Demons Announces New Album Privation for April 2021 Release and Shares New Song “Play Acting Virtue”

D J C · March 4, 2021

Zach Gehring, guitarist for Mae, has announced the forthcoming album for his experimental project Demons. Privation is due to be released on April 30 under Spartan Records and will feature the newly released single “Play Acting Virtue.”

Demons’ newest track consists of a riff-heavy, thrash metal sound with tumultuous vocals. “This song was one of the earlier ones written for Privation. I was listening to a lot of Converge, and I still hear the influence applied through our filter. The music was written on an acoustic. It was a block headed riff that came alive when Drew built the drum part. He achieved the perfect balance of chaos and drive. Lyrically, I was caught up on this promise that truth somehow brings freedom, or truth liberates you. I think that can often have the opposites impact. I think the truth is often treated as a sort of shallow poetic device, or an ephemeral enlightenment. But it’s an obligation that never fully subsides,” said Gehring in a press release.

“Play Acting Virtue,” along with the other music Gehring producers under Demons, has a much different sound than what Mae typically releases . Mae is a rock band that is known for a softer, emo rock sound where Demons falls under the heavy punk-rock category. Demons formed in Norfolk, Virginia and features both Gehring and Chris Mathews on vocals and guitar along with Jonathan Anderson on bass and Drew Orton on drums.

Privation will be the band’s second full-length release. “The title of the record is concerned with loss, deprivation, and lack. In our context — this is reflective of where we are at personally, culturally, and politically. It’s a structural aspect of our lived experience — and it is particularly aggravated of late,” said Gehring in a press release. The upcoming album will be a 10-track release full of self-reflection.