As you can see, we’re premiering a song from a new album by Feed Them Death. There is so much we would like to say about it that it’s hard to know where to begin. But we decided to begin with the lyrics.
To be honest, lyrics are often an afterthought in extreme metal of all stripes, put to paper after the music has been created and not worth much attention even in the rare cases when you can make out the words. Not so in the case of Feed Them Death. The lyrics on all the songs in their new album The Malady are poetic, politically charged, and thought-provoking, well worth reading and pondering (though they’re expelled with such super-heated fury in the songs that reading them is what most people will need to do).
Here are the words to “Deleterious“, the song we’re premiering, written by the band’s founder and principal musician Void:
photos by Asia Cavalera
Unbeknown to many of us tolls a litany of fear
Underwater currents swell the waves of our dramatic past
To submerge all things complex and austere
Florid opulence and dismal dearth are the wrongs we cast
Swept out of the discourse of poise
It’s perhaps the time to make some noise
What you were taught by your culpable dead
Is deleterious
Ronny and Maggie stole it all like postmodernist Bonny and Clyde
And the frivolous dissent of generations past is ours
Reprimanding morals and literacy
the shadow we cast : a leisurely walk in a green that will not
last
Swept out of the discourse of poise
Could have been the time to raise our voice
What you were taught by your culpable dead
Is deleterious
What will be taught by us culpable dead
Is deleterious
As mentioned above, the lyrics of the other songs are equally engaging. In part they borrow from George Orwell’s 1984, or from classical references like the parables of Sisyphus and Icarus, to reflect (in the band’s explanation) “upon universals such as hate, guilt or human frailty, towards a possible redemption offered by the power of individuality and the freedom of thought: because yes, ‘People are a malady’ and what we think we know is often ‘Deleterious’, but ‘Above All… and so below – tumult is the only thing aglow!’”
We have some other insights to share from Void about the song and its place in the album as a whole:
“With The Malady our intent was to create something different from our previous releases. For the first time since the inception of the project back in 2017 I collaborated with a full line up and so could take advantage of their individual talent and ideas to shape our new direction and test a different trajectory.
“The result is something visceral and raw, flawed at times, but always real and also perhaps resemblant – at least in spirit, of those proto-grindcore bands such as Heresy and Septic Death, that towards the mid to late 80s were mixing Hardcore with D-beat, Thrash Metal and Crust-punk – successfully injecting new life into an already thriving underground music scene.
“The album is extremely varied and I think that we managed to evolve that ‘Controlled Chaos’ type of sound also by adding a lot of sludge and noise elements – and even some improvised jazzy bits.
“‘Deleterious‘ is perhaps the most representative song of the whole album, showcasing how FTD sound has evolved however not letting go of some of its distinctive characteristics.”
And now we ought to get to the music itself.
“Deleterious” opens with a dual pulse — one of them rendered in a mangling low-frequency tone and the other in a shrill squeal — and then the music begins to clobber and spin like a wild dervish. The mangling bass is still there, tunneling through bedrock in the low end, but the guitar feverishly writhes and contorts, somehow sounding both dismal and delirious.
While the drums vividly clatter and batter, the words are ejected in furious, serrated-edge screams and rabid yells, fighting through the dense and constantly convulsing amalgam of noise, which begins to evoke visions of giant serpents slithering, on fire, both furious and wailing in agony.
Near the end, the bass is given room to clang and pulse again, as a prelude to a massive heaving stomp that takes over the music, accented with woozy and wailing guitar-trills and riotous percussive bursts.
And so “Deleterious” proves to be feral and ferocious, dissonant and disturbing, bleak yet brawling, and so adventurously intricate (one might even say “experimental”) that it takes a lot more than one listen to fully unpack once you get past the visceral thrills of a first listen.
The Malady is Feed Them Death‘s fifth record, and it will be released by Brucia Records on June 20th. It features the following lineup:
Void – Vocals, Bass, lo-fi guitars, noise, piano
DaviDeath (Cogas) – Guitars
Nige Coleman (Tannhauser Krieg) – Drums
The album was recorded by Jake Saunders at Clang Studios, mixed and mastered by Giorgio Barroccu (Evokaos), and produced by Void and Giorgio Barroccu. Artwork, layout and artistic supervision by Evokaos (Brucia Records).
Brucia will release the album on CD and digital formats, and in a special bundle that includes The Malady on CD, a tape containing low-fi, one-take rehearsals of “The Malady”, a special notebook featuring lyrics and photos, and FTD‘s pin, everything placed inside a black mortuary bag. Find pre-orders via the link below. It’s recommended FFO: Napalm Death, Dystopia, Heresy, and Septic Death.
Also below, you’ll find a stream of the first single off the album, “Panopticism II“. Don’t miss that one either.
PRE-ORDER:
https://bruciarecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-malady
FEED THEM DEATH:
https://feedthemdeath.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/feedthemdeath