THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Verbian understand that evolution is essential to heavy music. And so is commitment to revealing profound emotions and letting artistic expression take your music wherever you dare to go.
“Casarder speaks a little about the insecurities of artistic expression and personal exposure when it comes to fearing being judged for something that is somewhat outside of what is done in each artist’s niche,” the band explain. “This was the theme that also inspired the album cover.”
The distorted, anxious and surrealist visual style of the album’s cover art painted by Madalena Pinta speaks perfectly to the album’s direct albeit melted psychedelic electronic post-metal. Riff after riff comes and goes, never wearing out its welcome, and instead pulling listeners along on a sonic journey through Salvador Dali landscapes of rock forms, pulled apart and reconfigured into mesmerizing new ones. The mostly instrumental album never lingers on a part too long, never wastes a note. It’s angry, driving and multilayered without sounding overly technical or indulgent.
Since their founding in 2015, the Porto, Portugal band’s music has continued to push forward and fuse genres from metal, rock, electronic, experimental percussion and more into a concise, powerful sound. Singer, guitarist and keyboardist Vasco Reis was originally joined by drummer Filipe Romariz, with bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Alexandre Silva joining in 2017 to solidify the trio. Following Romariz’s departure in 2022, drummer/percussionist Guilherme Gonçalves brought an evermore hard-hitting feel to Verbian’s sound.
Verbian’s 2019 self-released debut album Jaez was followed in 2021 by Irrupção. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Verbian showcased Irrupção at venues far and wide. Casarder was recorded with a different approach from their previous efforts. Produced by Verbian and Daniel Valente, the trio did all of the preproduction in the studio, live. “We then built a tempo map and after that we did overdubs,” the band explains. “But the biggest difference was that these were the first songs we wrote with Guilherme on the drums and we believe that is why it’s so different from the previous albums. He brought a new and fresh groove to our music, maintaining the heaviness.”
