Hailing from Wichita, power trio Blood Tide started in 2013 as a songwriting experiment of Matthew Clagg (Mystery Blood, Rival Cliques), the later addition of drummer Mason Monigold (Remains to be Seen, Master Mood TV) led to live performances and the release of the “Moon” EP on This Ain’t Heaven Recording Concern [TAHRC] in 2017.
With the recent arrival of bassist Doug ‘Horacio Holguin’ Lynn, the band have just dropped their new second 4-track EP “Gnarley” via Deathforms (digital) and TAHRC (tape), paired with a video for the track “Failure Meditation”.
Blood Tide properly combines elements of darkwave, post-punk, post-hardcore, post-rock and psychedelia into an atmospheric yet noisy and immersive guitar-driven sound of heavy, ominous and brooding intensity.
An assemblage of visuals shot around the nation distorted and mutated into a dystopian road trip to the Emerald City of Oz set against the brackish soundtrack of a harsh warped reality doused in sage Yoda wisdom.
“Failure Meditation” riddled with light staggered drum patterns repeat as sharp, reverberating guitars abrasively needle and strum squealing melodies, while fast chugging basslines resound setting the trance-inducing backdrop for subversive, caustic, shouts evoking curiously honest inquiries of relentless internal struggles culminating in a rapid influx of intense full-throttle sound.
A brutally honest meditation demanding time be put aside to, “think about the last time you fucked up.” A rant begging the foreign notions of being honest with oneself, taking responsibility for one’s actions, and placing realistic limitations on plans. An introspective exercise that will keep one grounded in the truth rather than floating in the endless possibilities of a dream as most would have you do. Repeat this mantra in the mirror, “Think about what you’ll fuck up tomorrow!”
The accompanying video, shot by Tereza Zardoz, Mason Monigold, Matthew Clagg and Helen Cruz in numerous locations across the United States from the highways of Kansas to Buffalo, New York, forms a montage of mesmerizing floating imagery to illustrate the strange progression of thoughts one might experience during meditation. Flashing stage lights illuminate the dark silhouette of a guitar player, a lake of dead fish blurs into the landscape overexposed by negative photography, and a broken down silo surrounded in depressed colorless grass is superimposed over a racing highway of car lights spraying neon green paint. Seemingly random images expose the hidden doorways of the mind and open them to the suggestive doubt of failure.
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