Avant noir trio SANNHET have revealed another single from their forthcoming album So Numb, which is due out August 25 via Profound Lore Records. The track, titled Salts, is accompanied by a simple yet striking video that echoes the album’s themes of addiction and affliction. Through the facial expressions of a several characters, the nearly six-minute video encapsulates the intrinsic clamor of addiction. Watch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyLX9BhEqDc&feature=youtu.be
“You see various characters acting out not only their use but also we see hints of the things that cause them to need this escape,” the band says of the video. “The figures appearing in a black void, searching for meaning in their solitude, reaching out for a hand, only to be free when they accept that they, themselves are all they need.”
The New York-based three piece have always been hard to classify. Since 2010, they have played instrumental music that’s heavy and light, cinematic and intimate, dense but minimal. You could call them “post” something, “experimental metal,” or “math rock,” but none of that’s quite right and the band has thrown another wrinkle into the mix with So Numb. While they don’t write lyrics, they do write subtexts. They pen love letters, extended epistles, and suicide notes, all without words. With So Numb, SANNHETcreate a new world out of very few ingredients.
Though SANNHET meditate on life’s imperfect escapes, So Numb’s nine songs showcase the band facing life’s pain and joy with their eyes wide open. The collection’s emotional landscape is one of existential dread, melancholy, and loss - ammunition for escapists. Despite these existential conundrums, So Numb has an uplifting, euphoric feel.
The collection was recorded and produced by Peter Katis, who’s known for his work with Mercury Rev, Interpol, the National, and Oneida among others. Working with Katis, the production illuminates a more open sound for the band. While Sannhet’s second album, 2015’s Revisionist, was bigger and harsher than their 2013 debut, Known Flood, they offer a more wistful, melodic approach here.
The cover of SANNHET's third album, So Numb, features a mother shielding her son’s eyes with her hands - an allegory depicting the protection one receives from their parents, but it isn’t meant to be sentimental. As the mother shelters her child, she inadvertently creates a false sense of safety. The child, in turn, spends it's life seeking comfort and escape in temporary solutions.
1. Indigo Illusion
2. Sapphire
3. So Numb
4. Fernbeds
5. Salts
6. Way Out
7. Secondary Arrows
8. Sleep Well
9. Wind Up