Pupil Slicer announce new album ‘Fleshwork,’ share title track

2 days ago 8

Pupil Slicer by Derek Bremner

Pupil Slicer recently dropped the two-song single “Heather” / “Black Scrawl,” and now they’ve announced their third album, Fleshwork, due November 7 via Prosthetic (pre-order). The announcement reads:

Describing Fleshwork as “conceptual” but specifically not a concept album, Pupil Slicer leans into creating an all-encompassing industrial hellscape; a perfect setting to explore the societal machinations that dehumanize and devalue the poor, disabled, queer, and people of color for political and financial gain. Drawing on personal experience, vocalist and guitarist Kate Davies details the disconnect and discomfort of navigating this life, and the substantial human, day-to-day cost of doing so.

Over the course of the nine songs unfolding, the imagery of the oppressive machinery falls away to leave behind only the personal, human elements. What starts as the smallest of sparks roars into a chthonic inferno, demonstrating the impact of and on one solitary human as the weight of subjection turns to ash. Fleshwork serves as a cathartic conduit for those who are “othered” by a society distinctly lacking in empathy, as Pupil Slicer champions their own brand of “trans inclusive radical hatred.”

[…] The band comments, “Fleshwork is a deconstruction of what it means to be human, the penchant for personal and society-wide self-destruction and systemic cruelty that seems all but guaranteed to rear its head as long as humans exist. It’s more grounded and emotionally charged than previous work, with a stronger emphasis on the failings of our world to look after those who need it the most and our own ability to look after ourselves. How much pain can you inflict on yourself and others before you cease to be human? There is no limit; all of the worst things to happen to the human race have been caused by its own members. Fleshwork’s new image of PUPIL SLICER is one that’s frayed around the edges, incinerated and burned to the ground; a survivor in a wasteland of loss and decay.”

The album includes both recent singles, as well as the just-released title track, an ominous dirge with bits of metal, hardcore, and industrial all swirling together throughout these four minutes and 10 seconds of darkness. It’s less chaotic than Pupil Slicer’s early mathcore material, but no less intense. About this song in particular, the band adds:

“Fleshwork” as a track originally started as experimentation into more industrial and groove-oriented writing that we found really worked well in the practice space. Since road testing this song, we’ve found it hits like a brick wall live and really works in that setting so we believe it’s a great starting point for this new era. Lyrically, this song encompasses a lot of the themes of the album, dealing with manipulation, death, and total eradication of one’s own humanity to further a cause you don’t believe in and perpetuate a cycle of killing. The music video was directed by our good friend David Gregory who we are excited to be collaborating with again. The narrative in the video spans across all of the upcoming singles for this release, to tell a story that depicts the tonal and thematic elements of our album through a cinematic eye.

Check out the video below.

Pupil Slicer Fleshwork