As calming as it is disturbing: decomposing “DEPART \\ DISAPPEAR” by CHAMBERS!

In a time where bands frequently invest more resources for polished images, technical brilliance, and social-media marketing campaigns, CHAMBERS are having none of that bullshit. Their no-nonsense approach to music as well as live performance is refreshingly genuine and honest. It aligns itself brilliantly with the tradition of intense and emotive 1990’s hardcore without reducing themselves to a mere carbon-copy of it. CHAMBERS harness a unique brand of stark, atmospheric, and organic sounds. Their compositions combine a sense of urgency, fury, and vitriol without neglecting to occasionally reflect a more vulnerable aspect of music.

This mixed gender outfit, featuring a former member of seminal power violence thrashers Stack and doom-masters Black Shape of Nexus, hails from one of the world’s premier cultural hubs – Berlin, Germany. Maybe not surprisingly, CHAMBERS’ music reflects a similarly paradox nature as is found in the contemporary German capital. On the one hand, there is grittyness, dirt, dust, and decay. On the other hand, there is creation, nuance, emergence, and a sense of multi-finality.

We have teamed up with the band to give you the full track by track breakdown of this uncompromising, cathartic and moving triumph and you can find it in its entirety below.

Chambers are: Anna – Vocals; Micha – Bass; Alex – Guitar; Fabian – Guitar; Daniel – Drums

1. Wretchedness

Micha: That’s a fine example of how long we worked on almost all the songs for „depart // disapear“, going through numerous iterations until we „found“ the song out of all the several attempts of finding a proper flow. To me personally the most important aspect a song has to nail when it comes to Chambers is enough variety, contrast between parts but then again having a riff to riff transition that makes sense. Wretchedness has a slow build up but eventually it ends loud and more heavy, setting the foundation for the following 5 songs.

Alex: I guess Wretchedness was one of those songs, where we tried to somehow adjust to a more soft style, though the ending is quite a heavy one. I remember that Micha and I were pretty much influenced by Deafheavens „babyblue“ which got that almost 80pop but totally crisp beginning with a much more complex structure in the notes whatever, in the end we needed several attempts in finding a fitting close for this song.

Anna: This is actually a lovesong or let’s say: it is about how love can switch to a pitiful turn.

Lyrics:

Just promise me
To hold my hands
Too weak to see
Too empty to feel
Too tired to hear
Too wasted to function
No time to excuse
No need to explain

HOLD MY HANDS

Your world breaks in
True taste unbearable
Nothing to believe in
Nothing to hold onto
There’s only this
Ocean of emptyness
And you will drown in the
blood of your wretchedness

2. We ruin what we sow

Micha: I remember Fabian asking for a break from all those rather long atmospheric post rocky songs. He went home, assembled this song basically all on his own and brought this nasty beast back to us. I like this one a lot, it’s relatively short, fast and reminds me of my fast core and powerviolence roots.

Alex: We ruin what we sow is exactly one of those pieces that shows, where the roots of all of the songs on the new release are from. Simple but straight forward black metal.

Anna: It makes me sad somehow and angry. The lyrics are about screams that are shameful to hear. In families, in animal fattenings and how we learned to ignore. It says: “Saving face. Remaining silent. Tolerating what we strictly oppose.”

Lyrics:

What we have got are black roses,
but they‘re dyed red.
That’s how we protect
what has never been.

In the silence of screams
we’re resistant to hear
where the focus is
on a constant and gentle humming
and where paralysis
has taken over

Living like we’re
never going to die.
Saving face.
Remaining silent.
Tolerating what we strictly oppose.
We ruin what we sow

3. End Transmission

Michael: The Lyrics are all in german, the titel english. Weird? Maybe. But I struggled to find a proper title for this one, and since I like shorter song titles over longer ones, there was no way to come up with a german one that was short enough and on point as much as this one. You might notice the Snapcase reference here – such a great band! The lyrics are based on a poem I wrote years ago, a break up song. It’s about guilt and self doubt after a relationship ended up to the point where one is almost hallucinating, saying: „I am guilt“ as if there wouldn’t be anything else left where to find a sense of self and identity in. Looking in a mirror one almost can’t notice oneself anymore, something has changed. Colors seem to change and warmth is sucked out of everything there is, turning rooms in blue chambers, all is greyish and blue. In the end there is a glimpse of hope when it changes to „I am patience“. I guess after a breakup that is what is most important, being patient with one’s own shortcomings, waiting for a new „life“ to unfold so that eventually one stops looking back in grief, anger or even self hatred but ahead, being courageous enough eventually to open up to notice what life might and will offer you.

Lyrics:

Täusch die Welt
aber täusch nicht dich
Du bist getarnt,
Dein Lächeln -täglich- Pflicht
Ich habe einen Namen
und er ist Schuld
Stimmen hörst Du
willst nur nicht
Hände reichen
greifst sie nicht
Menschen lächeln
traust Du nicht

Jeder Start ein
grau gemaltes Ende
Blaue Farben
blaue Wände
Alles Enden, alles
nur ein Traum
Was im Spiegel
erkennst Du kaum
Täusch die Welt
aber täusch nicht dich
Du bist getarnt,
Dein Lächeln -täglich- Pflicht
Ich habe einen Namen
und er ist Schuld
Rufst Du mich
geh ich zu Dir hin
Ich habe keinen Namen ich bin Geduld.

