WICCA PHASE SPRINGS ETERNAL
SUFFER ON (LTD. PINK WITH NEON PURPLE SPLATTER VINYL) (RUN FOR COVER)
Wicca Phase Springs Eternal is the creative persona of Scranton, PA singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Adam McIlwee.
Stark transmissions of obsession, melancholia, and raw emotion compliment acoustic guitar and digital percussion as if Peter Murphy and Metro Boomin had been playing Ouija together.
Beneath the deep 808's, moody synthesizers and cackling guitar, McIlwee's singular voice effectively resonates with a generation raised amidst the frenzied collage of modern digital expression.
In 2015 Wicca Phase Springs Eternal co-founded Gothboiclique (GBC). Comprised of ten artists including Cold Hart, Horse Head, Lil Tracy, and eventually the late Lil Peep.
With GBC's growing notoriety, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal simultaneously established himself as a singular voice, adeptly combining his natural songwriting instincts with the digital culture enveloping his world.
Through an extensive catalog of collaborations, singles, EPs and 2016's Secret Boy LP, McIlwee has become a celebrated pioneer in this vital new direction of underground music.
Along the way, he assembled what would become his 2019 Run For Cover Records debut, Suffer On, with the sonic bedrock evolving yet again as he re-embraces an initial vision.
Suffer On is an exploration of familiar forms through the lens of something new and extraordinary.
It is the first Wicca Phase record fully written by McIlwee, utilizing guitars and keyboards to create each song's core and building upwards from there.
Themes of longing, entrapment and sacrifice permeate the album - the notion of wanting more and not getting it.
Production and lyrics are both intentionally sparse and bleak, reinforcing such feelings and allowing room for the weighty moods to fill the sonic void.
Lush acoustic guitar underscores the heavy emotionality of "Crushed" as he dissects a "natural anxiety about everything." Then, there's "Put Me In Graves." Ethereal synths shimmer above double-time drums as his cadence wavers between frenetic and danceable.
Suffer On's title track encapsulates the delicate sorrow at the record's heart over a haunting timbre.