STARKWEATHER SIGNS TO DEATHWISH INC.

We'd heard rumblings about this last year when they were in town, but now it's finally official. Here's a statement from the band:

"It's been a long four years since our last release. In that time we've been to Europe, played some spectacular and not so spectacular shows in the States, and have written over two albums worth of new material in the bunker. After fulfilling a contractual obligation, we're finally ready to announce that we've signed with Jacob Bannon's Deathwish Inc. With a nearly two decade relationship, this union seemed like the next logical step for the sometimes difficult and idiosyncratic guys in Starkweather. Having known us for as long as he has, Jake is well aware of how obstinate, eccentric, and protective we are of what we do.

"Our first release on Deathwish will be a split release with the colossal Overmars from France. Our contributions to the album are 'Armed Memory,' a seven and a half minute long jagged and aggressive song in the vein of 'Machine Rhythm Confessional' from Croatoan and the second song 'Nightmare Factory,' a Black Sabbath by way of Fear Of God meeting Ved Buens Ende dirge that courses nearly 14 minutes. 'Nightmare' was planned to appear on Croatoan but the version we recorded was subpar and thusly shelved. Both songs for the split were recorded October 11-13 at DeadVerse Studio in Union City, New Jersey under the unflinching eye of Alap Momin. Both songs are dense, claustrophobic, and evoke the paranoia that fueled their writing; containing layer upon layer of guitar, vocals that ebb and flow with the twisting rhythmic passages, and the near telekinetic foundation of the Rosa brothers backline. As a nerdy side note, there was no click track, no beat detective, and no vocal tuning; the drum tracks are one continuous take with us playing together in the live room. A release date and other specifics will be announced soon.

"Our next release on Deathwish, This Sheltering Night, was actually recorded before the split with Overmars at various sessions throughout 2007-2008 at DeadVerse Studios. This is six Starkweather songs ('Bustuari,' 'Epiphany,' 'All Creatures Damned And Divine,' 'Broken From Inside,' 'Martyring,' and 'One Among Vermin') and features soundscape interludes created by artist and musician Elizabeth Jacobs, under her guise as Sophia Perennis, and Oktopus from Dalek. The entire album can be played as one continuous 73:41 piece or as separate tracks. A release date and other specifics will also be announced soon. In the pipeline: Split CD with Singapore's Little Girl Terrorist (featuring the 30+ minute long Drug Holiday) that will be available on Swarm of Nails Records. (Artwork for the Little Girl Terrorist split will be provided by Alex Eckman-Lawn); A split CD with Cali grindcore mavens thousandswilldie that will showcase a slightly different dimension in sound. Featuring a song that carries a spacious Pink Floyd aesthetic crossing angular dissonances of Deathspell Omega and Ved Buens Endes/Virus. This clocks in at about 15 minutes. Both songs will be recorded at DeadVerse Studio in October; Another full length that we have 3 full songs written for and an overwhelming amount of other material to pull from."

Head over to the Starkweather Myspace page for a bunch of other info, too.