Canada’s Cell Press took its name from the 2001 Russian prison documentary “The Mark Of Cain”. The brutal humanity of that film is reflected in their music: on the surface, it’s raw and punishing, but there are complexities and nuances revealed once the surface noise has been embraced. The potent concoction of hardcore, sludge, punk, and metal is fully unleashed with their first full-length “Cages”, being released this coming March 2024. Leading up to the release, they are now dropping a video for the single “Original Uranium Baby”, a dystopian tale set in the town of Elliot Lake, Ontario in the year 2088, which vocalist/guitarist Sean Arsenian comments on:
“The first half of the tune was resurrected from a defunct dirty punk/noise-rock project that I was in prior to Cell Press. It’s catchy and has some swagger, but we took those riffs and threw them into the “human misery machine” and they came out the other side the way they sound as the 2nd half of the tune… a sludgier, coiling sewer-pipe runoff extrusion of the initial ideas… McGee’s drumming mutates into a really cool syncopated jazz swing meets primal caveman rage thing, and PQ is serving David Yow by way of Jacob Bannon on top of it all. This song has hooks, pummel, AND a bit of a sophisticated groove to it.”
According to the band, “Cages” jumps all over the place thematically from demanding clean drinking water for the people in the northern communities in Canada, to dystopian fiction in which the radioactive bones of the dead are used as currency, to address the current state of “truth” and what we consume as information on a daily basis and how it has been dividing society to the point that it is almost reminiscent of a holy war with men and political affiliations taking the place of gods.
Cell Press’ writing process is always collaborative – most of the songs start off in the form of a riff or riffs that guitar/bassist/vocals Sean Arsenian brings to the band. Sometimes Mark McGee will bring a drum idea, either a beat or a fill, to rehearsal and Arsenian writes a riff to that. The odd time a full structure of a song is presented to the rest of the band. The lyrics/vocals are always the last element of the song to be added. The music definitely affects the lyrical content. PQ’s lyrics are written drawing inspiration from the feeling of the song. For fans of anything catchy, fast, and wild, Cell Press is most recommended for fans of Unsane, Keelhaul, and Burnt By The Sun.
“Cages” is due out on March 8, 2024, via The Ghost Is Clear Records (Vinyl), Ancient Temple Recordings (Vinyl), and No List Records (Cassette) at https://linktr.ee/cellpress and http://cellpress.bandcamp.com.
More info: Facebook.com/cellpressmtl | Instagram.com/celllpresss | Twitter.com/celllpresss
