Photo by Drew Birch

There’s a good argument to be had that you either evolve in the music world or die by your complacency. Cloud Nothings are definitely far from kicking the bucket, but they’re certainly flirting with the latter as a means to push their creative state forward. “Death Keeps Me Alive”, the lead single from their ninth studio album, What Kind Of Hell Did You Survive?, is more than a zap to the pulse for a reset, with frontman Dylan Baldi citing metal and popular hard alternative rock as major influences going into their next chapter. Dude isn’t just talking out of his ass either.

For those who prefer their Cloud Nothings’ outputs teetering on the brink of mental collapse a la Attack On Memory, there’s definitely that going on here in the listen’s panic mode and Baldi shouting every verse. The chorus is more of a proper breakdown, however, with the frontman serrating the song’s title from his throat as he assumes the role of evil feeding off the world’s unlimited reserve of hate and pain. It’s worth noting that even though the longstanding Cleveland-proud indie rock band has held down a consistent recording output for over a decade and a half now, they’d been finding themselves getting pigeonholed into a weird mix of 2010s and emo nostalgia as of late. They’re not only living to die another day here, but reincarnating themselves as this whole other state of being that goes harder than ever.

Directed by: Alex Scalzo-Brown

Cloud Nothings’ What Kind of Hell Did You Survive? will be released January 29th on Pure Noise Records.