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Today, USA-based death rock outfit False Figure released its new full-length, Castigations, via Transylvanian Recordings. The new album is available for listening also in the player below.
False Figure forged in 2015. In its earliest days, it drew influence from classic California deathrock groups like Christian Death and T.S.O.L.'s Change Today?-era and even early black metal. It conjured something melodic yet driving with guitars howling through noisy delay and reverb but still steeped in tangible melody.
"We wanted melodies that would stick in your head with beats that would move you", recalls Ruiz. "In the past few years, we've shifted towards a more pointed, airy and rhythm-driven song structure where each element has its space to breathe. This style is something that was touched on in our last EP, A Promised End, but really got to shine on Castigations. We aim to keep things flowing and concise. 'All killer no filler' as they say."
With False Figure's Castigations, an all-embracing presence of melancholy remains, but not in a way that would bog down listeners. "We aimed to present the music in a manic yet purposeful arrangement, mirroring our own lives and experiences, controlled chaos. As a three-piece attempting a big sound, you have to be mindful of what you aren't playing (overplaying) as much as what you desire to play. The lyrics of this release come from our experiences at the time of writing, from failed relationships to losing loved ones, to feeling the figurative noose tightening around one's neck as we struggle to negotiate to live in the capitalist hellscape that has become the San Francisco Bay area where the margins are bursting at the seams."
"'Possession' was written about a jealous lover who is never satisfied short of pure domination; internalizing contempt about the situation but ultimately remaining hopeless as their hold on you seems ethereal or supernatural. Elsewhere the band focuses on the notion of reincarnation. 'Samsara' is the Hindu/Buddhist belief that we are in an endless cycle of death/rebirth, carrying over our karmic debt from one lifetime into another", notes Ruiz. "This song comes from the idea that we're stuck repeating the same motions and getting the same results within conflict, love and lust, unable to break the barrier and staying shackled to our attachments no matter how detrimental they are to us. It was one of the first tracks we wrote on this new record and musically it marked the first step in the next era of False Figure."
Ruiz continues: "'Sadist Lament' is similar in lyrical theme, stemming from being a bond with someone you share a volatile history with and going against your better judgment to satisfy both of your suppressed desires, ultimately repeating the cycle". Link
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