Belgian alternative act STAKE releases eery and confronting video for ‘Zone Out’. The track is taken from the band’s new album LOVE, DEATH and DECAY, out now via Hassle Records. Watch “Zone Out’ now i MORE ON ALBUM, ‘LOVE, DEATH and DECAY’ Brent Vanneste knows that love never dies. Mysteries of the heart, and those of the great hereafter, have rarely been far from the Stake frontman’s busy, offbeat brain. Never broken by the weight of grief or existential dread, however, he uses those feelings as fuel for a musical fire that’s as boldly unconventional as it is bracingly alive. “This band is about all my inner darkness and demons, and finding a peaceful place in my head,” he grapples, preferring his songs to do the talking. “I’m not going to be able to erase them, but making music is a great way of arranging them and surviving this crazy life.” That process began when he was just 13 years old. Forming Steak Number Eight in honour of his recently deceased brother Thobias Vanbrabant, Brent channelled the most aching personal tragedy into their first four albums, making the whole European rock scene sit up and take notice. The band’s 2018 rebrand (accompanying fifth album Critical Method) concluded this “mourning process” by moving away from that unwieldy original name, and the last few years have proven that you can never really leave these things behind. The band’s latest offering LOVE, DEATH and DECAY is a testament to that. Guitarist Cis Deman is, by his own admission, far more of a cold realist than his frontman. The one-time funeral director is a dark foil to Brent’s flightier tendencies, and the contrast between their mindsets is key to the shape-shifting mood and captivating desolation of Stake’s brilliant new album. Where Brent is more fixated on “love and death”, Cis explains frankly, his fascination lies in “death and decay.” The singer reflects on the meaning of the album title. On the evening his girlfriend’s aunt was dying, he watched the excellent Netflix documentary Fantastic Funghi. He was inspired by the fact that all matter is recycled into new life. Cis, contrastingly, unearths a far harsher recollection. Faced with the pandemic, he initially needed to counterpoint the pervasive misery with brighter sounds, but the loss of two of his cousins –brothers, the first lost to suicide, the second struck by a bus– meant that stepping into darkness felt unavoidable. “I realised I just couldn’t write anything happy,” he shrugs. “The themes of love and death aren’t always spoken about out loud, but they’re always there. For me, they’ve never felt as close as they do on this record.” As the world steps back into the sun after two years of darkness, the isolation and pain of these songs should be held close as a reminder of the struggle we’ve come through, and why it’s important to embrace every day as it comes. “Everybody dies,” Cis smiles, leaving off with characteristic bluntness. “So make the best of being alive. Stop being an aggressor in traffic. Just drive…” Be sure to catch STAKE on tour across the UK/EU with Cave In this month. A full list of dates can be found below. Tickets and more information can be found HERE. STAKE TOUR DATES 15.10 Junkyard Dortmund (w. Cave In)
16.10 Lido Berlin (w. Cave In)
17.10 Kesselhaus Wiesbaden (w. Cave In)
19.10 Badaboom Paris (w. Cave In)
20.10 Le Poche Bethune (w. Cave In)
24.10 Heaven London (w. Cave In)
25.10 The Exchange Bristol (w. Cave In)
26.10 Gorilla, Manchester (w. Cave In)
27.10 Room 2, Glasgow (w. Cave In)
05.11 Belvédère Namen
16.11 Reflektor Luik
03.12 Wilde Westen Festival, Kortrijk
11.12 WMD, Waregem
17.12 Trix, Antwerp LOVE, DEATH and DECAY is out now via Hassle Records HERE. STAKE:
Brent Vanneste – vocals/guitars / Cis Deman – guitars / Jesse Surmont – bass guitar / Joris Casier – drums – CONNECT WITH THE BAND | 
