TORONTO SHOW FEBRUARY 11, 2019 AT VELVET UNDERGROUND

Toronto, ON – October 31, 2018 – Brighton quartet, As It Is, have released a chilling and intense new music video for The Reaper, the band's heaviest and darkest cut to date. The song features guest vocals from Aaron Gillespie of Underoath fame, who also makes an appearance in the horror inspired music video.

The Reaper, is taken from As It Is’ new album, The Great Depression, released earlier this year via Fearless Records. The album also features singles, The Wounded World, The Stigma (Boys Don’t Cry), and The Fire, The Dark.

Alongside the launch of the video the band has made available The Fire Edition of The Great Depression on limited orange vinyl. This new pressing is available now here.

Speaking of the video, As It Is guitarist/vocalist, Ben Langford-Biss, says, "The Reaper is the moment in the record’s narrative where The Poet becomes so desensitised to the concept of death, that death appears and manifests before him, offering an “escape”- not in a malicious way, but as a means of release from the pain The Poet is feeling. It was one of the most crucial and challenging moments in the narrative, and it was the last one that came together – lyrically and musically. 

To confer these themes of turmoil and conflict, the sort of inner claustrophobia The Poet is experiencing, we wanted the video to be gritty and dark. We ended up taking visual influence from some of our favourite horror movies and TV series, and our director Zak Pinchin really clicked with what we were trying to get across. 

The video shows each of us waking up trapped in rooms, each room representing one of the four stages of grief that the record is chaptered into; denial, anger, bargaining & acceptance. Each of us faces off with death in some respect, whether that be in a literal or metaphysical sense, and there is an external antagonist controlling the events in the rooms – forcing us to face our fears, our grief, or even ourselves.  We were super excited that Aaron Gillespie was able to be a part of the video, to play the part of this puppeteer / antagonist! 

Both the song and the video are so different to anything we’ve done before, and we’re so fortunate that our fans have embraced the darker and heavier side of our band & our constant desire to progress in new directions. And we just cannot wait to finally bring this album to life on stage when we finally start touring The Great Depression era this week: first in Japan, and then in Europe and UK  (which culminates in our biggest headline show to date at the London Forum on December 1), and then we'll be returning to the US in early 2019 for our first time since Warped Tour! There's so much more to come from this chapter of our band, we are only just getting started."

As It Is brings The Great Depression tour to venues later this year with their biggest headline dates to date.

TOUR DATES:
November 2 – Ōsaka-shi, Japan – Socore Factory
November 3 – Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan – Conquest
November 5 – Nagoya-shi, Japan –3star
November 7 – Shibuya-ku, Japan – duo Music Exchange
November 18 – Antwerp, Belgium – Trix
November 19 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg Old Hall
November 21 – Hamburg, Germany – Logo
November 22 – Cologne, Germany – Luxor
November 23 – Paris, France – Boule Noire
November 25 – Bristol, UK – Thekla
November 26 – Edinburgh, UK – Liquid Rooms
November 28 – Manchester, UK – Ritz
November 29 – Birmingham, UK – O2 Institute
December 1 – London, UK – The Forum
December 4 – Kingston Upon Thames, UK – All Saints Church
January 17 – Los Angeles, CA – The Teragram Ballroom
January 18 – Camarillo, CA – Rock City Studios
January 19 – San Diego, CA – SOMA
January 20 – Mesa, AZ – Club Red
January 22 – Alburguerque, NM – Launchpad
January 24 – Oklahoma City, OK – 89^th Street – OKC
January 25 – San Antonio, TX – Jack’s Bar & Live Music Venue
January 27 – Houston, TX – The Secret Group
January 29 – Dallas, TX – The Prophet Bar
January 31 – Nashville, TN – The End
February 1 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
February 2 – Tampa, FL – Crowbar
February 3 – Orlando, FL – The Social
February 5 – Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
February 6 – Richmond, VA – Canal Club
February 7 – Philadelphia, PA – Voltage Lounge
February 9 – Asbury Park, NJ – House of Independents
February 10 – Cambridge, MA – Middle East
February 11 – Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground
February 13 – Grand Rapids, MI – The stache at The Intersection
February 14 – Columbus, OH – Woodlands Tavern
February 15 – Chicago, IL – Subterranean
February 16 – St. Louis, MO – Fubar
February 17 – Kansas City, MO – Encore at The Uptown Theater
February 19 – Denver, CO – Hi-Dive
February 20 – Salt Lake City, UT – Loading Dock
February 21 – Las Vegas, NV – Vinyl at Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas
February 22 – Anaheim, CA – Chain Reaction
March 28 – Tilburg, Netherlands – 013 Poppodium
March 29 – Strasbourg, France – La Laiterie – Grande Salle
April 1 – Milan, Italy – Alkatraz
April 2 – Munich, Germany – Neue Theaterfabrik
April 3 – Linz, Austria – Posthof – Zeitkultur am Hafen
April 4 – Budapest, Hungary – Akvarium Nagyhall
April 6 – Praha 8, Czech Republic – Forum Karlin
April 7 – Dresden, Germany – Alter Schlachthof
April 8 – Berlin, Germany – Huxleys Neue Welt
April 9 – Leipzig, Germany – Conne Island
April 11 – Erlangen, Germany – E-Werk
April 12 – Dortmund, Germany – FZW
April 13 – Cologne, Germany – Live Music Hall
April 15 – Wiesbaden, Germany – Kulturzentrum Schlachthof
April 16 – Saarbrucken, Germany – Garage
April 17 – Brussels, Belgium - AB

DOWNLOAD – album artwork | DOWNLOAD – high-res press photo

www.asitisofficial.com