New Jersey hardcore/screamo outfit has dropped Memento Mori, their debut EP, and we are stoked to give you a special deep dive with their track by track commentary below.
Active for roughly a year and a half, the band is known for their chaotic energy, emotional sharpness, and self-aware humor—they jokingly label their style “hardcore/skramz/screamo/moshcore (lol)”—but Memento Mori signals a shift toward deeper existential themes. The group will play a major release show with Frail on May 9.
Photos by Nathan Gammons
The record explores cycles of life, death, trauma, and the search for meaning through five blistering and vulnerable tracks. “The whole EP is about grief, growth, codependency, and finding acceptance,” said guitarist/vocalist Harry, who wrote two of the tracks and developed the artwork and album concept alongside bassist/vocalist Kris.
The title Memento Mori—Latin for “Remember, you must die”—wasn’t chosen for edge value but to anchor the record’s core idea: confronting mortality while trying to live with intention.
Harry said the artwork, built from a series of black-and-white sunflower photos, traces “the life cycle we get to experience,” offering a visual metaphor for change and impermanence. The concept came from real sunflowers he grew over a summer. “Me and Kris would constantly chat back and forth and he ended up throwing some black and white pic together of the flowers through their different stages. I thought it was an awesome idea so we pitched it to Tom (who is my cousin) and he just knocked it out of the park.”
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The opening track, “Why Do People Say ‘I’m as Happy as a Clam,’” started as a pit-starter. “We developed some corny lyrics to kind of chant and mock a common saying,” said Kris. But underneath the surface lies a sarcastic tension—mocking fake happiness while pushing for physical release through movement.
“Five Minutes Between” shifts sharply into personal trauma. Kris describes the track as a direct expression of the moment he and his wife found his brother’s body after an overdose. “It entails all the questions I had that I wanted answers to, that I knew he would never be able to give me. It’s a song that still helps me recover every time we play it.”
In “Have Yourself a Panic Attack, You’ve Earned It,” Kris examines self-sabotage and missed potential. “I never really tried to succeed,” he said. “I always did just enough to get by. And I woke up one day wondering why I never felt accomplished.” The song becomes a promise to start living with full intent.
Harry’s “Deforestation” and “Reforestation” form a conceptual pair. The former was inspired by a family heirloom plant and the realization that care can be destructive. “As humans we have this tendency to take things,” he said. “More than half the time, we end up accidentally harming these things.” At the same time, he was watching his children grow, confronting how beauty and loss coexist. “The more we grow, the closer we get to death.”
“Reforestation” flips the narrative: now the human speaks, facing loneliness, toxic patterns, and the ache to protect. “When we go through enough pain and experience we begin to understand and find acceptance,” said Harry. “The song concludes questioning reality, and coming to the realization that life and death go hand in hand… that relief allows us to finally breathe and enjoy the moment.”
Full track commentary is available below.
“Why Do People Say I’m as Happy As a Clam”
Kris: This song started out as just a slam song to get people moving when we start our set live. We developed some corny lyrics to kind of like chant and mock a common saying “I’m as happy as a clam.
“Five Minutes Between”
Kris: My wife and I found my brother dead on the floor of an overdose. This song describes the feeling of the first minutes between finding his dead body and what to do next like calling family, 911, etc. it entails all the questions I had that I wanted answers to, that I knew he would never be able to give me. It’s a song that still helps me recover every time we play it of that traumatic event.
“Have Yourself a Panic Attack, You’ve earned it” Kris
This song is about the realization I had late in life that I had never really put any effort into the things I was doing. I never really tried to succeed. I always did just enough ti get by. And I woke up one day wondering why I never felt accomplished in anything that I ever did in life. It is a promise to myself that from this point moving forward, I am putting my everything heart, soul, feeling, body etc into everything that I do.
“Deforestation”
Harry: I never really had any idea for lyrics or a concept either, normally Kris writes the lyrics. I came up with one line ” You’re Growing, You’re Blooming, Your petals are falling off” first. It was very face value upon fruition. My grandmother had brought this plant over for me when I first bought my house and was like “This is a gift to you. My mother gave it to me, her mother originally started growing it. It’s been in the family for generations.”
As humans we have this tendency to take things. We want to make things ours, domesticate them. We like to care for things, we are very codependent and constantly search for a sense of purpose. Plants, pets, we get older and we want children.
Think of how many pets we go through as children. Goldfish, hamsters. We like to try to take care of things because we don’t wanna be alone. More than half the time, we end up accidentally harming these things. I stopped and put myself in the shoes of other living things and the hell we put these things through for a small bit of joy for ourselves. Its kinda sick.
These things don’t have a voice like we do; and if they did, What would they say. At the same time, I had just had another child. My daughter was growing so fast and hitting so many milestones. Learning to crawl, walk, talk, use the bathroom etc. My son was quickly growing up and learning how to drive, going into his Senior year in High School So many beautiful things, and it was all happening so very quickly. Before I knew it she wasn’t this tiny little baby anymore, and my son was turning into a man.
It’s bittersweet. The more we grow, the closer we get to death, and depending on our perspective and mood on any given day depends how we view these things. Optimism, Pessimism.
“Reforestation”
Harry: It wasn’t planned to write a part two- it kinda just happened- I remember the three of us struggling to write that shuffly part at the beginning of Reforestation- it was weird, but so much fun. If you look at Deforestation as its being told through the eyes of the plant, Reforestation is told through the eyes of the human.
Wanting to find a sense of purpose, being alone, losing ones self, toxic relationships & codependency, being used, finding friends and a sense of purpose. Wanting so badly to take care of something, to see it grow and flourish only for it to do the opposite. When we go through enough pain and experience we begin to understand and find acceptance. Feeling our way through life and questioning it the entire time.
By the end of it all, we have been so hung up on not being alone, trying to protect or take care of something, worrying about the inevitable, that life has completely passed us by. The song concludes questioning reality, and coming to the realization that life & death go hand in hand. We can’t have one without the other. The relief that comes with the understanding of that, allows us to finally breathe and enjoy the moment.
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