Leeds based indie quartet Deadwall are set to release their second studio album, The Zero Cliff, on March 24 through Hatch Records. To coincide with the forthcoming release, the band have shared a video for “Heartlands”.

Following on from their debut released in 2014, the band have spent the intermittent period rediscovering their potential. “It’s the best band Deadwall has been, I think” explains frontman Thomas Gourley. “Whereas ‘Bukimi no Tani’ was a mix of old and new ideas, The Zero Cliff was built from the ground upwards as one solid body of work. It’s also the first recording with a really settled line-up”.

The ten track collection is inspired by four books specifically; ‘God is Not Great’ by Christopher Hitchens, ‘This Changes Everything’ by Naomi Klein, ‘The Cloudspotter’s Guide’ by Gavin Pretor-Pinney and ‘We’ by Yevgeny Zamyatin. The title itself is a chapter taken from the latter.

“The single overall theme of the record is change, what it means, how we deal with it, view it, impose it, ignore it, fear it, etc. We are all habit addicts. The Zero Cliff to my mind is the infinitesimal, and infinite, gap between one thing and another. It is paradoxically infinite and non-existent, and when we change we don’t notice but yet once we change it is inevitably permanent, the gap between life and death you might say.”

Within this overarching idea the record discusses a number of sibling sub-themes; religion, climate change, neo-liberalist economics, the oil & gas industry, death and rebirth and more. The Zero Cliff, though, is not a beast made to be dissected but enjoyed as a single epic journey where each song merges seamlessly with the next and a story is allowed to develop. Not dissimilar to the likes of gig mates The Wedding Present, C Duncan and British Sea Power, Deadwall are driven by the stories they tell, backed with original musical arrangements and masterful songwriting.

DEADWALL TOUR DATES:
24th March: Birthdays, London
25th March: Cafe Kino, Bristol
30th April: The Angel, Nottingham
11th May: The Church, Leeds

THE ZERO CLIFF TRACKLISTING:
Hall of Mists
Cirrus Song
Heartlands
Alto Flocc
Errant Love Song
Pristine Spirals
Cyclones
Blue & White Blues
The Ballad of Kasumi
Zerophobi

Sleeve design and cyanotype by Thomas Gourley