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The Glass Garden

by Flesh of the Stars

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pinkytheent
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pinkytheent Another excellent entry! One which feels very different from my memory of Mercy. That record burned with an aching, yearning reach, romantic and beatific. Glass Garden is instead a doomy dirge through a dark and apparently looping apocalypse wasteland, tired and afraid and alone. Very different vibes, same engrossing quality: the thoughtful songwriting really draws you deep into the story. I felt the grit under my boots, following the haunted protagonist. Perfect story-telling with sound. Favorite track: Unseen.
Patrick Testa
Patrick Testa thumbnail
Patrick Testa All I can say is... wow! Any one of the three epic songs could be a fantastic EP for another band, and they're each just just one song on the new album. Bravo! Favorite track: Into the Maze.
Uncle Gary
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Uncle Gary come play MPLS please Favorite track: Into the Maze.
flightoficarus (Metal Trenches)
flightoficarus (Metal Trenches) thumbnail
flightoficarus (Metal Trenches) A nice chill wellspring to throw on and break up the usual torment I put myself through.
- MetalTrenches.com Favorite track: Terraforms.
Dirty Ears Bill
Dirty Ears Bill thumbnail
Dirty Ears Bill A beautiful swan song from one of the world's most underrated doom acts. Before you unplug completely, how can I help fund a few vinyl pressings? 🤝
Carlo
Carlo thumbnail
Carlo The kind of album that you only get to listen to like the first time once. From start to stop, a mature, meaningful and provocative culmination of their work to date. Meticulously and carefully crafted, balanced songwriting with highlights throughout. Deeply progressive and crushing. Nothing overstays its welcome and it ends before I'm ready. Thank you guys for such a special record in such an amazing catalog. Favorite track: Unseen.
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  • T-Shirt/Shirt + Digital Album

    FOTS 2014-INFINITY
    THANK YOU FOR LISTENING

    design by nico, metal lettering by james mchenry (blindequation.bandcamp.com)

    two-color small print on the front, two-color big-ass print on the back

    very likely the last flesh merch we're ever gonna do, so get em while you can!

    all orders come with a download of THE GLASS GARDEN (october 27) & a pin while supplies last

    if all goes as planned, i should get these bad boys shipped out around the end of the month!

