There’s something unsettling about the artwork for Ostraca’s upcoming LP, Eventualities. Four grayscale illustrations, each evoking a quiet but heavy inevitability. A woman standing in a checkered hallway, turning away from light pouring through ornamental windows. A man cradling a lamb, his face hidden beneath a hood. A close-up of another lamb, its expression eerily human, while a man leans in, almost reverent, almost sorrowful. A foot poised at the edge of a precipice, near an old oil lamp, as if frozen before the fall. These are moments before something irreversible.
“The song is about getting older and realizing that some of your plans and aspirations just aren’t going to work out.” – comments the band.
“I’m married and have a career that I really enjoy, and while of course it’s a privilege and a great joy to get things figured out, turning 30 and having things kind of settle into place around you means deciding not to pursue other versions of your life you might have envisioned.” – says Gus Caldwell.
Fitting, then, that Eventualities is titled as such. Released by Persistent Vision Records on April 18, 2025, the Richmond, Virginia screamo titans return with a full-length that feels both weighty and ephemeral—an album that, like its cover, captures the tension between what was and what comes next.
For over a decade, Ostraca has operated in the space between screamo, post-hardcore, and crust punk, with a sound that leans into grand, emotional swells and brutal dynamic shifts. Their 2017 split Yarrow contained two songs, one of which has been re-recorded for this release. Following Enemy in 2018 and Disaster in 2023, the trio—bassist Gus Caldwell, guitarist Brian Russo, and drummer John Crogan—continue their ability to push past the boundaries of their genre while staying firmly rooted in its ethos.
“Song for a Closed Door,” the album opener, carries the weight of its title. Ostraca has always excelled in making music that feels like it’s collapsing under its own intensity, only to burst forward in moments of searing clarity. Here, the riffs twist and writhe, never settling, the rhythm section pulling and releasing like a muscle tensed too long. There’s a rawness in their execution, something inherently unstable. The track builds into its own destruction—exhausted, frayed, and unrelenting.
The album’s recording, mixing, and mastering were handled by Danny Gibney in Harrisonburg, VA, who previously worked on Disaster. Eventualities comes packaged in a matte full-color jacket with insert, featuring artwork by Garrett Smith and illustrations by Robert Simoneau. The record is available on fog marble vinyl, an aesthetic choice that feels almost too fitting for an album concerned with uncertainty and dissolution.
“Te cover was done with our old friend and longtime collaborator Garrett Smith – he did all the artwork for enemy, disaster, and the split with Flesh Born in addition to a bunch of our merch and posters over the years.” – explains Gus.
“We talked about wanting to have something a little more tactile and hand drawn for this album, and he suggested working with an illustrator he knows, Robert Simoneau, who based his illustrations on the four songs on the record. Super happy with how they turned out.”
Ostraca remains a band that thrives on tension—between melody and chaos, between catharsis and restraint. The artwork for Eventualities suggests a reckoning. The music inside doesn’t provide answers, but it does make you feel the weight of the question.
Pre-orders are open now, with the LP expected to ship between April 21 and April 30.