4. Asubha

Michael: I’m a huge fan of NEUROSIS, and the basic idea of the opening riffs structure I must have stolen from one of their songs, I just can’t remember anymore which one. We’ve played it rather fast though, if you find that song let me know haha. It sounds completely different than I expected and it’s a rather unusual opening for a Chambers song I guess. Around min 2:15 or so the others allowed me to use some older vocal recordings I did years ago with Christian Bethge of RAMA Tonstudio when I recorded all of my poems that I had written up until then. What I am narrating in german is „Du horchst in eine andere Himmelsrichtung, ohne Deinen Kompass lauf ich Kreise. Dunkle Träume, eine neue Eigenart. Das Letzte das… es war wie Zuhause. Stufen später Brücke rauf, Neubeginn verwirklicht.“, in english I guess it goes something like „You are listening to another direction, without your compass I walk in circles. Dark dreams, a new idiosyncrasy. The last it was like being home. Steps later up the bridge, a new beginning realized“.
These phrases I cut out of two different poems, suprisingly they seem to match the songs rhythm and tone quite nicely. I’m unsure if it sounds cool in english though, to be honest I’m not sure if it sounds good in german. Anyways, right now I guess with these words everything is said that the original two poems tried to tell. I am a huge thief of riff ideas (who isn’t) and the final part is something UNBROKEN could have done on their classic „Life. Love. Regret.“ record I believe.

The title „Asubha“ is a pali word, an old dialect similar to sanskrit spoken in the northeastern part of India 2500 years ago when Buddha was teaching. 15 years ago I lived in a forest monastery in thailand for a couple of months and everywhere in monasteries there it is common to either have skeletons on display or other human remains, fetuses and such. Sounds horrible, but the idea behind the practice of „Asubha“ is to realise that we are a mortal biochemical machine, filled with gross liquids and unpleasant things that functions for just that long. So don’t take yourself to seriously, value every single moment because one day all this will fall apart and you die. That’s Asubha.

Alex: I guess Asubha is a song thats pretty much depart // disappear in a nutshell. It‘s heavy, melodic and got tons of atmosphere in the middle that was heavily influenced by german instrumental postmetal outfit Kokomo on my side. Though it‘s the longest on the record, i guess we found quite a good balance between monotony (which doesn‘t always have to be a bad thing) and progression.

Anna: Michael and I wrote the lyrics together.The lyrics are about… let’s be honest: spiritual idiots.

Nietzsche once said: “Die Menschen laufen jedem nach, der ihnen einzureden weiß, sie hätten ihren Weg verloren: es schmeichelt sie so, zu hören, daß sie überhaupt einen Weg haben.”In english: “People run after anyone who tells them they’ve lost their way: it flatters them to hear that they even have a way.” That does not mean people should not focus on their ways or goals. I would rather say: how can you know where to go if you don’t know where you are right now? That’s why: “Stop and breathe”.

Lyrics:

We think we understand
We think we know
the origin of suffering
with a condescending gaze
and fuck you face
we give advice even if we have no clue
Do you believe in energies?
Do you even feel yourself at all?
We are teaching we give advice
We think we understand the meaning of impermanence
Do you really think it’s something beautiful?
If we would really understand we would stop … right now …
we would stop and breathe.

5. Slave

Michael: the song I struggled the most with in the studio. We had played this song live since forever when we finally hit the studio in 2017. Suddenly when preparing for the studio I figured I had to play the bass completely different, darker. My brain is hardwired to stick to routines, so I really had to crack everything up again and reassemble it.

Alex: Like „We ruin what we sow“, it was Fabian who came up with the idea for this song, to break the cycle of atmospheric postmetal that somehow became predominant in our songwriting.

Anna: The lyrics are about us in this world and society and how our minds get manipulated.
A slave usually knows that he/she actually wants something else but we became slaves of ourselves without being aware and we still think that we are free. We ignore death and live like we’re never going to die.

“I need to die before I die” just says: put all the layers of who you think you are down. Be naked. Be vulnerable.

6. Rose’s Nucleus

Micha: Officially that one song we worked on the longest. After the original Chambers had recorded their s/t ep and released it on tape I joined the band and the basic skeleton of this song was what we did first together. Especially the opening was on the chopping block for literally months and months. When Fabian joined the band he came up eventually with that slow rather acoustic guitar opening. Before that we had a try hard HC opening of some sorts. Thank you Fab.

Alex: Next to Asubha, Roses Nucleus was the first song we worked on after our s/t ep was finished and it sounded so much different from what we used to play. The leap from hardcore to postmetal with elements of blackmetal, sludge and doom was pretty tough for me. I actually steered clear of blackmetal for its rough tone wich always gave me a certain uneasy feeling. Eventually our drummer Daniel introduced me to german postblackmetal outfit Planks and I guess Rose‘s Nucleus was partially worked on during that time.

Anna: The song is about love, illusionment, greed and disillusionment. It is about the sensitive and vulnerable centre often Infused with dirt. The heady evening promises the confirmation of your own existence but the morning shows nothing but cold disillusionment.

Lyrics:

Blood pumping machines
Guided by dead souls
A death not yet deceased
The lived life feeds of that
which we call love
(uses the taste of an object
An auspicious glance
Promises the world
– Warmth for one moment)

A rose’s nucleus
Infused with ash
and cold sweat
– THE AWAKENING SHAME –
Dust of familiar
sensations but still
There is so much to hold
– WHEN THERE IS NOTHING TO LOSE –
nothing to lose

WHY AM I HERE
BRING ME OUT
SET ME FREE
PURIFY ME
FROM THIS HAZE
I just don’t get it
I can’t take this
Anymore
These prison bars
Are narrowing

More about CHAMBERS:

Daniel and Alex formed the band in 2014. After a few memberchanges and the release of a s/t ep the current lineup stands since 2016. From our first ep which was pretty much straight forward hardcore we decided to change our style of songwriting, giving our songs a bit more complexity, athmosphere and „meaning“ one might say. The latest release „depart // disappear“ is mostly about our own vulnerability, setbacks in life and about the hardships, trying to overcome the shattering self-concept that embarks out of disillusion and false perception.