UK alt-metal unit Defences release video for new single ‘Shadowlight’
12th September 2024.
Vocalist Cherry Duesbury comments:“This song talks retrospectively about the process of exploring your inner darkness. This involves uncovering discarded, repressed, and rejected parts of yourself and shedding a light on them, working through the uncomfortable, painful things we don’t like about ourselves, and our fears. Being conscious of these things leads to acceptance, which leads to self-awareness.
“This process, known as Shadow Work, is something that has become an important part of my life. As difficult as it is, I frequently find myself facing my darkness and learning to understand it more deeply, or from a different perspective, eventually embracing it as part of me, rather than ignoring it and hoping it goes away.
“The lyrics for ‘Shadowlight’ were actually written in an attempt at foreshadowing, or manifestation before I’d even begun to do any of the work. It’s an ongoing thing you never really stop doing, a healing journey that lasts a lifetime. I think that’s the vibe you get from the song’s conclusion. I remember being quite nervous about showing these vocals to the guys when I first demoed my ideas, because it felt incredibly raw at the time, almost to the point of being cheesy. To be singing about learning to love all of myself, especially when I hadn’t really yet. Luckily they all loved it, I hope everyone else does too!”
Following their tour with Swarm6ix earlier this month, Defences have announced an album release show in London.
Upcoming live dates:
Nov 09: London Camden Assembly (Album Release Show)
Dec 07: Brighton Hammerdown Winter Militia
With strong support in the form of millions of streams across their catalogue of releases, many UK tours with multiple sell-out headline shows, not to mention numerous festival appearances including Download, Takedown, Turbulence and Burn It Down – the band from Hertfordshire, UK, now present their label debut for Long Branch Records.
Defences comment on the album: “Shadowlight stems from a period of solitude and deep reflection, as we explore what it means to accept your inner darkness. Acknowledging, understanding and ultimately accepting it for what it is, learning how to sit with it or use it to change your outlook. The album sees all sides of this, tying in the parallel of the artistic process itself and what it is to create. To open yourself up to the possibility that you may not achieve what you believe in your core to be something you deserve, that you may not reach your potential. This cycle of disappointment and self-sabotage is commonplace, with nothing left but to chase a sense of absolution and validation forever out of reach.”
1 The Curse
2 Gold In The Dark
3 Perish
4 Ego(Maniac)
5 Silence & The Sound
6 Breathe It In
7 Inspirit
8 The Almost
9 Greatness
10 Shadowlight
Defences are:
Cherry Duesbury – Vocals
William Young – Keys, Vocals
Calum Wilmot – Guitar
Owen Hughes-Holland – Bass
Kyle Parke – Drums
