AN NCS PREMIERE: SCARE — “CROWNED IN YELLOW”

(written by Islander)

The Québec City-based quartet who named themselves Scare pose a question in the title of their new album that seems quite relevant at an anxious time when humankind seems bent on devouring itself and the world through selfishness, greed, delusional paranoia, ignorance, and hatred: In The End, Was It Worth It?

It follows their debut LP from 2019, Not Dead Yet, Probably…, another title that also seems quite fitting for where we found ourselves then, and now, and their 2021 EP Congratulations On Your Death.

The band’s music has become increasingly interesting over time. It has a backbone of lead-weighted metallic hardcore, with the kind of sludgy punch that loosens teeth and vocals that can cause intracranial bleeding, but they’ve also revealed a talent for creating gripping, mood-changing, and even atmospheric melodies that get under the skin and stay there.

You’ll understand this for yourselves when you hear “Crowned In Yellow,” the immediately addictive song we’re premiering today, a song that’s at once supernatural, physically compulsive, and rabidly deranged — and yet also sounds like an anthem.

But before we get there, let’s start with the video presentation of the album’s first advance track, “Thrash Melrose“. The band disclosed this about its subject matter:

“Thrash Melrose” is a reflection on Green Anarchism and a lament for the state of our planet. It speaks to the harsh reality that humanity has crossed a threshold, endangering the home that nurtures us. The song calls for a return to simplicity, to lives rooted in harmony with nature rather than domination over it. For even if we falter, nature will endure and thrive, a testament to its resilience and the balance we’ve strayed so far from.

As for the music, it’s a hard-charging, gut rumbling, blood-spraying marauder, with the blood-spray coming equally from the screaming vocal tirades and the swarming riffage. And though you might not expect it from a song that’s both maddened and bleak, it’s also home to an electrifying guitar solo that swirls and soars.

And now let’s turn to “Crowned In Yellow,” again with a preface by Scare:

Inspired by Robert W. Chambers’ The King In Yellow, this song is a hymn to cosmic horror and existential dread. The Yellow King is chaos incarnate, a figure tied to a cursed play that drives its readers insane. It’s a metaphor for the things we chase that unravel us -— obsession, power, truth. “Crowned In Yellow” pulls you into the fiction of Carcosa, where nothing makes sense, and madness is the only constant.

The song’s swirling, high-toned opening riff is indeed an immediately attention-seizing manifestation of dread and fear, almost gothic in its mood and darkly elegant in its rendering. Far below, on the other hand, the bass moans and throbs with such heaviness that it might shiver your bones (and the earth beneath them).

But the song also promises a chaos agent, and so even as that magnetic swirling riff continues burrowing into the listener’s head, the drums jump forward with bounding beats, that immense bass accelerates its bowel-loosening throb, and the vocals give themselves over to mind-broiling madness.

Horror takes other forms too, including a guitar solo that sounds like seductive witchery, and growled words that conjure monstrous visions. The guitars also eject brazen and braying chords; the drums inflict a remorseless and variably paced beating; and all the hinges have come off the screams.

The pace slows, and the melody transforms, becoming more hopeless, but in the closing phase the drums blast like weaponry, and that vivid central riff arises again like a frightening apparition.

SCARE is:
Gabrielle Noel Begin (guitar)
Jon Fillion (bass)
Xavier Laprade (Drums)
Philip Roy (vocals)

In the End, Was It Worth It? drops thirteen powerful songs, delivered in thirty-two minutes. It was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Ryan Battistuzzi at Le Stuzzio, and completed with artwork by Kevin Martel.

It will be self-released through all digital services and on LP – available on Black Vinyl and Random Colored Vinyl — on February 21st. For pre-orders, see the links below.

We want to add that Scare will support In The End, Was It Worth It? with shows across Quebec surrounding the album’s release, including a hometown release show for the album on February 22nd. We’ve got the currently confirmed dates for you below, although the band expect additional shows will be posted throughout the months ahead.

SCARE Tour Dates:
2/16/2025 Le Zaricot – Saint Hyacinthe, QC
2/22/2025 L’ANTI Bar & Spectacles – Québec, QC *Record Release Show
2/28/2025 B7– Montréal, QC
3/01/2025 Petite Boite Noire – Sherbrooke, QC
3/14/2025 Café du clocher – Alma, QC
3/15/2025 Paradox – Saguenay, QC

PRE-ORDER:
https://scareqc.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-end-was-it-worth-it

FOLLOW SCARE:
https://linktr.ee/scareqc
https://scareqc.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/scaremusic
https://www.facebook.com/scareqc