VIRGIN MOTHER: meth. frontman Seb Alvarez faces bipolar disorder, channels Sonic Youth, on astounding debut solo album; new track streaming now
Mourning Ritual, the debut full-length album by Virgin Mother, will be released October 14th.
Pre-order the album, here: https://virginmother.bandcamp.com/album/mourning-ritual
Stream the album's first single, "I'll Never Feel Like Anything," here: https://www.treblezine.com/listen-virgin-mother-ill-never-feel-like-anything-stream/
Mourning Ritual, the debut full-length album by Virgin Mother, will be released October 14th.
Pre-order the album, here: https://virginmother.bandcamp.com/album/mourning-ritual
Stream the album's first single, "I'll Never Feel Like Anything," here: https://www.treblezine.com/listen-virgin-mother-ill-never-feel-like-anything-stream/
Once in a while, a truly remarkable debut album pops up out of the muck – a fully realized vision, jarring in the way it is crafted, so purposefully, so soulfully – and we scramble to find the backstory to explain how such a piece of art came to be.
Virgin Mother mastermind Seb Alvarez is in fact a prolific multi-instrumentalist who has helped birth a slew of music already over the past decade and a half. There is a long path leading to this "debut" album, but Mourning Ritual expresses Alvarez's talent and passion in ways never before documented. An extremely personal piece of work, lyrically, musically, Mourning Ritual is a masterpiece – the pinnacle of this creator's journey, so far.
Alvarez' best known outlet, to date, is the band meth., a sextet described with these words in 2019 by No Echo: "The six-piece monstrosity released their spastically heartwrenching EP, I Love You, early last year to underground acclaim... I had the chance to see meth. earlier this year on tour with their new Prosthetic Records labelmates and genre fellows Wristmeetrazor... and what a visceral performance it was." Metal Injection's review of meth.'s latest album, Mother of Red Light, reads: "It's an album that builds on anxiety and dissonance... a fusion of noise rock and grindcore." In the past year, the band has brought its chaos on the road with Chat Pile, among others.
With Virgin Mother, Alvarez has set out on his own and spread his wings. "I've always wanted to write and perform everything on a record and do everything completely on my own," he states. "I needed to prove to myself that I didn't necessarily need to rely on anyone but myself to make music."
The Virgin Mother project began with four EPs – It Is, Marrow, Dialect, and Woe – made with the help of collaborators such as Jon Karel (ex-The Number Twelve Looks Like You) and Nic Kuczynski (Frail Body). While the EPs saw Alvarez explore and experiment freely with noise, textures, and beats – a write-up in the Chicago Reader described it as a "glitchy maelstrom" – Mourning Ritual lays down a completely different vision.
Virgin Mother mastermind Seb Alvarez is in fact a prolific multi-instrumentalist who has helped birth a slew of music already over the past decade and a half. There is a long path leading to this "debut" album, but Mourning Ritual expresses Alvarez's talent and passion in ways never before documented. An extremely personal piece of work, lyrically, musically, Mourning Ritual is a masterpiece – the pinnacle of this creator's journey, so far.
Alvarez' best known outlet, to date, is the band meth., a sextet described with these words in 2019 by No Echo: "The six-piece monstrosity released their spastically heartwrenching EP, I Love You, early last year to underground acclaim... I had the chance to see meth. earlier this year on tour with their new Prosthetic Records labelmates and genre fellows Wristmeetrazor... and what a visceral performance it was." Metal Injection's review of meth.'s latest album, Mother of Red Light, reads: "It's an album that builds on anxiety and dissonance... a fusion of noise rock and grindcore." In the past year, the band has brought its chaos on the road with Chat Pile, among others.
With Virgin Mother, Alvarez has set out on his own and spread his wings. "I've always wanted to write and perform everything on a record and do everything completely on my own," he states. "I needed to prove to myself that I didn't necessarily need to rely on anyone but myself to make music."
The Virgin Mother project began with four EPs – It Is, Marrow, Dialect, and Woe – made with the help of collaborators such as Jon Karel (ex-The Number Twelve Looks Like You) and Nic Kuczynski (Frail Body). While the EPs saw Alvarez explore and experiment freely with noise, textures, and beats – a write-up in the Chicago Reader described it as a "glitchy maelstrom" – Mourning Ritual lays down a completely different vision.
