Dystopian reality. Division and banality. We are what we tend to be, but are we what we intend to be?

In the eighties and early nineties, young punks gathered in Oakland, California’s abandoned urban spaces, shared punk houses, and small clubs to create community and raise their voices against the injustice and brutality that surrounded them. Complex images drawn on fliers were passed from hand to hand and posted on walls. Songs screamed out behind closed doors were captured on cassettes. The underground was a world of its own, a tightly knit cohort united by the need to transform rage into art, an emotional alchemy that was both earnest and reckless. A visual and sonic language emerged, and thirty years on, it still has the power to speak the truth.

Rungs on a ladder or Bars on a cage?
The only thing I feel that's real is rage.

The members of Tension Span spoke this language in their early bands: Noah in Christ On Parade and Neurosis, Geoff in Asunder and Mauz in Dystopia. These friends of several decades have created something new from the cloth that was woven in their youth. In a moment of complete isolation, separated by the global pandemic, Mauz and Geoff sent rough mixes of new songs to Noah and his mind began to reel with questions, transformed into lyrics.

Cracked Society, cracks your mind.
Am I invisible? Or are you Blind?

Living in a society of constant negative conditions, how do we navigate this journey? How do we walk through this world and hold on to our idealistic intentions, kindness, and empathy through constant states of stress and fear? How is our mental health and spiritual health impacted by angst, anger, anxiety, depression, and trauma. What is it all for, how is any of this meaningful?

Each of us a filament, each of a flame.
Each of us indifferent, each of us the same.

Drawing influence and inspiration from the dark punk and post punk of the late '70's and early 80's, the sensibility and DIY approach of the UK anarcho-punk movement and the energy and immediacy of the early-mid 90's Bay Area punk scene, Tension Span has created music reflecting the bleak reality of this time of socio-political collapse, increasing economic precarity, creeping authoritarianism, and viral biological and psychological pathogens that are decimating the lives of millions.

Ultimately, making meaning out of struggle is a profound act of hope. It is with this spirit and inspiration that Tension Span offers you a collection of twelve songs rooted in the past, caught in the present storm, and yearning toward a new day. The past is a story we experienced together, and the future remains unwritten.

Track Listing:
01. Prologue
02. Cracked Society
03. The Future Died Yesterday
04. The Crate Song
05. Filaments
06. Ventilator
07. Covered in His Blood
08. Problem People
09. Trepidation
10. I Have To Smile
11. Human Scrapyard
12. I Can't Stop This Process
13. Didn't See It Coming