Minneapolis alternative rock band 12th House Sun has just announced their debut LP titled "Behind The Glass" set for a self release on March 22, 2024 . The album will contain 10 brand new tracks of heavy, dreamy and melodic emo tinged shoegaze, post-grunge, and pop punk that is sure to please anyone who likes this sort of thing. This band captured my attention through the Spotify algorithm, as it showed up on one of my curated shoegaze, emo, post-grunge playlists the Spotify puts together daily based on some of the stuff I listen to. I hadn't heard of them before, but when I stumbled across singles "Anxious" and "More Than" I knew I wanted to hear more.

For those who don't know, 12th House Sun is a trans fronted alternative rock band from Minneapolis that blends shoegaze, emo, and grunge. The music combines emotional lyricism with dreamy soundscapes, and high energy riffs you can dance to. 12th House Sun was started in 2019 as Kyle Schultz's solo project. After releasing two EP's during the covid pandemic, Kyle sought to bring the songs to a live audience. In 2022, drummer Nick Luke and bassist Al Grooms joined, and in 2023 the band added Ryan Shea on guitar and backup vocals/screams. The band has spent the past two years playing shows and gaining traction within the Minneapolis music scene, while working on their debut album titled 'Behind The Glass' which is releasing this March.

About the album, Kyle had this to say about it: "Behind The Glass is an expansion of the band's defined sound, while adding some heavier elements to the music. Lyrically, the album covers themes of self reflection, loss, relationship struggles, burnout, transphobia, etc. In a way, it serves as a journal, or an inside look at the difficult challenges and transformations I went through over the course of 4 years that affected me deeply, which is why I chose the title 'Behind The Glass'".

The band sites several influences such as Balance And Composure, Title Fight, Deftones, Diiv, Citizen and Paramore as key inspiration. From my initial impressions, I can definitely hear the Balance And Composure and Title Fight influences, along with influences from bands like Superheaven, Turnover (Peripheral Vision era), Basement, Nothing and more recent bands like Downward, Gleemer, Modern Color and the like. 12 House Sun fit comfortably into the whole emo/shoegaze/grunge/pop punk hybrid revival, with a huge crop of newer bands that are bringing back 90s influenced guitar centric alt-rock with melodic sensibility, big guitar sounds, and quiet to loud dynamics. For a relatively young band, these guys do it very well, and the new songs show a huge leap forward from the original EPs released during Covid, both in the production, song writing and vocal delivery.

The album was mixed and mastered by Abe Anderson, who produces for a lot of Minneapolis bands. 12 House Sun also recorded drums at Abe's studio, but recorded guitars and vocals from their home throughout 2023. For a debut LP that is essentially self produced and self recorded, it sounds quite impressive. Check out the new singles below for a taste of what's to come, and if you live in Minneapolis, make sure you hit their CD release show in late March to pick up a physical copy of the album along with some new merch they'll have available. There will also be a big cartel store set up soon with merch and purchase options which will we post once available, and the album will hit digital streaming platforms on March 22, 2024 as well.