Watch :: Hartheim - When Did Your Last Rose Die?

Manchester outfit Hartheim have always had a way with both arresting lyrics and visuals to match. Their new single, ‘When Did Your Last Rose Die?’, out on April 9 via JackToPhono Records, continues in the same vein, employing a big scene soundscape musically, and a video that keeps you gripped to the end.

‘When Did Your Last Rose Die’ is, the band say, a track that "confronts the down-spiralling correlation between passion and age; detailing the initial throws of young, boundless lust, and the slow descent into middle-aged hatred. It is this turn that serves their manifesto of playing with the contrast of light and dark, the once glacial guitars and swirling synth lines feeling more at odds with the lyrics as the track goes on."

Right, so not a light-hearted bit of froth, then. As those familiar with Hartheim's previous works - the heart-staining 'Yellow', for example - will know, their epic, cinematic scale of sound is not one that lends itself to triviality.

The Alexander Bell directed video accompaniment focuses on the protagonist of the song and his various attempts to rediscover what once was, with little regard for what this might take to achieve. It is the director’s take on how far one might go to remember how things used to be. Shot in a disused and derelict theme park, the viewer is pulled along into each scene, not knowing exactly how it will unfold until the final denouement - and then you still may not be that clear.