The Danish blackened rap metal duo, GRADIENCE, is gearing up to unveil their debut EP ‘Ironsight‘ on the upcoming Friday, May 17th, 2024. To date, the band has captivated audiences with three singles and their accompanying videos from the EP: ‘This Abyss,’ ‘Blindsided (feat. Cabal),’ and ‘Love Me And Lie.’
Now, GRADIENCE is set to release the fourth and final single, the eponymous track ‘Ironsight,’ complete with another visually striking music video crafted by the band’s own Jakob Harris.
Frontman and rapper Gavin Mistry says about the song: “’Ironsight‘ describes an inner turmoil with a relationship heading over the edge. It is about being in a situation that you cannot get out of and where one’s self-destructiveness contributes to the decay. The music video indirectly illustrates the ultimate consequence, but with the detail that everything rewinds at the end, showing that there is always a way out, even if everything has gone wrong.”
On May 18th, GRADIENCE will play an EP release show and also their debut show at Urban 13 in Copenhagen with support from Cold Culture.
GRADIENCE is a new Danish duo breaking down mental and musical barriers with its powerful fusion of trap-rap, black metal, metalcore and deathcore on the forthcoming debut EP ‘Ironsight’ set for a May 17th release.
On the EP, the duo unfolds its stylistic abundance in a personal storytelling addressing the experience of being perceived as a stranger and the emotions and actions this schism can evoke.
GRADIENCE consists of vocalist and lyricist Gavin Mistry and musician and visual artist Jakob Harris. Both have previously released music in different contexts: Gavin in the hip-hop scene and Jakob as a prominent figure in the Danish metal scene, creating music and visuals for his own projects and delivering visual productions to various bands and artists.
When Jakob and Gavin met in 2022, the chemistry was evident, and the two decided to merge their musical worlds into a shared vision. From the beginning, they had a clear idea of breaking conventions by creating music not heard before in the metal scene. The approach was to fuse individual experiences and musical genres, crafting music they would listen to themselves, and addressing personal subjects that mattered to them. ‘Gradience’ means the absence of a clear boundary between two categories, precisely symbolizing the duo’s aim.
The shared vision has now resulted in the five songs on GRADIENCE’s debut EP ‘Ironsight,’ recorded in the summer of 2023 with producer Chris Kreutzfeldt (Cabal, Møl). On the EP, the duo seamlessly merges diverse musical elements, ranging from melodic metalcore, epic black metal, heavy deathcore, and groovy trap rap, creating a unique expression that encompasses emotions such as anger, aggression, melancholy, and sorrow, along with honesty and vulnerability that make the music and lyrics relatable and present.
Personal experience and the emotions and thoughts resulting from those experiences and their impact on life is the focus of Gavin Mistry’s lyrics. The songs delve into Gavin’s upbringing and encounter with Denmark and Danish culture as an immigrant from Nigeria, the presence of racism, the grip of anxiety, and self-medication attempts to cope with it.
The lyrics thus focus on the feeling of alienation that can permeate an individual when met with skepticism, mistrust, and hatred. Being a stranger in the eyes of others is one thing, but this feeling can also spread like a poison in relationships, both with others and, worst of all, with oneself. Several songs on ‘Ironsight’ specifically deal with the tumultuous relationships that arise from the chaos that alienation can cause in a person.
