Pittsburgh melodic-metal band 156/SILENCE has revealed the latest single, “Product Placement“, from the band’s eagerly awaited album, “People Watching”, that’s out September 13th from SharpTone Records.
The anthemic, adrenaline pumping new song, “Product Placement“, leans into the band’s post-hardcore influences with mesmerizing songwriting and a seamless melding of melodic and heavy elements for what is surely to be a crowd favorite on the band’s current tour with SIGNS OF THE SWARM and CANE HILL.
Commenting on the track, guitarist Jimmy Howell says: “It’s no secret that this is a very different song for us. I think it really showcases our love for older post hardcore and bands like Thrice. We’ve toyed around with writing a song like this for a very long time but we finally felt the time was right to go for it and we couldn’t be happier with the result.”
Vocalist Jack Murray adds: “It might not be for everyone but if we made music for everyone then it wouldn’t be for us. This one’s for us. Showing what we’re capable of and what we always have been capable of. I never knew how hard it would be to write a song like this and lyrically it basically represents just that. The wall between you and your goals. The ads that won’t go away. The sacrifices made to appease others. It’s called product placement for a reason.”
Produced by Jonathan Dolese (D.R.U.G.S, Cane Hill), 156/SILENCE’s 4th album is an alternative metal behemoth, featuring 14 tracks of chaos and fury..The band recently said of the record: “People Watching is the culmination of the last 9 years of 156. From the very beginning of the band we set the goal to push ourselves and make sure no two records we put out ever sound the same. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve created, this album has been a long time coming. Welcome to the new era of 156.”
156/Silence creates soundtracks for the pushed aside and marginalized. Equal parts frenetic, unhinged, passionate, and focused, their music resonates with outsiders of all stripes. 156/Silence is for anyone determined to peel back the façade of false pleasantries, shallow platitudes, and fakery.
It’s a mission the band began in earnest with underground missives. (Metal Injection advised readers to “wreck your speakers with 156/Silence” on the eve of 2017’s Karma EP.) The group excels live, offering both community and devastation, while touring with the likes of The Acacia Strain, Unearth, Upon A Burning Body, D.R.U.G.S., Signs Of The Swarm, and Orthodox, among others.
Howling personal declarations, jagged riffs, post-hardcore, noise, thrash, sludge, and ambiance collide within 156/Silence. In 2018, Kerrang! hailed the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania group as one of the 6 Underground Metalcore Bands Redefining the Scene. Less than a decade after their emergence, 156/Silence delivers again on that promise with an incendiary fourth album, People Watching.
No two 156/Silence albums are alike, from the unhinged frenetic chaos of Undercover Scumbag (2018) to the gloriously savage and technical Irrational Pull (2020), which Metal Hammer likened to Converge and Botch. The diverse ruminations found in Narrative (2022) took things even further.
People Watching continues the prolific outfit’s tradition of steadfast evolution. Produced by Jonathan Dolese (D.R.U.G.S., Emmure, Attack Attack!), the album embraces melodic hooks without sacrificing any heaviness. The band’s golden age of metalcore roots shimmer and swirl together with influences ranging from Aphex Twin to Thrice, Glassjaw, and Deftones, from movie soundtracks to horror games. As the band says: “People Watching is truly the culmination of the last nine years of 156.”
156/Silence sounds ravenous, ominous, and haunting. Their songs are literary and cinematic, cerebral and brutal, drawing from real and imagined horrors, all intertwined with melody and might.
