Then Comes Silence New Album “Blood”
Post punk is dead. But before everyone bins their JOY DIVISION tote bags, one thing needs to be said: it`s better that way!
Post punk wasn’t created to be alive or to represent vitality. Post punk was, is and will always be a gaze into the void, an echo of a broken world which possibly won`t be the same tomorrow. Back in the 80s, tortured crossover artists such as Curtis, Coleman and Smith transformed the atmosphere of an unsure morning into sound and did what THEN COMES SILENCE do nowadays.
The world isn’t in a better condition than it was in the 80s. Back then, the saber-rattling monster with the finger on the trigger was named Reagan. Today, its name is Trump and it tweets nuclear dreams all over the digital highway; the world builds walls and ducks, and holds its breath. This shaky inhaling, this quiet before the storm is like a post punk nucleus how it was back in the 80s and how it is today – apocalyptically modern. If a contemporary band ever knew how to wrap the beauty of a world in ruins in gloomily shimmering and desolate music, it has to be Stockholm-based THEN COMES SILENCE. “Every day brings us closer to downfall“, muses mastermind Alex Svenson. ”For things to get better they have to get really fucked up first.” Just take a look around if you shouldn`t believe these words.
“The rest is silence.“ Hamlet knew that all things must come to an end. Irreversibly. Forever. On their fourth album, Blood, THEN COMES SILENCE boast a remarkable energy, some kind of longing ode to the inevitable doom that somehow makes life worth living. Bearable. “The Dead Cry For No One“ is a rather programmatic opener – a flickering, impelling post punk mantra that suggests every dilemma must somehow end one day. THEN COMES SILENCE unabashedly flirt with death and suffering, force a grin from the grim reaper himself in the shadows of the atomic collapse. Who would`ve thought the apocalypse could be so darn sexy?
That there lies beauty in death has been a well-established fact even way before the SISTERS OF MERCY came along. Just like those 80s goth icons, THEN COMES SILENCE tell their morbid, eerie tales full of death and ecstasy, mourning and euphoria. ”Ever since my childhood days I felt drawn to the darkness“, admits Svenson. ”I live right next to a graveyard – to me, this is the ideal spot for a walk before I start writing a song.” Humid earth, fog-enshrouded graves, ravens and worms – these are the symbols riddling the THEN COMES SILENCE songs. For Svenson they are so much more than the insignias of a genre that burst forth one of his favorite bands, KILLING JOKE. “I was in the midst of songwriting for this album when my father passed away“, he reveals. “This pushed the songs in another direction that helped me to cope with the loss. He lived far away and wasn`t exactly a role model when it comes to our contact. I miss him, but sometimes I meet him in my dreams.” The feverish, surreal song “Good Friday” tells of these encounters between life and death – a skillful walk through a monochromatic world.
Movies such as A Clockwork Orange, graphic novels, classical music and paintings of the old masters give the Swedes a source of never-ending inspiration. He founded THEN COMES SILENCE in 2012 and released the self-titled debut the same year. Blood shows that the Swedes are ready for the next big step. They deliver the irresistible soundtrack for a dying world, the last dance before the fall. A party without restraints. It will be your last one anyway. ”This album thrives on the knowledge of transience“, Svenson says. ”I don´t want to be scared of dying anymore and I`ve almost fulfilled this wish. Too many people shy away from this subject, and that makes them unhappy.” THEN COMES SILENCE celebrates the opposite: you can almost see the grins on their faces when they churn out their odes to armageddon. A source of strength because ”Blood is the ocean we are sailing upon. It`s in all of us. By choosing this title I advance to my inner self.“ The rest of the world will gladly join him on this journey. Death is just a beginning, after all.
