The Munsens are sometimes tagged as doom steel from Denver, even by the excessive foreheads round right here (me being considered one of them). Nonetheless, because it stands with the band within the current, each of these descriptors are incorrect. The trio are purveyors of fabric possessing rather more depth and lots of extra layers than straight up doom. Performing as a deliberate foil to their stripped down lineup, the band incorporate and synthesize dying and black steel, crusty punk rock, shoegaze droning and epic and unfolding sludgy orchestration into the combo on their forthcoming second full-length, Degradation within the Hyperreal parts of which had been delivered to life of their new homebase of Asbury Park, NJ. The album is ready for launch on October twenty fourth, however upfront of that date, we’re operating a stream of it immediately in addition to some in-depth context and commentary supplied by the band which consists of bassist/vocalist Mike Goodwin and his guitarist/vocalist brother Shaun (drummer Graham Wesselhoff took go away shortly after the completion of the album).
ALBUM NOTES:
“This report was written over a protracted time frame, which we expect labored to its profit. We have now early demos of a few of these tracks from across the time we recorded our final album (Unhanded, recorded in March 2018, launched February 2019). Different tracks we wrote not lengthy earlier than we entered the studio to report this album between January and March 2024. Although we’d have favored to get the album out sooner, this time enabled us to convey all kinds of pursuits to bear on this report, and gave us a chance to remodel and experiment with issues in a approach we’d not completed on earlier releases.
“Numerous the variation in sound occurred subconsciously with years elapsing between the writing of sure tracks, however we made a extra deliberate effort to differ track buildings, lengths, and the keys every track was written in. We additionally wished to incorporate greater than guitar, bass and drums, so we used keys and authentic soundscapes extra on this album than previously.
“The band was dispersed for a lot of the time between albums (Michael in California, Shaun and Graham in Colorado), and the space restricted performances to taking part in in Denver a pair occasions a 12 months, along with a number of festivals and small excursions. It additionally restricted our track writing and releases. Graham joined the band in 2016 and whereas we recorded our final full-length collectively, this album actually feels just like the fruits of our efforts and pursuits. It’s quicker, extra aggressive, extra cohesive. When Graham joined, we had an thought of the band we wished to be and the albums we wished to make. We took steps towards that imaginative and prescient with our final launch however this new album is the truest illustration of that sound thus far.”
ALBUM ART:
Michael: We wished a canopy that was each totally different in model from the covers of our earlier releases, and distinct from many different steel album covers. I’d not too long ago visited an exhibit that featured Flemish painters, together with Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and I had a few of his work in thoughts, significantly items that featured giant scenes with many absurd characters, equivalent to The Seven Lethal Sins and The Fall of the Insurgent Angels. I believe I pulled a number of examples from a Bruegel guide I had, and Shaun prompt we take a look at Serhat Alparslan’s work. All of us favored this piece for the duvet from the soar.
TRACK-BY-TRACK COMMENTARY
“Everlasting Grasp”
Shaun: We began scripting this one again in 2018 proper after we recorded Unhanded and have been taking part in it in our set for a number of years with various titles. There wasn’t a lot debate about utilizing it as the primary monitor on the album — it’s an incredible opener. The title is a metaphor for psychological anguish and despair.
“Sacred Ivory”
Michael: We launched this track as a single in January of 2023. It supplied a glance into the brand new music we had been writing and we figured we’d quickly comply with it up with the total size. ‘Quickly’ ended up being fall 2025, however right here we’re.
“Drauga”
Michael: I got here throughout the Previous Persian phrase “Drauga” in a guide and was struck by it. The phrase itself was intriguing and the that means, roughly “the lie,” made a becoming title for one thing I used to be writing. We’d been jamming this track for some time with out vocals, experimenting with association. Generally I write lyrics particularly for a track, for others I revisit unpublished writing to seek out one thing that I believe suits. On this case, it was the latter, and I ended up rewriting the again half of the poem to raised match the construction and cadence I had in thoughts for the track.
“Scaling Ceauşescu’s Balcony”
Michael: A reimagination of Ceauşescu’s December 1989 speech, one he famously botched, and a paradigmatic instance of ruling class disconnect.
“Supreme Loss of life”
Michael: Thematically, I performed with an thought spurred by Saramago’s Loss of life at Intervals. This was one other one which developed and took many kinds over years. I can keep in mind strolling round Colfax and Capitol Hill throughout the summer season of 2020 when Covid had shut the town down, listening to early reside recordings of what turned this track. We actually wished the crescendos within the again half of the track to land a sure approach.
“Vesper”
Shaun: This monitor is a dedication to somebody near us who took his personal life. He was an enormous cause my brother and I play music, and I wrote this on considered one of his acoustic guitars after he handed. It began because the intro to “The Knife,” however finally took on a lifetime of its personal so we break up them into separate tracks.
“The Knife”
Shaun: This was the final monitor we wrote for the album and, like songs usually do, it morphed fairly a bit as we began to demo it. I like how chaotic it feels — it stays full pace for practically 5 minutes, not like most of our songs which have some form of respiration room. When writing the lyrics for this track, I used to be in the course of coping with some well being points that introduced me again to docs’ places of work and working rooms many occasions. Sadly, I landed into the arms of, what turned out to be, a shitty surgeon. I’m okay now, however mortality is usually on the thoughts once you’re pushed out and in of consciousness on a gurney and left with messy recoveries. There are such a lot of individuals who take care of this every day and don’t get to maneuver previous their diagnoses. So this is usually a track for them — an opportunity to inform “the knife” to fuck off.
“I Avow”
Shaun: “I Avow” is the one monitor recorded outdoors of Greendoor Recordings. I recorded this one at house in Denver shortly after we completed our studio time. The piano piece is a unfastened association of one thing I had written a few years in the past. I in all probability did over 50 takes on our semi-tuned piano, jamming it a bit in a different way every time, and ended up selecting the primary take. It usually appears to work out like that.
