Black Openings, by Anatomy of Habit

Black Openings

by Anatomy of Habit

supported by

pinkytheent Anatomy of Habit return with their unique clanging voice of bitter resignation blended with grim resolve. This album was a slow growth: a bold gambit opening with such a long song, but by the time the album was over, I felt compelled to go back to the first song to experience what I missed before. I get a sense of layers and missed signs to unpack, which I am excited to do with more listens! As before, I relished the diversity of tones and instrumentation, coloring the crisp yet deadened vocals. Favorite track: Formal Consequences.

(the) Ryan + Hank the Worm Baby Creature thumbnail

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Pressed on heavyweight white vinyl at Smashed Plastic in Chicago. Housed in a color inner sleeve inside a color LP jacket with artwork by Mark Solotroff and layout by Jonathan Canady. Includes a folded poster measuring 22.75" x 33" printed with black ink on white newsprint.

Includes unlimited streaming of Black Openings via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 1 day

$20 USD or more
Cassette + Digital Album
Cassette packaged with a 4-panel color j-card with artwork by Mark Solotroff and layout by Jonathan Canady. White cassette shells imprinted with black graphics. Sealed in poly sleeves with black circular stickers.

Includes unlimited streaming of Black Openings via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 1 day

$10 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
CD packaged in a 6-panel color digipak with artwork by Mark Solotroff and layout by Jonathan Canady.

Includes unlimited streaming of Black Openings via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 1 day

$10 USD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$8 USD or more

1.	Black Openings 18:04	lyrics
SLEEP DOES NOTHING – ENVELOPED IN FANTASY – SPREADING OUTWARD – A FORM OF RELEASE – REVEALING A FIXED POINT – RULED BY SILENCE – FLOWING FROM THE INSIDE – TAKING MEASURED STEPS – ACTING ON INSTINCT – GETTING THROUGH EACH DAY – REMAINING FACELESS – SLIPPING INTO A PERSONA – WORSHIPPING AN IMAGE – THIS RADICAL REALITY – REMAINING ISOLATED – A COMPLETE BREAK – ESSENTIALLY ABSTRACTED – INSEPARABLY CONNECTED – A VIOLENT STORM – EXERCISING TRUE CHOICE – BLACK OPENINGS
2.	Formal Consequences 10:32	lyrics
LATERAL ELEMENTS – PERSONAL STANCES – SOARING APPEARANCES – SURROUNDED BY SPACE – BLUNT GESTURES – DIRECT OBSERVATION – UNCONSCIOUS RULES – ESTABLISHING MY PLACE – TRANSITORY MEANING – FORMAL CONSEQUENCES INTERIOR VISION – SCARCELY A TRACE
3.	Breathing Through Bones 09:45	lyrics
IN SILENCE I REMAIN HERE – BREATHING THROUGH BONES – REJOINING THE BODY – THAT WE ONCE OCCUPIED – WAITING FOR THE MOMENT – THAT WILL TAKE ME TO YOU – AS MY MEMORY FAILS – YOU SHOW ME YOUR TONGUE – I TASTE YOUR BITTER TEARS – HORIZONS OF EXPECTATION – ALWAYS LOOM IN THE DISTANCE – READER-RESPONSE THEORY – RECEPTION AESTHETICS – THE IDEOLOGY OF THE AUDIENCE – EMERGENT PRACTICES – AS MY MEMORY FAILS – YOU SHOW ME YOUR TONGUE – I TASTE YOUR BITTER TEARS – A SENSE OF DOMINANCE – A WILLINGNESS TO SUCCUMB – A NEED FOR CLOSURE – A GESTURE OF CONTEMPT – A SEQUENCE OF RUPTURES – MULTIPLE DEAD ENDS – AS MY MEMORY FAILS – YOU SHOW ME YOUR TONGUE – I TASTE YOUR BITTER TEARS

about

The members of Anatomy of Habit are excited to announce the release of their fourth album, “Black Openings,” on Friday February 24, 2023. It’s the follow-up to their 2021-22 album, “Even If It Takes A Lifetime.”

