After swapping hemispheres, Australian outfit Death Bells have found a new
home in Los Angeles, emerging with a new album of fervent guitar-driven rock,
stripped of gloom and punching through with a new sense of positivity. New
Signs of Life, their debut for Dais Records, finds Death Bells using a DIY pedigree
to plunder the conventions of "rock music" with a saxophone along for the
mission. Rather than leaping genres or formats, New Signs of Life is refined and
nuanced-a methodology built on process, craft, and perspective.
Following their 2017 debut, Standing at the Edge of the World, and follow-up
single "Echoes," Death Bells left their hometown of Sydney for the United States.
Energized by impulse, extensive touring and exploration led to the formation of
an ambitious six-piece band that eventually coalesced as a collaboration between
founding members Will Canning and Remy Veselis. With Canning and Veselis
becoming the engine, Death Bells began to employ several underground mainstay
musicians to complete their live presentation, including Cortland Gibson (Dock
Hellis), Colin Knight (Object of Affection), and on occasion Brian Vega (Fearing).
Revitalized and centered, Death Bells released the single "Around the Bend" in
2019, before workshopping material that would eventually comprise their second
full-length effort. As much as Standing at the Edge of the World was an energized
disclosure informed by fresh naivete, New Signs of Life harnesses those initial
sparks, cloaking the threads of Death Bells with authority, allowing each of the
nine tracks which embody New Signs of Life to become lush streamlined vehicles.