Video Premiere: East of the Wall – ‘Tell Them I’m Sorry’

Photo: Scott Kinkade

New Jersey progressive metal crew East of the Wall released their new album, NP-Complete. As you’re still digesting the bright, technical musicianship found throughout the record, East of the Wall have delivered an official video for album opener “Tell Them I’m Sorry.” Recorded live at the Brighton Bar in East of the Wall’s home state, the bright visual gels with the sounds heard on NP-Complete.

“It’s odd to go back to the lyrics of ‘Tell Them I’m Sorry’ now, in 2019,” explains bassist/vocalist Chris Alfano. “I wrote them in the tail end of 2015 or so, about populist nationalists and their lack of empathy for refugees coming in from war-torn areas like Syria—the ways fear causes people to choose to ignore the humanity of others in need. Since that time, we’ve just slid further in that direction. So I look back at what I wrote with modern eyes, I get nostalgic. I think a lot of us thought back then that, regardless of which mountain we were pushing back against, that we were at least going in the right direction. That if you zoomed far out and looked at civil rights victories over the last 50, 60 years, that the trend line was averaging up even if it went slowly, or in fits and starts, or for some groups faster than others. And now, the national mood has had a shift and some of those remaining fragments of optimism are gone, and I’m feeling wistful.”

NP-Complete is out now on Translation Loss.