EXCIDE — Tyler Washington, Gill Gonzalez, Gage Lanza, Caleb Hogue, and Jacob Paris — recently announced their second album Bastard Hymns. It arrives November 28 via SharpTone Records. Pre-order it here.
Today, the band has issued the visualizer for new single "Pariah." Watch it below.
Washington shares, "Lyrically, 'Pariah' is sort of an inward look back to when I was growing up. Not ever really fitting in anywhere or with anyone, wrangling with the religion and politics of your own family and friends, and sort of losing hope at a point that you’ll ever find where you're supposed to be."
He continues, "The song itself was such an unexpected outcome. Originally, we wrote the big chorus hook first, sort of aiming to nail down a 'radio rock' song. After ditching the idea of what it SHOULD be, we came back to the idea (with Austin Coupe) and just started piecing it together naturally. That lead to so many cool things, like the weirdly-timed two-step riff, lots of acoustic guitar layers, and my favorite being the big Soundgarden-esque bridge section that features my favorite vocal take to date."
He finishes, "I think it's fitting the way this song stands on its own: Matching the vibe of the lyrics and hopefully being a welcome little sonic detour."
Bastard Hymns is the logical next step from the band's debut album, Deliberate Revolver. "Having felt like we accomplished what we came to do on the first record, there were no guidelines or barriers around where we were to go next. This opened up so many avenues for our creativity and exploration. We were lucky enough to begin working with SharpTone the following year, which put the band back in gear and opened up new possibilities for the path forward."
Sonically, the band was inspired by the grooves and energy of late '90s post-hardcore bands such as Cast Iron Hike and Snapcase, while siphoning melody and textural elements much the same as Quicksand and Cave In. The band was not afraid to shift gears a bit and take influence from the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, Soundgarden, and Failure, which, Excide admit, " allowed us to really push the sonic needle into uncharted territory, even further accentuated by Austin Coupe's co-writing and production."
Overall, the album is a "fuzzy, rocky, groovy, angry record. Seeped in the woes of growing up in a hillbilly hellscape, and living to tell the tale. The result was Bastard Hymns."
During 2020, Excide initially introduced a boundary-breaking signature style gestated across projects such as Two of a Kind and Actualize/Radiation Reel. Two years later, momentum picked up on the heels of their independent full-length debut, Deliberate Revolver, which incited the applause of Brooklyn Vegan, Revolver, and more. They caught the attention of Sharptone Records and inked a deal with the label. In 2024, their next era ramped up in earnest with the two-pack Humdinger, including "Dis(re)member" and "All Down (But 9)." Right away, Stereogum raved, "Both of its tracks go hard," and NO ECHO marveled at how "the band's dynamic blend of '90s-flavored hardcore and propulsive post-hardcore rhythms has shined brightly on each of their releases."
