Cathartic, thought provoking and treading off the beaten path, the blackened screamo act JORNADA DEL MUERTO join us today with the full stream of their debut album “One Last Flower”, tapping into a plethora of diverse influences and resulting in one of the most exciting releases in the genre this year, a record focused on the instrumentation, sheer power, atmopshere, but also captivating melodies that shine through the heaviness.
JORNADA DEL MUERTO features members of The Ousted, Burn Her Letters, ria, Noisy Sins Of The Insect, Padme and Pourbon, among others. The band’s debut offering “One Last Flower” comes out today, April 12th, via Desperate Infant Records (HK), Depressive Illusions Records (UA), Mevzu Records (TR), No Funeral Records (CA) and Dingleberry Records (DE).
Recorded and Mixed by Alican Erbaş at Throat Village Studios / Mastering by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air / Album Artwork by Nazan Aydın / Logo Design by Ozan Güner
Jornada Del Muerto are a four-piece blackened screamo/hardcore punk band from İstanbul, Turkey that began in late 2020. The band is comprised of 4 very different members with different approaches to music, with origins from mid 2000’s Turkish Screamo bands Noisy Sins of the Insects and Burn Her Letters and newer bands like The Ousted, ria, Padme, and Pourbon. So in that sense, the band’s formation, development and music can be considered pretty unique.
Though the band was formed a year ago, they recorded the album by getting together 3 or 4 times total, due to the pandemic. “We don’t remember how we recorded it thanks to the metric ton of whiskey we had, so we can say it’s a pretty dark album in that regard.” – says the babnd.
Musically, Jornada Del Muerto is heavily rooted in hardcore aggression, along with some evidemt black metal influence courtesy of the tremolo-picked guitars and blast beats, in addition to well written drum patterns and disheartening, melodic screams. However, the band’s surprising component is the band’s bass player Arda; while normally he plays along with Melodic Punk Rock band Padme, Arda adds up a whole new level of abrasiveness to Jornada Del Muerto’s music, even if we haven’t seen him play this kind of music before.
The band plays a style similar to Ampere, Celeste and in that the music is chaotic yet cathartic, and features lyrics that can be considered “intellectual”. The band’s sound is energetic yet elegant, to say the least. Songs are intense, and have a ton of melodic moments, whether they be quieter moments, or sonically intense moments, with each being distinct from each other. Along with these elements, the band supports it’s music with very short, but intense and on point lyrics.
Asked about the upcoming months, the band shares that “future plans include BEING ABLE TO PLAY SHOWS.”
“Because whatever our music is, we all agree that it should be shared with people together and face-to-face. So we hope that things go back to normal and we can start touring.”
“We’re all people who play and listen to different kinds of music, so the band is a pretty hybrid one. It obviously has influences from different places when you listen to it, but we can’t pinpoint any one thing that it’s similar to. We’re pretty happy about the music that we create in that regard. It’s a very wild, angry, and emotional type of music. It’s like a small representation of the world we live in. This representation is also present in the lyrics, because we have a lot of references to our inner worlds and the outer world at large in the lyrics, with both the light and the dark.”
Track by track commentary, by the band’s close friend Arda Koçakoğlu (No Relics // xRISALEx):
The first track “Taarruz! As An Essential Part of the Punctured World” steps out as a very direct and powerful opening track – almost like Concubine of mighty Converge. And the usage of dual vocal patterns is just icing on the cake, letting us know what awaits us as we dwell further into the tracks.
The second track “They Chose to Sprout in the Mildest Corner of the Inferno” allows us to witness Alican’s drumming skills more and more with the opening pattern. With it’s minimalistic but to the point lyrics, this tracks serves as a stunning bridge to the third track.
Just like the second track, the third track “No Action Could Give Me the Pleasure, like the Fear Granted By My Heart” is a short track; however the bands music gets more and more melodic with this track while the cathartic drumming and guitar playing builds up as the album progresses. Lyrics on the other hand, are still simple but optimistic from time to time, Let me be “Let me be fire This great evil is not from the Earth, It comes from your heart Not from the Earth From your heart. There is always an opportunity To create our own situation.”
With the fourth track, “We Stared in the Eyes of the Demon, Just For the Glorious Cause of “Not Looking Like An Indigent Fuck”” the band allows us to witness their melodic and intelligent song writing, with the main riff carrying great resemblences to modern Post Black Metal acts such as Botanist.
The fifth track, “I’m an Elegant Mountain Lion Which Was Blessed With Your Dance” was already included in Miss The Stars snippet, and allows the listeners to get a general grasp of the album’s atmosphere.
The sixth track, “Slithering, Without Being Blinded by the Pitch Blackness” has a very well written song structure, with a brilliant opening riff that can be seen in bands like The Saddest Landscape and Her Breath On Glass.
