About halfway through “Paraphrasing, the Skeleton,” the anchor track on Edmonton band awaywithroses’ debut EP “My Involvement With Witchcraft,” vocalist Colten lands on: “metal face, regression on repeat / a recession in me.” A few lines earlier: “umbilical imprint, a palate in fusion / screws abound, a void faces out.” It’s the first time Colten sat down and physically wrote about the cleft lip and palate surgeries that took up most of their childhood.
“I ended up viewing myself as a cleft kid instead of someone with a cleft,” they say, “and the title is meant to reflect those sentiments.”
The EP runs five tracks, somewhere between screamo, metalcore and emoviolence, and it came out February 13, 2026. Doctors kept telling Colten with confidence that the next surgery would be the last one. Most procedures ended up being done two or three times over. “It kept me locked in place a lot.”
“Paraphrasing the Skeleton” is also the only track on the EP that wasn’t recorded in a closet. Guitarist Matt has a small home setup in his Edmonton basement and turned a closet into a vocal booth for the other four songs. This one got done in front of his computer desk instead. Colten remembers it being quick and organic. They weren’t fully sold on their vocal take, but the catharsis of it stopped them from re-cutting.
“It came out so naturally and cathartically that it didn’t feel right to record it again.” The reaction since release has caught the band off guard. “It’s a track that represents a checkpoint in my life when it comes to understanding myself, function, and being okay.”
The same surgical vocabulary carries across the rest of the EP. “Similar to a Piano” opens with “i hollowed out some space, a literal saving of face / let the blood vessels hang.” “The Swedish Chef Has Human Hands” stitches together lines about “shrapnel lisp, a blessing from birth,” “corroded on arch wires,” “we seep through the space in your speech.”
The body is the document on this record, and most of what’s documented is what other people do to it before you have a say. Colten writes to see their thoughts on paper, they say, to understand what they’re carrying before letting go of it or accepting it. “Trying to meld myself with my cleft and emotions instead of seeing myself as separate or a product of them. I’m trying to embrace myself.”
On intensity in 2026, Colten doesn’t hedge. “Intensity is important right now because of how tumultuous, confusing and ambiguous existence feels. Even if you’re someone that’s generally felt at odds with the function of existence and society, somehow today feels even more absurd and confusing.” Planning gets confused with ruminating, they say, and then you stall out. The only way they’ve found to stay honest is to create for its own sake. “You have to create for yourself or you won’t find real understanding. We’re doing this because we love writing music and creating.”
They have thoughts on why hardcore is back too. “Heavier music usually pops up in political and societal turmoil. People are pissed, the kids are pissed, and for how inundated and charged with information people are, the world can feel overwhelming as fuck.” Social media splintered a ton of humanity, they say, but it’s also part of the reason these communities are back, thriving and finding each other again. The attention these scenes are getting now, in their read, shows how important they are for self expression, catharsis and control. It’s all based on feeling.
The band includes members of Serration plus others from the wider Alberta hardcore scene, and Alberta has a lot to do with how awaywithroses sound. Colten lists names quickly when asked about home: Home Front, Everythingyoueverloved, False Body, Abrupt Decay, Eyes Front, Trench, No Skies, Contain, Chaser.
“There’s a ton of bands doing interesting things out here right now and they all fall in their own little lanes and it makes for a very eclectic and deep scene.” Shows have been moving back to community halls, which they love. Shows outside bar culture, in halls and houses, have always felt truest to them, they say, and that energy comes in waves. They also want to credit the venues that do have bars but still run all-ages shows: Blakbar, 9910, and the Starlite Room. “It’s important to give spaces for these kids to experience live music, to want to start bands, and these venues are helping immensely.”
The EP was recorded, mixed and mastered by Matt in that same basement. Artwork came from the band’s friend Karson, who runs @thursday.designs on Instagram. awaywithroses are already writing more.
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