New album “Unmarked Boxes” out on November 19th!
DAXMA’s new album “Unmarked Boxes” is an intimate work of conscientious introspection inspired by and named after the 13th century Rumi poem, that explores themes of grief and hope through crushingly heavy guitar tones, haunting orchestration and lush melodies.
Says the band: “‘Unmarked Boxes” is named after and directly inspired by the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi’s poem, the opening lines of which, ‘Don’t grieve, anything you lose comes back in another form’ comprise the song titles of the latter half of the album. While our previous releases were thematically connected to various philosophical and anti-capitalist political traditions, “Unmarked Boxes” explores difficult personal topics such as grief, depression, longing, and the process of overcoming. As a band, we have been working on this material for some time, only recently feeling like we’ve undergone the musical and spiritual growth necessary to achieve our vision and put this album out into the world.”
In 2016, the Oakland, CA post-metal/doom collaborative DAXMA (pronounced DOCK-ma, the term for a Zoroastrian funerary temple) released their first EP “The Nowhere of Shangri-la”, a work centered around ideas of frustration, longing, and utopianism. The following year, they unveiled their debut album “The Head Which Becomes the Skull”, a towering meditation on the soul’s journey from birth through death inspired by the philosophical works of Hegel, Kierkegaard, and The Heart Sutra.
DAXMA’s second EP “Ruins Upon Ruins” was released through Blues Funeral Recordings in 2019 as part of their Postwax Series, alongside records from Elder, Spotlights, Lowrider, Big Scenic Nowhere, Besvarjelsen and Domkraft. The EP, with two tracks that wove through bleak atmospherics and monolithic power, was called “an emotional, darkly delicate and starkly beautiful post-doom record”.
While navigating the generally hellish landscape of California in 2020, DAXMA entered the studio to record their sophomore full-length ‘”Unmarked boxes” with Ben Hirschfield at Nu-Tone Recording in San Francisco. An album that will mark the culmination of their collective growth over the span of five years as a band, to be released by Blues Funeral Recordings and Majestic Mountain Records in November 2021.
