Protomartyr are a band from Detroit, Michigan, fronted by Joe Cassey. Out on Hardly Art, The Agent Intellect is the act’s third album, which draws upon difficult issues in Cassey’s life (losing his father unexpectedly, his mother being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s) to create something vast and visceral, almost entirely about death and it’s repercussions. Far from being a one-track bombardment of a single point of view, the record sees Cassey traverse the full scope of mortality, attacking it from all angles. This ranges from paranoid visions of the apocalypse (‘The Hermit’), a frenzied freefall into futility (‘Dope Cloud’), promises from the afterlife (‘Ellen’) or just a plain refusal to ever succumb. As he sings on ‘Why Does it Shake?’:
“Sharp mind, eternal youth
I’ll be the first to never die
Nice thought, and I’m never gonna lose it”
If that all sounds dark then that’s because it is, but there is something both fascinating and thrilling in songs so direct and confrontational. Protomartyr’s music is imbued with a certain sense of exciting terror, a DeLillian dread that we know we should escape yet can’t help but stand beneath in open-mouthed awe. At least now you know you are not standing alone.
RIYL: Post-punk, Ought, ruminations on death
Favourite songs:
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You can buy The Agent Intellect now from Hardly Art or the Protomartyr Bandcamp page.