Aural Aggravation

Oakland, California-based post-hardcore quartet Ex Everything – formed by current and former members of Kowloon Walled City, Early Graves, Mercy Ties, Blowupnihilist, Less Art, and more – present ‘Exiting The Vampire Castle’. The song is the third single from the band’s debut album, Slow Change Will Pull Us Apart, which will be released 10th November via Neurot Recordings.

About the track, vocalist Andre Sanabria says, “The song, ‘Exiting The Vampire Castle’ is named after an essay by political and cultural theorist Mark Fisher. In that essay, Fisher argues that people on the political left will reinforce organizational solidarity by orienting around economic class, rather than identify and culture.

Andre continues… “As the 3rd single off Slow Change Will Pull Us Apart, the song’s lyrics ruminate on the essay’s themes. The band invites listeners to not only come along on a sonic adventure but to act as a spark for progress long after the album is over.”

Listen to ‘Exiting the Vampire Castle’ here:

Ex Everything have hope for the future. The caveat? “Hope without action is meaningless”. For this band, action comes in the form of creation, and creation comes in the form of frenetic, raw music, full of rage but driving for change in the system and in our lives.

Despite the pedigree of players, Ex-Everything will be the first to admit that this band is very much its own thing. Jon Howell says, “It addresses the part of us that wants to write fast, chaotic, knotty, messy, pissed off music.”

The music is a fusion of Dischord-influenced math rock and noisecore, a nuanced rage that refuses to accommodate the passive listener. Jon Howell’s percussive, angular playing is as impressive as it is baffling, with malformed chords and abstract melodies that still burrow effortlessly into your brain. Dan Sneddon’s drumming is a stampede of frenetic time signatures, deceptively understated patterns and anthemic bashing, while Ben Thorne’s bass roils underneath like a ship’s hull scraping the ocean floor.

The band’s true skill, though, lies in how their instruments interlock, the structuring of movements that grow songs from rotted dirges to triumphant war cries, rhythmic tension building until a riff explodes it into something unexpected and completely satisfying. Notably, the band welcomes Andre Sanabria to take over vocal duties, “Andre has been a musical force in all his previous bands. His vocal intensity is compelling,” Howell says. Sanabria screams like he’s trying to tear the songs apart, though he manages to find moments of almost zen-like contemplation. It’s a deft and mesmerising performance, aided by his deeply thoughtful lyrics about, as Howell says, the steady dismembering of the things that bind us.