Like wolves of the same pack separated at birth, outliers instinctually recognize one another. Full of Hell and Nothing collide on the collaborative LP, When No Birds Sang (out December 1st on Closed Casket Activities). Now, the collective share the album’s remarkable second single, “Like Stars in the Firmament.”
On the song, Domenic and Doyle’s (of Nothing) breathy deliveries barely crack a whisper through a haze of evocative guitar melodies, floating toward an airy exhale. Domenic elaborates. “Nothing put a foundation down on ‘Like Stars In The Firmament,’ and Full of Hell put a house over it—and vice versa.” Full of Hell’s Dylan Walker continues, “‘Like Stars in the Firmament’ is like a cooling and serene bath, a valley amongst peaks. It’s a slow motion free-fall into oblivion and a fading cry at the end of the road. I think when we are faced with our own mortality and insignificance, we have to confront that oldest of fears and this song manifests that in a beautiful and sad way.”
The music video for “Like Stars in the Firmament” was once again written and directed by Mike Martinez and Tyler Way, and correlates conceptually with the visuals from the first single, “Spend the Grace.”
Nothing and Full of Hell initially crossed paths in the twenty-tens, sharing the bills of shows and festivals intermittently. Dylan and Domenic kept in touch over the years, and the collaboration naturally followed. Together, they built a new “wall of sound” in the middle out of Full of Hell’s abstract and harsh ambience and Nothing’s searing shoegaze tendencies—conjuring extreme peaks and valleys inspired by the likes of My Bloody Valentine and latter day Swans.
“We’ve never done anything like this,” Domenic goes on. “The contrast is huge as we’re putting two extremes together and making them work. We’re just bridging the gap.”
