Gillian Carter This Earth Shaped Tomb cover high res

Gillian Carter Lament The End of Life On "This Rotting Vessel Appears"

Screamo has a reputation for being a genre which prizes personal tragedy over any broader social concerns. This is a failing of discourse rather than content. The best screamo avoids the myopia of personal angst through tying itself to concerns so fundamental to the human experience as to become universal.

Gillian Carter understand this human conundrum on a palpable level. On “This Rotting Vessel Appears,” the long-running screamo act detail how everyone they know will, without fail, pass away. Stream the song below, exclusively on Invisible Oranges.

While the song describes this experience entirely in first person, this concern could not be more universal, more distinctly human. Instead of treating this inevitably as the source of “woe is me” self-pity, singer Logan Rivera broadens his scope and describes death on a global scale. In this context, the band’s grandiose sense of harmony makes perfect sense. The strings overlaid before the song’s climax aren’t the world’s smallest violin, but its greatest one, a lament for the inherent frailty of human life. This isn’t a plea for sympathy, but a point of empathy.

“This Rotting Vessel Appears” is the first single from Gillian Carter’s upcoming release …This Earth Shaped Tomb, which will be released by Skeletal Lightning and Moment of Collapse on August 31st. You can follow Gillian Carter on Bandcamp.

Here’s what Rivera has to say about the song:

The earth is consumed by hatred. The pharmaceutical companies thrive on keeping us sick. The human race’s heart has grown colder with time. Everyone we’ve ever known and loved will one day be put in the ground. This is me coming to terms with that.

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