Rock, révolution, perdition et SCHØØL

Saints, sinners, slackers & SCHØØL; press photo courtesy of the artists.

Even while optimism and love are the engines of sanity and survival; the world that we have known feels increasingly fragile and unstable. While it is only natural for our better sensibilities to refrain from alarmist reactionary instincts and behaviors, things feel off all around. Election years exacerbate these worries and woes, while the global stage offers little to no hope as far as the eye can see. Nevertheless we all persist and put our best feet forward in the proactive efforts to imagine a better paradigm. And even when it feel as if we as a society have gone past the point of no return, the chance of enlightenment can still occur in the almost unfathomable maelstrom of irreversible events that are unfortunately the sobering realities we contend with daily.

Presenting the second single from their upcoming debut album slated for early 2025 — Paris based cult rock group SCHØØL delivers the riff and ridge ripping “The End”. Railing along the edges of where the purported timelines of our trajectories run off the precipices of life’s proverbial tarmac; Francis Mallari (of Rendez-Vous), Erica Ashleson (from Special Friend, Dog Park), Jack Moase (of Liquid Face), and Marble Arch’s Alex Battez mine the mazes of madness with an ethos that offers everything that grunge never gave us and the international undergrounds always promised (and yet underdelivered, time and time again).

SCHØØL sends the audience to the tattered banks of the earth that are on the brink of total collapse on “The End”. The band entertains what will happen if the world explodes, what feelings remain, and what chances we have as a society to carry on toward something better. Like the previous track “N.S.M.L.Y.D.”, SCHØØL super soaks the soundwaves, the sensations and sentiments that resemble the reckless and riled up youths in rebellion — raging against the monstrous machines. Delivering declarations of defiance out outrate in the face of the sordid systems of oppression. The Paris-based believers in a more beautiful and abundant world lament the lack of peace with projections of anxiety and dismay in the face of perdition.

The visuals from Francis Mallari and Ludovic Azemar (including title design by Sarah Metra) pays homage to the classic music videos from your favorite all but forgotten heroes from days gone by. By resurrecting the pop portraitures of the past that could have been, SCHØØL soars, seers, and seethes against the dying light of a world capable of being a kinder place of love, renewal, revolution, and a radical change that arrives from within and all around. The band unleashes the angst, the anguish, the anger, the embattled amour, and abandon of acquiescence that is unbound, and unfiltered. "The End" amplifies the hype for one of the most anticipated debut records of 2025.

Francis Mallari of SCHØØL provided some up close insights behind the making of “The End”:

I hate the world as far as I can see…

The first sentence of the lyrics quite speak for itself and sums up my state of mind at the moment. There are two reasons why the track is called “The End”. First reason: I was inspired by the story of the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, by The End of Evangelion to be precise. Second reason: The End was the name of my favorite skate vid by Birdhouse in 1998. I still have my VHS copy.

Favorite part: Andrew Reynolds

SCHØØL’s new single “The End” is available now via Geographie.