For over half a decade now, Seb Alvarez’s noisecore sextet meth. have been terrorizing Chicago’s metal and hardcore scenes by gigging their haunting atmospherics building up to extreme experiments in everything from screamo to grindcore to industrial metal across the city. After setting out on his own at the onset of the pandemic with an EP of solo recordings under the moniker Virgin Mother, Alvarez added a slate of sequels to that release over the course of 2022 with three EPs each focused on a different element of meth.’s patchwork sound. Additionally, next month he’ll be combining those powers for a forceful debut full-length titled Mourning Ritual.
In spite of its drastically reduced lineup, the early samples of the record harness the same terror-inducing soundscapes meth. deals in. The latest cut “Blossoming Winter” provides a heavily layered and brutally warped assault against the senses, with Alvarez citing his experiences with “intense social anxiety and the inability to trust and communicate comfortably with people on a deeper-than-surface level” as the track’s impetus.
“I’ve always struggled opening up to people and developing deeper connections than just general interactions,” he explains. “I tend to experience a ton of anticipation and dread, especially when interacting with people, even though I work in an environment that is almost entirely that. Musically, this is one of the prettier songs on the record, which I feel is really brought to life through my friend Dan Bretz’s added percussive elements.”
“Pretty” being subjective here (I agree with him, for the record, though my mother may not), brace yourself for the explosive track below. You can also pre-order Mourning Ritual here, and find upcoming North American tour dates for October beneath the track.
