ALL ELSE FAILS Presents Music Video For Their Cover Of Death’s “Crystal Mountain”

13th January 2023 0 By Jon Deaux

Canada’s All Else Fails have been working on their latest EP “The Incident at Black Lake” for the last two years and released it this past September. Intended to be listened to as a whole, it is a personal foray into the darkness of depression and the torment of addiction. To round the EP out, the final track is a cover of “Crystal Mountain” originally performed by Death.

According to Chuck Schuldiner, the song deals with the troubles they had with their former neighbours in Florida. Religious bigots, they lived in their ‘crystal mountain’ and stood against everyone else. While attending church regularly they disapproved and criticized all those around them. Schuldiner quips:

“Religion certainly isn’t a bad thing, but if it serves to make somebody feel better while hurting others and then go to church to beseech God for forgiveness on Sunday morning…I guess it doesn’t work very well (laugh).”

All Else Fails shares their thoughts on the track:

“This is a song we love and felt that we could cover faithfully at its core, while adding our own twists to its soundscape, to justify its existence. Lyrically it speaks to religious oppression on a personal and community level.”

Guitarist/vocalist Barrett Klesko wrote his parts while being submerged in the darkest, most distressed headspace he has ever been in resulting in the intensely dark “The Incident at Black Lake”. He cites that through the fog and sensation of reality warping around him, he somehow found clarity in his writing. He thinks this EP is beautiful, there is elegance in darkness; it’s sad because he knows the turmoil and pain it took to write it, and that it’s powerful because it’s the first time he has truly been honest in his music.

Technical, melodic, and haunting, the EP is recommended for fans of Revocation, Soilwork, and Fleshgod Apocalypse.

The video for “Crystal Mountain” can be seen and heard via its premiere on TheCirclePit