Exclusive Track Premiere: Clover, “Aurora”

Earlier this year, six unsigned bands visited a Converse Rubber Tracks recording studio in either Brooklyn, NY or Boston, MA, where they laid down some jams at one of Converse’s completely free, state-of-the-art facilities with producer Will Putney (The Acacia Strain, Suicide Silence, Exhumed) or Kurt Ballou (Converge, High on Fire, Torche), respectively. Bands signed up through an open application process on MetalSucks, then Axl and Vince worked with Will and Kurt to choose their favorites. We’ll be releasing the tracks all of the finalists recorded over the next two weeks! Today, we continue with Clover from Kingston, NY.

“Aurora” — the song Clover recorded with Will Putney at Converse Rubber Tracks Brooklyn this year — is a perfect microcosm of the band’s home city of Kingston, NY.

Sharp and angular at one turn — Kingston’s gritty, downtrodden, downtown Broadway stretch — and beautiful and quaint the next — with the fancy shops of Uptown just up the road — and the hulking but gorgeous Catskill Mountains lurking in the background to tie it all together.

Don’t worry, there’s no good cop / bad cop bullshit here; everything Clover do, they do with the utmost class and care. Most of “Aurora” is viscerally aggressive, a mix of metal and post-hardcore, but tastes of melodic, shimmery guitars in the track’s mid-section are the secret sauce that bring it together and make it go.

Will Putney’s production, of course, knocks it out of the park, the perfect mix of rawness and clarity to bring this song’s strengths to light. Stream it below.