Assertion
photo by Andrew Kvenvolden

Assertion (ex-Sunny Day Real Estate) releasing debut LP this week (stream a new track)

William Goldsmith, founding drummer of Sunny Day Real Estate and The Fire Theft and a ’90s-era Foo Fighter, had been on hiatus from music for a decade, but as mentioned, he’s now drumming for a new band, Assertion, whose debut album Intermission arrives this Friday (4/9) via Spartan Records (pre-order). The band is fronted by guitarist/vocalist Justin Tamminga (also of the bands Pig Snout, Blind Guides, and Dying Trades) and rounded out by bassist Bryan Gorder (Blind Guides, Once For Kicks, Slorder), and longtime William Goldsmith fans will probably be pleased to know that they sound straight out of the mid ’90s post-hardcore era. William’s drumming style is very similar to his work on Diary, and the dark, heavy, atmospheric songs recall stuff like Hum, Jawbox, and Quicksand. Assertion put a fresh spin on this stuff, as you can hear on the album’s three singles, including the new “Deeper in the Shallow,” which premieres in this post.

“‘Deeper In The Shallow’ was written roughly 14 or 15 years ago,” Justin tells us. “The song was sort of a letter to my sister, who had just moved to the town I was living in and was starting to hang out with people in the ‘scene.’ We grew up in an abusive household and a lot of these people’s actions mirrored those of my mom and step dad. When you grow up in a traumatic environment, it tends to hinder your ability to see abusive behavior because you’re used to being treated poorly and not having your boundaries respected. This is also why we came up with the band name Assertion. So the song is a mixture of our background mixed with the current time and place we were living. I went on to play this song in a band called Hands Of Toil, until William heard it and wanted to play it. William, Bryan and I reinvented it, dropped the tuning and added a bit more dynamics.”

Listen to all three singles below…

Tracklist
Down Into The Depths
The Lamb To The Slaughter Pulls A Knife
Defeated
This Dream Does Not Work
Pushed To The Limit
Deeper In The Shallow
This Lonely Choir
Supervised Suffering
Set Fire