Exclusive: Stream A Storm Of Light's New Album, Anthroscene

Five years after their last record, New York post-metallers A Storm Of Light will release fifth full-length, Anthroscene, on 5th October, via Consouling Sounds (EU and UK), Translation Loss (US) and Daymare (JP).

Thankfully, you don't have to wait that long to hear it, because it's streaming exclusively below. To accompany the stream, frontman Josh Graham penned the following notes about the themes and concepts of the record and the inspirations behind it. So, without further ado, over to Josh.

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An·thro·po·cene

ˈanTHrəpəˌsēn/

adjective

1. relating to or denoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

An·thro·scene

ˈanTHrəˌsēn/

noun

1. The period we are living in. The scene we have made for ourselves. You're all fucked. We're all fucked. The earth is hot. The ship is going down in flames.

This record was born out of an endless amount of frustration and exhaustion. Too much news. Too much racism. Too much blind nationalism. Too much flag worship. Too much climate change denial. Too much greed. Too much pain. Too many people being pushed from their homes. Too many people who want to send those people back to bowed out wastelands.

Heavily influencing both the lyrics and musical attitude on the album, these quotes were compiled during my research over the course of the writing process.

"We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet."

- Stephen Hawking

"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we´re looking for the source of our troubles‚ we shouldn´t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power."

- P. J. O'Rourke

“I think the human race has squandered its gift, and I think this country has squandered its promise. I think people in America sold out very cheaply, for sneakers and cheeseburgers. And I don't think it's fixable”

- George Carlin

A former Facebook executive has said he feels “tremendous guilt” over his work on “tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works”, joining a growing chorus of critics of the social media giant.

Chamath Palihapitiya, who was vice-president for user growth at Facebook before he left the company in 2011, said: “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth.”

“This is not about Russian ads,” he added. “This is a global problem. It is eroding the core foundations of how people behave by and between each other.”

Palihapitiya’s comments last month were made a day after Facebook’s founding president, Sean Parker, criticized the way that the company “exploit[s] a vulnerability in human psychology” by creating a “social-validation feedback loop.”

- The Guardian

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion, too

Imagine all the people living life in peace

- John Lennon

If you want a clear explanation of just how much of an outlier the US is in prescribing the powerful drugs that led to the opioid epidemic, consider this statistic given by drug policy expert Keith Humphreys last week during Stanford Medicine X (emphasis mine):

The biggest misconception is that the US is normal in how it handles prescription opioids. So let’s compare ourselves to another country. Japan, for example. Older population than us; you would think more aches and pains. Universal access to health care, so more opportunities to prescribe.

So consider the amount of standard daily doses of opioids consumed in Japan. And then double it. And then double it again. And then double it again. And then double it again. And then double it a fifth time. That would make Japan No. 2 in the world, behind the United States.

-Vox

“We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.

Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.”

- Hunter S Thompson

There are powers at play more forceful than we

Come over here and sit down and say a short prayer

A prayer to the air, the air that we breathe

And the astonishing rise of the Anthrocene

Come on now, come on now

Hold your breath while you're safe

It's a long way back and I'm begging you please

To come home now, come home now

Well, I heard you been out looking for something to love

Close your eyes, little worm

And brace yourself

- Nick Cave

The band will also be on tour with Mono in the UK and Europe in October. Dates are as follows:

01/10 - UK Bristol, The Fleece
02/10 - UK Norwich, Arts Centre
03/10 - UK Glasgow, Classic Grand
04/10 - UK Newcastle, The Cluny
05/10 - UK Leeds, Left Bank
06/10 - BE Ghent, De Central
07/10 - NL Utrecht, Tivoli De Helling
08/10 - DE Bremen, Tower
09/10 - DE Dresden, Beatpol
10/10 - DE Wiesbaden, Schlacthof
11/10 - CH Aarau, Kiff
12/10 - FR Lyon, CCO
13/10 - ES Barcelona, AMFest
14/10 - FR Toulouse, Le Rex
15/10 - FR Bordeaux, Iboat
16/10 - FR Orleans, Astrolabe
17/10 - NL Heerlen, Nieuwe Nor
18/10 - DE Oberhausen, Drucklufthaus
19/10 - NL Leeuwarden, Into The Void
20/10 - GR Athens, Fuzz Club
22/10 - RU Moscow, Zil
23/10 - RU St. Petersburg, Zal