{"product_id":"upper-wilds-mercury-metallic-silver-vinyl-lp","title":"Upper Wilds - Mercury (Metallic Silver Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003eStargazing Brooklyn noise-rock cosmonauts Upper Wilds — the power-trio led by Parts \u0026amp; Labor co-founder Dan Friel — return with another set of lean anthems filtered through a flamethrower. Their speediest, most explosive album yet, Mercury, is a meditation on death, with Friel expounding on his brush with skin cancer, climate change, funerals, Henry Kissinger, and a world seemingly on fire. Buoyed by recent tours with acts like Pelican, Uniform, Psychic Graveyard and Savak, the trio’s increased speed is met with a precision that gives every hairpin turn more wallop.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eUpper Wilds’ space-rock adventures through their recent albums Mars, Venus, \u0026amp; Jupiter came replete with stories of the heavens and humanity alike. On this fourth installment, the closest planet to the sun, things take a darker turn. The small, barren planet Mercury was named after the gods' speedy messenger and guide to the underworld, and the album syphons Upper Wilds’ fuzz-pop aesthetics into concise, scorched anthems about the brevity and fragility of life with the ferocity of a band playing on the edge of extinction.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMercury’s molten, non-stop riffing is captured with grit and punch by engineer Travis Harrison (Guided By Voices, The Men) and is bolstered by longtime collaborator\/saxophonist and fellow-New York mainstay Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers) and vocalist Erin Dawson of LA-based experimental black metal band Genital Shame. Dawson injects more energy into the shout-chorus of the already blazing standout “Fever” where Tobias’s dizzying EWI (electronic wind instrument) on \"Reaper\" harkens back to Friel’s own circuit-bent synthesizer glissandos. Jason Binnick’s basslines shine brighter than before dancing in tandem with Friel’s guitar licks on “Death Song #3” and bringing equal parts melody and thunderous weight to “Green-Wood Cemetery.” Jeff Ottenbacher’s drumming oscillates between machine gun fills and sledge hammer pounding, giving each riff more momentum and bite.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs Upper Wilds have explored new horizons both thematically and sonically, the trio have remained grounded by a melodic flair that mirrors their tongue-in-cheek playfulness and an undaunted, fiery attitude. Even as they traverse the deep calderas of mortality, a fear of dying and the grief of being left behind, Upper Wilds’ Mercury revels in the thrill of defying death with ecstatic abandon. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"THRILL JOCKEY","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58369244037464,"sku":null,"price":32.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0259\/9403\/5259\/files\/Upper-Wilds-Mercury.jpg?v=1788358932","url":"https:\/\/3345.nl\/products\/upper-wilds-mercury-metallic-silver-vinyl-lp","provider":"3345 Record Store The Hague","version":"1.0","type":"link"}