Written and recorded almost entirely by Alvarez (with Shaun Ringsmuth of Street Sects co-writing one track, "Editor's Note"), Mourning Ritual is a moody, murky, haunting, thunderous version of rock – a fever-dream existing somewhere between Sonic Youth's blissful devastation, Xiu Xiu's cracked vulnerability, and Converge's metallic punk. Obscured layers of vocals, guitars, drums, and synths meld into tense anthems; songs like "I'll Never Feel Like Anything," "Blossoming Winter," and "Fault" are a glorious mix of horror and beauty.
"Probably my two biggest influences on this are Sonic Youth and Swans, in regards to the chaotic, noisy elements of the songs and the dissonance clashing with beauty," states Alvarez.
He candidly reveals the project's origins: "I had been admitted to a mental hospital at the beginning of quarantine and diagnosed as bipolar. Before that I hadn't gone more than five days without drinking, since I was 20. When I was forced to be sober in the hospital, it was the hardest thing I'd ever really faced. I couldn't sleep well, I found myself drinking 14 cups of decaf coffee a day, just so I could feel like I had something. I looked forward to getting my night drugs because they would fuck you up if you could stay awake long enough after taking them. It was a super dark time for me and one that I felt I needed to spiral into even more to make this record. I had this urge to just make something authentic to myself. Everything on Mourning Ritual is a reflection of this."
He candidly reveals the project's origins: "I had been admitted to a mental hospital at the beginning of quarantine and diagnosed as bipolar. Before that I hadn't gone more than five days without drinking, since I was 20. When I was forced to be sober in the hospital, it was the hardest thing I'd ever really faced. I couldn't sleep well, I found myself drinking 14 cups of decaf coffee a day, just so I could feel like I had something. I looked forward to getting my night drugs because they would fuck you up if you could stay awake long enough after taking them. It was a super dark time for me and one that I felt I needed to spiral into even more to make this record. I had this urge to just make something authentic to myself. Everything on Mourning Ritual is a reflection of this."
He continues: "The album deals a lot with the heaviest issues I have in my life. Dealing with addiction, my childhood, grief and loss, self hatred and the weird euphoria of making yourself feel miserable to feel functional. There's things throughout this album that I just frankly don't know how to communicate with other people and this was the outlet for it."
Mourning Ritual was recorded and mixed by Adrian Kobziar at Ohmstead, and mastered by Pete Grossman at Bricktop Recording. The cover art was created by Eric Olsen.
With recent shows played with the likes of Kowloon Walled City, Alvarez will take Virgin Mother out on the road in October for its first tour. As a live performer, as in all other aspects of his creative life, Alvarez is known to give himself entirely to the task. He states: "In a weird way, I pull a lot of elements from professional wrestling, as far as creating drama through destroying your body. Whether it’s literally cutting myself open or getting shoved around by people watching our show when I go into the pit during a performance, I want people to feel submerged in the atmosphere I create and to feel as empty and emotionally depleted as I feel."
Beyond his role as a musician, Alvarez has served as a tireless contributor to the Chicago scene. "I was introduced to the ethos of DIY, which has been essentially what I've lived by for the past 15 years," he says. "I've booked 98% of all of my bands' shows and tours. I've made the art for all my bands' merch and albums. I've run shows out of my house and given bands a place to crash. All things I still do. This is a world I truly just love with every fiber of my being." He currently works as a booker for iconic Chicago venues, Subterranean and Beat Kitchen.
Tracklist:
1) [promised end]
2) Traffic Stop
3) Vanity's Sake
4) I'll Never Feel Like Anything
5) Blossoming Winter
6) House of Mirrors
7) Fault
8) Black Light on 16th Street
9) Parasite
10) Editor's Note
11) Field of Warmth
Lineup:
Tracklist:
1) [promised end]
2) Traffic Stop
3) Vanity's Sake
4) I'll Never Feel Like Anything
5) Blossoming Winter
6) House of Mirrors
7) Fault
8) Black Light on 16th Street
9) Parasite
10) Editor's Note
11) Field of Warmth
Lineup:
Seb Alvarez - vocals, guitar, bass, drums, synth, samples
Guests:
Dan Bretz - additional percussion
Adrian Kobziar - additional guitar, noise
Shaun Ringsmuth - synth, samples
Photo by Angel Tumalan
Guests:
Dan Bretz - additional percussion
Adrian Kobziar - additional guitar, noise
Shaun Ringsmuth - synth, samples
Photo by Angel Tumalan
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