Svalbard Announce Fourth Album 'The Weight Of The Mask', Share New Track Faking It
Wednesday, 12 July 2023
Written by Jon Stickler
Svalbard have announced their fourth album.
'The Weight Of The Mask' will arrive through Nuclear Blast Records on October 6, following up 2020's 'When I Die, Will I Get Better?'. It includes the newly shared single, Faking It, which you might have heard during their set at last week's 2000trees festival.
Exploring the emotional turmoil of mental health struggles through gritty lyrics and their aggressive fusion of post-hardcore and extreme metal, it comes with a video produced and directed by David Gregory. Vocalist Serena Cherry said:
"Faking It is a song about feeling deprived of meaningful human connection due to depression acting like a wall that shuts you off from others. It addresses the ways in which those who suffer with depression can feel guilted into putting on a happy mask.
"The lyrics are a reflection on happiness as a social obligation and how scarily good you can become at deceiving everyone around you into thinking that you're fine when you're not. With Faking It, we are both acknowledging the pressure for forced positivity, the fear that people won't like you if you're sad and also questioning where the root of this intolerance towards depression lies."
About the album, she added: "If the previous record was about facing your demons, then 'The Weight Of The Mask' is about fighting them with everything you've got. You can literally hear the depression transform into aggression in these songs.
"'The Weight Of The Mask' was admittedly a challenging album to make because we cut so deep this time around, it was a painful but ultimately cathartic process. This album is the sound of two years worth of internal darkness boiling away inside and then finally being unleashed."
Faking It follows the Bristol band's February single, Eternal Spirits, a tribute to the late Slipknot drummer, Joey Jordison.
'The Weight Of The Mask' tracklist:
1. Faking It
2. Eternal Spirits
3. Defiance
4. November
5. Lights Out
6. How To Swim Down
7. Be My Tomb
8. Pillar In The Sand
9. To Wilt Beneath The Weight
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