For more something like a decade and a half, if not longer, Cloud Nothings have been among the most consistent forces on the indie rock landscape. But maybe they're itching to get out of that landscape and explore some different ones. These days, Cloud Nothings record for Pure Noise, a label mostly rooted in post-hardcore. Two years ago, they dropped a Misfits cover on a Pure Noise comp. And today, Cloud Nothings announce plans to follow 2024's Final Summer with What Kind of Hell Did You Survive?, a new album that's sonically rooted in metal and heavy rock.
If you ever heard their 2012 classic Attack On Memory, then you already know Cloud Nothings can get truly heavy when they want. Drummer Jayson Gerycz is a mega-beast who can play fast and heavy at the same time. So the idea of a metal-influenced Cloud Nothings album isn't that much of a stretch. Still, it's fun to hear them shift into that gear without losing their personality on new single "Death Keeps Me Alive." (Sick title.) It's a vaguely doomy riff-monster that made me think of both Cave-In and the Wipers, and it even gets a tiny bit black metal toward the end.
Here's what frontman Dylan Baldi says about the new album and about "Death Keeps Me Alive" in particular:
The album is our attempt to pay homage to the heavy rock music we've been listening to over the last few years. Some pretty direct and popular musical influences on the tracks are Queens of the Stone Age, Motörhead, Earth, and Electric Wizard. We were feeling a little pigeonholed in the indie rock world and wanted to make a change in our sound that revealed a different facet of our interests and abilities...
Lyrically, I was inspired by a lot of more political metal and hardcor. The songs deal with cruel governments, the importance of community, and occasionally a general rage at the state of the world...
Lyrically, "Death Keeps Me Alive" is from the point of view of a lurking evil power that never gets fully defeated in the world and feeds off of death, war, and hate, which is kind of a fun generically "metal" thing to sing about. I hope people hear this song and get excited for what the rest of the record could possibly sound like, and recognize that this is going to be a new version of Cloud Nothings that didn't really have a precedent prior to this recording.
Alex Scalzo-Brown directed the black-and-white "Death Keeps Me Alive" video, which has some fun spooky-season vibes. Below, check out that clip, the What Kind of Hell Did You Survive? tracklist, and Cloud Nothings' upcoming tour dates.
TRACKLIST:
01 "World Destroyer"
02 "You And I"
03 "That's Life"
04 "Terror Multiplies"
05 "Death Keeps Me Alive"
06 "Part Of Something More"
07 "You Do The Killing Too"
08 "Die In Piece"
09 "This World Is Shit"
TOUR DATES:
11/07 - Bristol, UK @ Simple Things Festival
11/08 - Leeds, UK @ Lending Room
11/10 - Manchester, UK @ YES
11/11 - Glasgow, UK @ Core Festival Preshow @ Hug & Pint
11/12 - Zaragoza, Spain @ Feliz Feliz Festival
11/13 - Vigo, Spain @ Underfest Xacobeo
11/14 - Oviedo, Spain @ Gong
11/15 - Nov Donostia, Spain @ Dabadaba
11/17 - Barcelona, Spain @ Sala Upload
11/18 - Madrid, Spain @ Café Berlin
11/19 - Valencia, Spain @ 16 Toneladas
11/21 - Lisbon, Portugal @ ZDB
What Kind of Hell Did You Survive? is out 1/29 on Pure Noise. Pre-order it here.