We Broke the Weather Archives

We Broke the Weather Premiere “Heavens Were a Bell” Video; Restart Game LP Out June 14

Posted in Bootleg Theater on May 10th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

We Broke the Weather will release their second album, Restart Game, through Italy’s Argonauta Records on June 14. It is the Somerville, Massachusetts, heavy progressive five-piece’s first offering through the label, and “Heavens Were a Bell” — for which a duly atmospheric video is premiering below — is the second single from the offering. If you take a look/listen to that, find yourself curious enough to hit play on the prior-unveiled “Marionette” near the bottom of the post and are suckerpunched by the differences between the two, well, yeah, I think that’s pretty much the idea.

Behold a band with scope that goes beyond “this part is fast and this part is slow” and/or trades between loud and quiet parts. Rest assured, there’s plenty of that too, but where “Marionette” and “Heavens Were a Bell” both hover right around five and a half minutes long, on a blind listen you’d be justified in wondering if they were made by the same band. Given texture and melodic nuance through the synth lines woven into the guitar-led ambience, “Heavens Were a Bell” retains both a grounded rhythm underneath its floating post-rock tinge and a human presence in the clear but duly echoing vocals. Even when it ‘gets heavy’ about three minutes in and begins the move toward its evocative solo, it resonates as much in emotion as tone, and the mellow, patient flow of its instrumental outro feels all the more purposefully hypnotic with “Marionette” following immediately in Restart Game‘s seven-track succession.

No doubt for those who caught onto the band’s 2022 self-titled debut or the Cabin Fever EP they issued last year as a precursor to Restart Game — and if that’s not you, don’t sweat it; they’re new to me as well — the willful contrast between “Heavens Were a Bell” and “Marionette” will be less of a surprise. The latter’s sense of movement is immediate as the initial howls give over to a bit of Berklee-style quirk-prog mathiness en route to a cabaret-punk verse. Organ and sax join the (not unconsidered) fray and perhaps offer a tie to “Heavens Were a Bell” in their depth of mix, but the momentum and energy are still there, and when they shift back to the hook from whence they set forth on that brief sax-topped cosmic jaunt, it’s a hint toward a crafted approach being carried forward from the self-titled to this new material. Whatever shape the individual cuts on Restart Game might take, they’ll be stronger for the combination of technical skill and songwriting that underscore the multifaceted ambitions already on display between the two-thus-far advance singles.

As to where the rest of Restart Game might go — back to the title screen? — I won’t hazard a guess since I haven’t heard it. But you can check out “Heavens Were a Bell” on the player below, followed by copious background from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

We Broke the Weather, “Heavens Were a Bell” video premiere

US-based Prog Stoner/Psych Rock band we broke the weather, hailing from Boston, signs to Argonauta Records to release their second full-length album, ‘Restart Game’ on June 14, 2024.

Says the band: “Forged in the depths of their basement lair, fueled by the scrumptious nectar of a thousand beers, honed on the killing floors of Boston’s diners and dives, we broke the weather summons forth its tempest to the shores of Genoa to join forces with Argonauta records. Together we shall propel the eddies and vortices of our garage prog musings, from our hearts to your ear holes.”

Two years after releasing their self-titled debut album, Boston “garage prog” five-piece we broke the weather sit in a place far above what they imagined when they began jamming in a basement as strangers with no musical agenda in 2018. Critics and fans alike have praised the band for their bold fusion of disparate genres and influences – progressive rock, jazz fusion, psych rock, math rock, stoner rock, doom metal, and beyond – and while few seem to know how to actually categorize them, they agree that wbtw are onto something special.

we broke the weather features two multi-instrumentalists – Nick Cusworth and Scott Wood – who share vocal duties, play sax, and key/synth and guitar, respectively. Taken with drummer and third vocalist Andrew Clark, the band finds every opportunity to insert bits of jazz, math-y trickiness, and general skronk into a rock framework. Lead guitarist Kevin DiTroia injects the group with a necessary amount of raw energy to balance out what could easily become something stuffy and fussy, and rounding things out is bassist/guitarist/synth wizard Steve Muscari to keep things weird.

The result is an eclectic set of sounds that continues to evolve, spanning the classic progressive rock of King Crimson, Yes, and Rush, contemporary prog of The Dear Hunter and Thank You Scientist, modern stoner, psych, and garage from the likes of Elder, King Gizzard, and Ty Segall, contemporary jazz fusion of Portico Quartet, The Physics House Band, and Colin Stetson, math rock, post-rock, and so much more.

Now signed to Argonauta Records, we broke the weather are ready to take things to the next level with their sophomore album Restart Game. Musically, the album distills the most interesting aspects of their self-titled and pushes them in new directions. Lead single “Marionette” is a relentless head-banger that traipses through sax and guitar-led mathy prog riffs, flamenco-infused psychedelic landscapes, and cosmically heavy stoner grooves. Elsewhere, album opener “Vestige” is epic in every meaning of the word, as it takes the listener on a voyage through dark and twisting chords and melodies, a miasma of synth and djent-leaning guitars, and resolves on a triumphant fuzzed out bass riff and ripping guitar solo. Meanwhile, second single “Heavens Were a Bell” and album centerpiece “Sevenseas” continue the band’s affinity for and exploration of spacey synth-led themes and heavy emotion, with the latter serving as a meditation on wringing any shred of hope in a time when the impacts of climate change are being felt on a daily basis.

Ultimately, Restart Game is an album about living with fears, anxieties, and doubts that can consume us but hopefully not define us. In a time when the world is erupting in flames, a global pandemic has yet to be fully contained, democracies across the world are backsliding further into embracing fascism, authoritarianism, and ethno-nationalism, and America is struggling to keep its entire foundation from crumbling into a sinkhole, this band and this music have been both a life-raft and a megaphone, therapy and an act of rebellion. But at the end of the day, they’re just a group of 5 guys with wives, kids, and jobs who are most likely yelling into the void and are just trying to have some fun while doing so. So come join them down in the hole. It’s nice.

Tracklist:
01 Vestige
02 Lake St George
03 Heavens Were a Bell
04 Marionette
05 Sevenseas
06 Aromatic Decay
07 Cycles

We Broke the Weather:
Nick Cusworth: vocals, saxophone
Scott Wood: vocals, keyboard/synth, guitar
Kevin DiTroia: lead guitar
Andrew Clark: drums, vocals
Steve Muscari: bass, guitar, synth