Shadow Monster is frontwoman and guitarist Gillian Visco’s alter ego and title of her dejected grunge pop project with longtime drummer and collaborator John Swanson. Visco screams and sighs into the abyss of grief in hopes of transforming that pain into bliss through catchy choruses and heartbreakingly relatable lyrics about the immense weight of being human on planet earth. In live shows, Nikki Sisti (THICK) and Denim Casimir (TVOD) round out the trio with booming, fuzzy basslines adding to the vibrant wall of sound best enjoyed with your local dive bar’s beer and shot combo.

The band’s upcoming LP, DOG, (mixed and mastered by Omer Leibovitz) lifts the band’s sadcore grungy sound into new territory with memorable refrains and recurring counter melodies pulling influence from doo-wop, early punk, grunge and emo eras. The album examines life after a relationship gone awry, where one has to start from scratch… again. ‘Poison’ is the latest single to be released from the LP.

The band say, “‘Poison’ is a song about feeling so depleted and bled dry from the past that once it’s time to explore connection again, you feel like something is wrong with you. You go through the motions even when your heart’s not in it, looking for someone, something, anything, that can spark that life back into you. The video depicts a series of people willingly offering up something they cherish in return for a drink that’s going to be potentially bad for them -raising the query, how much do we sacrifice while we heal, while we run from ourselves.”