Mitchell Layton was stuck in a loop. Hopeless, depressed, lying in bed in the middle of the day with the lights off. He knew he shouldn’t be doing it. He knew he should get up, work out, do something productive. He knew that if he didn’t change something about himself, nothing would change. Then he rolled over and fell back asleep.
This happened more than once. Each time, he was deepening the rut. Sabotaging his future self by not doing more to combat his present issues. When you’re in a bad headspace, that line of thinking doesn’t always help. You can fall into a “what’s the point?” mindset, wallow in the hopelessness of it all, and go take another nap. Layton admits he’s been guilty of this many times.
But something clicked while he was writing “I Will Kill The Worst Parts Of Myself,” the fourth single his Philadelphia chaotic metalcore band Pipe Bomb has released before their upcoming 10-song album “Hell Hole.” He’s not the type to fall for self-help jargon, but for some reason, at least momentarily, he saw purpose in changing these bad habits — even if nothing else gets better. Even if it feels like a cliche to be “working on yourself,” what’s the alternative? Letting yourself atrophy? His time spent doing that only made things worse.
“I had to take a hard look at myself and admit that I was to blame for a large part of my own depression,” Layton says. “I couldn’t keep blaming all these external factors. And this song was my way of grappling with that, grieving life, and simultaneously shifting into a different mindset to shed the old skin.”
The lyrics don’t hide from this. “No future calm / Backhanded living has its flaws / Holed up and leering with my lights off / All knuckles, elbows, crooked teeth / My soul has nothing up its sleeve.” Then later: “Waiting on a key / For a hurried hearse / Turn the engine, wake up the hurt / Drive into a patient earth / I will kill the worst parts of myself / Bury it all, better dead.”
They’re cutting, but surprisingly optimistic — written in a brief moment of spiteful vengeance toward the belligerence of the mind. A screaming resolution for willing stubborn happiness into existence through gratitude. “It feels like a kind of ‘violent optimism,’ to embrace suffering and kill the parts of yourself that are holding you back — to look out at the messiness of the world and keep going to spite it,” Layton says. “But there’s something weirdly freeing about that.”
The song tackles the task of taking accountability for one’s own mental faults. “It’s easy to dismiss the bad habits we have as simply being a byproduct of our struggles: depression, anxiety, hurt — but we each have a responsibility to deal with the things in our lives that are making our existence worse,” he explains. “This song is about acknowledging the ways of thinking and ways of being that sabotage life, and although they may not seem like it, are at least partially within my means to control.”
It’s not a nice thought to know that you, in part, are contributing to your own daily misery. But there’s no getting around it. Even if it doesn’t solve everything, it’s your responsibility to deal with your demons. You have to kill the worst parts of yourself.
Musically, “I Will Kill The Worst Parts Of Myself” stays true to Pipe Bomb’s math/metalcore roots — veering away from the chains of song structure, embracing dissonance. Mixed and mastered by John Naclerio of Nada Recording, the same studio that’s worked with My Chemical Romance and Senses Fail, it runs under two minutes. Layton recorded it with Steven Layton.
Pipe Bomb’s debut single “False God” gained them exposure on platforms like the Kingdom Core Podcast and NewReleaseToday’s Apple Music playlist “New Christian Metal.” Their follow-up EP “Stomp,” released via The Charon Collective, solidified their presence as a force in the modern Christian metal scene.
Layton wanted to put this track out before the rest of “Hell Hole” because it feels like a segue from the style of his last EP to the sound of the new record. It’s also one of his favorite songs that worked as a standalone track. “Hell Hole” feels a little darker than his previous music, and this new jam balances the light with the dark. Be sure to give it a listen.
“I Will Kill The Worst Parts Of Myself” is available to stream everywhere on January 27, 2026.
