Several weeks prior to the release of their debut album “Old City New Ruins”, Italian hardcore stalwarts Feldspar offer a new glimpse into their masterwork.
“Old City New Ruins” is due out on September 30th 2024 via Time To Kill Records.
“Old City, New Ruins” takes its title from Rome, the city where the band is based. It depicts the contemporary ruins of the capital, yet it’s merely a pretext to expose the complexities of everyday life common to Western societies and their major cities, foremost among them.
The album unfolds episode by episode, driven by the need to express anger and frustration, but also the antidotes to them. Social references abound, as well as intimate reflections and even profound investigations into the psychoses of the marginalized and abandoned.
It tells the story of collective strength, musically expressed through a choral quality that runs deep in the band. “Old City, New Ruins” is a unique hardcore album, inspired both by emerging currents of the genre – such as Comeback Kid, Turnstile, Trapped Under Ice – and by the European and Northern European heavy tradition – like Kvelertak, Turbonegro – to the pantheon of influences of Feldspar: Nirvana, Motorhead, Gorilla Biscuits, Slayer and everything in between.
The album consists of ten songs, with bellicose episodes alternating with cathartic moments, explosions of energy accompanied by timeless slogans, songs for celebration and songs for war, moments for reflection, and others for denunciation.
All of this alternates within the ten tracks preceding the instrumental that gives the album its title, also the final track of the record, a sort of Carpenteresque ballad that serves as the soundtrack to visualize the marvelous and creepy ruins Feldspar speaks of.
Production note: for the album, Feldspar worked alongside Nick Terry, a legendary figure in the English music scene, known for his productions with Ian Brown/Stone Roses, The Libertines, Turbonegro, Simian Mobile Disco, Kvelertak, Peaches, and more. His involvement adds international depth to the project. The artwork was entrusted to Chris Wilson, an American illustrator renowned for his work on covers for bands like MindForce, Scowl, Combust, and Gel, essentially the cream of the crop of contemporary American hardcore.
