PREMIERE: ALERA // Drop New Single’ Bleak’

Heck yeah, it’s finally here! Last week, we were lucky enough to grab Alera to chat about their new single, Bleak.

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And now, the up-and-coming quintet has officially shared it with the world. Strap yourself in if you’re a fan of spoken word-core, nostalgic post-hardcore or just bloody fantastic Oz music; this is really something special.

It is the second single from the band and leads the way for their upcoming EP Beware the Snake, set to drop on Friday, November 26th. “Bleak is about struggling with dark thoughts and was written in a time of vulnerability.” says vocalist Hayden Oakley. “The desperation of the mind when it seeks escape can become overpowering, and during moments of weakness can leave you in a state of hopelessness.”

Alera rolled out this single with a cryptic mail-out campaign, encouraging fans and their Discord community to piece together the puzzle and uncover its pre-save link. Oakley explained this further in our interview, adding: “For the most part, the letter campaign itself was reminiscent of pieces of pop culture we’re interested in—things like mystery novels and early internet events like Cicada 3301. We pulled from all these cool sources and put them in the mail-out campaign.”

Alera has been over five years in the making. They are Oakley (clean vocals), Matt Ashley (harsh vocals), Mark Jones (rhythm guitar), Corey Cichowski (lead guitar) and Tony Taylor (bass guitar).

Bleak was produced by Christopher Vernon (Belle Haven, Better Half). It will officially drop on Friday, October 1st. Pre-save it now.

FOR FANS OF: Belle Haven, Aburden, Bloom