Mascara Dish Heavy Shoegaze on Single “Nerium”

On March 13th, Paris, France-based band Mascara will unleash their first full-length, Going Postal, through Fever Ltd. The nine tracks were born from tension between collapse and liberation, creating an impressive blend of shoegaze, post-hardcore, and alternative rock. Having already shared the explosive “Nova Ador” and cathartic “Marrow,” Mascara releases the new single “Nerium.”

“Nerium” is an intoxicating spell initiated through distant, swirling vocals and throbbing rhythms. The intensity in the repetitions of the track rises as it progresses as Valentin Beaucourt belts, “Stuck for ages / I’ll let it go.”

On the song, the band shares:

“‘Nerium’ takes its name from the oleander, a beautiful but poisonous flower. It grows even in the most arid places, like a tenacious poison. It attracts you, soothes you, but every part of it is toxic. The song evokes the illusion of control that imprisons us and the silent denial that prevents us from facing reality. It speaks of addiction and the need to forget when the world becomes too heavy to bear.”

Going Postal is an album about what it feels like to live in a world that’s falling apart, a world that constantly pushes you to your limits while pretending everything is fine. It’s an expression of experience on a personal and global scale – frustration, exhaustion, and a strange, underlying form of hope. Writing the album took two introspective years, while it was recorded in one intense week with Clément Decrock at Boss Hog Studio. The nine tracks center through light and dark, swaying from pulverizing riffs to hazy distortion to experimental ambience.

Going Postal Track Listing:

1. NOVA ARDOR
2. MARROW
3. MASS
4. NERIUM
5. N_E_S_N_S_J_W
6. DREAM
7. THE STATIC
8. GOING POSTAL
9. WITHDRAWAL

Mascara ‘Going Postal’ album artwork