As its title suggests, Blacked Out – the debut album from Now And On Earth – is a dark and dangerous affair. It’s a record that’s riddled with depression and despair and which is set in a world on the verge of collapse.
Yet at the same time, the powerful force of these songs – which explode in vicious torrents of angst and anger – battle against that darkness, fighting against it as much as they encourage it. For Now And On Earth is a band that thrives from darkness, that lives in the shadows, that exists to tear everything down.
“The album,” explains guitarist Mathieu Maltais, “was really, really hard work. We put all of our emotion into it. It’s a really, really big piece of work and we put all our hearts and so much time into it.
We’re very proud of it, but it is very dark.”That’s an understatement. Incredibly intense and aggressive, yet simultaneously catchy and hook-filled, the band’s strain of metalcore is underpinned by neo-classical instrumentation, making the songs all that more epic and widescreen.
Lead single and album opener ‘Intoxicated’ – which adds gothic leanings and ’80s guitars to the equation – is a blistering, relentless burst of gloom, while the title track is a constant crescendo that continues to build and build until there’s nowhere else left for it to go.
Elsewhere, ‘Vicious Circles’ is a frenzied and visceral eruption of rage, while album closer ‘Your Number Is Up’ is the sound of the whole world going up in flames.“It’s very dark,” admits Maltais, “and we always used the same sounds to make it even more dark.
We have a classical pianist, which makes the album more intense. And the result is really heavy, but also really sad and depressing.”Featuring a few ex-members of Skip The Foreplay, the band – Maltais, lead singer Marc-Andre Fillion, lead guitarist Charles Pilon, bassist/clean vocalist Anthony Alain-Rossi, keyboard/synth player Phillipe Ferguson and drummer Phil Beauchamps – and their destructive, apocalyptic vision of the world has now fully come to life.
Produced by Frank Shooflar – “Every band has a producer they like to work with,” says Maltais, “and for us it’s him” – Blacked Out sees Now And On Earth charging straight ahead into the ominous, fiery skies of its future.
It’s the pure sound of a band falling together as the world falls apart around it.Yet amidst all the chaos and carnage, there is one true moment of quiet contemplation – the short and calming instrumental ‘Interlude’.
A gentle piano-led piece sandwiched between ‘Vicious Circles’ and the equally vicious ‘Lust Over Loyalty’, it’s soft and soothing in equal measure, and adds an extra dimension to the widescreen, orchestral under layer of the record.
“I just found the music beautiful for the album,” says Maltais. “We have different influences, so it’s not about hardcore. It’s not about having tattoos and drinking beer and being cool. We’re trying to do something new with Now And On Earth.
”Though yet to play live, the band is gearing up to take these songs on the road for the first time. It’s already had some attention after ‘Intoxicated’ was featured on Epitaph’s Metalcore Sampler at Warped Tour last summer, but things are really starting now.
It’s time for the band to watch the world burn – and help burn it down.“We’re tour addicts,” Maltais says, “so we hope we’re going to tour a lot. I just hope the people who listen to it will recognize themselves in the album and share the same vision as us.
I hope people will see the album in ten years and say ‘It’s still one of my favourites.’”
