Many Decibel readers are likely familiar with multi-instrumentalist Ryan Gleave from his involvement with Scottish progressive black metal outfit Ashenspire. When Gleave isn’t fronting the band in a live setting, he’s either working on the classical music he’s won awards for or on his avant-garde project, All Men Unto Me. It’s hard to classify what exact genre best fits All Men Unto Me but new single “Lux Æterna,” from the band’s upcoming album Requiem, exists somewhere in the noise rock and sludge realm, taking influence from Lingua Ignota, Kayo Dot and Swans, quietly brooding and building toward brief but impactful moments of heaviness.
Gleave’s vocals in particular are poignant and emotive, cutting sharply through the dreary composition.
“‘Lux Æterna’ condemns the kind of love that demands everything from you,” he says. “It speaks to feeling the weight of loving someone who can’t—or won’t—understand your sacrifices. I grew up learning that if I forgave others, God might forgive me. That way of thinking led me to self-neglect in a way I thought was virtuous. There’s a deep suffering in that kind of love and forgiveness; bleeding for someone who doesn’t understand how much they’ve hurt you, forgiving someone solely because you know they’re carrying their own pain. It can make you very small. In the video, the protagonist walks faceless through a dreamscape cemetery into a crypt, towards a death that never comes. The forgiveness might be perpetual, but so is the suffering. There’s no virtue in forgiving everyone but yourself.”
The accompanying video, directed and edited by Tobias Holmbeck, adds another layer of depth and religious trauma to the song. You can watch and listen below; Requiem is out on June 27.
The post Video Premiere: All Men Unto Me – ‘Lux Æterna’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.