DYING WISH is the Portland-based blistering hardcore five-piece whose passionate music fuses New Wave of American Heavy Metal and chaos-driven punk noises. Late last year, they signed to SharpTone Records and today, have announced the release of their forthcoming record, “Fragments of a Bitter Memory” which will be released on October 1, 2021 via their new label home.
To celebrate the announcement, DYING WISH has released the record’s title track today. Fans can listen to and watch “Fragments of a Bitter Memory” now here, as well as across streaming services.
On the deeply personal new single, lead vocalist Emma Boster shares: “‘Fragments’ starts by taking the listener back to my first memory. I was five years old and I was the flower girl at my mother’s wedding. My biological father wasn’t in my life and the man she was marrying took a vow to fill that void. Over the next decade I watched that same man who I had learned to call my father become a violent alcoholic. By the time I was a young teen I was being verbally and physically abused by him almost daily. I was living in constant fear. Seasons of life forever change healing the fragments you still control” refers to my constant struggle of healing from this trauma in my adulthood. The video ends with her stabbing him over the lyrics “I would bury you if I could” because even after therapy and a decade of healing, violent revenge seems like the easiest and most satisfying way to cope”.
Dying Wish is the unrelenting and unforgiving sound of struggle, who carries on the tradition of a subculture that serves as inspiration and rallying cry for justice. Equality, dignity, and self-determination are enduring themes in this music, a spirit more vital than ever. Invisible Oranges described the first demo as “joyous, unflinching violence”.
In less than three years after their formation, and ahead of their debut album, Dying Wish has already been nominated for “Best International Band” at the UK’s Heavy Music Awards, as well as have been called, not once, but twice, one of the best new bands out right now” by Revolver. Brooklyn Vegan has also listed the band’s forthcoming album is one of the top most-anticipated releases of 2021.
Decimating stages alongside likeminded bands (including Terror, Comeback Kid, and Jesus Piece) Dying Wish is part of a resurgence in postmodern noisecore, mentioned in the same breath as groups like Code Orange and their friends in Knocked Loose. Following successful tours with Counterparts and SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Dying Wish hunkered down in their native Portland, Oregon, to compose their debut full-length for SharpTone Records.
Dying Wish align themselves with the continuing battle for liberation, encompassing the issues affecting BIPOC, the environment, policing, and more intersectional causes while dealing in personal tribulation and trauma in equal measure. They make music aimed at unity but without compromise. Abolition, revolution, and liberation, in spirit and song, is the heart of Dying Wish.
“Fragments of a Bitter Memory” is out October 1, 2021 via SharpTone Records.
