San Diego industrial band Matte Blvck create dark, synth-based music that has a sinister edge. Today we’re premiering the new video and song for the band’s latest single “Bare,” with visuals by artist Lake Hills and Alex Casillas. The song is from the band’s upcoming debut album I’m Waving, Not Drowning, which will be released later this year. It follows previously-released single “Pure” and a cover of Depeche Mode’s “Stripped.”
The verses of “Bare” are defined by a minimalist electronic beat, anchored by thumping bass drum and lead singer Alex Gonzales’s tortured vocals. The song cranks up the intensity quickly, featuring twisted, mangled metallic guitar riffs that drive home the song’s pained lyrics. Industrial and dark electronic music has been making a surprising comeback over the last five years or so and Matte Blvck has a sound that’s slots in well with their contemporaries without being derivative.
“It’s about opening yourself up and looking within only to find that amongst the beauty of one’s soul could lie a horrible monster within,” said Gonzales. “In order to find the path to enlightenment, you must confront and learn to understand that evil inside you. You either embrace that monster and become something motivated completely by evil, or you tackle it head on knowing that by acknowledging and fighting that demon every day, you can become a better person.”
Matte Blvck is led by Gonzales along with his bandmates Bidi Cobra and Daniel Corrales. They wrote their debut album during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and societal lockdowns, a circumstance that has shaped the mood and themes of these darkly-hewn tracks. The songs are dark and touch on themes like pain and suffering but always allow for the concept of “there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” a theme that is reflected in the title I’m Waving, Not Drowning.
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