SPILL FEATURE: TAKING THINGS A STEP FURTHER – A CONVERSATION WITH ZACHARY PISHNEY OF LIKE MOTHS TO FLAMES

TAKING THINGS A STEP FURTHER

A CONVERSATION WITH ZACHARY PISHNEY OF LIKE MOTHS TO FLAMES

For the past fifteen years, Like Moths to Flames has been at the forefront of the metalcore genre, setting the standard for others to follow. With an impressive five albums released to date, it’s not uncommon for bands to struggle to find the perfect balance between exploring new, uncharted territory while still catering to the expectations of long-time fans. However, Like Moths to Flames has managed to navigate this challenge with remarkable finesse, and their last album, No Eternity In Gold, showcased their evolution of emotional catharsis as a band. The Ohio four-piece has finally come into their own, unleashing the full force of their monstrous potential, which they had always promised with their first two albums. After four years, during which they underwent a process of emotional cleansing and self-discovery Like Moths to Flames has returned with a career-defining sixth album, The Cycles of Trying to Cope, which promises to take their sound to new heights and redefine their legacy. The human experience of discovering light within the darkness and creating something good out of the depths of evil is truly profound. It’s a concept that has been explored in many different ways throughout music, and now the band Like Moths to Flames has set to write their own unique take on it with their latest release. In the past, they aimed to delve into the complexities of morality and the intense emotions that come with negative experiences. With The Cycles of Trying to Cope, they hope to offer a different kind of experience that will resonate with listeners on a deep and meaningful level.

“I’d say in many ways that is accurate,” responds Zachary Pishney. “I know Chris tends to write a lot of his lyrics from personal experience. I think if you are having lyrics from that standpoint, as a listener and as a human being, I think everyone is going through stuff. Hearing someone else’s take on something that they are going through, can spark some thought and it can relate to something to the band they are listening to that they put out.”

Instrumentally, Like Moths to Flames straddles between these vicious and melodic shades that perfectly paint the ugly and beautiful standpoints of the emotional thunderclap that The Cycles of Trying to Cope is illustrating. While No Eternity Left In Gold continued to explore unique time signatures and showed a progressive side, their new release provides an impassioned acrobatic push and pull that breeds a new kind of contention for the band.

THE CYCLES OF TRYING TO COPE ALBUM REVIEW

“Yeah, definitely,” Pishney smiles. ” As a band, we are always trying to evolve release by release, try different things, expand upon things that we liked. By doing different time signatures in No Eternity, we were like this sounds cool, we did it well. Let’s try it again by doing a different breakdown on “Pure Like Porcelain”. Or even on the singles with different tempo changes. So doing one thing can always lead to finding other elements to explore and elaborate on in other releases. So, we are always trying to evolve and try different things, and being a core band, you can’t completely abandon your sound. Some bands do, and it works well for them, others not so much. For us, we always want to stay true to what Moths has to offer. We don’t want to totally abandon our roots. I think having the two extreme dynamics like “Angel’s Weep” and “Paradigm Trigger” really dig into the deathcore side of things, get really heavy, do some blast beats, get really nasty with some riffs and whatnot, and can explore some darker elements with the lyrics. In contrast, we can do things on the lighter dynamic side like “Kintsugi” and “Dissociative Being,” where it has a more melodic and singable side to it with the crowds and stuff. So, we enjoy those sides of the spectrum with heavy and light songs with Chris Roetter being a dynamic vocalist, it just makes sense to show that we can do both.”

The musical composition of The Cycles of Trying to Cope effortlessly captures the contrasting aspects of light and dark, much like the ebb and flow of emotions during the process of healing. Like Moths to Flames delve deep into this raw self-analysis, examining the broken pieces of oneself and the process of putting them back together, akin to the Japanese art of kintsugi. This art form involves taking broken pottery pieces and mending them with gold, thereby emphasizing the beauty in imperfection and the value of embracing one’s scars and flaws. The lyrical process, much like the art of kintsugi, speaks to the importance of acceptance and self-love in the journey towards healing and wholeness.

“I think this is something that just came together naturally,” says Pishney. “We didn’t set out to make a concept record necessarily. I think with Chris always writing from a place of what he is going through, and different topics he can relate to personally, it just sort of set up the album to be portrayed that way. The title of the record, The Cycles of Trying to Cope is from the last track in the record, it’s like a one-liner Chris has in the lyrics before one of the harder-hitting breakdowns, which is kind of cool. So, I think having that as the title, we were able to package everything together that way. We had a lot of help from the label with the album rollout, and I think it’s something interesting that we have never done before, and I think it is something that can help the listeners immerse themselves into this world a little bit more. Even with the artwork being as it is, that kind of helped set up the scenery for where this is happening. I think doing the track-by-track with each cycle that we have been announcing paints a bit more of a picture and a bit more of a narrative for these songs before they come out. I think it’s something that was not intentional, but it came together naturally with all of us and everything, and it being something that we have never done I think it’s just a cool way to go a step further with it being a collection of songs.”

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