"I'm living half a life now."
death fetish is an obituary.
A result of chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), a chronic illness with a 5% recovery rate, running rampant upon frontman and creative mastermind Hunter Young, what once was intended to be dark, yet fun spiraled into, as Young put it, "a bleak album hiding behind veiled electronics, heavy guitars, and pop hooks". This LP, on paper, should be a miserable listen, but the result is something I've found myself coming back to time and time again.
Along with a tonal shift, the project also saw a shift in it's sound from the inception. Emerging from an almost three-year release gap, Moodring's second LP is an entirely different beast than its predecessors. Gone are the days of the band's first album, Stargazer and even further still is debut EP "showmetherealyou". If Your Light Fades Away was a step in a new direction, death fetish is a leap. Eager to escape the band being lumped in with the "nu-gaze" style, Young leaned more into his influences, tapping into the unsung, and frankly underrated, industrial side of nu metal.
“My band does not fucking sound like Deftones. Good luck finding it."
The sound of death fetish hits you in the face like a brick covered in razorblades. Monstrous guitars weave in tandem with intricate (and, at times ethereal) electronics, backed by meaty drums with just the right amount of "oomph" to 'em, Young's vocals complete the mix, shifting from silky cleans to jagged harsh screams on the drop of a dime. It's raw as FUCK, the result of Young re-recording the entire album to achieve its edge. (Poor Austin Coupe...)
Not one for metaphor, "Half-Life" sets the tone immediately, laying out the album's subject matter quite plainly, right off the rip. After the intro, and a stripped back verse, the track takes us into a soaring chorus.
"I'm living half a life now / I'm swallowing the pain/ what's left to take?"
To put it simply: The quality of life for Young has been obliterated. He can barely leave his house, and is in pain 24/7. This concept is death fetish at its core. Young is in constant agony, yet out of responsibility to his loved ones, he's stuck living a life of pain. So he longs for a release, for death, and even fetishizes it. This is expanded even further in the bridge and breakdown, where through gritted teeth and blistering screams, Young exclaims:
"Remove the red / It's my head that you're breathing"
The theming of suicide is one that remains ever-present throughout the album, even in its more upbeat moments.
"Masochist Machine" throws the listener into its blistering riffs and pumping drums immediately, giving them no time to breathe. The previous track, Cannibal, had a finale building to a drop, and "Masochist Machine" delivers, with a guitar lead that would feel right at home on Spineshank's The Height of Callousness.
Throughout the album, Young takes on several different vocal cadences reminiscent of different nu metal artists, including Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory and Max Cavalera of Sepultura. and here his vocal tone is somewhat goth-y, and very inspired by Orgy's Jay Gordon, and that leads into the following track, my personal favorite, "Gunplay (Suicidal 3way)".
"Gunplay (Suicidal 3way)" is where Young's ability to write a hook really shows through. Verses are more subdued in comparison, letting the choruses truly shine. Young builds harmonies on top of one another, and goes even further in as choruses progress , with extra harmonies on top to fill in blank spaces, and by the end it sounds like he's got a beautiful 3 part choir. It all comes together in a fashion that you just can't help but sing along. And that breakdown? Insane. It's short, its sweet, and packs one hell of a punch. Every word is like a gunshot, like gunplay, even.
Throughout the album's twelve-track duration, death fetish weaves in and out of different tones with ease. What's interesting is that each song on the album has a "sonic twin". On one end of the spectrum, "Sick F_ck", a 3 minute beatdown of pure bass guitar is matched with the similarly heavy "STFA". On the other end of the spectrum, "Ketamine" is a down-tuned ballad of piano and electronics, and that pairs nicely with another ballad, the album's finale, "coldmetalkiss".
Equally important to how an album starts is how it ends, and "coldmetalkiss" is one hell of a closer. It starts with pulsating drum beats before being enveloped in electronics, synth, and bass that slowly crescendos as Young lays down the most heartbreaking lyrics on the track. If the tracks previous didn't hammer the severity of the album, this sure as hell will. It's Young at his most raw, grappling with his mortality.
"Waking to another day of pills to numb the constant ache / Playing god to twist my fate / Maybe it's the sound of all my courage crashing down / Maybe everything I built was all for nothing but your doubt"
The track fizzles out for a bit, being isolated to only a simple electronic jingle, before exploding into a final chorus.
"Undersaturated / Fill my lines with colors faded / Sew my skin / so mutilated, Sing the songs to make me stay / Cause this new blood leaves me out of it / My disgusting self erased / feeling undersaturated / singing songs to make me stay"
The track begins to fade out as Young hits a monstrous high note, leaving the listener alone to sit in their thoughts. The only way to describe it is heartbreaking. It never fails to bring tears to the eyes.
Modern nu metal is in a confusing spot right now. Everyone wants to be the next Deftones or the next Limp Bizkit, so it's incredibly refreshing to see a band pay homage to acts that don't get as much love, like Orgy and Spineshank and Fear Factory, especially on a project as deeply emotional and real as this. death fetish is one of the most harrowing, heartbreaking, and important pieces of art I've ever witnessed and one that is sure to leave an impact on not just nu metal, but heavy music as a whole.
What an incredible legacy to leave behind.
death fetish releases on March 27th, 2026 via SharpTone Records. You can preorder it here.
