Deeper’s Triumphant Auto-Pain Takes On New Meaning After Tragedy

Deeper know tragedy better than most. While recording their sophomore album Auto-Pain, guitarist Mike Clawson left the band due to deteriorating relationships with the Chicago group’s other three members. Later, after their record was finished and the post-punk act was touring in Europe, they received the news that Clawson had taken his own life. Throughout this catastrophic period, Deeper decided not to let Clawson’s passing derail their tour and release schedule, instead using them as a way to pay tribute to his contributions to the band and speak out about mental health (as they did with Paste earlier this year).

As lead singer and guitarist Nic Gohl mentioned in his interview with our own Lizzie Manno, Auto-Pain was completed prior to Clawson’s death, but the album’s lyrics, written as a stream of consciousness, took on a completely different meaning. And it’s hard to listen to them any other way: Some depict graphic images of self-harm and violence (“Forced to set yourself on fire tonight / You shouldn’t count on the sun” from “Run,” or “I just want you to feel sick / Cause you’re better as you’re lying on the bathroom floor” from “Lake Song”) while others are a bit more abstract (“Is it any wonder / I feel so gray” from “Esoteric”). Auto-Pain is an album built on hues of blacks and grays, depicting a shadowy, sinister world. Clawson’s suicide turns those already gloomy colors into something several shades darker.

But despite the amplified bleak lyrical content, Auto-Pain is a triumphant album. Its spring-loaded, skeletal guitar riffs matched with Gohl’s in-your-face speak-singing feel tremendously cathartic, as if this is how they chose to channel their grief. The initially gentle opening guitar strums of “Esoteric,” which grow in intensity like a heart suddenly beating faster, quickly transform into a punchy, icy guitar riff that sets the tone for the rest of the record. Two songs later, lead single “This Heat” enters guns blazing with a massive guitar riff that keeps building as Gohl’s anthemic “You’re crossing a line” refrain first hits. If Deeper ever get to play the big venues they’re clearly aiming for with their sophomore record, “This Heat” is going to be the song that aims for the nosebleeds.