When driving past a car crash, there’s a “can’t look away” feeling. You spend time looking at the destruction, and imagining some Final Destination style moment that caused the crash itself. It’s a rush, something that feels so chaotic and terrifying, while also being the calm after a storm. Massa Nera captures that chaotic side with The Emptiness of All Things. They have these build ups that peak so high, you can’t begin to imagine what it would feel like to crash your car at 95 MPH. Then they have crashes themselves, songs that lay you the fuck out and crush you under the shattered glass and burning oil. I caught up with the band as we came to a halting stop behind 4 other cars on the highway.
Mass Extinction. Ocean Acidification. Desertification. Deforestation. Extreme weather events. Coral Reef bleaching. Rising CO2 levels. Food shortages. Climate refugees. The spread of ancient diseases. These phenomena, more plausible (and more devastating) by the day, portend an even worse fate: annihilation. Not for the Earth, though our shared home will inevitably take on a radically altered form. No, oblivion sets its sights on us, the masters of industry, the refuse of the Reagan Revolution, consumers, producers, and victims alike. In the face of these existential threats, action becomes an imperative. Protests, sabotage, and the cultivation of clean energy are noble pursuits, no doubt. But what role does art play in articulating the sickness that ails us? Does the artist have a responsibility to address the crises that define the present moment? Is it inevitable that such projects degenerate into smug posturing, flimsy excuses for both artist and audience to suck themselves off? Enter Massa Nera, a lowly, nominally screamo band slithering through the godforsaken suburban sprawl of New Jersey. The group, through bassist Aeryn Jade Santillan, was given a commission by the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music (as part of its Composing Earth series) to write music that addresses the climate crisis. Thus, they were faced with the challenge outlined above: how might they tackle this topic, it all its import and enormity, while avoiding self-satisfied, holier-than-thou pomp? The band decided to embrace experimentation and confrontation like never before. Where once their songs bounced, they now alternately lumber and convulse. An impulse towards dance has mutated into a desire for destruction. Their knack for visceral rhythmic pleasure has contorted into something ugly and unsettling. This musical malfeasance is counterbalanced by passages of beauty, longing, and even undisguised gentleness. The band also expanded their vocal palette, employing a dynamic mixture of screams, shouts, whispers, howls, and singing in an attempt to summon a veritable cornucopia of complex emotions. Lyrically, Massa Nera has shunned autobiography in favor of something more character-driven, more literary, more speculative. They invite listeners to lose themselves in a world that resembles ours – perhaps it is the world that awaits us if we continue on the road of inaction. They offer a snapshot of the end times rooted in psychology, lived experience, and complicity. In short, this is a lyrical call to arms, delivered not as a rallying cry but as an obituary. It is a mirror held up to the abyss, reflected back at us so that we might stare slack-jawed at the vapid, inane, meaningless hell in which we live.“We’re relieved to finally share The Emptiness of All Things with people,” said the band, speaking in unison while toiling away in their putrid, fetid underground compound. Surrounded by distortion pedals, frayed Mark Fisher books, and piss-yellow photos of decrepit brutalist buildings, they added, “This album was a true undertaking, exciting and torturous in equal measure. It was not cathartic in the least. We hope people feel better listening to it than we did making it.” Tears streaming down their faces as Burial’s Untrue pumped through a blown-out computer speaker, they added, “not too much better, though. ”Is it inevitable that records like The Emptiness of All Things accomplish little more than preaching to the choir? Do such works, ostensibly intended to galvanize, calcify instead? In this era of extreme atomization, in which the very idea of a shared reality has been eradicated, is this little more than a fool’s errand? Perhaps not. But if such albums are indeed a fool’s errand, better they sound as exciting, unpredictable, and confident as this. If nothing else, with The Emptiness of All Things, Massa Nera has turned foolishness into a noble pursuit.
Tell us about the writing process for this new album
Oh man. The writing process was intense and all-consuming.
Though a couple ideas for the album began taking shape in mid-2023, we essentially wrote the entire album between 12/2023 and 09/2024, with additional writing and revising taking place in October and early November of 2024.
On the musical front, we practiced twice per week for much of the year, jamming on ideas, refining them, etc. We’d then spend a good deal of our time at home thinking of those ideas, texting each other suggestions, and tinkering with different sounds and concepts, all of which would be explored the next time we got together.
