To announce their new album, Liminal Spaces, which is released on October 23, Californian band Go Forward In Flames have given Joyzine readers the opportunity to see the video for the track ‘Kusare-en’ first. Jason Hensley (guitars) and Daniel Johns (Bass VI & baritone guitar) and Jesse Nason (drums, mellotron) explain that kusare-en is,
“…a concept expressed in Japanese about being unable to escape a bond with someone that over time has gone rotten. Like being fated to stay within the orbit of some toxic relationship whose gravity keeps pulling you back in.”
There are touches of ‘Albatross’ by Fleetwood Mac in the drifting nature of the chords at the start of the song but as it progresses the band find a way to sonically describe the disorder of a toxic relationship as the track becomes unstable as it shifts from major to minor chords packed with power chord distortion, urgent drumming and subterranean bass lines. But does the building sense that everything will spiral out of control lead to collapse or resolution? You’ll have to watch the video to find out.
The video, created by Jesse Nelson, is built from hundreds of Polaroid pictures of a still life shot through various lighting changes as a candle flickers, and objects such as books, a clock, and things pinned to the backdrop appear and disappear. Only the candle, and the reassuring dust and scratches from an analog source, are constant. This still-life-brought-to-life, in combination with the music, creates a hypnotic effect as our persistence of vision tries to make sense of the ever-changing tableau.
Go Forward In Flames’ album Liminal Spaces is out October 23 and, alongside the digital release, there is a limited-edition vinyl release of only 200 copies which includes a Polaroid used in the video for ‘Kusare-en’.
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Review by Paul F Cook
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