Sarin - "House Of Leaves" (Video Premiere)

May 31, 2017

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In an interview with Flak Magazine, author Mark Z. Danielewski related an anecdote about his novel “House Of Leaves”.

“I had one woman come up to me in a bookstore and say, ‘You know, everyone told me it was a horror book, but when I finished it, I realized that it was a love story.’ And she’s absolutely right. In some ways, genre is a marketing tool.”

While it’s a cute quote that serves to illustrate the genre-bending weirdness of the novel, Toronoto’s Sarin clearly don’t agree with this customer’s interpretation. Their new song “House Of Leaves”, which you can stream with it’s accompanying music video below, is much closer to the conventional reading of Danielewski’s meta-textual nightmare.

The video itself is a blur of ominous images, a house, a face, all distorted by a thick layer of static and geometric patterns. Alongside the song’s methodical build-up, the video invites its viewers to fall deeper and deeper into the images. The extra effort required to make out what exactly you’re looking at in turn forces you to fall into the groove of music.

So what of the music itself? If you’re familiar with fellow Danielewski enthusiasts Isis, then you’ll be familiar with the sounds that Sarin are working with. If such a thing as retro-post-metal exists, Sarin could be its poster boys. I don’t just mean in form, although the quiet-loud-quiet-LOUD structure is a hallmark of the style. The melodic content that Sarin hang on that clothesline is a dead ringer for the songs that Isis were writing before they went full prog at the tail end of their career. None of this is a knock on “House of Leaves” by any means. This re-recording, done for a split with Guiltfeeder, fills out the arrangement with tasteful guitar ambience and a more robust low end.

Stream “House Of Leaves” below:

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