HALFWAY UP A JAGGED HILL Share SILVER SWORD Ahead of Debut Album
The track explores self-harm and empowerment through three distinct musical movements.
New York City duo HALFWAY UP A JAGGED HILL have released a new single titled SILVER SWORD, offering another preview of their upcoming debut album, HUAJH, set to arrive via Vinegar Hill Sound Records. The track pairs distorted guitar work with lyrics addressing struggle and healing.
'Silver Sword' overlays gritty riffs with poignant lyrics to weave a tale of struggling and healing. The heavy flow of the song dives off towards the end as the pace slows; a melancholy feeling of acceptance seeps into the track, seeing your struggles as a sword to wield.
Of the release, the band says, ''Silver Sword'' covers themes of self-harm and overcoming those feelings. The song has three parts, akin to suffering, healing, and empowerment. The last lyric of the chorus, 'now your blade is used for good,' transforms the blade from a tool of harm to one of protection – something that can care for those you love. After a healing instrumental interlude, the end brings sludgy empowerment. In fantasy, a silver sword (rather than steel) is necessary to defeat undead foes such as ghosts that haunt you.'
'Obscure Sorrows' heralded the announcement of HUAJH, establishing the duo's affinity for bleary guitars, distilled drums, and direct lyrics. Quickly, listeners are drawn into an abyss of gnarled riffs and contemplation, focusing on the purpose of anguish. 'Liar' arrived last month, contemplating unfiltered despair, blurred by blast beats and insistent drums. As the track builds into its darkest themes and imagery, vocalist Devin Gilbert confronts his monster, championing a feeling he knows too well.
Known for their singular live performances, halfway up a jagged hill has built a following within NY's rock scene. Throughout this year, the band previewed new material around the city. For more information on upcoming performances, follow the band on Instagram at @halfwayupajaggedhill.
Tracklist
Obscure Sorrows
Liar
Bleakwood
Silver Sword
Mourning Glory
Prince with a Thousand Enemies
Heaven
Whale Falls
About Halfway Up a Jagged Hill
Devin Gilbert and Jeb Polstein were walking in the woods one January night, looking for owls, when they came across what can only be described as a witch hut. Stacked between bare trees, the pile of sticks framed a void that swallowed any moonlight bouncing off the frozen ground. What mysteries crouched inside? The two friends found no owls that night. But as halfway up a jagged hill, Gilbert and Polstein continue to look.
The witch hut became the album art for the Brooklyn duo's self-titled debut. Carefully rendered by visual artist Nick Corbo (Spirit Was), the art reflects a darkness and elusive sensitivity that characterizes the album's sound. Not quite metal, not quite emo, not quite slowcore, halfway up a jagged hill (HUAJH, for short) invites in anyone who wanders by. As Gilbert sings on Bleakwood: 'walk with me / through hollow trees.'
HUAJH wields a minimalist setup for a maximalist sound. Gilbert's downtuned guitar carries weight, with distorted chugs leavened by ringing harmonics and melodic lines. Polstein's drums at once shoulder the guitar and dance around it, slinging fast toms and blast beats at the music's apex before receding to breathe. Gilbert's vocals translate this musical bulk into a relatable language alternately sung and screamed. His lyrics take you on a journey from hopelessness to regeneration, drawing on natural imagery, fantasy themes, and daily observations. The result is a concise package that both bludgeons and consoles. It recalls a range of influences – Pile, Liturgy, Envy, The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, Hella, Debussy – but weaves them into something distinct.
Gilbert and Polstein have been performing together for most of their lives, forging an uncanny musical bond that stretches back to middle school jazz band. Since then, they have been involved in a number of projects both together and separately, including the post-hardcore band Primate House, the shoegaze-inflected Chris Sunshine, Polstein's Seattle-based free jazz/doom math duo Macaw, and Gilbert's experimental pop solo project Kid Dusty.
HUAJH was born in 2024, when the two found themselves both living in New York for the first time in years, hungry to explore the heavier side of their musical backgrounds. After about a year of songwriting and practicing, HUAJH approached Reed Black of Vinegar Hill Sound to record an album. Gilbert and Polstein had worked with Black before while recording a song for Fish Hunt's 2024 album Self-Taught, and they knew it was the place to bring their vision to life. They did not know that midway through the mixing process, Black would sign them to Vinegar Hill Sound Records, where they now join Fish Hunt, People I Love, and Dan English.
During the day, Gilbert works as a mental health clinician. Naturally, themes of pain and recovery permeate the album. 'Silver Sword,' for instance, narrates a journey from self-harm to love. The album as a whole follows a similar arc, from the despondent opener 'Obscure Sorrows' to the regenerative closer 'Whale Falls,' where a falling whale carcass comes to nourish an ecosystem: 'I decay wash away / Sustain love / Death's rot smell the spot / Sustain life.'
Polstein, meanwhile, is a landscape architect. In addition to being immersed in natural imagery, he thinks of music spatially, using the drums to create landscapes to move through.
'Halfway up a jagged hill' is the literal Latin translation of 'mediocre.' Though sonically comfortable with extremes, HUAJH finds meaning in the middle, in the forested slopes of creation rather than the distant peak of perfection. There HUAJH walks along, leaves crunching below, owls drifting above.
About VHS Records
Vinegar Hill Sound Records (VHS Records) is an independent, artist-run record label based in Brooklyn, New York, founded in 2024 by producer, mixer, and engineer Reed Black. Born out of the storied Vinegar Hill Sound recording studio, a 1,200-square-foot hybrid analog-digital space housed in a 19th-century former warehouse between DUMBO and the Navy Yard, the label carries forward the studio's ethos of handcrafted, deeply personal music-making.
Black, who has spent over a decade recording major artists including Solange, Karen O, Wet, and Depeche Mode, launched VHS Records with a different ambition in mind: not scale, but intimacy. Inspired by the community spirit of classic labels like Stax Records, VHS operates as a small, deliberately curated roster where every release is made with care and intention. Free from outside investors and commercial pressures, VHS Records draws its strength from the same source as the studio that spawned it: a belief that the best records are made by people who care deeply, working in a space designed to let them do exactly that.
According to the band, SILVER SWORD is structured in three parts reflecting suffering, healing, and empowerment, with its closing lyric reframing pain as a tool for protection rather than harm. Pre-orders for HUAJH are currently available.
Photo Credit: Natalie Jane [Download Hi-Res]
Photo Credit: Natalie Jane [Download Hi-Res]