The seventh track, “Daniel-Day Lewis Will Tell You About the Rest of the Day” starts with a familiar approach of tappings, and progresses on with a dynamic range of drumming. This track definitely steps up as one of the most brilliant songs in the album with it’s dynamic range of drumming and intense vocals.
The eigthth track, “Nirvana (in a Philosophical Way) is Nothing But Bullshit” is also steps up from the rest not only with it’s clever and ironic name, but with melodic vocal parts. That approach of screaming not only serves as an evident sign as the band’s knowledge of what they are doing, but adds the band’s music a whole new atmosphere.
The ninth track continues with the similar singing-screaming approach and paves the way to the inevitable yet cathartic end of the album.
The last track, “Dr. Manhattan Was Right To His Bones… Until He Moleculized Rorschach To His Smallest Pieces” is by far the most well written track in the album and a perfect way to end this intense experience. Just like the rest of the album, it is short, intense and to the point.
Istanbul local music community
“We can’t really call what we do a “business”, it’s more of a dance floor for the things we fight for, want and struggle to do. This pandemic period has really hurt that dance floor in the sense of shows and being together physically. We’ve been producing songs, albums, visuals, and videos for the past year but we can’t get the results in the form of screams, energy, blood and sweat. We’re like huge dogs trapped and tortured in tiny homes. The places where we could be ourselves and socialize in an old-school manner are taken from us, and we don’t know when they will be given back to us. And even if they are, we don’t know if it will be like the old days, or if we will have become different people.”
Other bands worth checking out:
Army Wives (probably the best active screamo band right now, we love Kidcrash tunes and this band is in the veins of Kidcrash. This band reminded us old beautiful days.)
Crowning (another great Kidcrash style screamo band.
“velleity” song intro is breathtaking. it is a perfect sample includes the violence and emo at the same moment.)
Eyelet (very dark screamo. original style.)
Höstblod (deep atmospheric black metal with perfect riffs. very surprised with this one man band’s long / sad songs taste.)
Nimbifer (in the veins of dark pure black metal. it reminded us first album of Ulver and our highschool time night playlists soul)
On Thorns I Lay (super sad doom metal. there are Rotting Christ style guitar rifs and it is the music we want to listen.)
Wake (super sad death metal. “beyond empyrean” song is unbelievable.)
MOSSS (beautiful alternative indie. “idk” is our top song in 2020. yes, that famous 2020. lockdown days. uncertain times. night music. everyone should give chance to this band.)
Nothing (Placebo vibes with so much emotions)
HIRAKI (INSANE) life (Best music ever)
Top screamo bands:
- Funeral Diner
- Raein
- Welcome The Plague Year
- Suis La Lune
- Loma Prieta
- Neil Perry
- Orchid
- Snöras
- The Kidcrash
- Logs
- The Red Scare
- Army Wives
- Crowning
- Ampere
- Louise Cyphere
- Life
- La Quiete
- Gospel
- Joshua Fit For Battle
Top Emo Bands:
- Planes Mistaken For Stars
- The Appleseed Cast
- Cursive
- The First Cut
- Benton Falls
- The Jealous Sound
- TTNG
- Thursday
- Rockets and Bluelights
- Engine Down
- Pinback
- Bibio
- Pretend
- Colour
- Karate
- Knapsack
- Elliot Smith
- Barış Ediş
Spotify Playlist – Summer Hits :) by JORNADA DEL MUERTO
To conclude, we asked the band to share their thoughts on the current pandemic and political situation. Here are they closing words:
“Honestly, it sucks having nothing to do and just holding out for something better, for something else. We feel that it isn’t the just pandemic, but everything else that happened during this past year has also been just as terrible. As with a lot of other places in the world, the fascist government used the pandemic as an excuse to make everything even worse.
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦’𝑟𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑢𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟-𝑡𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑝, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐼’𝑣𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒.
A lot of people want to leave the country, and a lot of them can’t. We kind of feel that leaving the country won’t really solve anything at all. It’s that kind of grip: You can run but you can’t hide. And the idea of leaving everyone we know and love here and going out to wherever doesn’t feel right to us. After all these things we’ve been through, both the good and the bad, how would you even go somewhere else and pretend that nothing’a going on?
𝑊𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑑𝑜, 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝐵𝑅𝐸𝐴𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡.
It just isn’t what we wanna do we guess. We guess it’s because our personalities and lives are so intertwined at this point that it’s hard to find that deepest connection we have here. Because a lot of that unique bond is based on mutual experiences, mutual love, mutual struggles and mutual traumas. Honestly we have had enough of getting beaten by cops and having friends taken into custody and getting tortured, but what else am we gonna do? All we have is each other”
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