The band’s first new music since the release of massive 2020 album ‘Internal Incarceration’, ferocious Delaware hardcore troupe Year Of The Knife surprise-dropped a new three-track EP, ‘Dust to Dust’, featuring their “most pissed songs yet”. Vocalist Madison Watkins explains all.

The ‘Dust to Dust’ EP is a product of everything we’ve been inspired by since our last record. We wanted to combine our sound with these new influences to push our boundaries and make our most pissed songs yet. Our goal was to create music that we would be excited to hear. This EP is a reset for the direction of our sound while staying true to the core of our inspiration and values, and are the first recorded songs since our lineup change.

‘Ctrl+C’ is about societal pressure to be perfect, and chasing an unattainable goal that is sold by the media. I wrote on my experiences of feeling that I had to sacrifice my body and mind in order to fit what was desired or expected. The lyrics describe the decision to break from those pressures and find yourself, whether people like you for it or not.

‘Victim’ is about people that can’t see past themselves and their own problems and pain to empathise with others. We can’t help the hand we are dealt in life, but we can decide what we do with those cards. Some people use their circumstances as an excuse to mistreat and manipulate others, and garner pity. I wrote ‘Victim’ in exasperation of that mentality while listening to a lot of Irate.

‘Dust to Dust’ is about the frustration and pain of loving someone who struggles with addiction, but doesn’t want to get better. This is an agony that can be difficult to understand unless you’ve felt it first-hand. It was really heavy to write these lyrics, because there is a lot of guilt associated with the anger I feel. More than anything, I empathise and sympathise with addicts, but that understanding doesn’t stop the pain that’s been inflicted, either. It’s the first song that we wrote since ‘Internal Incarceration’. Aaron had been listening to a lot of Dystopia and crust punk, which drove the fast, aggressive direction of the song. ■