The Smothering Arms of Mercy

Growth began as a study in isolation by brothers Tristan Barnes (guitars, ex-Zhrine) and Nelson Barnes (drums, ex-Ne Obliviscaris/The Schoenberg Automaton) in Melbourne, Australia, after a decade's absence from each other, while pursuing music overseas. With the addition of L.F (vocals, ex-Jack The Stripper), the trio set out to create music that explored the human aspects of connection, trauma, despair, and the fragility of hope.

The result was the debut album The Smothering Arms Of Mercy (mixed & mastered by Fredrik Nordström - Opeth), a claustrophobic narrative of total spiritual collapse written while in psychiatric care and thrown over nine suffocating acts. This marked the first part of a trilogy, detailing in honesty the extremity of recovery from mental illness. Released in December 2020 via Wild Thing Records, the album charted at #7 on the Australian Independent Record Charts, without the band ever performing live.

Opening awash in the menacing feedback of Cigarette Burns, the listener is dragged through this story of descent - the limerent hopelessness of Treatment For Melancholy, the oppressive fury of Soul Rot, and the chilling ambiguity of the album's final moments; altogether a call to action against the silent march of despair and sickness.The Smothering Arms Of Mercy highlights the extremity of grief and asks the listener to reflect on their relationship with loss and vulnerability. Bare to the world. Visceral and honest. Pain can be the source of your renewal. Learn to greet it as a friend.