Photo Credit: Ev Osmanovic
They Grieve share “To Which I Bore Witness” from their upcoming album
Darkness and despair await within the forthcoming album, To Which I Bore Witness, from Ottawa’s They Grieve. Each part of this release is very intentional and well thought out, from the music to the artwork to the liner notes, and is intended to be listened to as a whole. The band has just released the title track as a single and offers it to post-metal fans to sit with, to be surrounded by the album’s sadness, and find comfort and kinship within.
They share the details about the track.
“Although this is the title track of our new album, it was one of the last songs we wrote. We had spent well over two years writing and re-writing nearly every other song on the album. At that point, we felt like we really started understanding what makes us sound like ‘us’, so this song came together seamlessly. Lyrically, we have always written one single piece to be split up and used for the entire album. “To Which I Bore Witness” is no different. The lyrics come directly from conversations we have as friends—more than a band, They Grieve is a space where we both can be vulnerable and open with each other about our experiences of grief, loss, and weakness in ways we simply can’t with other people.”
Watch the video for the title track, “To Which I Bore Witness” below and learn more about They Grieve via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Firstly, thanks for having us! We are They Grieve, a 2-piece post-metal band from Ottawa, Canada. We use the label ‘post-metal’ pretty liberally. We incorporate elements of doom, drone, and post-rock in our sound. We strive to fill sonic space and create dense atmospheres as much as possible, or at least as much as 8 limbs, and 2 depressed brains will allow.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
Our first full-length album, entitled To Which I Bore Witness, is being released on vinyl through Silent Pendulum Records on February 24th, 2023. We’re very proud of how these songs came together and are anxious to share them with whoever wants to listen. We recorded with Topon Das at Apartment 2, and we’re extremely happy with the results—it’s a huge step up for us in terms of production value. Topon brought a lot of interesting ideas to the table for capturing certain sounds and textures, and he’s just generally very easy to work with. We also love the album artwork created by Pascale Arpin. Even if you hate our music, it’s worth taking a look at.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
Our inspiration comes from the world around us, how it fills us with dread, our individual experiences with depression and anxiety, and the conversations we have about these topics. We are very close friends, and these conversations, as difficult as they are to have, really form the basis of what we express in our music. The band and our music are an extension of our friendship and a way to deal with all that troubles us.
Are there any upcoming shows or festivals you want to tell us about?
We are currently booking shows for the spring in Southern Ontario and Quebec to support the album release. Hopefully, more to come after that!
What’s your goal for 2023?
To push this record, play a bunch of shows, and record a companion EP to the album that is more drone-based.