Open up your hearts and let some hardcore in.
Long-running mid-western outfit Church Tongue — which features Knocked Loose guitarist Nicko Calderon — are blessing us with an upcoming EP through their new label home, Pure Noise Records.
Described by the band as “a short record about love,” their You’ll Know It Was Me is fittingly enough being delivered on Valentine’s Day (February 14th), though they’re teasing it ahead of time with the bombastically bashed-out first single, “Bury Me (One Thousand Times)”.
The track, delivered through a simultaneously gothic and sci-fi-leaning music video, grinds through moments of bleak-melodied blastwork, hyper-fast hardcore fury, spaciously gloomy breakdowns and fully-screamed thoughts on loss and memory.
You can stream the savage cut via the player up above.
As for the rest of the EP, the group explained that You’ll Know It Was Me takes a wide-angle look at love, with the tracks touching on anything from “loving yourself enough to end a toxic friendship” to “loving yourself enough to become sober,” while it also caps with a song vocalist Mike Sugars wrote for his wife.
“Love looks like a lot of things, and each track touches on it in its own way,” Sugars said in a statement. “People close to me have heard about me wanting to make this kind of record for a long time. I just hadn’t grown enough to realize the dream of it, and I knew it had to be a Church Tongue record.”
He added: “I’ve been with this band, these guys, for the majority of my life now. I’ve made records with other bands, and so have the other guys, but this idea felt sacred to my beginnings. I knew this record was in us, was who we are, and I’m honoured to have made it with my brothers.”
The record likewise features guest spots from Twitching Tongues’ Colin Young, Deafheaven vocalist George Clarke and Initiate’s Crystal Pak. You’ll find the cover art and tracklisting details down below.
You’ll Know It Was Me follows Church Tongue’s independently-released The Hubris of Gods Departed EP from 2021.
You’ll Know It Was Me tracklisting:
Heart of Darkness
One Hand Wrapped Around the Sun
When It Betrays (feat. Colin Young)
The Fury of Love (feat. Crystal Pak)
Bury Me (One Thousand Times)
You’ll Know It Was Me (feat. George Clarke)