Bosse-de-Nage release single “In the Name of the Moth”
New LP Hidden Fires Burn Hottest out March 6
Photo by Bobby Cochran
San Francisco-based post-black metal band Bosse-de-Nage will release their first new LP in 8 years— Hidden Fires Burn Hottest— next month on The Flenser. The album is the group’s most fully realized work yet, precisely because it refuses to be pinned down. Bosse-de-Nage have been working with The Flenser for over fifteen years. They were one of the first bands the label ever partnered with and have the longest active relationship in the label's history. But unlike most bands who build momentum through constant touring and visibility, Bosse-de-Nage has largely existed apart from the music world's usual machinery. They've evolved on their own terms, in relative isolation, allowing the work to develop without outside pressure or influence. What began rooted in black metal anonymity has mutated into something that actively defies categorization. The aggression is still there, but it's no longer the point.
Tracked by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker) at Atomic Garden East and mixed and mastered by Richard Chowenhill of Agriculture, Hidden Fires Burn Hottest was years in development, with some tracks beginning in 2018. The long writing process offered time that most records don't get. Time to live with ideas, revise endlessly, to let structures settle. For the first time, lyricist Bryan Manning wrote everything in advance, creating a surplus to pull from rather than working under deadline pressure. The difference shows.
8 years since the release of Further Still, an album built on constraint and economy, Bosse-de-Nage sought the opposite: sprawl, strangeness, fewer rules. Space for ideas to develop without rushing them. Dynamics that move through quiet as much as noise. Presence earned through atmosphere instead of volume. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest finds Bosse-de-Nage treating emotions like physical objects, feelings with spatial properties.
The album's second single “In the Name of the Moth” arrives today, and Bosse-de-Nage vocalist / lyricist Bryan Manning says it's "...probably the most adventurous song on 'Hidden Fires Burn Hottest' and generally speaking is one of our more unusual moments as a band. It’s heavy, and even sort of groovy at times, and there’s not a blast beat in sight. The lyrics are inspired by the dream logic and juxtaposition of images utilized by the surrealist movement and offer some kind of lens through which the cut up sequence in the middle of track can be viewed."
Nothing on Hidden Fires Burn Hottest coheres into a theme. These are pieces pulled from low moments and private feelings made public through sound. The band has never been interested in positivity, in music that resolves cleanly or offers comfort. But bleakness doesn't mean humorlessness. There's something darkly funny running through much of it, even when it shouldn't be.
Hidden Fires Burn Hottest doesn't explain itself. It just insists: what you feel is as real as what you can see. Pre-order the album here ahead of its March 6th release date.
Bosse-de-Nage, live:
Apr 17 Tilburg, NL – Roadburn festival
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