For the past few years, Paris, France based Mascara have been in an era of renewal, working on their most honest material yet and reflecting on everything they’ve lived and lost since forming. Today that comes to full fruition with the release of their debut full-length album, Going Postal, out through Fever Ltd. Stream it HERE and purchase HERE.
Going Postal was born from tension between collapse and liberation. Writing the album took two introspective years, while it was recorded in one intense week with Clément Decrock at Boss Hog Studio. The tracks shift through waves of emotions and sounds, taking Mascara’s roots in shoegaze, grunge, and post-hardcore to new levels. It’s a battle of light and dark, from pulverizing riffs to hazy distortion to experimental ambience. It’s an expression of experience on a personal and global scale – frustration, exhaustion, and a strange, underlying form of hope.
The band expand on the output conveyed on Going Postal:
“The album is about what it feels like to live in a world that’s falling apart, a world that constantly pushes you to your limits while pretending everything is fine. It’s a plunge into modern alienation, into the silent despair that hides beneath the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
Each song reflects a different facet of this collapse: the loss of bearings, the weight of inherited pain, the rebellion against a system that crushes you, and the realization that even our escapes often turn into new prisons.
The album oscillates between exhaustion and rebellion, between the desire to disappear and the will to fight. It is dark, intense, and cathartic, like allowing oneself to be broken in order to feel something authentic again. Ultimately, the question remains: can we ever be free, or are we condemned to repeat the same patterns indefinitely?”
With Going Postal, Mascara have crafted a release that is human, vulnerable and raw, meant to evoke a cathartic and immersive experience for anyone who listens.
The band will celebrate with a record release show in Paris, France on May 1st, then join This Will Destroy You on tour in Europe this summer. Dates below.
Mascara is Valentin Beaucourt – Vocals / Guitar, Guillaume Guirao – Guitar, Maxime Lebredonchel – Bass, Clément Aulnois – Drums, and Vincent Juvillier – Samples / Synths.
