I’m lost at sea,
My body drifts among the wastes that you threw in
Lost alone in the depths
Too late, I’m drowning
French “Sadwave” duo Berne Evol and Brice Delourmel (previously of Giirls and Dead.), aka Years of Shame, surface from the depths with their latest track “Violence,” a single that reads like a letter found at the end of a season: creased, necessary, written without flourish, because flourish would be a lie. The track offers the clearest entry point yet into the world of their forthcoming debut album, Primary. It moves with restraint, stepping forward quietly, carrying the weight of two lives turned back toward themselves—not to admire the view, but to endure what remains.
Conceived between Paris and Rennes, Years Of Shame operate with a careful equilibrium between closeness and removal. This is music—and image—shaped by long familiarity: an old friendship bending into a new form, learning how to move together without collapsing into nostalgia or repetition. The sense of drift that runs through Primary is already present here, deliberate rather than aimless, held in place by trust rather than momentum.
They play with contrast as a method rather than an effect. While the pair wanted to foreground vocal presence—and, to a lesser extent, more melodic structures—they set those elements against instrumentals drawn from colder, more rigid terrain. Evol’s delivery leans toward an intimate, Robert Smith–like directness, while the underlying frameworks recall the pressure and repetition associated with The Soft Moon. These opposing pulls reflect the period in which the material took shape: severe professional exhaustion for one, a winter breakup for the other. Even at the level of a single track, the need for release becomes architectural rather than expressive, which Evol describes simply as “honest and effective.”
Evol leads Violence with wounded restraint, setting an initiatory path through his lyrics—a private reckoning translated into cold, emptied space. The imagery leans toward imagined terrain, a bestiary drawn from glacial ground, while the vocal lines respond to the questions Delourmel poses in sound. Guitars angle inward. Synth lines remain fixed, then shift by degrees. Space is treated as structure rather than absence.
Violence frames abandonment as an oceanic crisis: cast adrift in another’s refuse, submerged in hush, grief, and pressure. Solitude tightens into suffocation as hope ebbs. A final appeal surfaces before surrender hardens. Memory blurs, time stretches, breath thins, and resolve steadily erodes—its emotional gravity channeling Nine Inch Nails, Giirls, Dead., Cold Cave, Kontravoid, HEALTH, SURE, and Depeche Mode. Evol’s voice arrives close and measured, like breath taken after exertion, intent on staying upright. There is weather in it; not theatrical, but settled and internal.
The accompanying visuals mirror this motion with quiet insistence: corridors sliding into escalators, escalators dissolving into halls. The camera follows a solitary figure moving forward, always ahead of us, their face deliberately withheld. We are invited to trail them without context or consent. Doors close. Floors change. The movement continues. There is no reveal, no explanatory turn—only the persistence of forward motion and the tension that builds from not knowing why we’re here, or where this passage is meant to end.
This refusal becomes the video’s central language. By denying us the figure’s identity, the film removes the comfort of motivation. We are not watching a character so much as inhabiting a state: transit without arrival, purpose without disclosure. The spaces feel institutional yet anonymous—places designed for circulation rather than rest—echoing the song’s own controlled momentum. Each cut feels measured, as though the video itself is pacing its breath, unwilling to rush toward resolution.
Watch the video for “Violence” below:
As a producer, Years Of Shame’s Brice Delourmel frames the recording of the duo’s forthcoming album Primary through embracing limitations:
“I approached the texture work with quite a few constraints. I only used one VST, one synth, and I enjoyed combining these textures, these keyboard ‘riffs,’ with sounds reminiscent of Christ-like choirs. As for the drum machines, I focused more on the sub-bass, drawing heavily on those heard on The Soft Moon’s EXISTER. That is to say, very heavy and compact sounds, with very metallic percussion. It also has that very impactful dancefloor feel. This is thanks to the influence of Martin, aka Welt Motors, who plays in Modern Men and mixed the album. He comes from a techno background, and I find his work on synth bass and drum machines incredibly interesting. I really like this mix of cold music and techno, and that’s what I tried to highlight on this first record.”
Listen to Violence below and order Primary, out February 6, 2026, via Icy Cold Records, here.
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