Danish death metal / metallic hardcore goliaths Lifesick has dropped their fiery new video for “Hollow Treats”. The savage new track comes off the band’s equally ferocious full-length, Loved By None, Hated By All, released on November 1st through Metal Blade Records.
Lifesick manifests brutal and brutally honest songs with lyrics inspired by the turbulent nature of life. Musically influenced by Swedish death metal, the band’s authentic and explosive mixture of crushing tones and modern breakdowns create an uncompromising sound and vision.
Comments the band on “Hollow Treats”, “When we were born, we were told all these fairytales about what the world had in store for us. But as soon as you get a taste, you realize there’s nothing inside — no love, no compassion, nothing. This song is catchy with groovy two-step rhythms and even groovier breakdowns. It’s a hardcore track with plenty of sing-along parts, and it ends with a twist of acoustic elements.”
Lifesick was forged in Fredericia, Denmark in 2015. After three full-lengths of increasing weight and intensity, 2023’s Life And Other Lies EP brought the band’s sobering death / metallic hardcore to Metal Blade Records, where they have come of age with the kaleidoscopic fury and ironclad gloom of Loved By None, Hated By All.
As with previous offerings, the LP was recorded by Jacob Bredahl at his Dead Rat facility. This time Bredahl’s role expanded beyond engineering, helping to shape and revise new material before twiddling a single knob. “He came down to our rehearsal room where we played all the songs for him live, so he could add his touch to each song or edit stuff that we might have been a little blind to from playing the songs too much. This was the first time we did this, and it was very effective.”
Mixing was farmed out to Taylor Young at The Pit, “to give it a different touch or nuance from our previous releases,” while the tracks were handed to noise collective John Cxnnor, “to enhance the album with sound design and samples throughout every song, to better unify the album. We provided them with all the songs, along with keywords about the lyrical themes and the album artwork. With this information, they created unique dark industrial samples that perfectly fit the songs and our vision for the album.”
The results ring loud and clear from this tumultuous masterwork of bleak aggro beauty. Loved By None, Hated By All is unquestionably the band's finest recording to date which is no easy feat considering the compulsive force of previous releases -- there is some special spark of magic at work here.
Tracklisting:
"Death Wish"
"Peace Through Superior Firepower"
"Double Cross"
"Hollow Treats"
"Legacy Of Misery"
"Poems For My Funeral"
"Liquid Courage"
"Loved By None"
"The Mourning March"
"Straight Jacket"
(Photo by Allan Kristiansen)
