On their new EP, Heaven Let Them Die, Canadian quartet Counterparts—comprised of lead vocalist Brendan Murphy, guitarists and bassists Tyler Williams and Jesse Doreen, and drummer Kyle Brownlee—thrive on aggression and intensity throughout the surprise six-song EP released via Pure Noise Records on November 7. On the day of the EP’s release, they also shared videos for the lead tracks “A Martyr Left Alive” and “No Lamb Was Lost.”
Filled with only 17 minutes of audacious tunes, the EP finds the band going harder than ever before. “Heaven Let Them Die is Counterparts at our most aggressive—sonically, lyrically, and visually,” says vocalist Brendan Murphy. “Picking up where (2022’s A Eulogy for Those Still Here) ended, Heaven Let Them Die details how I came to terms with all I had foreshadowed in the previous release and how that led me to where I am now. This EP is the most authentic representation of Counterparts—honest, harsh, and without restraint.”
Murphy explains the differences between what a beloved artist can do regarding record releases as opposed to what happens for smaller bands in the rock world playing a role in the band’s release strategy. “For the most part, if you’re an artist, you have to play the game a little bit. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that huge pop artists and rap artists can do that because they’re huge. They don’t need album sales or to prove how big they are. Everyone in our world teases releases and other things like the “big things coming” posts from the random guy who’s been trying to make it in music from your local scene for 20 years, and it doesn’t work. So, I was like, “What’s the opposite of that?” And it was just dropping something out of nowhere.” He continues, “I don’t listen to a lot of heavy stuff. My ear’s on the ground for certain bands, and I keep up so I know what’s going on. I listen to a lot of K-pop, the 1975, and in that world, I feel like it’s so much more common in rap to just drop something out of nowhere. I always thought that was cool.”
Crafting an EP also gave Murphy and company a sense of freedom that would not be found in the process of making a full-length album.
“You’re not hitting people over the head with a 30-song record. It’s five-and-a-half songs; the last song is an outro. You’re getting 17 minutes of music. You can find time in the day to jam to it. It creates urgency. I had people tweeting at me saying, “I pretended to have a stomachache at work so I can jam to this thing.” That it’s out right now, it’s something I have to listen to right now. I feel like that’s something we hadn’t had before. It created this need for people to stop what they’re doing and listen to it.”
If it were up to Murphy, the band would do EPs moving forward.
“Right now, if it were up to me, I’d want to do EPs for the rest of the careers of both of my bands. Going in and doing six bangers in two weeks is so much cooler to me than going and spending five weeks in the studio and writing all these songs, cutting songs because one doesn’t make sense or “that’s a B-Side,” doing the album rollout, and announcing an album that’s out in six months. Because we booked the studio for five weeks, we had the material to do a full-length.”
However, Murphy is aware of the tension between what he wants to do and what record labels expect.
“I know that all labels don’t want to do EPs. They want full-length albums, and they wanna push it. There’s more that you can do with a full-length record; I get that. I would love to do EPs. There is more freedom. We just did a heavy EP with six short, fast songs. What if we did an EP with four songs that were slower and more emotional? Then we do three songs, and it’s back to normal Counterparts. I would love to do that, to go in and say, ‘OK, what do we feel like doing?’
When it comes to writing lyrics, Murphy pulls from his real-life experiences, and the process was no different for Heaven Let Them Die.
“As far as lyrics go, the lyrical content, and the themes, it’s all me writing it. Every record picks up where the other one left off, and that’s the mold for Counterparts anyway. I only write about stuff that’s happened to me and is personal to me, so I think it would be weird to do a record that wasn’t like that. Heaven Let Them Die is from the end of Eulogy until the middle of August of this year. It goes over the main points and summarizes what’s been going on in my life since. Every time I sit down to write, I go, ‘OK, what’s happened since the last album?’”
The band are also embarking on a winter tour through North America with support from Pain of Truth, Malevolence, and Foreign Hand, which Murphy is excited about. Already a fan of all three bands, Murphy says that he’s happy that they are all doing well “right now in their world.”
“Pain of Truth is doing a headliner, and Malevolence is doing a headliner right now. Foreign Hand, the smallest of the three bands, sounds like what Counterparts sounds like in my head,” he laughs. “That’s what I wish we sounded like.”
Outside of playing music for fans, Murphy is looking forward to hanging out with the bands on tour, as they are already friends. “I’m looking forward to the show aspect (of it). It’s going to be fun to do some of these big rooms that we’re trying to fill for the first time. I think the package is strong, and I think the response to the EP has been strong. I’m excited to play all the EP live.”
Heaven Let Them Die is out now, and you can order it from Pure Noise Records. Follow Counterparts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for future updates.
Photo courtesy of Kyle Bergfors
