Despite what the new California band’s namesake may suggest, their first release, Demo 2020, does not slowly descend on the listener like a cold dull mass of ice, quite the contrary actually, Glacial Descent's debut offering comes in very fast, very hot, and very pissed.
Made up of three massive tracks, the fact that this is the first offering from the crust/grind influenced hardcore project seems almost inconceivable, as the tracks masterfully and relentlessly smash down on whoever is lucky enough to be listening.
Keeping with the intensity and pace set forth by the music, the lyrical content is just as compelling, refusing to poetically tip-toe around sensitive and uncomfortable subject matter, choosing instead to tackle it head on, forcing the listener to acknowledge and confront subjects that include mental health struggles, the evils of capitalism, and the struggle and urgent need for animal liberation:
Speaking on the conceptualization and genesis of the project, the band’s mastermind Aspen had this to say:
“Glacial Descent is the materialization of an idea that has floated in my head for years. Although I began writing material at the end of 2019, (the) COVID-19 (lockdown) gave me the opportunity to pursue it in earnest. It is the culmination of an array of musical and ideological influences that I hope will prove to be a valuable contribution to the scene.
"By the time I went vegan during my freshman year of high school, I was already listening to hardcore but was unaware of the genre’s rich history of promoting animal rights and other radical ideas. Denver had a bustling crust and grind scene at the time, however, and as a result, I was drawn to bands like Disrupt, Flux of Pink Indians, and Fall of Efrafa before I found ideologically similar hardcore acts like Gather or Seven Generations.
"As I grew older, I got into bands like Harm’s Way and Black Breath, who drew influence from Wolverine Blues-era Entombed."
Aspen continued: "Glacial Descent is an attempt to synthesize these diverse influences and pair the result with passionate, politically conscious lyrics inspired by communist and radical ecological traditions. I wanted to create something that captured the raw aggression of bands like Disrupt, the poetic urgency of Seven Generations, and the punishing sonic intensity of HM-2 driven bands like Nails and Fuming Mouth.”
The Glacial Descent demo will be digitally self-released by the band via their Bandcamp page, and is being released physically as a run of cassettes being put out by Scotland-based Wretched Records.
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