Scarcity - The Promise of Rain

The Promise of Rain, the sophomore album of the experimental black metal band Scarcity, is an embodiment of the hard-to-believe truth that burdens are easier to bear when distributed, a realizationBrendon Randall-Myers (conductor of the Glenn Branca Ensemble) grappled with extensively while writing this record. This is a sweat-drenched album about dispersion, about spreading, about the collective relieving of burdens through shared experience: you don’t have to go through everything alone.

When Scarcity’s debut albumAveilutwas written in early 2020,Randall-Myers and vocalistDoug Moore (Pyrrhon, Weeping Sores, Glorious Depravity, and Seputus)never expected to be able to play their songs live. The cathartic experience of playing something that came from a place of isolation out to people in a live setting is the root of the intensity inThe Promise of Rain.The Promise of Rain begins where the craziest climaxes ofAveilut end, and is the first Scarcity record to includeTristan Kasten-Krause (Sigur Ros, Steve Reich, LEYA)on bass, Dylan Dilella (Pyrrhon)on guitar and Lev Weinstein (Krallice)on drums. Rather than building density with the quasi-orchestral layering onAveilut, Scarcity challenged themselves to document what five people in a room could do, recording most ofThe Promise of Rain in one or two takes, capturing the physical effort and urgency of a live performance.

Scarcity forges a completely fresh sound inThe Promise of Rainwith their alarming guitar work and melodic arpeggiating, shedding dead skin and breaking ground with sheer vulnerability. The lyrics forThe Promise of Rain were inspired by a tripMoore took to the high deserts of southern Utah in 2023. “To thrive in the desert is an act of abnegation –” he observes, “you do right by the land and receive its gifts, or it does away with you.” The necessity of adaptation is as evident in the desert as it is to the landscape of the human experience. The transformation of ideas and beliefs, the grief of losing relationships that had to end, and the fear involved in forming new ones under the grip of mental illness is conjured over and over again on this panoramic album.