Andrew Alarcon’s latest single, Silent Veil, unveils an artist battling deeply with himself. The song, released today alongside a striking visual accompaniment, marks a pivotal moment in his upcoming album Frenzy.
Rooted in themes of self-betterment and repeated destructive behaviors, Silent Veil is an exploration of the dissonance between progress and self-sabotage. Alarcon himself reflects on the track’s difficult evolution, sharing that it took years of shifting between different versions before it finally came together.
“This was easily the toughest song on the record to write, record, and mix. I had so many different versions of this song dating back to 2020… I didn’t really know the message of the song until months after the album was mastered. To me, it’s about feeling you’re on the right path to self-betterment, but in reality, you’re repeating the same destructive behaviors over and over,” Alarcon explains.
This bleak yet raw portrayal of self-reflection finds its sonic pulse in a beat initially programmed by his brother, only to be later transformed by drummer Christian Billard into the track’s rhythmic backbone.
The result is a song drenched in frustration and repetition, reflecting the cycles of self-doubt that Alarcon explores lyrically.
The video, marked by its solitary and almost claustrophobic visuals, enhances this feeling of isolation as the artist grapples with the weight of his own expectations.
While Silent Veil is the album’s introspective core, Grace, the first single, ventures into different but equally heavy emotional territory.
Alarcon uses the lore and visuals of the video game Elden Ring to weave a narrative about perseverance. In the video for Grace, he faces off against Messmer, a symbolic figure representing the overwhelming nature of depression. As he battles, the distorted guitar riffs and relentless rhythm drive home the sensation of being stuck in an endless loop of mental struggle, only to realize that victory isn’t the end—it’s just another step on a longer road. “This song is a metaphor for the seemingly endless battle against depression,” he says.
The album as a whole, Frenzy, stands as a sonic embodiment of the chaos Alarcon faced during his twenties. From the relentless inner voices in Otherwise to the perseverance anthem that is Carry On, the record confronts perfectionism, self-doubt, and the complexity of personal growth. It’s an honest chronicle of an artist refusing to surrender despite the weight of his own mind pressing down.
