“Template” is the second single off Fading Signals‘ debut album Metanoia, due September 25th, and it makes a strong case for a Portland five-piece that’s built its whole identity around not choosing sides: human versus electronic, guitars versus synths, darkness versus hope. The song itself digs into identity in a technological age, tracking both the person who erases their own personality to fit a mold and the figurehead slowly losing themselves as they try to maintain one, landing on the open question of whether we’re controlling our technology or being shaped by it in return.
The atmosphere achieved here is genuinely dark, reminiscent of Russian post-punk’s doomer strain, especially in that bassline, which carries a sharp, dystopian edge underneath the rest of the arrangement. Like a lot of that scene, the song still manages to be danceable despite how bleak it sounds, that specific feeling of dancing at the edge of the world rather than away from it. Fading Signals clearly wear influences like Joy Division, New Order and Depeche Mode on their sleeve here, and they don’t hide it, but there’s still plenty of fresh creative choices to chew on, mostly in the execution rather than the arrangement itself. The blueprint might be familiar, jangly post-punk guitar cutting through a driving bassline, eerie keys and shimmering synths layered over top, but the way it’s all performed and mixed keeps it from ever feeling like pure homage.
Jacqueline Mae Mendro’s vocals hold the emotional center, balancing genuine vulnerability against an urgent, unsettled strength that keeps the song from tipping into either despair or detachment. With mixing and mastering handled by William Faith and recording by Fernando Ruiz at Primal Recording, the whole thing has a cinematic polish that suits the song’s bigger questions. “Template” is a confident second look at what Metanoia has in store, dark, propulsive, and clearly the work of a band that’s spent a long time figuring out exactly what they sound like together.
