BIG|BRAVE with Spiritual Poison and Lepra

One of heavy music’s hardest working bands, Montreal’s BIG|BRAVE and their “massive minimalism” make their overdue SPACE debut with support from Spiritual Poison (Primitive Man’s Ethan McCarthy) and Maine “black velvet metal” trio Lepra.

BIG|BRAVE’s music has been described as massive minimalism. Their fusillades of textural distortion and feedback emphasize their music’s frayed edges as much as its all-encompassing weight. The potency of the trio’s work is their singular artistry combining elements of traditional folk techniques and a modern deconstruction of guitar music. Gain, feedback, and amplitude are essential to A Chaos Of Flowers, an album that builds on their ferocious 2023 album nature morte. Lyrically, the songs explore the most vulnerable of human experiences, how marginalizations manifest internally and externally, the inner struggles of isolation, and co-existence in nature. A Chaos of Flowers draws on catharsis and beauty as well as the quagmire of disorientation and othering. The album is a monument of simultaneous serenity and disquiet, a subtle maelstrom of internal life.

Akin to opening a portal beyond this mortal coil, music beckons us to step into other mindsets, realities, and worlds. In the same fashion, Spiritual Poison entices listeners to dive deeper via its cinematic drone punctuated by dynamics of jarring heaviness, numbing feedback, and unexpected melodic reprieve. 

As the vision of vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Ethan McCarthy, this sound instantly captivates on Spiritual Poison’s 2023 debut, Incorporeal.  

Ethan Lee McCarthy is a multidisciplinary artist creating audio and visual work. His roots in underground, DIY music scenes has equipped him with two decades worth of  grass-roots knowledge, a wealth of experience and a healthy sliver of cynicism. His creative work has taken him all over the world, performing at prestigious festivals and in grimy basements; wherever the art takes him.

McCarthy’s musical output ranges from the controlled chaos of Primitive Man through to the ambient soundscapes released under his own name, with multiple other sonic stop-off points along the way. His visual art is primarily created digitally, with collage and graphic work distilling the horrors (and occasional beauty) found in modern day America. Comfortable as a collaborator or a solo creative, the scope of McCarthy’s work is varied and ambitious.

Spawned in Portland, Maine in 2018, Lepra blends moody post-punk and black metal driven by synths and bass, dueling vocals, and dark folklore. Backed by sister labels Fiadh Productions (US) and Vita Detestabilis (EU), they released their first full-length album Devil’s Blood in Her Tongue in August 2023.