Canada’s All Else Fails has released their tenth studio recording, The Incident at Black Lake.
This EP is an evolution of the band in every aspect of their musicality, its songs are heavier, more complex, and deeper than ever. Employing elements of other genres like industrial, noise, moody electronics, or ambient sampling has always been a hallmark of the band, but take a new approach on this album.
The three original songs and one cover explore themes of devastating mental illness, dystopian mass existential nihilism, and ideological fascism. According to the band, It took over two full years to write and produce this EP, they took their time with every part, every note, and every modulated warble. Every musical element has a place and purpose. They are telling a horrifically personal, furiously aggressive, and unnervingly beautiful musical story of mental terror and surviving despair.
They continue to explain,
“It’s been really interesting this time around. We started writing this in the early days of the pandemic, so we didn’t really know if or when we would get to play live again. That led to us really taking our time to write each part exactly how we wanted. After we had finished writing and tracking the main instruments (drums, guitars, bass, vocals), then we spent over a year working on the programming, samples, keyboards, and production elements. We basically wrote a second album over top of the first one, it was kind of like writing a score to our own album. In two years, we are happy to say that we made no sacrifices anywhere on this release.”
Guitarist/vocalist Barrett Klesko shares that this EP is specifically about his spiral into mental illness. Falling into a pit of addiction and depression, he abused his mind and body and allowed others to do the same. Struggling with derealization and dissociation, he became almost totally withdrawn into his mind. The day we finished our last track on the album, I checked myself into a recovery center. This EP offers an honest glimpse into that dark, internal turmoil.
Listen to The Incident at Black Lake below and learn more about All Else Fails via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Barrett Klesko, I am the vocalist and Guitarist for All Else Fails
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
The Incident at Black Lake is fucking dark, musically and lyrically. I wrote my parts in the darkest, most distressed headspace I have ever been in. Most of the time during the writing of this album, I was convinced that I had been unglued from time. I was barely functioning. Through the fog and sensation of reality warping around me, I somehow found clarity in my writing. Weirdly, at first, I didn’t know that I was writing about myself. I was just kind of writing. I remember there was a day when we got our first mix back, and I hadn’t heard the songs in a few weeks; 30 seconds into the first verse, I collapsed in this park I was walking in, and I realized that the songs were me, describing the suffering I had been experiencing so that I could understand what was happening in my own head, it was completely overwhelming. I had created something so direct, with zero awareness that I was doing so. It was a mind-bending experience, as if a past version of myself had reached out through time to help me understand what was happening to me, an absolute headfuck.
For my contributions musically, I created tones and sounds that conveyed how distorted the world around me felt. I was attempting to use the music to level out the turmoil I was experiencing internally. I was experiencing reality in waves of vertigo, time loss, and visual blackouts. I was trying to push back on these sensations with music.
I think this album is beautiful, there is elegance in darkness. I think it’s sad because I know the turmoil and pain it took to write it, and I think it’s powerful because it’s the first time I have truly been honest in my music. The title itself is a reference to the natural phenomenon of brine pools. Lakes discovered at the bottom of oceans conceptually connect to the idea of being even deeper than the darkest parts of ourselves.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
I used to sing a lot about social issues, things I was pissed off about that I experienced usually second-hand through friends, family, or people around me. This album is different, it is completely about the last few years of my life. I have been struggling a lot with some very serious mental issues, so it deals a lot with Suicide, dissociating from reality, drug use, and depression.
Do you have any upcoming shows or festivals you’d like to tell us about?
We are doing a handful of secret invite-only shows to support our release. Right now, we are more concerned with reconnecting with our fans and rebuilding our music community post-covid than we are about looking big or flexing our successes. I personally book a lot of our shows, both locally and internationally.
What’s your goal for the remainder of 2022?
Our goal is to get back on tour overseas. We have always connected well with international audiences and plan to continue pursuing that.