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Glass Garden via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Terraforms 06:17
here, in the blanketing red, where the last hours dull, hot coals burn to ash at the light string's pull. countless yellow lines & broken-down cars. windows gaping mouths in the dark. look up! stations dot the far-off hills! & glow where the current flows through, all the tested earth. laid to rest unmarked in the open desert... go straight! onward! floods buzzing like a hive over fortified ground - the only voice in the vastness as i idle on through (uncertain & unbound), onto bear witness... to the plague, leeching into tender soil. what will ever stop this meaningless machine? all will be consumed when the floodlights' beams... take aim, onward. go straight, onward! pale dawn breaks; silt & smoke. still on the road.
2.
Overworld 05:43
aching glow, warm wind. overworld in tight motion. forms breathe & hours heave on shapeless. in the drone of the storm every night, with the embers working soft & discreet. never sleep. never know for certain. pulse in ear, reflex. feel it in my fingertips. rise up (to) cries from the complex. through the drain, to the soil. through the sob of the ceaseless, seasonless rain on the bars over webbed, taped imitation glass. shock the still! they emerge! figures in the cracked corners. knives gleam; night screams onward. & so the mirror points at mirror until a winding path appears. all watch as the web finds its weave! as the pages curl in heat! rendered clear, image seared, of the pathway turning!
3.
links rattle & coils hiss; stone lies still. soles skid & the sand spits; echoes spill. no signs of life. board nailed to the back gate, tagged & thin. wood splintering sharp & loose from years of wind. pull back, split cracks, & slip in. tight, patterned sky. manic high tarp windows hardly hold. dive down inside. undertow taking hold; grab & pull. smoke tumbling streetwards, surge & roar. half-circles in concrete on the foundry floor. faint signal hums just under the conscious somewhere near. stake out where the aperture might soon appear. pulse beats, then retreats in the air. frail, latticed veil. voices call, blotted out, pinched & sprawled. crazed tub lights blaze; colors drain; sparks lash down; time just halts. & a fog encloses all... sand, fragments, & dirt, whirling & rising. pelting my skin, blurring my eyes red & raw. they say, don't turn away until i feel the pull. gather my strength, cover my eyes, & wait. rays cut like a blade, drawing the aperture wide. staling the air, musk like a tomb flooding out. stand blank in the cascade, its violence so bright. follow it down, without a word, into the maze. 3, 2, 1 - all-consumed, all-aflame. all is dust; dust is all. gasp, throat like glass; sirens blast; webbing climbs up the walls. & the hands wrap my ankles... try now to read the marks on the tomb walls. crucified tongue, stamped into earth to erode. black lines buried in ages of stone, strata of life untold. burned, all, in the end. find no mercy for them. tunnel contracts, stench all around now. filling my lungs; wrenching my hands. cold floor ungiving. too tight to crawl; too far to turn back. pale fire at the gate. find no path to escape.
4.
the visions clear in evening air. i watch the sun return to sand & stand. shake the sleep. memories leak. sirens streak. suspended ash, in orange & black, in tidal animation stirs. burned, solid sky. highway lights throw for miles. in mapless dusk. the embers snuffed. laughter dots the darkest roads. i came to know vacant rows, aching glow - real fear. drips flecked with cinders gathering quicker. shirt soaked, stained gray. grates choked in the drain. surge growing stronger, washing away cars up on bricks. foundations split. plague comes; mud sticks. a howl erupts inside the flood, &, like an animal to blood, i wade in the deep. this place summoned me. could they really be.... ? the rushing end. he wails again. the awful distance to descend - opaque & unsure. heat sways in the blur. on faith, onward. burrow through the crashed-open door. slither to the carnage's source. faint flicker. twin whispers. ripples in the air; current pulses. wither in the presence of fear. dawn's cold light, gone down inside.
5.
Unseen 14:03
hot - barely pull breath through burlap. taut - soaking with sweat & mud. watch streets recede through the weave. chatter in unknown language. peek - sun across cloudless sky streaks, long-exposed. & the days combine. drop, fluttering, conscious, then i'm not. cellophane flecked with glass & rocks. engines tick at an unmarked dumping site. a dozen cars like mine. & the days combine. in the all-seeing red, where the last hours limp, sand melts to cobalt glass when someone throws the switch. i walk the fields alone in the world-destroying rain. half-life undisclosed; motive unexplained. what will ever stop this thrashing of machines? all will be transformed in the garden's gleam. & they rake the sand. & take all that's born to them. & sow native grass. & load the starting gun again. captured & cowed - our words reclaimed. but no secrets can stay kept when we have faith. summon the will; force our way in. when no light shines down, these hands are laboring. bruised, broken, & bare - burn through the scared city. hide all through the night; forms in the black all breathing. find our cleaving ground; wait for the sound of tires. unseen through the gale; distant & frail voices. foundry bulbs all blaze; hands clasp in crazed & desperate ties through the divide. dragging him through the veil. when the apertures close & we survey the debris - two more trapped inside for every one who leaves. ash on the desert floor; glass sticking to our feet. tracking our river of red back to the vacant city. the violence of what comes next, we'll witness with our own eyes & be told that we did not see!

credits

released October 27, 2023

all songs written by flesh of the stars

matt ciani - electric & acoustic guitars, vocals, synthesizers, electric piano
nico ciani - drums on songs 2 & 4
sam corman penzel - drums on songs 1, 3, & 5
travis marmon - bass
will phalen - pedal steel guitar

recorded by doug malone at jamdek & matt ciani at wholesome center for the arts
mixed by matt ciani at victory audio wreckers & ohmstead recording in chicago, illinois
mastered by brad boatright at audiosiege in portland, oregon

artwork by nico ciani

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Flesh of the Stars Chicago, Illinois

melancholic progressive doom & synthesizer worship from chicago, illinois.

matt ciani
nico ciani
sam corman penzel
mike fox
travis marmon

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