“Often it feels like the worst humanity has to offer get to run the show. We exist in a cycle where the system reinforces the gazing into the abyss in order to churn out a constant supply of ‘fiends,’” says Open Head in very Nietzche-esque fashion of “Fiends Don’t Lose”, the latest single from the New York experimental industrial noise quartet’s sophomore effort, What Is Success. Looking around at everything happening in power structures across the world right now — specifically, this month — this couldn’t be more poignantly stated. If there were ever an abyss to gaze into and allow yourself to sink into its empty vacuum, however, it would be that of Open Head’s sonic drain pool where they submerge the swirl of shoegaze, the shutter clap of trap, and offbeat electronic and bassline beats from experimental rap influence to churn this endless cycle of the nihilist’s plight, if at least with transfixing effect to at least explain why society continues to get caught up in the same grift time and time again. “We could be worse than you!,” vocalist and guitarist Jared Ashdown shouts. If only there weren’t for that whole urge to uphold morality holding us back from fulling sinking in…

Open Head’s What Is Success will be released January 24th on Wharf Cat Records.