Californian death metallers Putrescine have fast become one of the metal scene’s most enticing prospects, and as talk of a follow-up to last Summer’s debut EP The One Reborn grows, excitement is building. Today, fans can gain an insight into the band’s new material on Apostils Against Hegemony, Vol. I: Transitive Properties, a brand new compilation from US label Akashic Envoy Records. The digital compilation features exclusively LGBTQIA+ artists, with 100% of sales being donated to The Trevor Project, a non-profit organisation dedicated to crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQIA+ people under the age of 25.
In support, Putrescine have offered up ‘Her Stillborn Body’, a brand new track exclusive to the compilation. It’s a blistering song showcasing their savage style, with malevolent swirling riffs, a scorching solo and some harrowing vocals that tell a personal story – “Love yourself and your stillborn body,” they cry.
Written by the band’s Marie McAuliffe, these lyrics confront her struggle to gain body confidence. “The lyrics came from an attempt at catharsis to that pain and an attempt at finding meaning in my life up to this point,” she tells us. “It’s all tied to the last five years of trying to get comfortable with my body.”
“As far as the song goes musically, it was started by Trevor [Van Hook, guitars/vocals] exploring my writing style and me finishing up the guitars, drums, and overall structure. I’ve been going through a lot of pain and crisis in my life in the past month or so. Hearing the riffs Trevor laid down keyed into that pain so I did my best to explore that feeling out further.”
It’s clear the track is the result of inner pain, but also of catharsis from that pain: “Where I’m at now felt like it was impossible so many years ago and no matter what is going on in my life, no matter what pain, I have that accomplishment. I’ve ‘found the love for my stillborn body’. I have something that I felt could never be, something that was dead before I was born. Plus, the riffs are fucking sick which is the most important part of the whole process.”
Full Lyrics:
Clawing for every inch of this construct of flesh and fat
Screaming for the ether that twists this monster of muscle and bone
Fueling its hell fire churning an engine of blood and hormone
Pain is the penance, violate the orders of man.
A minty scalpel sanitized and white
Cuts an incision deep as the soul
These forceps dyed blue as the sky
Pull forth the self from ego’s shell
A birth after birth barren of womb
A cursed form chiseled from exclusion
A moth dying in its own cocoon
An unnatural being drawn free from illusion
Clawing at its own world hostile to the stillborn body
Screaming for scared air oxidizing to the stillborn body
Agony her flame tempering to the stillborn body
Pain sunk into love for her and the stillborn body
Her stillborn body
Love yourself and your stillborn body
Love yourself and your stillborn body
Apostils Against Hegemony, Vol. I: Transitive Properties is out now. Support it here.
Words: George Parr
Cover art: Sarah Allen Reed
