BIRDS IN ROW – ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM GRIS KLEIN
26th July 2022French experimental punk / hardcore trio Birds In Row are sonically fearless. Lyrically, they’re as poetic as they are recusant. And live, they’re a ruthless force, matching the power of their music with boundless, must-see energy.
Birds In Row have been at the forefront of their genre for a decade and this fall they return with a third and powerful full-length album, Gris Klein – their most expansive and timely declaration yet. It’s an amorphous beast of an album: always unpredictable, but never out of character for this creative collective.
Gris Klein is a portrait of a world enduring its most chaotic era in a generation. Yet throughout, the Birds in Row manifesto is the same as it’s always been: love each other. “We really want people to know that they’re not alone, and that they can count on each other.”
The album’s lyrics were sculpted over lockdown, when everything felt uncertain, and isolation and depression ran rampant. Birds in Row, fresh off a successful tour with Alcest, were suddenly unable to tour, and were no exception to the epidemic of mental health struggles.
Their new single “Nympheas”, released today, is “An ode to those who keep fighting when we don’t have the energy to anymore, or never have had it, especially when facing political issues that are increasingly more visible,” the band explain.
LISTEN / SHARE / PLAYLIST “NYMPHEAS”
Birds In Row’s lauded 2012 debut You, Me & the Violence released on Deathwish Inc. rocketed them from Laval-based unknowns to the world’s stage. Their exceptional 2018 follow up We Already Lost the World was an unyielding inferno of brazen ideas. It screamed for mutual respect in a world of increasingly extreme political divides, and used the vehicles of punk, post-hardcore and post-metal to carry its cries.
Their political outcries carry over to Gris Klein. The album eloquently summarizes the cruel and sometimes nonsensical nature of mental illness. “Trompe l’oeil” sings, ‘Most of the times I feel lonely are when my friends are around’ – “This is the exact moment where you should feel like you’re surrounded by people you love and that you’re not alone,” the band add. “It asks – ‘If I can’t feel loved in this specific moment, then when can I feel that?’” Elsewhere, the words of “Daltonians” confront the crisis of misinformation, police brutality, as well as broader issues of immigration and governance. It’s erratic by design, darting between topics in the same way that pandemic-era news outlets cycled from panic-inducing story to panic-inducing story. Not even a world-shaking pandemic could damage Birds in Row’s compassion and brutality. Now three albums in, they remain the model portrait of punk.
Gris Klein sees its release on October 14 via Red Creek Recordings. To pre-order on physical formats go here, or pre-save on digital platforms, go here. Birds In Row are set for a full October/November European tour – North American dates to be announced. See below for their full routing and for more info go here.
Gris Klein Track Listing:
1 – Water Wings
2 – Daltonians
3 – Confettis
4 – Noah
5 – Cathedrals
6 – Nympheas
7 – Grisaille
8 – Trompe l’oeil
9 – Rodin
10 – Winter, Yet.
11 – Secession
Birds In Row Live Dates:
* w/ Cult of Luna
Sep 30 – Vitry-sur-Seine (FR) – Festi’Val de Marne
Oct 01 – Rouen (FR) – Le 106
Oct 02 – Esch-sur-Alzette (LU) – Rockhal *
Oct 03 – Cologne (DE) – Live Music Hall *
Oct 04 – Geneve (CH – Alhambra *
Oct 05 – Toulouse (FR) – Le Metronum *
Oct 06 – Biarritz (FR) – Atabal *
Oct 07 – Barcelona (ES) – AMFest *
Oct 08 – Madrid (ES) – But *
Oct 09 – Porto (PT) – Ampli Fest *
Oct 11 – Nantes (FR) – Stereolux *
Oct 12 – Lille (FR) – Aeronef *
Oct 13 – Strasbourg (FR) – La Laiterie *
Oct 14 – Zwolle (NL) – Hedon *
Oct 15 – Leipzig (DE) – Felsenkeller *
Oct 16 – Wroclaw (PL) – A2 *
Oct 17 – Budapest (HU) – Durer Kert *
Oct 18 – Prague (CZ) – Underdogs *
Oct 20 – Berlin (DE) – Urban Spree
Oct 21 – Dortmund (DE) – Trompete
Oct 22 – Darmstadt (DE) – Oettinger Villa
Oct 23 – Neunkirchen (DE) – Stummschen Reithalle
Oct 27 – Bordeaux (FR) – Le Krakatoa
Oct 28 – Alençon (FR) – La Luciole
Nov 03 – Amiens (FR) – La Lune des Pirates
Nov 04 – Belfort (FR) – La Poudrière
Nov 05 – Annecy (FR) – Le Brise Glace
Nov 09 – Bruxelles (BE) – Le Botanique
Nov 10 – Haarlemn (NL) – Patronaat
Nov 11 – Leeuwarden (NL) – Neushoorn
Nov 12 – Nijmegen (NL) – Merleyn
Nov 17 – Poitiers (FR) – Le Confort Moderne
Nov 18 – Vannes (FR) – L’Echonova
Nov 19 – Quimper (FR) – Novomax
Nov 23 – Fribourg (CH) – Fri-Son
Nov 24 – Metz (FR) – Les Trinitaires
Nov 25 – Tours (FR) – Le Bateau Ivre
Nov 26 – Paris (FR) – Le Trabendo
Dec 09 – Angoulême (FR) – La Nef
