Uniform – “Delco”
Uniform’s last proper full-length album, The Long Walk, came out back in 2018, and they’ve spent the few years in close collaboration with the Providence duo the Body, releasing their second collaborative album, Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back, last year. They returned at the top of 2020 with a one-off track through Adult Swim’s singles series, “Awakening,” and today the New York hardcore band are announcing their fourth album, Shame.
They’re kicking things off with the heavy, pummeling lead single “Delco,” named after Delaware County outside Philadelphia, where vocalist Michael Berdan grew up. It culminates in Berdan chanting: “You are what you’ve done/ You are what’s been done to you.”
Here’s Berdan on the track:
During my adolescence I would get routinely picked on and beat up by some of the kids in the neighborhood who I desperately wanted to like me. The more beatings I caught, the more I’d go back to try and impress them. My self esteem was nonexistent and I developed psychological calluses. I learned to repeat some of the behaviors that had been leveled my way on those beneath me in the pecking order. In time, I became numb. Getting older and attempting to reconcile with personal demons surrounding depression, anxiety and substance abuse has forced me to take a long, hard look at my childhood. In the process I’ve realized to degrees just how I’ve perpetuated learned cycles of harm. A terrified part of me is still a little kid in Delco. This song is an exercise in trying to come to terms with these ghosts and let go. Some days are better than others.
Listen below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Delco”
02 “The Shadow Of A God’s Hand”
03 “Life In Remission”
04 “Shame”
05 “All We’ve Ever Wanted”
06 “Dispatches From The Gutter”
07 “This Won’t End Well”
08 “I Am The Cancer”
Shame is out 9/11 via Sacred Bones. Pre-order it here.