The Silence Follows Tour

The dual headlining tour of the two powerhouses of ERRA and Currents made its way through the good ‘ol valley of heat this past week. With only a handful of stops left, the bands still brought the electric energy to the Marquee Theatre. 

Time constraints had me just missing the opening act, Aviana, but here’s still a small blurb about the Swedish natives: 

Even though their beginnings were in 2016, their rebirth occurred in 2020. Three of the four original members of the band exited, leaving Joel Holmqvist the sole member. In 2021, Aviana released their second album with Holmqvist as the main member, but a group of masked live crew by the name of Death, Fear & Dark joined Holmqvist on stage.

Caskets quietly built up a following here in the US with their connections to legends in the scene, such as We Came As Romans, Blessthefall, Of Mice & Men, and Set It Off (just to name a few), and really solidified their fan base with their time slot at the 2024 Aftershock Fest. Openers rarely get crowd surfers, but I found myself dodging around security and flying feet while trying to get shots for the first three songs. They started out their set strong with “Make Me a Martyr” and pounded out the set with “Glass Heart”.

Currents took to the stage first ahead of the ERRA for this stop. Speaking of crowd surfers from the last paragraph, the danger zone was in the photo pit for all three songs. The following photos were snapped at my own risk, for sure, but it was great to finally see this band after years of following their journey. Currents released their EP, All That Follows, in October, which they played in full during their set. With a technical failure during “Into Despair”, the crowd started a chant until the tech was fixed. The band came out smiling and restarted the song from the top.

ERRA has really stepped up in the past few years after the release of their newest project, silence outlives the earth. I saw them live back in 2023 after their release of Cure and the energy has increased tenfold in just a short album cycle. ERRA flexed the bass in the room by opening with gore of being from their newest release. 

Their newest album silence outlives the earth, is the clearest example of the band’s musical and thematic acuity to date. From the moment it kicks off with “stelliform", it’s an album that exists in a liminal space of its own creation and that, inspired by both personal circumstances and the state of the world at large, explores what it means to be between.

The existential, contemplative nature of these songs is matched by the mystical, ethereal disposition of their quieter moments - moments that reflect that self-reflection - but there’s plenty of crushing catharsis, too. That’s long been the way for ERRA, but they pull it off with exceptional skill here. Recorded, engineered, and produced by Daniel Braunstein - with whom the band also made their previous three albums - the extremes at the center of their songs have never felt more extreme, yet have also never sounded more cohesive, more connected.

That precision has helped create an immersive narrative that lasts throughout the record. While the stories it’s telling are certainly personal, it also gathers inspiration from further afield - often by books that Cash has read or words he sees, reads, or hears. The two combine to devastating effect throughout this record, but perhaps most poignantly on “black cloud”. It’s a song that perfectly demonstrates the singer’s approach to lyrics. “When I wrote that song,” Cash says, “I was thinking about the day my dad died, but I wasn't writing about my dad dying, if that makes sense. It would be inaccurate to say that, that song was written about my dad. It's not, but that is the feeling that I was anchoring to while writing it.”

Make sure to keep up with the artists on their socials listed below!

Aviana: Facebook | Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Instagram | TikTok | Website

Caskets: Facebook | Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Instagram | TikTok | Website

Currents: Facebook | Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Instagram | Website

ERRA: Facebook | Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Instagram | X | Website