Lithuanian dark post metal act AORTES, previously known as AUTISM, have revealed “With Me Forever” – the second single from their upcoming new full-length album “Devouring Gloom”, which comes out on February 28, 2023. Today, we’re giving you the stream of both striking singles and our special interview with the band below.
“We are really excited to finally put out a new album. It has been quite a rough time for the band: the lineup has changed which led to the change of the sound of the band, which led to the change of the band name completely.” – comments the band.
“The pandemic took over the world and put all of our plans in slow motion. At times it felt like it had been one step forward and two steps back, so it took us almost four years to make “Devouring Gloom”. But it is finally finished and it seems that with this release we have finally managed to properly channel our creative vision. This darker, more dissonant and chaotic sound felt like a natural evolution of AORTES.”
“The central themes of the album deal with the struggle of the overwhelming feeling of despair, hopelessness, loneliness – or as we thought of it – a gloom that surrounds and devours you. Sometimes you find the strength to fight it off, other times you admit defeat. But there is always hope.”
“Devouring Gloom” will be available on limited edition LP and digital. Pre-orders are available now via AORTES bandcamp HERE.
Why change a name? Tell us about this transition and your new band name, AORTES.
Tomas: The explanation may require a short story of our band. Back in 2012 Tomhetas started a one-man-instrumental-studio-project called AUTISM, which, after a few releases in the following years (“Falling Motions” EP in 2012 and “The Crawling Chaos” in 2014), became a full-lineup-live-playing-band in 2016.
As a live-band AUTISM released two more albums, but during this period we experienced an unfortunate, but also natural evolution of any band – lineup changes. Our former bass player left the band and was replaced by Linas from a local band Red Water.
After some time our 2nd guitar player Karolis left the band, but almost immediately after, Andrius joined as first ever vocalist in this endeavor. So this rollercoaster pushed us to the decision to change the band name to AORTES.
So the final answer to the question “WHY?” is quite simple – sound, and the concept of AUTISM has shifted from instrumental-post-rock to something much darker, heavier and vocal driven, which became AORTES.
Can you expound a bit about the lyrical content of the new single.
Nothing too deep really. A line from the poem “At One O’Clock In The Morning” by Charles Baudelaire caught our eye. It goes something like this: “At last the tyranny of the human face has disappeared, and I myself shall be the only cause of my sufferings.”. So yeah the theme is basically about not being able to stop tormenting yourself.
What causes this blinding darkness and devouring gloom around us?
There are a lot of causes, and can’t really speak for anyone else. From our perspective, dealing with the world, people and yourself – it can wear you down.
What gives you the strength to fight off the gloom and to empower yourself to look brightly towards the future?
To be honest, looking at the state of the world today – can’t say that the outlook is very positive. But if I were to keep things simple – having a creative outlet and keeping yourself busy is what works for us.
How about the single’s artwork?
Since the very first releases we were leaning more into minimalistic style, relying mostly on good photography. This time we felt, like this raw, grungy and noisy estetic would suit the new musical direction we chosen. Its chaotic, dark and maybe even a little modern in a way. We feel like this artwork encapsulates the essence of how AORTES sounds.
Are there any labels that will release and distribute the new LP?
We made few emails when songs were still in demo stages to some labels, but nothing happened there, so we decided to release this album by ourselves. Had done that in the past with previous records, so nothing new here. Distribution question is still in the open, so if there are any interested parties – hit us up!
Any live shows that you have lined up later in 2023?
A record release party most likely. Other than that – nothing particular. There are some plans for a short tour, but still a lot of moving parts to figure out.
Your quick wrap-up of 2022, both personally and musically. Main lessons and top takeaways.
A year almost entirely dedicated to the new album. Sometimes it felt like it’s going nowhere, but at some point we realized that we have it. We wanted to be sure that every song can stand on its own. Everything started moving quite quickly after that. Lessons or takeaways? Nothing revolutionary. Persistence probably.
