STAKE LOVE, DEATH and DECAY

Mysteries of the heart, and those of the great hereafter, have rarely been far from STAKE
frontman Brent Vanneste’s busy, offbeat brain. Never broken by the weight of grief or
existential dread, however, he uses those feelings as fuel for a musical fire that’s as boldly
unconventional as it is bracingly alive. “This band is about all my inner darkness and
demons, and finding a peaceful place in my head,” he grapples, preferring his songs to do
the talking. “I’m not going to be able to erase them, but making music is a great way of
arranging them and surviving this crazy life.”

That process began when he was just 13 years old. Forming Steak Number Eight in honour of
his recently deceased brother Tobias Vanbrabant, Brent channelled the most aching
personal tragedy into a set of songs that made the whole European rock scene sit up and
take notice. A 2018 rebrand as STAKE (and accompanying album Critical Method) concluded
the “mourning process” by moving away from that unwieldy original name – a song-title
from Tobias’ band Voidpoint – the last few years have proven that you can never really
leave these things behind. The new album Love, Death And Decay is testament to that.
If Critical Method showcased the Mastodon-influenced riffy technicality of their sound, the
isolation and desolation of Love, Death And Decay leans more towards the Deftones and
Tool textural end of the sonic spectrum.

No track is more powerful than bold lead-single F*ck My Anxiety. Laced with fear and
uncertainty, lyrically the track capture Brent’s uneasy mentality over the past few years,
unafraid to chart the suffocating depths of his psyche while forcefully driving home the
importance of learning to let go. Brent explains “Anxiety is something that everybody is
dealing with to some degree or another: wasting so much energy on stuff or missing a lot of
stuff because you’re anxious about things in life. I’ve been thinking about my own anxiety
and how it distorts my own being and changes my choices. Am I actually scared? Which
anxieties do I have? You try to understand, then you grasp them, then you can get further in
life. Eventually, you just have to say, ‘Fuck my anxiety!’”

Tracklist
DISC 1
SIDE A
1. Dream City
2. Ray Of The Sun
3. Love, Death and Decay
SIDE B
1. Deliverance Dance
2. Zone Out
3. F*ck My Anxiety
4. Queen in the Dirt
5. Deadlock Eyes