“Vi kunne ikke blive her for evigt, vel?” arrives September 26 as the most cohesive work yet from Demersal. The Danish band frames the record around the theme of consumerism—not only as a social and economic force but as a destructive pattern reaching into climate, relationships, genocide, and war.
Within this framing, consumerism becomes shorthand for competition, loneliness, loss, and hatred, pushing the EP into darker and more universal territory.
Musically, Demersal resist the narrow box of screamo or hardcore. While those roots are still there, the record carries indie, ambient, alternative rock, and even experimental pop sensibilities.
Acoustic guitar, piano, harmonica, and melodica expand the sonic palette, weaving with shifting vocals that move from raw to almost whispered delivery. The effect is a fluid, multi-layered soundscape—less about genre allegiance, more about building a record that holds intimacy and scale in the same breath.
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The band themselves see the EP as a kind of community gesture rather than a closed, subcultural statement. As they put it, the songs are about “sharing something deeply human rather than drifting apart.” That aim sits at the core of a release that leans into vulnerability while refusing to soften its critique of the systems and behaviors shaping modern existence.
The release follows an active year for Demersal. In June, they toured Europe, and in September they set out on their first run through Japan, underscoring the band’s expanding reach beyond Denmark. The EP comes out via Konkylie (Denmark), Tokyo Jupiter Records (Japan), Tomb Tree (USA), Dingleberry Records (Germany), and Fireflies Fall Records (France).
Demersal are Viktor Ravn (guitar and vocals), Sebastian Greis Andersen (bass and vocals), Jonas Maigaard (guitar and backing vocals), and Emil Vilmar Lake (drums and backing vocals). The record was mixed and produced by Peter Hove Olsen at Infinite White Studios, mastered by Chris Kreutzfeldt, with recording sessions spanning both Infinite White and the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus. Cover artwork comes from Anders Holst.
A full track-by-track commentary from the band can be found below, breaking down the EP in detail and expanding on the ideas only outlined here.
Noget svigter: We wanted the EP to kick off with intensity, especially since our last release — our self-titled album — opened with a slow, intimate track. This time, we aimed for a song that combines fast hard-hitting sections with quieter, more atmospheric moments as well as a slow and epic moment at the end. Sebastian also sampled a bunch of weird sounds at his home to build a rich soundscape, and we spent a lot of time experimenting with guitar tones — from heavily distorted to ultra-clean, including a lot of ebow textures. – Viktor
Jeg ved ikke hvor det er: This was actually one of my least favorite demo ideas at first, but the rest of the band really liked it and eventually convinced me. I’m really glad we went with it though, because it ended up becoming one of the most heartfelt and powerful songs for me. I wanted to write a hooky melody for the intro and outro — something that felt good to sing along to. I wanted it to have that anthemic quality, like the kind of songs you’d hear echoing through a soccer stadium — but dealing with much heavier, more serious themes of course. – Viktor
Intet formår: The instrumentals for “Intet Formår” was actually stitched together from two different demos that we had played for a while without really “feeling” it — not until we decided to combine them. It is definitely the song on this EP that has had the most rework and changes, and it took us a long time settling on the final thing. This track has been thrown in the garbage a couple of times, but I’m so happy we chose to pick up the trash and clean it because I am very proud of the final version.
Fun thing we did was to make resampled hi-cut drums in the intro, which is very much inspired by Hybrid Theory and Meteora by Linkin Park. – Jonas
Storm: This song actually started as an old demo that Sebastian had been sitting on for a while. Despite its age, we really liked the core ideas and decided to work with it anyway. We explored a lot of atypical instrumentation to create unique textures — for example, you’ll hear both melodica and harmonica in the mix. The drums for the song is very close to the midi drums we had in the demo, which ended up in a lot unorthodox and exciting beats. – Viktor
Alting fader: I really wanted to create a long track with a lot of different layers and moods. I also wanted to combine quieter, acoustic elements into our sound, while still keeping and eerie, unsettling atmosphere. Towards the end, I wanted to make a sludgy, dense part with thick layers of distorted guitars, something we hadn’t really explored before.
A fun thing I did was to sample a bunch of old lo-fi videos from YouTube to build much of the atmospheric texture. It can be very difficult to find old lofi videos on YouTube these days but a hack is to search for old video filetypes (for example vmw) and then a random number. – Viktor
