30 November 2024 - 0 Comments

With the string of singles following the release of the blackmail.txt EP, it was only a matter of time before Wellington alternative rock band, Adult Friends, revealed they’ve been working on something big! Find Me in the Inferno is to be the band's debut album. Recorded at Massey University, the self-produced album is mixed by the bands singer-guitarist Jackson Kidd and mastered by Scott Seabright. The album with all its gothic tendencies is in parts brutally heavy and raw, parts depressive, but never failing to deliver memorable tracks audiences can latch onto.

If genre tags are your thing, gothic post-hardcore fits the bill. Leaning into the wailing vocals and cryptic lyrics of Robert Smith, but with a sense of urgency more akin to At the Drive-In. But that’s not to say it’s all songs for gym playlists and/or angsty students as the album explores emotionally mature topics such as grief and depression with themes of the afterlife throughout. The tracks here are all interlinked with references to Dante’s Inferno as the band obsess over the idea of an inferno full of eternal ironic punishments. The album questions if it is really possible to punish a person who loathes themselves so much, they’ve chosen the inferno over life?

I promised to keep this light…but the album certainly goes to some dark places, but always finds appropriate ways of staying fun with singles like ‘Bunnyman’ featured among the tracklist. There’s also songs like The Omission Era and Smart People which sound almost like early Radiohead or The Replacement inspired by Fontaines D.C. There’s a hugely diverse range of inspiration for an album of myriad styles and tempos.

Find Me In the Inferno will be available on all major streaming platforms as of January 31st.

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