Long Island alternative hardcore band Stray From The Path have a new album just around the corner. Only Death Is Real is releasing Friday 8th September via Sumerian Records. In the meantime the band have released the album’s title track and an action movie-esque video for it.
It’s hard not to fall into the hype that the drum introduction of “Only Death Is Real” creates. Irregular beats, grinding long riffs and fire-laced vocals set a dark and hectic landscape.
Stray From The Path make radically honest music which speaks what they feel needs to be said. “Only Death Is Real” is poking a finger at the structures created in society (including religion), and the constraints we willingly abide by; the rules we blindly follow in this game of life.
“Nothing repeats, there’s always the sequel
We’re the pieces of the game, inescapable evil
They want the pawns to fight each other and say we’re not the same
Well, I say, “don’t hate the player, hate the game””
The stance that Stray From The Path are taking in this song is undeniably true, that we are all indeed headed toward death. They consider us to be being played, not realising that the things we humans are aiming for are meaningless (‘nothing is permanent / nothing is gold’).
Knowing this one unchangeable thing, should inspire us to the fact that no one ‘wins’ above the other, regardless of how we pray or what we buy. We all have this same destiny, regardless of how we play the game. The play on words by way of ‘goes back in the box’ whether as pieces in a metaphorical game or humans ending our lives in coffins is cleverly done.
In the music video a woman (with her BMW car, electronics and cash) eerily meets this inevitable truth head on. The dark eeriness is captured musically also with skin-crawling guitars, distantly echoed soulful singing, and a thunderous ritualistic ending.
Check out “Only Death Is Real” via the music video or stream with Spotify. Pre-order the album now at: http://www.onlydeathisreal.com/
