Portland, Oregon, metalcore unit Dying Wish are having themselves a year. Following their big spring tour with Spiritbox and the release of a crushing standalone single, the Pacific Northwest brutalists have now unveiled plans to put out a full-length. Titled Flesh Stays Together, the record is being previewed by their newly unveiled single: “I’ll Know You’re Not Around.”
The track, Dying Wish’s first since February’s “I Brought You My Soul (Your World Brought Me Despair),” initially has vocalist Emma Boster twisting melancholy vocal harmonies against a low and doomy guitar intro. The song ramps up the dissonance through noise-pressed guitar chugging, but likewise injects melody into its opalescent-yet-ominous chorus.
Throughout, Boster either screams of living “a life in agony,” or tenderly reflects on a grim shared existence (“Sorrow and separation/Devastating tides wash it all away”)
“The song expresses weakness and deep regret when faced with the ongoing pain on the surface of our dependency with one another,” Boster said in a statement, adding that the song reflects “the unavoidable conflict, betrayal and abandonment that lie within the cracks of our society” and “an acceptance of grief.”
The music video — co-directed by Eric Richter and Dying Wish guitarist Pedro Carrillo — artistically brings performance footage together with tears, blood, ceremonial bindings and a visual aesthetic that conjures a mix of R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” video and that bear scene in The Shining.
The new album, which follows 2023’s Symptoms of Survival, was made alongside esteemed producer and Fit for an Autopsy/Better Lovers member Will Putney. It’s described as “a crushing body of work” that finds Dying Wish exploring “an array of extreme sounds,” pushing their limits to the extreme as they simultaneously “paint a vivid portrait of human suffering” and “raise calls for resistance.”
“Flesh Stays Together is a discovery, a journey of grief and a statement,” Boster added. “Together we face the most unacceptable conditions in our lifetimes. Every tragedy becomes our own yet we have never been more separated. Flesh is a vicious wake up call. Slowly and painfully we approach the end we deserve.”
Flesh Stays Together is out September 26th via SharpTone Records and can be pre-ordered and pre-saved here. That’d be its uncomfortably breathtaking album art and tracklisting down below.
Dying Wish likewise have U.S. tour dates with Poppy and MSPAINT coming up in September, and will be hitting Europe with PSYCHO-FRAME, Malevolence and Speed by the end of October.
Flesh Stays Together tracklisting:
I Don’t Belong Anywhere
A Curse Upon Iron
I’ll Know You’re Not Around
Revenge in Carnage
Nothing Like You
Surrender Everything
Empty the Chamber
Moments I Regret
Heaven Departs
Flesh Stays Together
Dying Wish tour dates 2025:
9/12 Cincinnati, OH – Bogart’s ^
9/14 Grand Rapids, MI – GLC Live at 20 Monroe ^
9/15 Indianapolis, IN – Egyptian Room at Old National Centre ^
9/21 Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life
9/22 Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom ^
9/23 Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater ^
9/25 Albuquerque, NM – Revel Entertainment Center ^
9/27 Anaheim, CA – House of Blues Anaheim ^
9/28 Ventura, CA – The Majestic Ventura Theater ^
9/30 San Diego, CA – The Observatory North Park ^
10/02 Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues Las Vegas ^
10/04 Sacramento, CA – Aftershock Festival
10/06 Dallas, TX – House of Blues ^
10/27 Toulouse, France – Le Bikini ~
10/28 Paris, France – Élysée-Montmartre ~
10/30 Munich, Germany – Backstage Werk ~
10/31 Leipzig, Germany – Felsenkeller ~
11/01 Berlin, Germany – Huxleys Neue Welt ~
11/02 Hamburg, Germany – Gruenspan ~
11/04 Tilburg, Netherlands – 013 Poppodium ~
11/05 Cologne, Germany – Live Music Hall ~
11/06 Belgium – Vooruit, Ghent ~
11/08 Manchester, England – O2 Victoria Warehouse ~
11/09 London, England – O2 Academy Brixton ~
^ with Poppy and MSPAINT
~ with Malevolence, Speed, and PSYCHO-FRAME