Press Kit
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BORNWITHHAIR
ABOUT
Bornwithhair is the duo of multi instrumentalists Jean Farraige and Weirding Batweilder. Working in the context of heavy and dark music, the pair draw on avant-garde compositional techniques, improvisation, and lo-fi home recording methods to explore themes of historical and psychological interest. GoblinGuard b/w Werewolf and Phantom, and the subsequent Abramelinic Delusions b/w The Possessorist, were both released in 2019 and exhibited the band's blending of black metal, industrial noise, and experimental songwriting.
Their debut, Radical Moon (2020) hinted at a conceptual approach that would be more fully realized on their sophomore release, 2020's Smoleńska. Envisioned as a musical exploration of the life a young woman caught in the midst of the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, the album showed the range of the duo's capabilities with passages of blackened death metal and trad metal riffs shifting into spoken word experiments and electro-acoustic freak folk and free improvisation before veering into sheets of noise.
In 2021, Bornwithhair released Someplace to Haunt. Balancing more accessible song forms against a landscape of obfuscated lyrics, the album set the stage for the band's fourth release, When the Witches Fall (2021). Noisy and dense, the album, released on Trepanation Recordings, took as subject matter the interior lives of cult members, serial killers, and subjects of government experiments and laid the foundation for what the group called Arthouse Metal.
THE GOODS
On a blistering pace to redefine the avant-garde wing of dark and heavy music, Bornwithhair have announced the upcoming release of When the Witches Fall on Trepanation Recordings on the 8th of October, 2021. This release marks Bornwithhair’s fourth full-length album in two years.
Stream the opening track, 'Separated by Death' here: https://bornwithhair.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-witches-fall
THE DETAILS
Bornwithhair’s peculiar brand of Arthouse Metal is at once lo-fi, sprawling, clamorous, and unnerving. And on their new album, the duo of multi instrumentalists Weirding Batweilder and Jean Farraige has gone all-in on their obsessive and delirious quest to develop a fresh form of Blackened Death Rock.
“We were looking down a deep and dark abyss and trying to create literature out of it,” said Weirding. “At the same time, we wanted to make an electric guitar album. And we wanted to take a new approach to a guitar-based album. We wanted to record the guitars to make it sound like the speakers on your stereo were crumbling. We wanted a desiccated sound, like the shell of a freshly emerged locust.”
With When the Witches Fall, Bornwithhair have deployed static-ridden electric guitars and unhinged synths over a tumult of rhythms and basslines in wave after wave of avant-garde metal and noise torment.
THE COMPARISONS / FFO
Plumbing the depths of suicide, murder, addiction, delusion, and death, the album calls to mind the early work of Christian Death, The Birthday Party, and Crime and the City Solution—but through the lens of the death growls and vicious shrieks of Blackened Death Metal and the lo-fi recording techniques and ferocious harsh noise of the more avant side of Noise Rock. The moniker Arthouse Metal came from comparisons of the duo’s conceptual lyrics and repeating psychological musical motifs to the niche point-of-view and outsider feel of art films and the darker side of independent cinema. The result is a blend of cathartic sound, deranged and dislocated vocals, and horrifying lyrics describing the interior lives of killers, cult members, and the subjects of brainwashing.
“I think the album is appropriately terrifying,” said Farraige.
Band: Bornwithhair
Album: When the Witches Fall
Label: Trepanation Recordings
Release: 08 October 2021
Premieres: TBD
Contact: weirding@bornwithhair.com
Album: https://bornwithhair.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-witches-fall
Press Kit: https://sites.google.com/view/bornwithhair/press-kit
More: http://bornwithhair.com/
THE WORD ON THE STREET
In less than two years, with no live performances—or even much of a hint of what they look like—the duo has garnered a profusion of underground critical acclaim.
"I’ve slept on them way too long, but no longer." — No Clean Singing
Astral Noize declared their February 2020 debut album “one of the most unsettling (and compelling) avant garde releases heard in some time,” and noted that the band created “a record that requires (and deserves) repeat listens”. They called the duo’s last full-length, early 2021’s Someplace to Haunt, “one of the most intriguing albums you’ll hear this year.” And Sleeping Village agreed, premiering the band’s third full-length album and calling it the “duo's most enjoyable and most cohesive work yet.”
That album also caught the ear of Viking’s Choice who attempted to describe their sound thus: “Imagine one of the more inscrutable Anacortes/Olympia indie-rock bands (D+, Old Time Relijun) got into Furze, the supremely deranged one-man black metal project, and that sorta paints a burned portrait of Bornwithhair.” NoFatClips concurred saying that the pair was “pushing the definition of genre even further beyond its limits,” noting: “a little bit of everything in this one, like black metal, free jazz, dark wave… avant-garde and lots of psychedelia.”
According to Everything Is Noise, “The depth and layers” of Bornwithhair’s sophomore release, Smoleńska, “contain uncountable treasures, and atmospherically, it is as deep and explosive a plummet into the human psyche as one can hope for." Meanwhile, Musipedia of Metal called the same album “a staggering piece of creative lunacy.” And over at I Heart Noise, reviewer Vogon Laundromat ranked it in the top releases of the year, saying: “What keeps me coming back is how unhinged it is, like a black metal Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter in some ways, totally out there, never predictable, always engaging."
