Death is a Warm Blanket

Description

If music can serve as a release for its creator and listener alike, then Microwaves new album is sonic catharsis incarnate. Death Is A Warm Blanket is an explosion of mental and physical frustration, channelled into ten dynamic tracks that show just how powerful, gut-wrenchingand funloud rock music can be when its this completely unbridled. Vocalist/guitarist Nathan Hardy, bassist Tyler Hill, and drummer Timothy Pittard formed Microwave in Atlanta, Georgia in 2012 as an extension of friendships, school, and the local music scene. The bands earlier work (including 2014s Stovall and 2016s Much Love) naturally reflected a more youthful outlookromances, the many anxieties of your early 20sbut also the fallout that followed Hardys exit from the Mormon church at age 22. As Microwave began to pick up steam, Hardy underwent a sharp change in worldview fueled by the upheaval of entering adulthood, an amplified desire for new experiences after a particularly protected upbringing, and the easy access to drugs and alcohol on the road. Youre hopeful when youre younger and it made our earlier stuff a little more theres a light at the end of the tunnel, Hardy explains. When I left the church, it was exciting to experience all these new things but then six years go by, that wears off, youre older and you dont have health insurance While Microwave continued to grow and tour steadily with each release, Hardys body and frame of mind deteriorated. Shoulder injuries and a lengthy recovery from surgery piled on top of the personal tumult to make Hardys worldview even bleaker. Being in a band isnt a lifestyle that leads to comforts, Hardy says, I was sleeping on couches. Im a stagehand so if I cant lift anything, I cant work. Microwave began touring again, and the physical toll of being on the road furthered his sense of decline. I thought I was going to die or have to stop being in a band because of it, Hardy says. But like so many musicians, he turned towards his only reliable outlet for exorcising frustration, and Death Is A Warm Blanket began to take shape. Galvanized by a strangely motivational union of fatalism, dissatisfaction, and determination, Hardy began writing songs and slowly, but surely improving his health. The new music outlined a different version of Microwave: angrier and heavier, but still rooted in truthful songwriting and Hardys knack for acute hooks. air out of you. Perhaps its that painful honesty at the center of Death Is A Warm Blanket that makes it so compellingif the end is near, Microwave wont be going quietly.