Denmark's Cabal are looking to make their mark on 2020. They've just announced their second album, Drag Me Down, and tapped Trivium's Matt Heafy as a special guest on the pile driving new single, "Bitter Friend."
An atmospheric bone-cruncher, "Bitter Friend" avoids some of the typical deathcore tropes, relying heavily on eerie and dissonant melodies to scar the brutalized landscape of of palm-muted, downtuned chugs. Vocally, this track is a powder keg — there's multi-tracked high/low screams and Heafy's signature bark adds a fresh mid-range dynamic.
"Cabal is one of the most frighteningly heavy bands I've ever had the privilege of being a fan of. Unstoppably powerful on album and live. It's an honor to be asked to guest on a song with them. You all need their records," Heafy enthused.
Speaking to the message of the new song, Cabal offered, "'Bitter Friend' is a deep dive into the internal conflict between yourself and the side of yourself that you’d rather die than let take over and how if feels when you’re losing that fight."
"It’s a song on which we’ve experimented a bit with our sound while still staying true to what Cabal have always been about and last," the band continued, "but not least it also has none other than the absolute legend Matt Heafy from Trivium doing an awesome feature on it."
Drag Me Down is set for an April 3 release through Long Branch Records.