Players: Weirding Batweilder and Jean Farraige
Music by Bornwithhair. Lyrics by Weirding.
Copyright 2021 Weirding, BMI.
Contact: weirding@bornwithhair.com
For more info, see: https://bornwithhair.com/
Jean Farraige and Weirding, aka Bornwithhair (Allegheny Mtns, 2020).
REVIEWS
"This duo of multi-instrumentalists Weirding Batweilder and Jean Farraige variously characterize their music as Blackened Death Rock or Arthouse Metal. I’ve slept on them way too long, but no longer. The first song from their new album is strange and unpredictable. The overture sounds like a space odyssey, or perhaps the parting of an interdimensional veil, and what comes through is a sorcerous amalgam of pungent beats and swirling, apparitional sounds, with a collage of wailing and savagely growling and howling voices. The music seems to dance and levitate, and it becomes disorienting and delightful, but also very creepy. Both the singing and the guitars seem to quiver and squirm within this sonic hallucination, and the song as a whole manages to be both bizarre and intoxicating." — No Clean Singing
"There are very few instances where the term 'avant-garde' is actually warranted... it’s with When the Witches Fall that Bornwithhair more than meets that burden of expectation. It’s within the seven tracks that are contained within this record, we’re treated to a truly mysterious display that brings in some of the most ethereal elements from both metal and rock to make a performance that’s as dense as it is expansive in its sonic exploration with this band rarely being content to stay in the same place for long. Everything is brought together on an expert level such that it’s damn near intoxicating to immerse yourself in it time after time with every decision that Bornwithhair makes here a compelling element that not only contributes to the overall glory of When the Witches Fall, but it perpetuates just exactly how much the record itself is away from many of its contemporaries." — Head-Banger Reviews
"A musical style that takes avant-garde black metal and death rock and mixes them together to create a sound of their own. 8 out of 10." — A Different Shade of Black Metal
"Following on from their atmospheric debut Radical Moon and its more abrasive successor Smoleńska, 2021’s Someplace To Haunt is arguably their most cohesive, and impressive, release yet... They’ve channelled their influences into creating a whole new beast and with Someplace To Haunt, Bornwithhair have managed to conjure a unique, fresh sound that is truly their own. Without doubt, this will be one of the most intriguing albums you’ll hear this year." — Astral Noize
"This is a weird one; coming from me, I suppose that says something! Imagine one of the more inscrutable Anacortes/Olympia indie-rock bands (D+, Old Time Relijun) got into Furze, the supremely deranged one-man black metal project, and that sorta paints a burned portrait of Bornwithhair. This music makes me want to eat grubs in the forest while covered in mud." — Viking's Choice
"Definitely an album that revels in the avant-garde, Bornwithhair have a sound that’s all to their own... Eerie, trippy, complex – all intriguing aspects of a sound that’s better off being heard than simply described. For those seeking something off-kiler and interesting." — Dead Rhetoric
"Ever been to Rochester and experienced the local artery-clogging pile of meat, fries and cheese known as the Garbage Plate? This band's recipe is cut from the same cloth, as they drop noise rock, death-doom, indie rock, psychedelia and avant-art rock into one ungodly lo-fi Melvins-inspired mess. It's unhealthy and willpower-crushing, and should probably be avoided, but can't be ignored." — Decibel (Issue 200)
"Someplace to Haunt is, dare I say, this duo's most enjoyable and most cohesive work yet... this is a album meant for listening to in full album form. It is an experience entirely worth your while. I promise... In short? I mean, goddamn. Someplace to Haunt is simply a killer album, a potent encapsulation of Bornwithhair's greatest strengths. I feel like their brief-yet-prolific career has been pointing in the direction of an album like this, and they delivered in spades." — Sleeping Village
"Emotions and movements anarchically crash together within each track. The band utilise just about every resource in distortion and synth, and compact their sounds into dense and ever-changing layers. At over an hour, the album’s narrative is epic. It contains all the progressive hallmarks of the bombastic colliding with the peaceful... The musicianship and composition is, without doubt, extremely well orchestrated. The depth and layers contain uncountable treasures, and atmospherically, it is as deep and explosive a plummet into the human psyche as one can hope for." — Everything is Noise
"Smoleńska is a staggering piece of creative lunacy... If Bornwithhair can focus this almost ridiculous level of creativity, so their work has more clarity, then they could be on to something really special. I get the feeling that this album is a stepping stone towards something really special, a learning experience that they needed to go through before they can reach their potential. This may be the band learning their craft before releasing an album that will be seen as a classic. Personally I can’t wait to hear what they do next." — Musipedia of Metal
"This wonderful creation is Bornwithhair’s second release this year. A metal album born out of a DIY aesthetic it’s been much played here over the past month or so… What keeps me coming back is how unhinged it is, like a black metal Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter in some ways, totally out there, never predictable, always engaging." — Vogon Laundromat / I Heart Noise
"It is a fucking treat." — Fistful of Doom
"Smoleńska is avant-garde music that is very different from the norm... an apocalyptic feel." — Heavy Music Headquarters
"Radical Moon is one of the most unsettling (and compelling) avant garde releases heard in some time... This is a record that requires (and deserves) repeat listens. It’s Big Black, but if Steve Albini had been locked in the Unabomber’s cabin." — Astral Noize
"This is the very definition of avant garde... Elements of noise, extreme metal, industrial with free form guitars, spoken word, growls and other fractured sounds... Well worth exploring." — Uncle Les Talks Music
"This is a record where free-form guitar leads dance over colossal riffs and primitive, almost minimalist percussion. Vocals range from growls to dramatic spoken word to theatric shrieks, all adding up to create a dizzying, bewildering whole." — The Sound Not The Word
"It’s perplexing and something that really will divide opinion but you have to admire Bornwithhair’s risk-taking." — Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life
"Throughout the record vocals are growled, spoken, sung, and shrieked over a variety of clashing noises reminiscent of Throbbing Gristle with more of a focus on metal... The production on the album is 100% DIY and to their credit sounds fantastic." — Alternative Control
SOCIAL MEDIA
BIOS for PRESS
Long Bio
Bornwithhair’s peculiar brand of Arthouse Metal is at once lo-fi, sprawling, clamorous, and unnerving. And on their new album, the duo of multi instrumentalists Weirding Batweilder and Jean Farraige has gone all-in on their obsessive and delirious quest to develop a fresh form of Blackened Death Rock.
