It is said that sadness can create a stronger imprint on the mind than happiness. Painful memories can last longer than joyous ones, and they can affect your way of thinking and perception of the world. The same can pretty much be said for music, particularly when it comes to the bleak and desolate music produced by Glasgow-based doom band, FVNERALS.

Their forthcoming album, ‘Wounds’, is a harrowing trip into a barren wasteland of despair. Far darker than it’s 2014 predecessor, ‘The Light’, it sonically punishes you like a blackened maelstrom. “FVNERALS music has always been directly related to my emotional state of mind,” explains guitarist, Syd Scarlet. “I think our music mirrors how I feel at the time and evolves with me. It’s hard for us to rank it or compare it with our previous releases due to its personal content but we tried to create something harsher, less “polished”, simple but more contrasted, so I’m really glad if that comes through.”

After relocating from Brighton to Glasgow over the last year, vocalist/bassist Tiffany Strom adds that her and Scarlet have grown together in terms of the song writing process behind ‘Wounds’. “We are more aware of what works and what doesn’t, and we write more efficiently,” she says, discussing the conception of the album. “We wanted “Wounds” to feel more spontaneous, even though we wrote more and created more versions, the songs we kept in the end were the ones we felt were the more direct.”

“I think we both needed a change of scenery and wanted to go back to living in a larger city,” says Scarlet, of the reasons behind the move to Glasgow. “I had previously moved to Brighton from London and Tiffany was coming from Gothenburg so I think we both missed the feeling of being part of something bigger and culturally richer.”

However Strom says that it has not necessarily influenced the end result of ‘Wounds’. “We both tend to isolate ourselves when we write so I don’t know if our direct surroundings have a real effect on our music but there’s a really special atmosphere here so who knows…”

The seven tracks presented on ‘Wounds’ clock in at just under an hour, and are a mentally draining endurance test. It’s almost as if the ethereal title track casts a demonic spell on you, while the slow-burning intensity of ‘Shiver’ leaves you void of compassion, with the thought that there is no good in this world.

“When I wrote the lyrics for the album I had a lot of anxious thoughts about existence,” explains Strom, peeling back the layers of ‘Wounds’. “The way we deal with our journey towards death, the relationships we build and the ones we destroy, the people we love, the ones we lose and how we individually attempt to deal with it. This deep anxiousness and doubts became a central theme for the album’s lyrics and I tried to build some narrative out of it and put words on those feelings.”

Of course, with such painfully emotional music comes a cathartic release. There is a beauty within the shadows of what FVNERALS create. “I make music for really selfish reasons,” explains Scarlet, when asked what he feels a listener may take from ‘Wounds’. “I see it as a form of therapy, so there’s definitely catharsis for me in what we do. There has never been a desire to have a specific effect on an audience, people are free to make what they want of our music and interpret it however they feel fit. The way our music is perceived doesn’t really concern me even though there’s beauty in someone else being able to relate to something you created in such a state of mind.”

Following the release of ‘Wounds’, the trio – completed by drummer Chris Cooper – will head out on an extensive tour. FVNERALS tell us that there is a plan in place to bring the monolithic riffs of ‘Antlers’ to life, and to allow the heart-wrenching aura of ‘Where’ to really enchant an audience. “I think our songs are more varied, and we worked on cohesion and the way the set builds up from beginning to end,” explains Strom, with Scarlet adding, “the tuning on ‘Wounds’ is lower, and the guitar sound less clean, so our set is naturally louder than before I think.”

‘Wounds’ is released on October 14th via The Native Sound in the US, and Golden Antenna in Europe. FVNERALS will be on tour throughout October, which you can see the dates for below.

October
15 SHEFFIELD Trafalgar Warehouse
16 MANCHESTER ACP Festival
19 GLASGOW Audio
20 EDINBURGH Opium
21 NEWCASTLE Northumberland Arms
22 LIVERPOOL Maguire’s Pizza Bar
23 LEEDS Wharf Chambers
25 BRISTOL The Cube
26 LONDON The Unicorn
27 BRIGHTON The Prince Albert
28 BOURNEMOUTH Blue Line Studios
29 NOTTINGHAM The Bodega
27 WAKEFIELD Somatic Festival