All Your Sisters Trust Ruins

All Your Sisters was conceived in 2011 in Reno, NV by Jordan Morrison as an outlet to process the suffering that Morrison witnessed while working graveyard shifts as a paramedic. The primal state of debased humanity certainly left a blistering mark that can be heard in the project’s third full-length, Trust Ruins. Morrison also mines themes from his fundamentalist Christian upbringing as well as a series of paramount life events—both devastating and blissful—that preceded the album’s inception.

In the final two months of 2016, then residing in San Francisco, Morrison experienced the elation of becoming engaged in tandem with the fatal drug overdose of his brother-in-law, as well as the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland that claimed the lives of many in the Bay Area music scene. Compounded with the recent presidential election, a sense of inescapable doom and dystopia lingered, forcing Morrison to re-examine the direction of his life. He explains, “This record is about making hard life choices, living with those decisions, and the struggle to live life on life’s terms. If I die tomorrow, I don’t want to have any regrets.”

Engineered by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker, Bosse-de-Nage), Trust Ruins is the score to a series of de-indoctrinating sermons, armed with marching protest beats. Drawing on the energetic industrial and post-punk influences of the previous Uncomfortable Skin (The Flenser, 2016) and Modern Failures (2014) albums, this latest is a dark, dynamic assortment of songs that pushes far past nostalgia to create something new. Punchy electronic drums provide a foundation for layers of dreamy piano, howling guitars, brooding synths, and Morrison’s commanding croon that often unravels into a yell. While Trust Ruins may seem hopelessly bleak, it is anything but with its moments of beauty and raw emotion that offer a sense of hope in a crumbling world.