“We were looking down a deep and dark abyss and trying to create literature out of it,” said Weirding. “At the same time, we wanted to make an electric guitar album. And we wanted to take a new approach to a guitar-based album. We wanted to record the guitars to make it sound like the speakers on your stereo were crumbling. We wanted a desiccated sound, like the shell of a freshly emerged locust.”
With When the Witches Fall, Bornwithhair have deployed static-ridden electric guitars and unhinged synths over a tumult of rhythms and basslines in wave after wave of avant-garde metal and noise torment.
Short BIO
Bornwithhair’s peculiar brand of Arthouse Metal is at once lo-fi, sprawling, clamorous, and unnerving. And on their new album, the duo of multi instrumentalists Weirding Batweilder and Jean Farraige has gone all-in on their obsessive and delirious quest to develop a fresh form of Blackened Death Rock.
Tweet-Length BIO
Bornwithhair’s peculiar brand of Arthouse Metal is at once lo-fi, sprawling, clamorous, and unnerving.
"Who do you sound like?"
Plumbing the depths of suicide, murder, addiction, delusion, and death, the album calls to mind the early work of Christian Death, The Birthday Party, and Crime and the City Solution—but through the lens of the death growls and vicious shrieks of Blackened Death Metal and the lo-fi recording techniques and ferocious harsh noise of the more avant side of Noise Rock. The moniker Arthouse Metal came from comparisons of the duo’s conceptual lyrics and repeating psychological musical motifs to the niche point-of-view and outsider feel of art films and the darker side of independent cinema. The result is a blend of cathartic sound, deranged and dislocated vocals, and horrifying lyrics describing the interior lives of killers, cult members, and the subjects of brainwashing.
“I think the album is appropriately terrifying,” said Farraige.
"What have you been listening to lately?"
According to our playlist history, while we were working on When the Witches Fall we were listening to:
Accursed Sigil, Agvirre, Allfather, Bathory, Bauhaus, Beastie Boys, Belbury Poly, The Birthday Party, Bobby BeauSoleil, Black Sabbath, Blaqstarr, Blondie, Bolt Thrower, Bonnie Prince Billy, David Bowie, Brian Eno, John Carpenter, Celtic Frost, Colonial Skyway, Coma Roulette, Tommy Concrete, Christian Death, Crime & The City Solution, The Cure, Darkthrone, Dedekind Cut, Depeche Mode, DJ K-Swift, Elend, Miles Davis, Deicide, Despise You, The Evens, Everson Poe, The Fall, Fucked Up, Fugazi, Hellripper, High Rise, Joy Division, Judas Priest, Katatonia, Lamp of Murmuur, Rod Lee, Lunar Cult, Lungfish, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Gustav Mahler, Mayhem, Megadeth, Mercyful Fate, Misfits, My Dying Bride, Necropanther, Necrot, Nico, Non Serviam, Old Nick, Opeth, Paradise Lost, Iggy Pop, Protomartyr, Giacomo Puccini, QOHELETH, Les Rallizes Dénudés, Rainbow, Lou Reed, Revered and Reviled Above All Others, Sonny Rollins, Rye Rye, Frank Sinatra, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Skeletal Family, Patti Smith, Solilians, Sonic Youth, Steely Dan, The Stooges, Suicide, Svalbard, Sweven, Jenn Taiga, Talking Heads, The Sun Came Up Upon the Left, Throbbing Gristle, Tomb Mold, Ulver, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Waits, Scott Walker, Wallowing, Frank Zappa.
Logos
^ Bornwithhair: White-on-Transparent Logo
^ Bornwithhair: White-on-Black Logo
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