Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

EARTHSIDE have released a drum duel of ‘All We Ever Knew And Loved’ Feat. Baard Kolstad, in celebration of National Drummer Day, via Music Theories Recordings / Mascot Label Group.

Recording and Accompanying Dual Drum Duel Video Exhibits Ben Shanbrom and Leprous’ Baard Kolstad Weaving In and Out of One Another’s Performances – watch Here:

To View Animation Video For “All We Knew And Ever Loved” Click Here: https://youtu.be/KVh_Y4o3C0Y

“All We Knew And Ever Loved” is quite unlike anything currently in the rock music landscape.  The song, which marks the return of the band after a six-year hiatus, utilizes one of the largest pipe organs in the world, a full orchestral brass section, thunderous pit percussion, and two dueling drummers to supernatural effect.  The featured artist on the song is Baard Kolstad of the Norwegian Progressive metal act Leprous, whom Earthside have previously toured with. Baard Kolstad was the perfect collaborator to help capture and escalate the frenetic effect. Kolstad’s hectic grooves and barbaric tom battery mingle and trade blows with Shanbrom’s drum set acrobatics in a way wholly different from the two-drummer features of their predecessors.  Opening with the haunting cry of screeching lead guitar, timpani, and pipe organ, the ominous introduction sets the stage for a horrifying climax that never seems to lessen in effect with repeated listens. This dueling drum performance of Shanbrom and Kolstad evokes the omnipresent feeling of a human spiral of conflict.

Earthside’s Ben Shanbrom shares, “’Drum battles’ generally aren’t something I find interesting because the execution of the concept in most songs and performances rarely rises to the creative potential of the idea. The drum duel in ‘All We Knew And Ever Loved’ is something else entirely! It’s a dual drummer composition where the two parts bludgeon, strike, and throw themselves at each other, weaving in and out of the other’s openings. It’s wild to hear my playing alongside Baard’s, not only because I respect him greatly, but also because I feel an almost psychic connection to his playing—there have been so many instances when I’ve listened to a song he’s performed on and thought, ‘ahhh, I would have done the exact same thing here!’ While I definitely feel we have some similar ways in which we go about playing with the pulse and rhythmic orientation of music, we also have some very clear idiosyncrasies unique to each of our styles; we used the distinct ‘part assignments’ in the drum arrangement of the ‘All We Knew And Ever Loved’ to heighten this contrast, while still maintaining a clear flow, and portraying the musical narrative of two opposing forces colliding.”

Leprous’ Baard Kolstad offers, “Earthside is definitely a band thinking forward, and trying to break some of the barriers, so I really hope this track will somehow push the whole genre a little bit for what you can do.  It was a f**** pleasure to join this whole song and this band, and I’m very grateful that when I forced the guys to pick me as a guest musician that they obeyed.  After recording this with Earthside, I’ve been more and more into arrangement of two drummers in metal and music in general. It’s a completely awesome track—I think it all turned out very epic.  When you can have the two different drum kits panned in each of our ears, and you get very much the feeling of being inside the whole band somehow.

The cinematic and groundbreaking animation video, was directed by Maxime Tiberghien & Sylvain Favre, renowned for their prior work with Gojira (‘Another World’). Earthside keyboardist Frank Sacramone, who composed the music, shares, “Humans are the only beings that knowingly destroy themselves.  Animals don’t have a developed consciousness like we do, or a sense of right or wrong, but ‘all we knew and ever loved’ will be gone as we keep perpetuating the same poor decision-making as a species—the same societal structures, economic norms, same use of power. Day by day, we’re beginning to see very real consequences to these willful abuses on a scale we don’t fully comprehend.”

Through the positively apocalyptic sounds of one of the largest pipe organs in the world (recorded at the First Congregational Church in Los Angeles), and an earth-shaking mix courtesy of Randy Staub, known for mixing Metallica’s legendary symphonic live album, S&M, the effect isn’t merely devastating; it’s inescapable. Shanbrom reveals, “A piece of art that resonated strongly with us during the writing and recording of both “All We Knew …” and the new album, was a painting called Duelo a Garrotazos or Fight with Cudgels by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya.  From the time I was exposed to Goya’s Black Paintings—a series of extremely dark meditations on human nature—I’ve been obsessed with them, and the uncanny message of Duelo felt immediately timely and haunting in its relevance to the current day.   This vindictive pettiness that we see all around us in our politics, our arguments, and daily interactions is something universal and terrifying in human nature, and as Frank was composing this song, I was wondering if there was a way we could represent that complex and poignant scene in the actual music. Through a very special collaboration, I think we did it.”  The scene which Shanbrom references depicts two men swinging at each other with full abandon as a far more threatening force—the surrounding quicksand—slowly consumes their lower bodies.

Stay tuned for additional release dates and information on Earthside. The band is Jamie Van Dyck, Ben Shanbrom, Frank Sacramone and Ryan Griffin.