Scattered between the sleepy city of Peoria and metropolis of Chicago and drawing inspiration from a remote Belarusian city that has been burned to the ground only to be rebuilt like a phoenix rising from its own ashes, MINSK has been cultivating sonic exploration and alchemical outpourings since 2002. Rooted in the post-metal landscape that brought forth visionaries like Neurosis and Isis, with their latest opus, The Crash & The Draw, MINSK step out of the shadows of the giants of their genre to create a psychedelic blend of tuneful, trance-inducing heaviness.
Set to drop via Relapse Records this Spring, The Crash & The Draw follows the eclectic collective’s six-year hiatus and boasts eleven arresting psalms that transcend far beyond the boundaries of post-metal, sludge and psychedelia. An instant contender for one of the most forward-thinking metal records of the year, each cascading movement is a crucial sonic passage through dark and light. At once crushing, hallucinatory and at times, spiritually illuminating, tracks ebb and flow with a pastoral elegance and tangible urgency.
Reflects co-founding member Timothy Mead (vocals, keyboards) of the recording: “So much attention and care have gone into this process, this renewal. We knew in order to really move MINSK forward in a meaningful way we would need to raise the bar all over again. This realization lit a fire within us to transcend what was. Lots of changes, to be sure, and yet the results are unmistakably MINSK.”
Adds co-founder Christopher Bennett (guitars, vocals): “This new album will present inroads to some of the musical archetypes we initially discussed when starting this band, but ones we have not yet touched on in the macrocosmic sense. It embodies the furtherance and expansion of MINSK in ways desired in the past, but not realized until these songs began to show themselves to us. The aggregate elements combining into a solid form. We hope to reveal this process to any and all who have the ears to hear.”
“We are very pleased to finally be able to share an actual piece of the record,” Mead continues of”To The Garish Remembrance Of Failure,” available for the first time today for public consumption. “As always with MINSK, it’s incredibly difficult to lift out one piece of the narrative and imply that it is fully representative of the whole, but I think that ‘To The Garish Remembrance Of Failure’ is a fitting first taste, something succinct, and something that feels really good to turn up loud. The phrase alone, to the garish remembrance of failure, is exceptionally meaningful to us, and we are proud to share a first glimpse of some of what is ahead. Raise a glass, feel and know the vivid memory of what has gone wrong and what must change… to the garish remembrance of failure.”
Recorded almost exclusively in The Prairie State, The Crash & The Draw was captured by the band alongside Sanford Parker (Twilight, Voivod, Eyehategod, Yob etc.) at Earth Analog in Tolono, mixed by Parker and MINSK at Hypercube in Chicago and mastered by Collin Jordan (Eyehategod, Indian, Wovenhand, Voivod etc.) at The Boiler Room in Chicago with additional vocal tracking by Scott Evans (Kowloon Walled City. Old Man Gloom, Floor etc.) at Antisleep Audio in Oakland, California and further tracking, editing, and mixing by Kevin Rendleman at Trash Rocket Audio and Aaron Austin at We Know Who You Are, both in Peoria. The record includes the striking cover creation of Orion Landau (Yob, Inter Arma, Red Fang etc.), a reinterpretation of original artwork by contributing artist, Corinne Reid.
MINSK‘s The Crash & The Draw will be released via Relapse Records in North America on April 7th, 2015, April 3rd, 2015 in Germany, Benelux and Finland and April 6th, 2015 in the UK and rest of the world and come available on CD, double LP and digitally. Preorder your copy today at THIS LOCATION. For digital orders, go HERE.
