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Wreck and Reference's fifth full-length is a meditation on the horror of modern life.
How can one stay calm when it is inherently terrifying to be alive in the first place? For Felix Skinner and Ignat Frege, staying calm means facing the void head-on. Hey, at least it’s something.
Fifteen years ago, two men emerged from an overheated garage in the harrowing wastelands of California with a singular vision for the future of dark, intense music: tortured samples, blasted acoustic drums, and a distinct lack of guitars. They walked straight past the orthodoxies of metal music and into the weird new dawn of electronic experimentalism. Since then, heavy music has evolved – yet Wreck and Reference's vision remains fresh, transgressive, and undeniably existential in its pressure against the current breed.
A lot has happened in the world since Wreck and Reference's last full-length, Absolute Still Life. Between a global pandemic, swirling political environment, and the rise of artificial intelligence, Stay Calm is over five years in the making. It is in constant flux, a record that refuses to be inoculated, assimilated, or inured to the atrocities of daily life. It asks: is it fruitless to stake a claim in the all-too-fleeting ordeal of existence? Whatever the answer, embrace the implications.
Stay Calm is anything but. A wild ride that never loses its focus. Seatbelts off, please.
Professionally duplicated cassettes housed in brick-colored shells.
Stay Calm will be released by The Flenser on August 22nd, 2025.