Stepping Away From Life: Anatomy of Habit Embraces "A Marginal World" (Track Debut)
Chicago experimental post-punk/doom metal band Anatomy of Habit is, to me, a reminder of a time and place. In the early 2010s, I was a relatively new blogger, covering new bands and finding my own passion in underground music, and Anatomy of Habit was right there with me. I’d heard of them playing shows since the late 2000s but, due to my age, I never got to see them until 2011, opening for Iceage. Without any recordings to their name, I went into seeing Anatomy of Habit, other than my knowledge of frontman Mark Solotroff’s long-standing career in noise music fronting power electronics legends Bloodyminded, completely blind. I was blown away. Then-current guitarist Greg Ratajczak’s mastery of the loop pedal and harmonically-complex minimalism, along with being incredibly heavy when needed, when paired with Kenny Rasmussen’s adventurous bass playing and fellow experimental music legend Blake Edwards’ junk percussion (I forget who was drumming for them at the time — you will see why in a second), it all came together in this doomed, gothic sort of way which never really fit into one genre or another perfectly. Anatomy of Habit was Anatomy of Habit, and for four glorious years I would see them regularly, absolutely losing my mind to the six lengthy songs in their repertoire, all of which were released in two monochromatic EPs and a full-length on Relapse Records.
Their lineup was unfortunately unstable, seeing Ratajczak replaced by stalwart guitarist Will Lindsay for Ciphers and Axioms (though he left later on), and eventually Edwards departed, Solotroff’s fellow Bloodyminded bandmate Isidro Reyes taking his place. Now? Anatomy of Habit is a completely different band (which features the entirety of Mute Duo, oddly enough), sans band leader Solotroff, who still handles vocals, and yet? On the band’s new album Even If It Takes A Lifetime, their first in seven years, it’s like nothing changed. Still apocalyptically heavy and thoughtfully complex, Anatomy of Habit’s lost time simply vanished. It’s 2013 again and I’m watching Anatomy of Habit at the Cobra Lounge, completely leveling the place, my friends and I all damaging our necks and brains and minds to the swirling mass of volume.
Listen to an exclusive debut of album opener “A Marginal World” below.
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From the artist:
When you release a new album you never really think to yourself, “It’s going to be seven years until the next one comes out,” but that’s what happened. After Ciphers + Axioms was released in late 2014, life happened, along with all of the things that involves, both good and bad. Add a global pandemic to the mix, to complicate things even further. So, we decided to take things into our own hands and get this album out into the world before another year or two suddenly passed us by. “A Marginal World” kicks off the album. It’s the shortest song that we’ve ever written and it perfectly encapsulates some of the things that were absorbed into the black hole of these past several years, even if it only makes sense to me, or to us, or to a very small circle of friends outside of the band. My bandmates – my friends – and I are extremely happy that Even If It Takes A Lifetime is finally seeing the light of day and we hope that it clicks with some people out there, whether it’s the music, the lyrics, or the mood.
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Even If It Takes A Lifetime releases independently on December 10th.