The band formed in Chicago in 2008, and they’ve been described as a hybrid of doom metal, post-punk, death-rock, early-industrial, psychedelic, and shoegaze. Although they’ve experienced significant membership changes since forming, today’s band, which includes Alex Latus (guitar), Isidro Reyes (metal percussion), Skyler Rowe (drums), Mark Solotroff (vocals), and Sam Wagster (bass + lap steel), represents their longest-standing and most prolific lineup. The band credits their treasured chemistry to their intertwining histories as friends and collaborators. Rowe and Latus have made music together since they were teenagers, growing up in Indianapolis’ heavy music scene, while playing in the band Still. Rowe and Wagster create sweeping, pastoral instrumental music together in Mute Duo. Reyes and Solotroff are old friends who’ve played together for many years and they continue to record and perform in both BLOODYMINDED and The Fortieth Day. This deep connective tissue contributes to what the band describes as consistently effortless writing sessions and innately unified live performances.

They recorded this album with Sanford Parker, who has been working with the band in the studio for over a decade, including on their 2014 album, “Ciphers + Axioms” (Relapse). Parker also handled mixing duties. Collin Jordan (Boiler Room Mastering) took care of mastering, as he’s done with two previous albums for the band. Like their last album, “Black Openings” includes three songs. The opener is the title track, which will align with what some people think of when referring to an archetypal side-long Anatomy of Habit song. It is built from three distinct movements that range from a calmer opening section, to an extended atmospheric instrumental passage, to an escalating mass of pure heaviness. “Formal Consequences” starts of the B-Side and it introduces greater shimmer to the band’s sound, with Solotroff’s voice submerged in a vast swirl of guitar atmosphere. “Breathing Through Bones” closes the album and it is a mournful song that links back to earlier Anatomy of Habit compositions like “After The Water” and “The Decade Plan,” but here, the group ups-the-ante with a vein of taught, slow burning tension. Along with the band’s core instrumentation, listeners will recognize piano, organ, analog synth, and vibraphone, similar to the array of sounds on “Even If It Takes A Lifetime.” Thematically, the album continues to elaborate on Solotroff’s expressions of love and loss, the abstracted and vanishing self, and complexities within the creative process. It further explores the concept of obliteration and it propels the idea to a dreadful new terminus point. The concept of the inner drive that keeps pushing a person forward, which Solotroff explored on “Even If It Takes A Lifetime,” takes on a new meaning here, when the harrowing black hole of the title track opens up and swallows you.

The album is being released on LP, CD, cassette, and digital. The LP was pressed on heavyweight white vinyl by Smashed Plastic in Chicago. It is housed in a jacket and a printed inner sleeve, both of which feature artwork created by Solotroff. The LP also includes a large folded poster featuring the full album artwork, printed in black ink on white newsprint and measuring 22.75"x33". The CD is packaged in a six-panel color digipak, like all previous Anatomy of Habit CDs. The cassette version includes white shells and a four-panel color insert. All formats were created in collaboration with designer Jonathan Canady, a longtime creative associate of the band, who has worked on all of their releases to date.

credits

released February 24, 2023

Alex Latus (guitar), Isidro Reyes (metal percussion), Skyler Rowe (drums, vibraphone), Mark Solotroff (vocals, analog synth), and Sam Wagster (bass, lap steel, piano, keyboard)

Recorded and mixed by Sanford Parker at Decade Music Studios, Rat City Sound, and Hypercube
sanfordparker.com

Mastered by Collin Jordan at The Boiler Room
brmastering.com

Artwork by Mark Solotroff

Layout by Jonathan Canady

license

about

Anatomy of Habit Chicago, Illinois

Anatomy of Habit was founded in 2008 and is composed of Alex Latus (guitar), Isidro Reyes (metal percussion), Skyler Rowe (drums), Mark Solotroff (vocals), and Sam Wagster (bass/lap steel). “Even If It Takes A Lifetime” is their third full-length release. ... more

shows

Jun 7

Sleeping Village

Chicago, IL

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