands from my youth. Oh, but of course I’m gonna scream some gibberish too, why wouldn’t you?
The 5-track debut EP “Proud Filth” will be available in its entirety on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube April 26th, 2024. KEEP IT METAL, BROS.
– Breno /,,/
Listen now. Do it for Breno.
Grab the album on Bandcamp and follow Black Band Shirt on Instagram and TikTok.
