On April 21, Finnish post-punk outfit Grave Pleasures will release their third full-length, Plagueboys, via Century Media Records. For a preview of Plagueboys, the video for the new single, "Heart Like A Slaughterhouse" (directed by David Fitt) is available below.
Guitarist and songwriter Aleksi Kiiskilä comments as follows: "'Heart Like a Slaughterhouse', the go-to midnight hour dance track for crooked minds. Hooks you dive into head-first psycho-hypnotic frenzy and Buffalo Bill - influenced disco moves.
"After playing at Wave Gotik Treffen a few years back, I was impressed by all those creative costumes and their uncanny, sinister details. It felt like being in some apocalyptic, gothic steampunk city where everything's messed up, with that being all normal. So, the morning after our show, basically out of nowhere popped up this riff and the driving beat for 'Heart Like a Slaughterhouse', where the confidence of Eliminator meets Virus-like psychotic hooks. Something that feels wrong and right at the same time, something addictive and macabre which makes you move around your room like some broken manikin."
Album formats (preorder here):
--CD Digipak
--Black LP (incl. LP-sized booklet & poster)
--Transparent blue LP available from CM Distro Wholesale EU and CMdistro.de (limited to 300 copies; incl. LP-sized booklet & poster)
--Yellow LP available from UK outlets, Levykauppa Äx, Nuclear Blast (limited to 300 copies; incl. LP-sized booklet & poster)
--Lilac LP available from Grave Pleasures via Evil Greed (limited to 300 copies; incl. LP-sized booklet & poster)
--Digital album
Formed in 2015, after the dissolution of singer Mat McNerney and bassist Valtteri Arino's short-lived sensation Beastmilk, Grave Pleasures have defiantly expanded on what has been described as their "war-cry for the eternally doomed," with each album seeing their song-craft reach new heights. Their raw atomic punk of their major label debut album Dreamcrash (2015) was revamped and contorted into the uplifting nihilism of distinctly more frenetic sophomore smash-hit album Motherblood (2017), ultimately amped up and finessed into the heady Plagueboys (2023), their most mature yet dangerous album to-date. With the electrifying contradiction of light and darkness, the duality of the funereal Grave and euphoric Pleasure in their moniker, Plagueboys is an exhilarating, tear-filled, grinning dance of death, undoubtedly their most pleasurable yet.
With music written by McNerney (Hexvessel, Carpenter Brut, Me & That Man) and guitarists Juho Vanhanen (Oranssi Pazuzu) and Aleksi Kiiskilä, and then arranged together with Arino and drummer Rainer Tuomikanto, Plagueboys sees the lineup, who frantically hacked out Motherblood together, come of age and find their superpowers. Recorded in Finland and produced by Vanhanen and his Oranssi Pazuzu comrade Niko Lehdontie at the controls, the sound on Plagueboys is a blistering wash of reverb and neon warehouse dancefloor; unabashed lone drum and bass carrion call give way to synth and guitar interplay that brings to mind British grandmasters Wire, The Sound and Echo & The Bunnymen through a contemporary lens.
Album artwork by Tekla Vály:
Tracklisting:
“Disintegration Girl”
“Heart Like A Slaughterhouse”
“When The Shooting’s Done”
“High On Annihilation”
“Lead Balloons”
“Imminent Collapse”
“Society Of Spectres”
“Conspiracy Of Love”
“Plagueboys”
“Tears On The Camera Lens”
“Heart Like A Slaughterhouse”:
“Society Of Spectres”:
On April 28, Grave Pleasures will host a special album release show for Plagueboys in Helsinki, FI.
