Singled Out: Mara Bloom's Yomi

Hawaii melodic hardcore crew Mara Bloom recently released their debut album, "They Who Invite", and to celebrate we asked them to tell us about the song "Yomi". Here is the story:

Yomi is the fourth song on They Who Invite, and also a sort of marker for the darker mood that lasts throughout the rest of the album. It's a little heavier, a little faster, and a little more ominous than the songs that preceded it, and also marks an important point for the album's conceptual narrative. Its tale runs loosely parallel to the Shinto creation myth that inspired it, and reinvents some of these themes and characters in a modern and original setting that keeps listeners questioning the reality of what's really going on - right along with our protagonists.

Our protagonist is cast out into the land of the dead, Yomi, to reclaim the body and soul of his wife that he himself had sent there so callously. Conscience overwhelms the guilty, even through fragments of ritual madness and scorned love that poisons his fractured psyche. He finds his beloved has taken on the visage of a corpse, having dwelt in the land of the dead for too long. It isn't at all like the crow said it would be...

This is the point when the album starts to get much heavier, much darker. In contrast, Yomi's chorus, in particular, is really bombastic and fist-pumping, and has insanely catchy hooks. Stephen rewrote it a lot before we found the anthem-like energy we wanted. It's also a great showcase of our brand of post-hardcore that we blend with riffs and chord progressions reminiscent of Japanese city pop, while still managing to stay pretty heavy. We wrote this one fairly early on when we started working on They Who Invite. It really helped us define what worked best and what we wanted in our music going forward.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the album here

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Singled Out: Mara Bloom's Yomi