Four months after wrapping “Terminal Dissonance,” Cody Maillet and Tom Preziosi were already writing again. Wuth no lineup stability, no drummer, no grand plan โ just two people left in a band that kept losing members and kept not stopping. The result is “Filth Film,” Dystopiate’s second full-length, slated for a March 2026 release on I Heart Noise out of Boston, MA. Limited to 50 blood-red vinyl copies, with a CD pressing hitting at the same time. And the first taste โ a three-track single led by the title cut “Infiltrator” โ is out now as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp, where it moved over 100 copies in its first week.
The single collects Dystopiate old and new, but “Infiltrator” is the headline. Black metal meets Discharge and Voivod, run through something heavier and less polite. Maillet puts it plainly: “Sick song, has elements of black metal and Discharge/Voivod in there, but with more heavy sauce, I guess is a good way for me to put it.”
Lyrically, “Infiltrator” deals with psychological occupation โ someone taking up residence in your head without your permission. “It’s basically about how someone can have the power to infiltrate your mind and being, without you knowing about it,” Maillet explains. “A person living rent-free in your head. We thought that would be a strong anchor track for the premiere of the ‘Filth Film’ material. It’s the first song on the record for a reason. It’s a strong statement from us: you can look at it two ways, either you are being infiltrated or you are the infiltrator. Do not let yourself become controlled.”
The road to “Filth Film” wasn’t smooth. The songs on “Terminal Dissonance” were essentially old Dystopiate tracks re-recorded in a studio under time pressure. This time, everything had to be new. Maillet says they weren’t consciously chasing a particular direction, but the stuff that came out landed harder and wider โ more black metal in the riffing and production, thrash d-beat and sleaze rock folded into the overall sound. “Not that we were thinking of riffs intentionally: all the music on ‘Filth Film‘ flowed right out.”
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Then the band started falling apart around them. After parting ways with drummer Jeff, finding a replacement proved nearly impossible. On top of that, guitarist Andrew quit suddenly, leaving only Maillet and Preziosi.
“Andrew leaving the band almost put the kibosh on things for Dystopiate,” Maillet admits. “It was only Tom and I left and we wanted to keep going but we didn’t know how to do it as a two-piece.”
They figured it out the only way available. Preziosi handled all guitars from his home studio, Dystope, in Townsend, MA. Maillet took bass and vocals, commuting an hour and a half each way from Waltham โ half public transit, half private. “Sometimes the train gets cancelled late at night and you don’t get notified about it. It’s not perfect but it’s doable.” For drums, they went back to the drum machine, something Maillet had used on earlier demos and self-released records. They played along to it, recorded, mixed, mastered, and finished it themselves. Mastering was handled by Preziosi.
Live, though, the drum machine stays off. “We firmly believe we should exist as a band of humans for live gigs,” Maillet says. They’re looking for a drummer. Until then, the stage stays quiet.
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Preziosi’s take on the process is more clinical but honest: “I’m all about the art and the creative process. There is no point in forcing anything if it’s not working, and we didn’t want to just make a clone of our last album. ‘Filth Film’ started as a seed and we let it grow and guide us through the process. We let experiments bring us to new places for the band and tried to balance that with our sound concept. Making a point to not overthink anything, we kept most of the tracking very raw and effective.”
Behind the riffs, the headspace was rough. Maillet wrote through depression, anxiety, and fear. “But when the music was written, all that went away momentarily. Somehow I was in a good place when that music was being played and singing. What was left were killer songs.” He’s blunt about what’s fueling the darker stuff: “The current state of things bother me extremely, to the point of regular nightmares. I do NOT like the way things are going here. I’m so disgusted every day and feel powerless sometimes. There is something inside me though telling me to stay on board. I hope my mind isn’t playing tricks on me.”
Still, he’s not trying to drag anybody down with him. “I want people to feel good, yet, possibly informed in a way. Not scared, not hopeless โ the songs have hope in them, so I don’t want the listener to give up. We’re in too dangerous of a time now to just give up. I want them to feel like they can rock out if they want or deeply listen, or both, however the listener prefers to hear their music. To hear what is happening but feel empowered.”
The “Infiltrator” single โ featuring “Infiltrator,” “Medihaze,” and “Finality” โ is available now via I Heart Noise on Bandcamp. Cyanotype artwork by Blue Tapes.
And Dystopiate are already writing new stuff. According to Maillet, the early songs are “shaping up to be meaaaaaan mamas.” Take that however you want.
