Sealer, a new, hardcore-adjacent noise punk band from Cincinnati, Ohio, recently released its debut, self-titled release on The Ghost Is Clear Records. Purchase it now here.
Vocalist Eric Ziedses des Plantes says, “‘Seeing/Peeling’ is the first song Dustin (Bingaman, guitar) sent me when approaching me about doing vocals in this band. I was immediately drawn to the rapid-fire, contradictory set of lyrics he had written for it, that threw out startling images with almost a hallucinatory sort of dream logic. Also, I love an opportunity to do some sort of non-verbal vocal utterance, and in this track I get two! Music-wise, I enjoy how it kicks off the record with maximum go-for-the-throat energy and then immediately showcases the experimentation we strive to include in our work during the bridge. Our friend Jon Lorenz (Wasteland Jazz Unit, Public Housing) skronked a ton of sax over the bridge and outro, adding chaos and texture in a way we were really happy with.”
Having met as teenagers playing in wildly different bands in a small Ohio town, twenty years of friendship and other collaborations followed before this combination of people found themselves in the same room working on something together. Each member stayed busy in the interim, creating and touring around the United States on a DIY level in projects such as White Walls (Video Disease), RIVE, Darkroom Ignite, Fourth Wife, Till Plains, and Hissing Tiles (Whited Sepulchre).
Pairing the queasy sense of unease found in noise rock with the blasting force of hardcore, Sealer embraces an experimental, exploratory approach to the lane they have chosen to travel, allowing the more violent elements of their sound to collide with moments of unabashed melody, sensitivity and beauty.
Lyrically, the songs are rooted in near-feral states of fear, confusion, anxiety and other emotional viscera, using this foundation to blast into abstract, character-driven narrative directions centering around departure/escape from today’s blighted reality. Members of a forest cult suck down hallucinogenic tree sap in order to cross into a new realm, an extraterrestrial true believer self-lobotomizes, the rich find themselves beaten to death by the help at an orgy. Others eulogize a world slipping increasingly out of control, howling against forces that practically beg for humanity’s detachment and apathy.The band’s debut was recorded at Culture Vacuum Recordings in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood by bassist Michael Latella. Saxophone on “Seeing/Peeling” and “Headlong” was provided by Jon Lorenz (Wasteland Jazz Unit).
