Sydney progressives Intrøspect are back with a new single and frontman. Winterbloom is the bands first new music since the release of their Midnight Sun EP in March 2021 and features new frontman Sam Thomlinson.
The last couple of years have been tough for everyone and the band are no exception as the comment on the new track’s heavier edge: “Winterbloom has emerged as the culmination of a general arc in our instrumental songwriting towards a heavier and more aggressive sound. The last few years have been incredibly difficult for us (and more or less everyone on the planet) that it no longer felt authentic or truthful to be writing optimistic, ambient prog. That style of music and perspective no longer resonates with any of us. We have all naturally gravitated toward darker and heavier sounds over the last year or so, both in taste and what we’ve been writing. Our new material is in many ways a reflection of the changing times.”
On the songwriting itself, they add; ” Jamie (Guitar) wrote the bones of the track and the initial lyrics almost a year ago, expressing the comfort in solitude he’d found after a toxic relationship that left deep wounds. However, the meaning of the track changed entirely after we started writing with our new vocalist Sam, into something more profound and personal. Sam took what we had, and molded the meaning of the song into something new: a requiem for a friend of both him and Loko’s, who recently died of cancer. In the song’s melancholic atmosphere, he expresses the feelings of loss and isolation he had been grappling with since his passing. The result is a heavy, cathartic anthem from a much more personal and vulnerable space than any previous Introspect track. We truly believe this is our best work yet.
See for yourself by listening to the track here: https://ditto.fm/winterbloom
On frontman Sam Thomlinson joining the band, the band say “Sam brings a level of vocal expression and songwriting that we had been missing. Bringing his own experience and raw emotion to the table really pushed (new track) Winterbloom into a raw, transcendent space that we hadn’t ventured to before, with our past material often being grandiose and not quite as personal. We have a large number of demos in the pipeline and can’t wait to see what we can create with Sam moving forward – prepare for it to get heavier and darker than ever before.
Midnight Sun saw the Intrøspect’s profile increase dramatically with support pouring in from industry top hitters Metal Injection [US], Prog Mag [UK], Heavy Mag, Triple-J Racket, The Faction, The Soundcheck AU, Wall of Sound, Blunt Mag, MMM Hard n Heavy & many more. They are set to continue the trend with their new material.