The hardest challenges in life are the long battles, the lingering turmoil, the bitterness in which we must sit. We can rally for a sprint, but a marathon demands a certain acceptance of suffering. We must simply learn to exist with an omnipresent weight on our shoulders, navigating day-to-day banality while carrying a terrible pain. Strength is simply learning to exist with the suffering.
Callous Faulter, the new solo project from J Angus (ex-Greytomb, Paroxysmal Cavitation) explores this pain with long-form soundscapes that combine post metal, sludge, and black metal into a fog of suffering. Today, we take a first glimpse at the despair with "The Isolationist," a 17-minute monstrosity that ebbs and flows with the grief and anger of marathon pain. Maddening, furious crescendos flood into haunted, almost romantic, interludes of beautiful sadness, wrapping the psyche in a devastating blanket of bleak atmospheres and unrelenting misery.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the track was inspired by a real-life battle with an unforgiving foe. Angus shared:
"The music for 'The Isolationist' started to take form in 2018/2019. I set out to create something that encompassed all my favorite musical genres, mixing black metal with post metal/sludge and some post rock. The lyrics deal with a deeply personal experience with a person I knew that died from cancer. Someone that kept themselves isolated from the world and filled hate and resentment."
Based in Melbourne, Australia, Callous Faulter draws from the uniquely brutal strains of post metal that seem to fester in the land down under. Melancholy melodies bleed through the sonic fog, supercharged by the ugly aggression of caustic sludge. The opposing forces fuel each other, summoning the inevitable urge to sob and scream at the unstoppable force. And yet we must sit silent as we find a way to live with the pain.
Callous Faulter's self-titled debut EP will be released on June 1st. Pre-order the album on Bandcamp here.