Forest Grove, Oregon industrial psych project High Marks announces a new single and video for Someone, off their latest album, SOURED. High Marks is a chaotic symphony where post-industrial dub and doom-laden rock collide, packing a world of variety into its relatively short run. This ambitious creation comes courtesy of D. Haddon, who stands at the center of a constantly shifting collective of creative minds, channeling influences that range from the raw grit of Jesus and Mary Chain to the pulsing, ominous tones of Public Image Ltd and AUTOBAHN.
High Marks tears sound apart, stitches it back together, and hurls it into the unknown with reckless purpose. Each track deconstructs and rebuilds rock’s darker fringes, blending post-punk, industrial grind, and dub’s deep pulse into a force that is jagged, unrelenting, and deliberate. Haddon masterfully weaves the chaos, knowing exactly where each distorted riff and clattering beat belongs. The album asks hard questions: What causes the souring of connections? Is it the slow crawl of time, or choices we make along the way? These stories, set against a backdrop of distorted beats and fractured rhythms, explore the weight of inevitability and the cracks that form in even the strongest ties. Relationships fray, ideals fall apart, and SOURED captures the mess of it all with sharp clarity.
Someone lingers like a distant whisper, its vocals muffled and submerged under a weight of watery reverb, calling from deep beneath the surface. The song pulls you into its eerie embrace, much like The Vacant Lots’ shadowy atmospheres. A heavy, doom-filled beat thrums beneath, underscoring the haunting cry, relentless and brooding. The video, too, feels like a dispatch from the edges of the subconscious—a flickering montage of disjointed imagery, half-remembered fragments pieced together through a faulty signal. It’s as though the visuals are memories trapped in the static, strange and surreal, pieced together in a dreamlike haze, inviting the listener to explore the unknown depths of thought and sound.
Watch the video for “Someone” below:
SOURED explores the fragile, ever-shifting nature of human relationships—romantic, artistic, political, and professional. Each track is a snapshot of lives unraveling or reforming, questioning the choices that lead to disappointment or inevitability. We meet characters like a disillusioned television actor, wrestling with the limits of his success; and a philosophy professor who sinks into nihilism, grappling with the void. It’s a quirky, chaotic collection of lives caught in moments of flux.
Haddon enlists David Mansfield of Stranded on lead guitar and keys, co-writing several tracks. Contributions from Sara Storm, psych duo Sisters of Planetaria, Travis Kuhlman (DUG, Yellow Bulb), and neo-chanteuse Mandy May fill out the album, each bringing their own flavour to its intense sonic diversity. Together, they create a fractured, heavy-hitting fusion that pushes the boundaries of rock’s familiar darkness.
Listen to Someone below (out now via Propitious Artifacts), or order here.
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