Having already dropped one of our favorite EPs of the year, New England extreme-metal faction Escuela Grind have officially confirmed a full-length is likewise hitting us later this fall. The band’s Dreams on Algorithms is due out October 18th, but they’re previewing it ahead of time with a fittingly disorienting single called “Turbulence.”
A press release explains that Dreams on Algorithms — which technically follows this year’s DDEEAATTHHMMEETTAALL EP but is also the band’s official follow-up to 2022 full-length Memory Theater — was recorded with Converge’s Kurt Ballou at his God City studio in Salem, Massachusetts. As you might’ve guessed by its title, the new album does indeed take stock of how we’re all getting lost in our socials feeds.
“We wanted to write an album that identifies what it’s like to consume in this era we live in: What we receive through our phones, the social media landscape, and personalized algorithms, and how it is translated by our subconscious,” vocalist Katerina Economou explained in a statement. “I think most people can relate to something in their online sphere infecting their dreams. This transfer was something we really wanted to expand on, and all of the songs have themes relating to dream analysis and technology.”
As you can hear up above, “Turbulence” shakes things up a bit for Escuela Grind, marking the first time Economou has brought clean singing into the band’s discography. Then again, after a brief bit of Alice in Chains-esque doom-grungin’, the song incorporates a more shrieked and grind-blitzed pace.
“It will be immediately obvious when you first hear this song that it is a departure for us,” the vocalist added. “We wanted to take a risk with ‘Turbulence,’ and after performing so many live shows over the last year we were ready to compile all that influence. The clean singing may take some people off-guard coming from a grind/hardcore band, but after touring with Napalm Death, we realized we wanted to incorporate that aspect into our music in a similar way. We definitely wanted a grungy, catchy chorus to sing at all of our upcoming festival appearances, and I hope the fans like the song as much as we do”
Dreams in Algorithms, which also features spring single “Always Watching You,” is out October 18th through MNRK Heavy. You can order the record here, and find out more about Escuela Grind’s overseas summer tour plans here.