Lyrically/thematically, we spent much of 2024 engaged in voluminous research (at one point resulting in a “Note Doc” totalling 200+ pages), reading books, watching films, researching visual artists, and figuring out a way to approach the album that felt coherent, manageable, and personal without giving way to naval-gazing, self-pitying “woe-is-me” dreck, or holier-than-though posturing. The revisions and refinements were more-or-less nonstop until we finally entered the studio in November of 2024. It was exhausting and not especially fun! It was worth it, though, as we unanimously feel that this is our best, most fully-realized work.
What was different recording this vs the split with Quiet Fear or DQB?
Well, the biggest difference came from recording with Matt Michel as opposed to Steve Roche, who had recorded all of our releases up to this point. Steve is a long-time friend of ours. He knows how we work, how we think, and what our quirks are. Matt, conversely, was essentially a stranger to us (and vice versa) before we entered his studio, so there was a bit of a warming up period as we familiarized ourselves with each other.
Additionally, whereas our previous records were recorded live-on-the-floor with minimal overdubs and no click, this record saw us employing a more hybridized approach. The drums were recorded alongside the rest of the band, who played through amp sims. About 30% of the music was recorded to a click track; we determined which sections/songs benefited most from that sort of metronomic consistency and tracked them accordingly. Once the drums were finished, the rest of the band re-recorded their parts one at a time through proper cabinets/heads. This allowed us to focus on each member’s performance in more detail without sacrificing the energy and synchronization that comes from us playing live. It also gave us time to experiment more with overdubs and additional sonic textures; for example, we’d always wanted to double our guitar parts on acoustic to “thicken” the sound. With this album, we finally did that!
How was it working on the music videos for this?
Fun as ever! The videos are more narrative-driven this time around, which is a nice change of pace and fulfills a long-standing ambition of ours. The editing is being done in Premiere, as opposed to Photoshop, which helps massively with post-production.
How does it feel to be called a cult and all that other shit talking on Instagram? Kinda cool, right?
Hahahaha it’s interesting, for sure. Good for a quick laugh.
What’s next, any plans for a tour or another remix album?
We have a couple things in the works, though we’d rather be quiet until said work is done.
Having been a band for almost ten years, is there anything you’d recommend to newer bands looking for help?
We recommend the following:
1) Practice your instruments. Try to learn proper technique. It doesn’t make you less punk.
2) Listen to each other while you play. So many bands are terrible at live performance because they aren’t truly synchronized, which only comes with active listening.
3) Don’t copy other sounds. Try to do something original. If that isn’t your goal, don’t bother. Nostalgia is poison, and there are more than enough copycats wasting everyone’s time. Obviously, there’s no such thing as wholly original art, but you should try to find something unique to you.
4) Similarly, take inspiration from a wide variety of sources. Musically, we listen to everything from extreme punk/metal/noise to ambient, jazz, electronic, Latin music, hip-hop, pop, etc. (and we’re being deliberately broad here; we can get pretty niche with each of these genres). Likewise, we do our best to continually learn about different artistic movements, political philosophies, and musical techniques. Our songwriting and art direction are informed by all of this!
5) Get involved in every aspect of being a band. Learn how to book shows, screenprint shirts, design flyers, etc. It may be annoying at first, but if you approach everything as an extension of your art, even the most mundane task can become rewarding. Plus, doing this will deepen your ties with the broader community, which is the real point of making music.
6) Lastly, there is no substitute for hard work. Don’t debase yourself with stupid videos or brain rot-inducing attempts at virality. Obviously, a shitpost here or a silly video there is all well and good, but your focus should be on the work. Treat your band as an artistically and intellectually worthwhile pursuit. Such seriousness need not come at the expense of having fun! In fact, being in a band is more fun when you’re proud of what you do and have the skill/confidence to turn your vision into a living, breathing, tangible work of art.
Anything you’d do differently after all this time if you could go back?
Nothing comes to mind! We could probably cite a show here, a missed opportunity there, etc., but to be honest, we feel like we’re just getting started. Everything we’ve experienced has led us to where we are.
Anyone you’d like to shout out?
We’d like to shout out our friends; the people who’ve played alongside us, booked us, let us crash on their floor, etc. You know who you are.
Last word is yours
There is no negotiating with fascists. There is no such thing as green growth or “green capitalism.” Another world is possible. We must dare to invent the future.
The new album, The Emptiness of All Things is available to pre-order here, and will be available on October 31st, 2025. Massa Nera’s Linktree is where you can keep up with the band.
