Old Year have existed since 2017, initially as a two piece, in the murky shadows of the Boise, Idaho underground music scene…behind closed doors, a rumour, almost a secret. But in 2021, their line-up fleshed out to a trio, the band crawled out from their cellar stronghold into a post lockdown world and on to the stage, unleashing the insidious horror of the droning doom death that had sustained them in their isolation. In 2023 an eponymous 10 minute single became their first release – an immersion into the slow death of humanity. An ocean away Apocalyptic Witchcraft were drawn to the “uniquely desolate voice” of Old Year and now the first results of that new alliance are ready to be set loose. No Dissent is a four track album of colossal weight, an agonised crawl through a parched, dystopian hellscape. ‘Death Frequency’ begins this trip into suffocating, bleak emotion…an insectile drone of guitars above slow, staggering drum beats carrying deep, suppurating vocal intonations – pronouncements of doom from a long dead throat. Will, desire, motivation and belief bleed slowly from your body, replaced by a black ichor of hopelessness fed into your veins to the sound of a scream of agony and despair, drawn out for eternity. Worlds die in the spaces between the chords of ‘Rotting Illusion’ and Old Year tighten their grip around your spirit, dragging you deeper into their claustrophobic embrace. There’s no moment to breathe as you slide into the maw of ‘Mechanical Birth’ where the threat becomes more direct, more immediate. This track, this movement in this grand symphony of suffering, is not content to let you drown. It moves towards you with hooks in hand…inescapable. And finally ‘Lock Step’; so oppressive you feel yourself dissolving beneath the awesome mass of Old Year. When it’s all over movement feels impossible. It takes time for the shadow of Old Year to slip from your skin, for its hold on your mind to release. And you’re left with a hunger…an addiction to the lethargic torment you have just escaped. Adorned in bleak and tortured artwork, No Dissent will be presented to the world by Apocalyptic Witchcraft on October 24th. A vision, a warning, a promise… asphyxiating and soul crushing. Approach Old Year’s gifts with care – the future is bleak indeed.
1. Death Frequency
2. Rotting Illusion
3. Mechanical Birth
4. Lock Step