Visions Of Another Hell is out now!
Image: Nat Wood.
Last week, UK-based hardcore band Blood Youth unveiled their third studio album, Visions Of Another Hell. If you're loving the release and want some insight into each track, we've got you covered! Vocalist Kaya Tarsus and guitarist Chris Pritchard have treated MILKY, taking us through the record track by track.
The band recently announced Tarsus departure, with the vocalist set to make his final appearance with the band at Slam Dunk Festival. Featuring the singles, Iron Lung, Cells, Body Of Wire, Colony3, and Something To Numb The Pain, the album marks the final collection of recordings from Tarsus as a member of Blood Youth.
A-LTX
a-LTX was purely written as an album opener. We wanted to touch on as many elements we include across the album as possible in a short, condensed experience of just ups and downs. And i think the topic really suits a lot of the album meaning, the album itself holds as a catalyst for everything ugly and bad we experience. It stems down from a deep underground world we create in this industry that we refer to as hell, and its roots spread across everything that frustrate us, manipulate us and take advantage of us from in this world. Fake people, abuse, real problems in life that nobody addresses, and this shit builds up. This song is a reference to the poison in the industry. The industry is the self-created hell we call home that nobody sees. a-LTX is the chemical formula for the venom you find in a black widow spider, which paints a very reflective and relative photo for how we feel about the industry and the way bands are treated these days.
- Chris Pritchard
IRON LUNG
I remember being super excited when me and Chris finished up everything for this song. It’s so brutal and heavy and perfectly showcases so many different elements that you can hear throughout the album. Vocally this is the most difficult song I ever recorded. It’s so relentless and unforgiving. I remember taking a day off the next day. Lyrically, it’s about depending on something or someone to help get you through. In the end we all realise that we can only help ourselves. We wrote this song just before the impacts of the pandemic swept across the globe and looking back it couldn’t have been more fitting if we tried.
- Kaya Tarsus
SOMETHING TO NUMB THE PAIN
This was the first full song written for the album, and really set a high bar for everything to come. I feel like this song is just a classic Blood Youth vibe but pushed and expanded more than before, a natural evolution. We wanted to implement new things into this album and being the first song written, we stuck a guitar solo in because it's time to put ourselves outside of the comfort zone once again. The song meaning touches on a lot of different and universal topics. I remember this was one that was built out of a lot of frustration across the scene we call "home". Bands who form and don't last because they never had the right reasons behind their music/intentions. Industry heads that leech of bands and take advantage of their vulnerability. There is a reoccurring line in this song; "cos we can see right through you". And we can. Blood Youth have been going since the very very beginning of this 'new scene' and we've seen bands come and go like there's a revolving door, however we're still here. We've seen the evil intent and pure stupidity that plagues a lot of the new bands and how badly it comes across, and how easy it is to see through the bullshit they think is cool. We've always been here, we've always known.
- Chris Pritchard
CELLS
Cells is probably my all-time favourite Blood Youth song ever written, the riffs in this song have been written and waiting to be used since close to the beginning of the band years ago. I just knew there would be a time for them to reach the table, and the patience was worth it. This song to me is about becoming attached to something that is already dead, something that feeds of you. And you develop a kind of stockholm syndrome attachment to that feeling of being drained, the lines "I've never felt this pain before. I need to, just to feel you." speaks for itself.
- Chris Pritchard
BODY OF WIRE
This is one of the angriest songs we have ever written. I really like that we didn’t fill it up with too many lyrics and verses. We had never really written a song like this before, one that is simple lyrically but still hits like a god damn train. I love those lines like “I pray you never feel the same” keep coming background in the song. It almost brings this hardcore chant element into the song that I know will smash live. I really like that the melodic vocal part kind of comes out of nowhere in this song. It’s something we have been doing in BY since day one and I’m glad we got to do it on this album too. I remember writing out the line “he closed his eyes and he drifted away” on my laptop and really hoping that it would make it onto a song
- Kaya Tarsus
COLONY3
We wanted to create a song that was the biggest punch in the face that we possibly make. This song literally forms a bridge shape in my mind, its a huge intro to a world ending chaotic centre, to be rounded off into a cliff hanger down pace of an ending. With new elements, new techniques, new beliefs and meanings across the centre. The meaning behind this song is to offer a body in which the hurting and the effected can latch onto for life. We are exactly that as a band, people and fans look to us and our music for help in times they need it, and we can help them by giving them that. We are exactly that, we are the host in this hell for everyone effected like us.
- Chris Pritchard
OPEN WINDOW
Open Window is a real favourite amongst friends and family. Whenever I’ve shown this song to somebody it’s become their favourite on the album. To me this song is about being numb. We never know which direction life is heading in, sometimes everything gets a little blurry and you’re not even sure who you are anymore. I love that we can write songs like this. It’s different and uses so many different vocal styles we never tried before.
- Kaya Tarsus
SYNTHETIC
“I spent a lot of time with the vultures” is probably my favourite ever BY lyric. Synthetic is a straight up mosh, it’s like anger in a jar. You’ll just bang your head throughout. It’s not really about anything’s specific, it’s just a straight up pissed off track. We looked at all the themes of the album and put them all into tracks like this. Super visceral, super aggressive
- Kaya Tarsus
HUMAN BLUR
This leads us straight into Human Blur. To be honest it’s quite frightening to listen to this after everything that’s happened. It’s about changing as a person. We’ve all been through so much since recording this album and now this track almost sounds like a foreshadowing of what’s to come “This is it, this is the end of the world”
- Kaya Tarsus
KEPT IN A BOX
I think this song is a real curve ball. It’s super intense and it really allowed me to go to a completely different place vocally. When Chris brought this song over I wasn’t sure how it was going to end up at all. But it’s one I’m super proud of, I really like songs that people will not be expecting, and this really is one of them. It’s about accepting your fate. This is who you are now. After all the carnage of the album and everything we’ve been through it takes your hand and walks you through Visions of Another Hell. It really sets the mood for the finale Dogma.
- Kaya Tarsus
DOGMA
This track is the only Blood Youth track that i tear up at every single time i hear it. The song is a journey, 7 minutes of ups and downs and an emotional explosion at the end. I don't like explaining this song, I don't even want to talk about it in depth and I’ve refused to tell people in the process, and even my closest friends don't know the meaning to this song. But in a nutshell; Dogma is about coping with serious abuse and killing yourself in order to keep someone else safe.
- Chris Pritchard
Visions of Another Hell is out now!