Believe it or not, it’s been four whole years since the release of Guarantees, the impressive debut album from Athens mood-rockers Grand Vapids. That record, which Flagpole‘s Andy Barton called “an album of sheer beauty, featuring a dense wall of guitars and a chugging rhythm section,” received praise from regional and national outlets and established the foursome as a Classic City band to watch.
Perhaps appropriately, given the deliberate pace at which Grand Vapids’ music tends to unfold, the band took its sweet damn time putting together a follow-up, but we’re pleased to report that a release is finally near. The three-song Rake EP is out Feb. 8, and the group has already released two tracks, “Dissolve” and “Pain in Place.”
Today, we’re excited to round out this batch of new material by premiering the EP’s closing tune, “Dead Syllables,” an overcast track that strips away the bombast and lets guitarist Austin Harris’ gently insistent vocals lead the way.
Says the band:
We record[ed] this collection of songs several years ago with Drew Vandenberg at a cabin in North Georgia. We ended up scrapping the rest of songs from that session and re-recorded them with David Barbe at Chase Park [Transduction] at the beginning of last year, but these felt good and we wanted to put them out there. Dead Syllables was recorded at home and bookends the dissolution of a relationship. It’s a song that is trying to find a way forward when communication has broken down and words are no longer sonorant.
Check out “Dead Syllables”:
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