Chrome Waves Gridfailure

listen to Chrome Waves & Gridfailure's Joy Division & Today Is The Day covers

As mentioned, Midwest blackgaze band Chrome Waves and NYC industrial act Gridfailure are releasing a split this Friday on their Bandcamps with new original songs from each and covers of Joy Division and Today Is The Day, respectively. We’re premiering both of those covers in this post.

Chrome Waves did Joy Division’s “The Eternal,” and that atmospheric song is already pretty within Chrome Waves’ wheelhouse so they don’t change it up too much, but they do it well and still find ways to make it their own. Chrome Waves guitarist/bassist/keyboardist Jeff Wilson says, “Doing our own renditions of other artist’s songs has come to be something I really enjoy over the last year or so and it’s most likely been a nice gateway for folks who wouldn’t have heard us otherwise. This version of ‘The Eternal’ is what we’d consider a good representation of Ian Curtis’s utter desolation and injected it with a good amount of steroids. We’ve added some new layers, new instrumentation and this is personally my first foray into solo vocal territory for the band. We hope you enjoy it, or in the case of the vibes presented here… don’t. Be safe out there.”

Gridfailure did Today Is The Day’s “Temple Of The Morning Star,” and this one’s a more drastic rework. As Gridfailure’s David Brenner says, he used elements of both the acoustic and electric versions of the original song, but Brenner’s version is a static-y harsh noise track that doesn’t sound much like either version of the original. “Not only is this one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands since the 90s, its creator Steve Austin is also a personal friend,” he says. “Out of the nearly two-dozen Gridfailure titles I’ve released over the past four years, this is the first cover song. I wanted to coalesce elements of both the acoustic and electric versions of the original song into a hypnotic but brutalizing direction with layered, spiraling, vocal madness and ultimate demoralization; a reflection of how TITD’s visionary sound has influenced me.”

Listen to both:

Chrome Waves are also planning to release their sophomore album this summer. It’s in the process of being mixed and mastered by the famed Billy Anderson.

Gridfailure has a bunch of releases coming up after this: the second installment in his five-album Sixth Mass-Extinction Skulduggery series, and collaborative releases with Fyrhtu, Pornohelmut, Feel Happiness, Interstitia, Rack, Megalophobe, and more.