In the ever-fluctuating landscape of modern heavy music, Joshua Powell has proven to be anything but generic.

He's proven this with yet another electrifying release, a two minute raging track called "TRENCH THE GHOST". The third single to an upcoming album drop, this particular composition veers both structurally and thematically, delving into a deeper seeded set of influences than the band has previously divulged.  Ever known as one of the hardest working trios in the midwest, the collective have continued to stretch themselves technically and sonically to produce a distinct musical mold in their present scene. We sat down with Joshua to expand further on the influence behind the song:

"TRENCH THE GHOST is the loudest two minutes I’ve written. The sonic fabric weaves from hardcore bands like Comeback Kid and Beartooth, to tropes from nostalgic heavy-hitters like A Day to Remember and He Is Legend; but the more interesting inspiration behind this song comes from Remedy Games and Vola Guitars.

I picked up a copy of the otherworldly adventure game CONTROL at a used disc store on a lark and it promised, “This is going to be weirder than usual.” It delivered. I inhabited the surreal halls of the Oldest House for weeks and was bowled over by the imagination behind this unpredictable trip and its deep allusions to HOUSE OF LEAVES and TWIN PEAKS.  Most of the music I’d been writing for our new metalcore-inspired record was happening on a 7-string but I had just picked up my first Vola guitar, the blonde Vasti (set up in standard), and I wanted to write something with it to hear it manifest its voice. It was also so marvelously set up that way, I honestly didn’t want to tempt the fates of physics. This song leaked out of it in one sitting.

TRENCH THE GHOST was born small, angry and fast. I smeared the lyrics with more ambiguous surrealism and allowed myself to enter a truly grazed headspace wherein sensate stridency took the reins from my normally very laid-back hands. I wanted to make a soundtrack for CONTROL, the way the soundtrack of TONY HAWK PRO SKATER 2 worked: drawing the player deeper into the world, dimensionalizing the sensuousness of the experience.  For years, a superficial mental block had prevented me from experiencing the literary outside of the world of books. I had naively classified games in the same pulp world as comics and TV: you know, kid stuff. But time evolves art, and I’m luckily neuroplastic enough to love having my mind changed. 

When Jacob pitched extending the meter in the breakdown to accommodate the nastiest drum fill we’ve ever recorded, and when (fellow Vola artist) Josh Townsend, behind the faders, egged me on to inhale a dastardly deathcore “bree,’ we knew we’d struck a vein of something fun deeply embedded in our DNA.  When I was 17, recording in my first metalcore band in a poolhouse in South Florida, the other guys were inevitably off to the side playing HALO online and shouting joyous profanities. This is a song to help make you feel how that felt. And to soundtrack your punk rock afternoons battling the paranormal hiss like a stoned berserker."

You can hear "TRENCH THE GHOST" in its entirety HERE.