Montreal-based folk-informed hardcore experimentalists Truck Violence have unleashed their debut album, Violence, today via Mothland.
Clocking in at a 30-minute runtime, the introductory offering from the quartet of singer-poet Karsyn Henderson, guitarist-banjoist Paul Lecours, percussionist Ryley Klima and bassist Chris Clegg is an eight-track sprint that pays homage to rural Albertan roots in the Western Canadian countryside. In this non-romanticized rendering of its context, the unique entanglement of problematic thematic patterns — including addiction, abuse and dysfunction — is glaring.
Violence was recorded in Lecours and Henderson's basement, then mixed and mastered by longtime collaborator Noah Baxter. "The album should inspire hope, just as much as it creates a sense of shame," Henderson explained in a statement. "Through this project, we've recognized many shameful things in ourselves. These have been let go with much kicking into the music and the art itself. This isn't about accepting our faults, the way we hurt the people we care about. There is far more beauty in an honest bettering. To leave it in the art, to leave it in the venues; that is the goal."
For Truck Violence then, Violence is, in many ways, the answer: art as an escape from self-destructive tendencies and a wailing of solidarity. With artwork photographed by the band at a gas station in Randolph, VT, give the album a listen on your streaming platform of choice below.
