Achingly intense and hauntingly raw, Russian Baths’ new music is shrouded in darkness, engulfed in a haze listeners are sure to find unsettling, yet familiar.
for fans of My Chemical Romance, METZ, Nothing, DIIV
Stream: “Rise Again” – Russian Baths
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One of these songs is about not being able to sleep. The other is about not being able to wake up. They’re both about the last couple years, but what isn’t?
Russian Baths’ new music is shrouded in darkness – engulfed in a haze listeners are sure to find unsettling, and yet familiar.
It’s the creeping sensation of listless indifference mixed with paralyzing anxiety; the nausea of nothingness manifest in music that is at once urgent and inert. Achingly intense and hauntingly raw, “Rise Again” is an intimate inner reckoning; an upheaval of feverish shoegaze and churning indie rock converge in a song that can’t help but succumb to the horrific weight of the world.
Last night when the plane exploded
Army of spirits surrounding
And they fall with him
Rise again
Shed your skin
Rise again again
Rise, rise
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Rise Again,” Russian Baths’ gut-wrenching first offering of 2022 (out October 7 via Mike Mehalick’s Good Eye Records). Released as a split single with the song “Done and Dead,” “Rise Again” is Russian Baths’ first proper offering since their 2019 debut album Deepfake, and while their new material is by no means a “pandemic record,” these songs are inevitably shaped by the environments we as a global community found ourselves in over the past two and a half years. The Brooklyn-based band of Jess Rees (guitar, vocals) and Luke Koz (guitar, vocals), joined by Kyle Garvey (bass) and Steven Levine (drums), are best known for their often abrasive and hardcore sonics, yet they have never sounded more subdued than they do on “Rise Again,” an eerie lament reminiscent of My Chemical Romance’s “The Ghost of You,” albeit with darker, more menacing melodies wrapped in shoegaze-y, hushed tones.
“Rise again, shed your skin,” Luke Koz sings in the a spine-chilling chorus, trying to find the strength to move amidst a suffocating situation. No doubt life has felt much heavier of late; the world has lost over 6.5 million people (roughly the population of Indiana or Nicaragua) to COVID-19, and the United States alone accounts for over 1,000,000 of those lives. But it goes well beyond the pandemic: Our country has seen a rampant, unchecked uptick in gun violence, and with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, women’s rights and reproductive rights are under attack.
In short, there are plenty of valid reasons to feel unsafe on a daily basis. Everyday living feels crueler and far more intense than it did just a few years ago – and there’s no hiding from these realities. “Rise Again” embodies these feelings; that unshakeable fear and unabating pain:
He tells his son, get out of bed
and be camera ready
Dragged out to the press
and statements read,
The adoring family
Stay in, can’t sleep
Stay out, can’t breathe
If life’s a test, I fail it once again
He says, ascend to heaven
“This song is about sole survivors, insomnia, guilt, and forced adaptation. I wrote it on an acoustic guitar with four strings in an attic,” Koz tells Atwood Magazine. “I think I hadn’t been outside for weeks. It was originally titled ‘Gador.’ I love Jess’ guitar work at the end, starting with the finger tapping through the outro, which was improvised, cut together to form a melodic motif, and then played again.”
“Rise Again” is undoubtedly the product of a kind of suffocation, yet there’s a strain of inner strength and steadfast resilience peaking through its dark hood. The chorus’ repeated mantra, “rise again, shed your skin” feels both ominous and, the more one listens, inspiring. How can something send shivers down the spine and lift our spirits at the same time?
This is the magic of Russian Baths. Prepare to face your demons head on, and live to tell the tale. Stream “Rise Again” exclusively on Atwood Magazine.
Both “Rise Again” and “Done and Dead” are out October 7, 2022 via Good Eye Records.
Rise again
Shed your skin
Rise again again
Rise, rise
Gates of heaven
Gates of heaven
Gates of heaven
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Stream: “Rise Again” – Russian Baths
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