Svalbard announce new album ‘The Weight Of The Mask’
SVALBARD have announced a new album!
Titled The Weight Of The Mask, the upcoming album from the British metal band is the follow-up to 2020’s When I Die, Will I Get Better?, and is scheduled to be released in October this year, via Nuclear Blast Records.
The upcoming album was recorded at The Ranch Production House, UK. The record was produced and mixed by Lewis Johns, with mastering by Grant Berry. Engineering was handled by Lewis Johns, assisted by Matt Janke, with additional editing by Kel Pinchin and Sebastien Sendon.
Speaking about the upcoming album, vocalist/guitarist Serena Cherry says, “if the previous record was about facing your demons, then The Weight Of The Mask is about fighting them with everything you’ve got. You can literally hear the depression transform into aggression in these songs. The Weight Of The Mask was admittedly a challenging album to make because we cut so deep this time around, it was a painful but ultimately cathartic process. This album is the sound of two years worth of internal darkness boiling away inside and then finally being unleashed.”
Alongside the announcement of the new album, SVALBARD have released a new music video for a new song lifted from the upcoming album; Faking It. The new is the second single to be released from the upcoming album, following on from Eternal Spirits, which was released back in February.
Speaking about the new song and its accompanying music video, Cherry says, “Faking It is a song about feeling deprived of meaningful human connection due to depression acting like a wall that shuts you off from others. It addresses the ways in which those who suffer with depression can feel guilted into putting on a happy mask. The lyrics are a reflection on happiness as a social obligation and how scarily good you can become at deceiving everyone around you into thinking that you’re fine when you’re not. With Faking It, we are both acknowledging the pressure for forced positivity, the fear that people won’t like you if you’re sad and also questioning where the root of this intolerance towards depression lies.
This video leans on deliberately obvious binary oppositions to hammer home the message of the song. We have the glossy smiling shots, filmed in the fakest place we could find: The Selfie Factory; mixed with dark, expressive performance footage that represents the internal struggle within.”
Watch the official music video for Faking It here:
Also, you can view both the track list and artwork for the upcoming new album below:
Track List:
1. Faking It
2. Eternal Spirits
3. Defiance
4. November
5. Lights Out
6. How To Swim Down
7. Be My Tomb
8. Pillar In The Sand
9. To Wilt Beneath The Weight
The Weight Of The Mask is set for release on October 6th via Nuclear Blast Records. Pre-orders are available now and can be purchased here.
For more information on SVALBARD like their official page on Facebook.
