As It Is – completed by frontman Patty Walters, guitarist and singer Benjamin Langford-Biss, drummer Patrick Foley, bassist Ali Testo, and lead guitarist Ronnie Ish – take the listener on a journey which delves into every aspect of arguably the most prevalent social ill of our time across their third studio album, The Great Depression. From public perception, to internal war, the quartet unflinchingly confront the most difficult questions around depression, the value of life over death, and whether the rhetoric around ‘reaching out to talk’ is ostensibly hollow, if no one is prepared to hear those words. But if the four piece have delved into brave new territory conceptually on The Great Depression then the sonic leap forward that runs in tandem with it signals this record as not just a landmark release for the band, but for the scene as a whole. The Great Depression, produced by legendary producer MACHINE (Lamb Of God, Every Time I Die), is comfortably As It Is’ most layered, technically accomplished and certainly most aggressive record to date. All of which adds up to a record that establishes the band as one of the most daring creative forces in their scene. One which reinvents while retaining what was already great, one which is full of vaulting ambition that feels both powerfully universal and profoundly personal, and one which demonstrates with absolute clarity a band brave enough to go their own way and succeed.
