Chastity

From the disheartened and often grim environment of Whitby, Ontario, Canadian artist Brandon Williams infused his Chastity project with motifs of seclusion, fury, and rootlessness. Blending the weight of post-hardcore with the emotional nuance of sensitive 1990s alternative guitar rock, he funneled that tension through a string of early, smaller recordings before unveiling the intricate and striking full-length Death Lust in 2018. Chastity developed rapidly across later releases, incorporating elements of indie-pop sparkle, crushing guitar force, and melody shaped by alternative-rock airplay on the 2022 album Suffer Summer.

Williams launched Chastity in 2015 and recruited several friends to realize his song concepts. The project’s initial output arrived the following year as a hand-numbered, limited-run cassette called TAPE, issued by the Toronto independent imprint Hand Drawn Dracula. Live performances soon followed, leading to international touring. In 2017 the band issued the single “Peroxide” alongside the Chains EP, each successive recording deepening a sound that fused hardcore release with alternative-rock self-examination.

After signing with the independent powerhouse Captured Tracks, Chastity prepared its first album, Death Lust, which reworked several earlier highlights and introduced fresh songs; the record appeared in July 2018. Williams eased his sonic attack on the 2019 release Home Made Satan, folding in the wistful jangle of acts such as the Smiths and the Go-Betweens alongside his usual distortion. Following a handful of standalone singles, the third album Suffer Summer arrived via the Deathwish label in January 2022. That effort featured greater collaboration than prior work, including songwriting input from PUP’s Stefan Babcock and a guest vocal from Alexisonfire and City and Colour’s Dallas Green on the track “Vicious Circle.”