Prior to the release of ‘I Will Dance With Hell So You Can See Heaven’, ALTESCAPE has had the chance to speak to frontman of SUE, Elliot Stone, regarding the EP and the band’s background.
Birmingham born Noise-Punk outfit, SUE, composed of vocalist and guitarist, Elliot Stone, and bassist and vocalist, Adam Webster, are riling up the city’s punk scene and have just brought out their newest EP ‘I Will Dance With Hell So You Can See Heaven’. Released today on all major streaming platforms, you can now listen to the mesmerising, explosive, and intoxicating work of SUE.
Brimming with anger, revolt, and passion, ‘I Will Dance With Hell So You Can See Heaven’ exposes the listener to the reality of hate, dread, anxiety, defiance and brutality. Twisted with tales and narratives of pessimism and personal struggle the EP confesses the band’s truth revealing the realities of chaos.
Introducing the album with the haunting, otherworldly sounds of ‘Hell’, SUE torments the listener with what sounds like the words of the afterlife. ‘I Will Dance’ then plunges into SUE’s infectious and intoxicating sound with shrieking guitar riffs and mesmerising, desperate vocals. The track exposes the listener to SUE’s fiery defiance and pushes for unrestrainable movement.
Next up is ‘Fresh Void’, with ferocious chugging guitars, piercing vocals and intense guitar squeals and slides. The anger-fuelled track seems to detail a toxic relationship with lyrics such as; ‘I’d beg her, At night, Holding her tight’. ‘Inhale Exhale’ torments the listener with the devastating reality of anxiety and the coping mechanisms associated with the illness. The repetitive furious nature of the chorus imitates the symptoms of a panic attack and the flood of uncontrollable irrational thoughts. SUE then swiftly moves into ‘Hope’; a tale of pessimism, existential crisis, and depression.
‘I need a cure’ begins raw and honest with clean guitar and trembling vocals and builds in anger, defiance, and depth. The track draws us in with hypnotic, unforgiving riffs and despairing vocal screams. ‘A Pathetic Man’ pulls us further into the spiral with a hauntingly honest confession exposing struggles with depression and the fear of both life and death. Beautiful and yet heart wrenching lyrics scatter through this song: ‘Hang myself up high to shake out all the fear, Don’t want to die but I don’t like living’.
The EP finalises with ‘Heaven’ an ambient, otherworldly sound mirroring the EP’s introduction. Both torturous and bewildering, the track ends with a hellish crackling scream.
From start to end, ‘I Will Dance With Hell So You Can See Heaven’ transports the listener through it’s dark and devilish tales. The EP is both haunting and toxically unforgettable, carrying the listener on a journey of defiance, pessimism, and confessions.
ALTESCAPE spoke to Elliot Stone about all things SUE, and their latest EP.
Initially, Elliot broke into the music world as a part of an indie band ‘Salad Days’. After this era came to an end, Elliot professes to ‘playing with some demos on’ his ‘Dad’s PC’ and ultimately says ‘I was itching to try my hand at making more aggressive music’. After looking for a line-up to explore the genre further, Elliot has discovered a great appreciation for the beauty of being a 3-piece outfit. Regarding this he said: ‘The minimalism of the three piece; striping things down to the bone and seeing what you can do with them; became too attractive to ignore’.
Delving deeper into the world of ‘I Will Dance With Hell So You Can See Heaven’, the EP ‘was written over two years ago’ but the release was, unfortunately, pushed back at the hands of Covid. As possibly already presumed, ‘the EP is focussed on internal struggles’, going further Elliot referred to the EP’s subject matter as ‘the things we’re often too afraid to talk about’. With the EP dominantly taking a pessimistic approach, it was interesting to discover Elliot’s perspective for future music and whether this approach will remain prevalent: ‘I imagine so, this world we have built for ourselves is on the verge of collapsing after all’. Regarding the frontman’s favourite track from the EP: ‘I Need A Cure is the most ambitious song we’ve put out to date’, ‘when I’ve had a few drinks, I jokingly tell my friends the song is SUE’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’- They laugh at me, like they should, and I laugh too’.
In consideration of Birmingham’s punk scene, here’s what Elliot had to say: ‘The punk scene in Birmingham is small but passionate. Everyone in it seems very supportive and I really hope we can grow closer to the scene now we are able to gig again’. On the topic of live gigs, SUE’s headline EP release show is coming up tomorrow at The Rainbow, in Digbeth Birmingham, and these are a few of the tracks from the record that Elliot is most excited to perform live: ‘I suppose Hope is the catchiest of them all, and I really enjoy playing the guitar parts on that one. And a pathetic man always gets me going, even if I’m not quite in it as I should be’. As for what we can expect from the show tomorrow: ‘Screaming to be expected’...
Head down to The Rainbow tomorrow night to catch SUE and witness their new EP ‘I Will Dance With Hell So You Can See Heaven’ in action; if you can’t make it, catch up with the event via our Gig Review in the days to follow.
Tickets are still available here.
You can now listen to ‘I Will Dance With Hell So You Can See Heaven’ here.
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