When you’re gone
Dig a grave at your mother’s place
The world you made
Can’t always make both ends meet
Then Comes Silence, the “Swedish captains of post-punk,” roar back with a new single entitled When You’re Gone, their first release since 2020’s acclaimed fifth album Machine.
When You’re Gone is a standalone, DIY track, not belonging to any album. The song was directed and produced by the band.
“It…never turns out like it should, depending on if the glass is half-full or half-empty,” reflects singer Alex Svenson. “Most of us have lives revolving around our egos in a way that’s probably not so flattering or exemplary to others. When we encounter obstacles along the way we tend to take it personally… I’m saying “we” here, but if you’re the lucky one and it doesn’t hit too close to home, congrats and give yourself a tap on the shoulder.”
This song literally conjures the dead: the track premiered during a live set in early May in the vaulted dungeons of the Swedish Armoury Museum beneath Stockholm’s Royal Palace, which was suddenly and spookily cut short by a blood-curdling scream and a ghostly apparition. Imagine that power!
When You’re Gone features Then Comes Silence’s trademark lush darkwave soundscape, with bassist Alex Svenson’s velvety croon soaring over the guitar strands of Mattias Ruejas Jonson and Hugo Zombie, anchored by Jonas Fransson’s syncopated backbeat. When You’re Gone is dark, bittersweet and otherworldly music in brightly mellow form, with singer Alex Svenson (once described as “the goth Elvis”) in reflective and melodic mood over a typically angular guitar riff.
The song is accompanied by a visually stunning and highly creative black and white video directed by the band, filmed at the band’s new studio place in Stockholm, Sweden. Ghostly apparitions in a train yard, a meddling ghost, and the band as shadow puppets all make memorable appearances.
Watch the video below:
‘When You’re Gone’ by The Comes Silence is available now on all digital platforms via Oblivion. Stream it here.
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