Los Angeles post-hardcore band Touché Amoré recently celebrated the release of their critically acclaimed fifth studio album, Lament. Today, the band have shared the visually stunning and poetic video for the album’s title track.
Visual identity has always been a key part of the band’s artistic process from their ambitious vinyl packaging to their captivating videos and graphics. To capture the emotionally raw lyrics of ‘Lament,” Touché Amoré teamed up with multi-platform visual artist Sujin Kim via the CalArts Experimental Animation program.
“The original concept centered around being used up and tossed aside over and over again until you’ve had enough. Told through the story of earth and clay, pot and plant, the interplay between a lifeform and vessel, constraint versus freedom, nourishment and depletion via a symbiotic relationship,” explains the band’s guitarist and resident art director Nick Steinhardt. “The poetic and dark nature of Sujin Kim’s work immediately resonated with me, and it became clear from our initial conversations about words and meaning that a conceptual approach was just as important as the overall aesthetic. Aside from the time-intensive nature of CGI itself, we began diving into my initial treatment, discussing lyrical themes on a deep intellectual level. We touched on topics ranging from the Japanese art of ceramic repair to the unusual flora and peeling bark of rare trees from Mexico and Socotra.”
Since their formation in 2007, Touché Amoré has been burrowing through angst, alienation, cancer, and death throughout four adored studio albums. After over a decade of working through darkness, Lament, finds the light at the end of the tunnel. Through 11 tracks, the Ross Robinson (Slipknot, Korn, At the Drive-In) produced album sees the band tackle themes of fragility, empathy, politics, and love while pushing forward a newfound sense of hope.