Video Premiere: Hush – “There Can Be No Forgiveness Without the Shedding of Blood”

Bleak. That’s the vibe New York sludge merchants Hush—Jordan Cozza (bass/guitar), Jason Tash (bass), Jeff Andrews (guitar), Mark O’Brien (drums), Charles Cure (vocals)—have to offer in their new video for “There Can Be No Forgiveness Without the Shedding of Blood.” The stark, blown-out black and white cinematography only accentuates the very dramatic content of visual images. Dude self-flagellates; dude bashes his head into the ground; dude sets himself on fire. It ain’t pretty or uplifting, and that’s no doubt the intent. Hush’s noisy, sludgy post-metal horror-show provide the appropriate soundtrack for said bleakness.

The track is taken from Hush’s fourth full-length, The Pornography Of Ruin, which will be self-released on June 24 on CD and digitally. There will also be a cassette release via Sludgelord Records, with a vinyl release to follow.  The video was filmed and directed by Hush drummer Mark O’Brien and features band members Jason Tash as the protagonist and Jordan Cozza as a dark figure that pursues him. The Pornography Of Ruin was engineered at the band’s studio, HOVVL Audio Environment in Hudson, New York by frequent collaborator Ryan Slowey, and was mastered by Jack Shirley at Atomic Garden in Oakland, California. You can preorder it here.

Here are vocalist Charles Cure’s thoughts on the video:

“Lyrically the song portrays the mental and emotional landscape of depression. It is an extremely solitary and isolating experience that traps the individual inside an echo chamber of self-reinforcing hopelessness. The narrative of the video presents this concept as the individual being pursued by another version of themselves that is passively encouraging the steps they take to actualize their own destruction. In the final moment of the video when the figure in black shows itself to be the same person who has just been burned alive, the cyclical nature of depression reveals itself, but also presents the possibility that the struggle with it can be turned into an opportunity for transformation of the self. Mark and I discussed and conceptualized this a lot before filming, and I think he did an amazing job translating the ideas into a visual medium.”

And more from drummer Mark O’Brien:

“The look and feel of the video was important to us; I wanted to represent the lack of detail in the world and your surroundings when you are trapped in a self-destructive loop. That state of mind isolates you to a point where there’s just you and the most basic and unavoidable experiential aspects of the world available to you and everything is reduced to rudimentary shapes without color or sharpness. The only details you can focus on are in the objects you use to further the spiral. I think that we were able to communicate that feeling through the aesthetic of the video.”

Hush are dealing with serious topics in this video. If you need help, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 800-273-8255.

Upcoming Hush live dates:

6/24/2022 Riffhouse Pub – Chesapeake, VA w/ Cowardice, Knoll, Redundant Protoplasm

6/25/2022 Atlas Brew Works – Washington, DC w/ Foehammer, Cowardice, Et Mors

6/26/2022 TBA

6/27/2022 Saint Vitus Bar – Brooklyn, NY w/ Pharaoh, Cowardice

6/28/2022 Middle East Upstairs – Cambridge, MA w/ Cazador, Cowardice, Head In Hand

7/08/2022 The Avalon Lounge – Catskill, NY w/ Planning For Burial, Madeline Darby