Greet Death – Die In Love
Death comes to us all. We all know that, and we perhaps don’t want to think about a saddening well of unknowing for too long. Still, there are many that decide to spend time on earth trying to unpick it. And not many bands attempt to fathom it quite so staunchly as Greet Death. From their reaper-meeting name, doom-laden lyrics and idiosyncratic placement on the Deathwish Inc. roster, they add weight to the inescapability of the topic, particularly in the earlier days of Logan Gaval and Harper Boyhtari’s brainchild where any affliction was all-consuming and often hopeless. So it’s interesting here to see that their death-as-muse has transformed on Die In Love––there’s peace to be found in losing those that make the mortal coil that little bit easier.
It’s not just their outlook that’s changed. Following the bolstering of the band to a five-piece, there are sonic shifts that feel dramatic given the group’s measured approach to releases. This full-length is the third in eight years, bookended by EPs. Some tracks have been road tested in live incarnations to fan fervor, growing anticipation for what was to come next. Slowcore? Slacker indie? They’ve stitched many styles together before, even been backhand-complimented by Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta who said they could be played in a Target. For a band that loves the dramatics of old school hard rock, all tube-screaming amps and anthemic crowd songs, you know Greet Death will do the quiet bits then the loud parts that are freaking loud. They certainly do here too, with a widened lens to craft a grandiose collection highlighting grief, community and acceptance through magic realism.
Opener “Die In Love” dips closest to shoegazing with no moment wasted, a riotous opening into the songwriting minds of childhood friends Gaval and Boyhtari. Further separated by distance and day jobs (it’s a conscious decision to keep Greet Death as passion pursuit rather than hamster-wheel full-time recording outfit), their distinct pens come across vividly. Gaval paints images of universal human experience, as on intimate acoustic number “Small Town Cemetery”: “if you go before I do, I hope I lie next to you, our hearts forever intuned.” Boyhtari instead mingles the fantastical with business-as-usual moments. On “Country Girl,” rural nuances like abandoned churches, smoking spliffs on the sly and fried chicken franchises are blurred with haunted rooms and blood-soaked flowers from the horrors the protagonist sees in the theatre. It mimics the fascination ’80s slashers have with unexpected real-life places, while also lifting the filmmaking gloss to find some beauty in humdrum hell; “Michael Myers was an Illinois kid, so he’s a country boy and I’m his country queen”.
There may even have been a time when Greet Death wouldn’t consider writing such positively candid lines like “emptiness is everywhere, so hold each other close,” but it goes to show their growth in embracing more uplifting songcraft (from studying The Beatles’ playbook no less). Even the faintest glimmer of a love ever-waiting slips by the dispirited hitchhiker on “Motherfucker,” where that storytelling confidence translates to the group’s performances. The calming verses of “Same But Different Now” are equally soft and thick, breaking in and out of a noisy barrage. Gaval’s unexpected strained yells see out the track’s conclusion in cataclysmic style and his wails on “August Underground” are like a church hymn recital, standing free from the surrounding hollow space then drifting into it simultaneously. In another swerve, the raspy opening to “Red Rocket” folds into its sultry groove that’s as salacious as its Sean Baker-directed namesake.
Clearly, the band’s search for their suite of love songs led them to find the feeling in the darkest places. It fits their aesthetic that way, with a more distinct gothic romance to it all this time around. In other hands that could come across as cartoonish. Yet throughout the sprawling scope on Die In Love, Greet Death’s songs convey the subtlety of the phantoms and ghouls they reference as real anxieties made manifest. Like cinema’s inescapable movie demons, Greet Death still acknowledge and are fascinated by looming eventuality; they now see it from a perspective the way Tennyson did once, “better to have loved and lost…” and all that. It’s great to hear them reach happier climes, even more so through such a gigantic sound.
Label: Deathwish Inc.
Year: 2025
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