Hiroe Premiere “Black Mountain” Video; Wrought Due July 8
Today, Philadelphia instrumental heavy post-rockers Hiroe open preorders for their debut album, Wrought, through Pelagic Records ahead of a July 8 release date. To celebrate, the triple-guitar five-piece are unveiling their video for “Black Mountain,” which if you read the words “instrumental heavy post-rockers” in the sentence prior to this one you’ve probably already guessed is atmospheric as all get-out. Kudos to you and your deductions, but let’s talk about what that means for a second.
Hiroe is a new amalgam of players but not without its own pedigree. Crucially, guitarist Eric Kusanagi — originally from San Diego, California — was a founder and spearhead of post-rockers Japanese Sunday, in which he sang in addition to playing guitar. Hiroe‘s TJ Schilling was in the live lineup for that band as well as playing in the mathier Carved Up in Philly — if you haven’t heard their “Riffer Phoenix,” it’s what you’d call a good time — and Japanese Sunday recorded with Mario Quintero (also of Spotlights), who likewise helmed the forthcoming Wrought, while Matt Bayles (Isis, Sandrider, etc.) mixed and Will Yip (Caspian) mastered. The bottom line of all that is there are connections here that go beyond “here’s a new band with their first album,” and frankly, Hiroe sound like it.
“Black Mountain” — presumably unrelated to the Canadian band of the same name — isn’t some random junkified exploration of atmospheric ideas. There’s a melodic vision playing out between Schilling, Kusanagi and Jef Dent‘s guitars, bright and crisp at the outset and building tension quickly with the sturdy low end of bassist Jill Paslier arriving even before Jon Van Dine‘s drumming. Repititions are hypnotic. They’re nearly halfway into the six-minute piece before the full tonal breadth is revealed, and Hiroe at their heaviest are up there with whoever in this sphere you want to namedrop — Russian Circles‘ builds and textures, Pelican‘s classic pastoralia-as-urban-escapism or Red Sparowes‘ wordless storytelling — but the point here pushes past being heavy. “Black Mountain” is a steep climb that hints at the broader view of Wrought. A slice of the greater whole, but for taking a relatively short amount of time, it is nonetheless engrossing right up to its rumbling, noise-laced crescendo.
If you think three guitars is over the top, well, maybe it is, but boundaries were never pushed by holding back and Hiroe aren’t the first. Start a band with four and see if you can get anyone to agree on anything. Hiroe are admirably on-point in this first single, focused beneath the wash of their own making and mindful of the structure they convey. And though we’re just beginning to learn what their plan might actually be, they leave no doubt after listening that they have one.
Video is by Chariot of the Black Moth, and more PR wire info follows the clip below.
Enjoy:
Hiroe, “Black Mountain” video premiere
Eric Kusanagi on “Black Mountain”:
When we all decided to play music together, Black Mountain was the first song that was put together. Our bassist, Jill Paslier, introduced me to home recording, and I rang up my old friend, Mario Quintero, who taught me how to record demos during the pandemic. Recording was a new challenge for me, and Black Mountain is a song that relates to seeing a challenge and taking it head-on. Thematically, the record was reflective of all the emotions that we all faced when the world shut down. We wanted to create a soundtrack for a pandemic.
Nothing raises the spirit like the soaring guitars and evocative atmospheres of post-rock, and in the past 2 years we needed it more than ever: to be dragged out of the quicksand of apathy, to be reminded of what it means to feel alive… Philadelphia-based five-piece HIROE (pronounced ‘hero-way’) deliver 5 stunning tracks that serve this purpose more than anything else we’ve heard this year.
Wrought is an ode to the resilience and power of the human individual, carrying over feelings of anger, anxiety, and loss, but also hope, optimism and self-discovery from the throes of the pandemic era. Main songwriter Eric Kusanagi explains: “I personally felt lost when the whole world shut down. There wasn’t a roadmap or handbook on how to manage emotions in such an unprecedented situation.”
The word ‘wrought’ refers to the act of hammering something into shape, but also to fabricating something in the way that it is supposed to be made. In the same way metals can be hammered into shape, humans can also be painfully changed and shaped by the overwhelming roughness and intensity of certain life events. With their debut album, HIROE created a lasting testament to the resilience that results from this hammering and shaping.
HIROE’s architecture is built over the walls of sound created by the band’s three guitarists Eric Kusanagi, T.J. Schilling, and Jef Dent, towering over the foundation of the huge sounding bass of Jill Paslier and the powerful drumming of Mike Norris. The larger-than-life sound of the band is forged by a carefully selected all-star line up of producers, their debut being recorded by Mario Quintero (Spotlights), mixed by Matt Bayles (Caspian, Mono, Russian Circles, Isis, Pelican) and mastered Will Yip (Caspian, Circa Survive).
“We wanted to hold ourselves to a very high standard, so to sonically achieve our goals, we enlisted the help of Mario, Matt, and Will,” explains Kusanagi, indicating that this is a production team HIROE will likely continue to employ in the future. “Mario was essentially another member of the band in the studio,“ continues Kusanagi. “They all brought their ideas to the table to help us achieve something greater than just recording a band in a room.”
Somewhere within the soaring riffs and the crushing heaviness of Wrought lies a moment in which the listener will find a sonic manifestation of the sublime, a place of reassured hope as well as a thrill of possibility that makes the album an immensely uplifting experience to propel us all through the despondent aftermath of the pandemic era. With these five fiery tracks, HIROE position themselves as an exciting new player in the heavy instrumental rock world.
Tracklisting:
A1. “Irusu”
A2. “The Approach”
A3. “Everything is Fine”
B1. “Black Mountain”
B2. “Doom Moon”
HIROE is:
TJ Schilling – Guitar
Jef Dent – Guitar
Eric Kusanagi – Guitar
Jill Paslier – Bass
Jon Van Dine – Drums
