New York's Uniform are one of the most timely acts in extreme music today, and one of its most hopeful presences for the future. With each new release the band never fails to excite and have never disappointed thus far, and it seems like album number four is not going to be an exception. Uniform's forthcoming full length, Shame, comes out September 11th, 2020 through Sacred Bones, and it's introduced with the industrial punk frenzy of first single and LP opener, Delco.
Delco is short for Delaware County, a suburb located in the state of Pennsylvania that borders Philadelphia, and it's a piece which deliberates on Michael Berdan upbringing there, and deals with his experiences with bullying, and how he got the better of those situations in time.
Berdan elaborates more on the subject: "During my adolescence I would get routinely picked on and beat up by some of the kids in the neighbourhood who I desperately wanted to like me. The more beatings I caught, the more I’d go back to try and impress them. My self esteem was nonexistent and I developed psychological calluses. I learned to repeat some of the behaviours that had been leveled my way on those beneath me in the pecking order. In time, I became numb. Getting older and attempting to reconcile with personal demons surrounding depression, anxiety and substance abuse has forced me to take a long, hard look at my childhood. In the process I've realised to degrees just how I've perpetuated learned cycles of harm. A terrified part of me is still a little kid in Delco. This song is an exercise in trying to come to terms with these ghosts and let go. Some days are better than others."
Shame follows Uniform's third LP, The Long Walk, from 2018, and the collaborative albums with The Body which came in 2018 and 2019.
"I wanted my words to carry a degree of weight on this record," Berdan says about his purposeful decision to include lyrics in the new album. "Books and cinema have always been integral to my life, and that is often because of how I relate to the themes and characters therein. I am naturally shy and terrified of being misunderstood. This time around, I endeavoured to trudge through those fears in order to explicitly articulate what goes on in a dreary corner of my inner life. To put it plainly: I was in a dark place. It was the culmination of years of thinking everyone in the world was wrong, but me. I realised that I couldn’t control the attitudes and behaviours of other people, but it was my responsibility to look inward and fix what was there. I had to articulate what was going on in my heart, my head, and my soul. As I set about the task of writing everything down, I experienced exorcism. If I wanted any kind of reprieve, I had to let go of the narrative that the demons in the back of my head had been constantly whispering to me. For years I held onto my lyrics like personal diary entries. Now is the time for a different approach."
Uniform's lineup on Shame is composed of Michael Berdan (vocals), Ben Greenberg (guitar, production), and Mike Sharp (drums).
Artist photo by Ebru Yildiz
Cover art by Heather Gabel
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