Sertraline (Buffalo, NY) formed in the winter of 2014 as a reimagining of veteran death-doom group Where She Wept. The band, armed with the experience and chemistry of longtime collaboration, began to craft a new sonic legacy, combining atmostpheric black metal with post-rock elements to create a uniquely heavy-hitting trio of EPs: Shade (2017), From Both Our Hands (2019), and These Mills Are Oceans (2019), now released as a single compilation for the first time entitled The Streetlight Was All We Needed.
Sertraline are marked by immense musical saturation. Three guitars pour out sustained, melodic passages drenched in reverb and illustrated with glacial leads, backed by a rhythm section inspired equally to jazz-like syncopation and punishing metal proficiency. Often wandering but never lost, each song surprises listeners in turn with moments of introspection and emotional climax, punctuated by lyrics which span themes of “guilt, regret, addiction, anxiety, and depression...but also a hunger for love and hope” amidst reflection upon and angst towards the present social and political climate
