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EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: Listen to The Ever Living Strip Away “Fifty Metres Deep”

Back in May, a UK band called The Ever Living released their excellent full length debut, HEREPHEMINE. To be honest, this should be one of our Heavy Delinquency posts, seeing

6 years ago

Back in May, a UK band called The Ever Living released their excellent full length debut, HEREPHEMINE. To be honest, this should be one of our Heavy Delinquency posts, seeing as we failed to give this album the shout out it deserved. It’s a fantastically sleek take on post metal, combining great production and sharp tones alongside harrowing vocals to create a depth and range of sound that was incredibly endearing. It seems, however, that The Ever Living shall not suffice themselves with that; these lads have decided to release an instrumental version of the album, stripping away these aforementioned vocals. The end result is an interesting rework of their sound, of which you can get a taste with the instrumental version of “Fifty Metres Deep”. Let’s get going!

The trick is to listen to both versions of the track side-by-side (scroll down for the band’s Bandcamp). Once you do that, you hear how substantial the vocals were for it and how much has changed with them gone. Like the much less fortunate absence of a vocalist for We Lost the Sea, the taking away of the vocals here leads to a more somber and contemplative feel to the track. You can hear the synth tones, especially near the end, come through to a much clearer degree; our ears, devoid of the natural anchor of the vocals, roam deep into the mix and the composition, dredging up a more melancholy mood.

It’s, overall, a great change and a great idea for a follow-up release. It works for The Ever Living because of how good the production on this release was originally. This allows it to stand tall even in the absence of the vocals, which often occupy so much of the sonic space of a release. It’s obvious then that they planned this from the beginning, building the album around the idea of the duality. This is confirmed by vocalist / keyboardist Chris Bevan Lee, saying: “We had the idea to do this right off the bat. We wanted each and every track to stand up in their own right as instrumental pieces and by presenting them both ways, different aspects are revealed by the varying context. Releasing the album in both formats gives the listener a choice that they rarely offered; so it’s just up to you which version you want to enjoy listening to”.

If you ask me, that’s super smart and a cool experiment for a band to undergo. If you agree, this instrumental version releases on October 19th; make sure to check out the original album below to get ready for it.

Eden Kupermintz

Published 6 years ago