Post-metal band SOM (members of Caspian, Junius, and Constants) were planning to follow their 2018 debut album The Fall with a new LP, but after lockdown halted the band's studio plans, they decided to record some songs remotely and the result is a new EP, Awake, due out on March 5 (pre-order). The EP includes two new songs ("Awake // Sedate" and "Youth // Decay") plus remixes of those two songs and two tracks from their debut by Holy Fawn, Hisself (Johnny Dang of O’Brother), U Dye (Marshall Gallagher of Teenage Wrist), and Giuseppe Capolupo (The Devil Wears Prada).

We're premiering "Awake // Sedate," which is a little less heavy than the songs on The Fall and dives even deeper into the album's shoegaze side. It's thick and hazy but with soaring vocal harmonies that add a lightness to the song. It comes with a well-matched video by director Samia Zaidi, who says:

This song feels like a dream sequence full of raw emotion, the lyrics so anchored within immediate reality. Setting out to create an audiovisual time capsule of this strange year together felt appropriate. Our goal was simple: to create a chromatic tapestry capturing just one of these endless sleepless nights we’ve been experiencing since last spring in a gritty and intimate way. I wanted to intercut our hero’s literal reality with fleeting representations of her subconscious. Color and light would play a huge role in demarcating new corners of the same space but also new corners of the same psyche. The limitations due to the pandemic were a blessing in disguise. Our shoot was beyond stripped down. This simple approach was such a beautiful way to re-experience a medium I’ve always known to be inherently complex. For anybody who's found themselves alone in their homes free from the usual preoccupations; whose one-dimensional spaces turned into multi-verses with wormholes; who's found new ways to experience the same walls, floors, and ceilings, I hope this resonates with you.

Guitarist Mike Repasch-Nieves (ex-Junius) adds, "Samia’s a long-time friend, and we’d been looking for a chance to collaborate. Upon hearing the song, she almost immediately came up with this concept for the video. We let her run with it, and couldn’t be happier with the results. It feels like it echoes the emotional journeys of so many over this past year."

Watch:

Tracklist
1. Awake // Sedate
2. Youth // Decay
3. Awake // Sedate (Holy Fawn Remix)
4. Youth // Decay (hisself Remix)
5. Open Wounds (U DYE Remix)
6. Prayers (Giuseppe Capolupo Remix)

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Listen and/or subscribe to our playlist of all 28 songs (with MBV's "Feed Me With Your Kiss" replacing "You Made Me Realise" because the latter isn't on Spotify):