We vs. Death

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We vs. Death is a Dutch instrumental post-rock band, founded in 2000. Since then the band has put out a few releases and is currently in the middle of producing a new album and planning the European tour following this release.

1 History
2 Discography
3 Line-up
4 External links

History

We vs. Death live in Theater Kikker, Utrecht

In the second half of 2000 a couple of like-minded musicians find each other at Utrecht University in Netherlands and decide to start a band. The band's name was initially Dylman's Disco Method, but after a while was changed to We vs. Death.
Almost right away they choose to make instrumental music, that by lack of a better term can be described as post-rock. Other bands categorised as post-rock are for example Explosions in the Sky, Slint, Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
In Netherlands We vs. Death is currently the most successful exponent of the genre, that nowadays becomes more popular among bands.

Their music was once described in a review as "Brass meets strong rhythm and guitars, resulting in a dusty sound reminiscent of bigger cities in summer, not to be found in Holland at all. They surprise you with every turn they make on their instrumental journey where trumpet, guitars, bass and drum alternately do battle and make peace and love."|

Since they started the band has been playing venues on a regular basis, and since 2003 they have been playing outside The Netherlands as well. In the meantime they played venues in Belgium, England, Canada, France, Russia, Poland, Denmark and Germany, and in the near future a tour through the south of Europe will take place. We vs. Death alternately plays large venues like Paradiso, 013, Vera and Tivoli and small-scale venues and squats like the ACU and the OCCII.

Although We vs. Death is surely a band in the traditional sense of the word, they also try to seek collaboration with other creative disciplines. So far they worked together with performance-artist Jeremiah Day, theatre-designer Theun Mosk, video-artists Boudewijn Rosenmuller / Gijs Milius and Graphic Designer Roel Dalhuisen.

Discography

The 7-inch

7-inch

Their first vinyl-single was released in 2001 on the Zabel Muziek music-label. This single contained four songs:

MK Ultra
HMV
Awful Exchange
Heron

The split with Tom Sweetlove

Split-CD with Tom Sweetlove

In 2003 the band released a split-CD with the Belgian post-rock band Tom Sweetlove. Each band contributed four songs for this release, titled "The Message Is", that was released on the Dutch Zabel Muziek-label and the Belgian Matamore-label. The We vs. Death-songs on this CD are:

My Dog is Watching Me
City Council Cosmos
Consertina
Wave Goodbye With Your Little Hand

The split with Green Concorde

Split-CD with Green Concorde

In 2004 the band decided upon releasing a split-CD again, this time together with the Danish indie rock band Green Concorde. On this album, released on Zabel Muziek and Eglantine Records, appeared the following We vs. Death songs:

Pictures From Stellenbosch
Workers Are Referred To As "Hands"
Wake 44

The two fronts of the CD-artwork

We Too Are Concerned / We Are Too Concerned

After releasing the 7" EP en two split-CD's, the band released their full-length debut in Spring 2006. The CD-package also contained a DVD and a booklet with a short story from artist Jeremiah Day. The CD, again released on the Zabel Muziek-label contains eight tracks:

And How To Translate It
Pictures From Stanford
Snow Cushioned The Fall
Drive It Backwards
Thomas Corner And The Valley Houses
(Yes,) We Went To Novgorod
Mother And Father And Me
Fieldfire

Line-up

Starting left: Maarten, Bart, Paul, Marten, Gerben, Wouter

Although it has undergone a few changes in the beginning, and has since then been unchanged for years, until recently, when guitarist Bart de Kroon left the band and was replaced with Thomas Sohilait. The members are (in random order):