Are you ready for one of the most startling, blood-curdling releases of the year? We highly doubt it, but we applaud your confidence. We’re stoked to premier it for you anyway – now break out the salt and make yourself a protection circle this instant, because shit is about to get crazy.
Without being too much of a downer, the last few years have been pretty horrendous, and as they say, art begins to imitate life. The latest abyssal season has summoned up a few fiery demons in the last year, but nothing quite like the harrowing screeds of Belgian YOUFF.
Check out the exclusive stream of their new music video below – but don’t be scared. We know it’s intense, but deep down, they make us feel something beyond fear, something far more productive: pure angst. Make sure there’s no one else in the house, turn out the lights, and do your best to prepare for “Foreveroptimist.”
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Here’s a blurb from video director/editor Rik Chaubet as well:
“I went for a maximal minimalist approach: trying to get as much as possible from as little as possible. A simple act of a person intently staring at a clock, watching time pass by, edited to pieces. This by maintaining a relentless tempo, constantly. The obsession for machine-like cutting at the beat of the music and the ticking of the clock slowly transforms in an intense storm of images.”
It’s pretty fucked… yeah. But in a good way. The thing is, it’s a very unique aesthetic of fucked – we haven’t been this wide-eyed listening to a record for the first time since 2021, when Chat Pile’s massively cathartic God’s Country, or Daughters‘ You Won’t Get What You Want before that.
More recent bands like Coordinated Suicides, Be Nothing, and Body Void are continuing to mark a distinctly destructive pattern from the midwest US, cleaving away bits of pulverizing metal, harsh noise, and no-wave to reveal new heights of sonic dread, particularly regarding mental health and the stagnation of working citizens. This palpable discontent might be as appealing to some as a salt and vinegar chip covered in piss, but if you think “Foreveroptimist” is too much, we’re here to tell you it’s really just the beginning. On the rest of Heydays, YOUFF deliver a true hyper-extension of the agony portrayed by these bands, to a point where bands like Scratch Acid, The Jesus Lizard, and The Locust might be better reference points for how outlandish the whole thing gets.
In fact, it was Justin Pearson that recommend we check them out in the first place, which makes absolute sense when you think about it: descending, atonal passages, animalistic screams, and balls-to-the-wall madness – we’re all too happy to pass it along.
Truly, it’s been a vile few weeks in the human community, and records like this, as off-putting as they can come across, can offer therapy, catharsis, and solidarity when you least expect it. Trust us. Pre-order the rest of this fiery demon banger here, or buy us a coffee here – coming up we’ve got a deep dive on the final Muscle Beach Petting Zoo EP, our next installment for Not Another Fecking Gear Review featuring Native Audio, and a whole lot more. Wherever you are, whoever you are, be excellent to each other and as always, thanks for reading.