Track By Tracks: Death Of Youth - Nothing Is The Same Anymore (2026)

1. Desensitised:

This song was the last song written musically for the album - the other eight songs were all ready to go, but none of them really jumped out as being an album opener. Then, whilst messing around on guitar, I stumbled across the first couple of chords, and the song kind of ended up writing itself pretty seamlessly after that. It was exactly the kind of vibe I wanted for the opening track of the album, with its somewhat dark but melodic-sounding chords. Lyrically, the song is about how men respond when women speak about the horrific experiences they've had with men. Rather than listening to what these women have to say and holding themselves accountable to make changes to their behaviour, men instead choose to drown this out with cries of 'NOT ALL MEN' to absolve themselves of any responsibility, whilst happily turning a blind eye when their mates partake in behaviours that make women feel unsafe.

2. Rumination:

This one is a classic, short and sweet, up-tempo Melodic Hardcore track influenced by bands such as Defeater and La Dispute, with possibly a little sprinkling of Hot Water Music in the verses. It's one of the more personal songs on the album lyrically, as it's about a relationship I was in that ended due to circumstances. It examines my thought process as I wonder what might have been if those circumstances hadn't been a factor, and reflects upon how this person and our relationship impacted me, and I hope that they're doing okay now.

3. Fix Your Heart or Die:

The first single from the album, and also the first song written for the album. I was listening to a lot of 2010s UK Melodic Hardcore bands such as Goodtime Boys and Departures, which influenced a lot of the track, but there are also parts that remind me of a slightly more Hardcore-influenced Texas Is The Reason. It's quite an upfront track lyrically as it covers the topic of trans rights and how the trans community tends to get demonised by various governments trying to create a scapegoat in order to distract from their own failings. It tackles the absurdity of boiling down someone's human rights to a trivial 'difference of opinion' and having to debate somebody's right to exist.

4. Bystander:

This one started out as a love letter to 90's Screamo bands such as Seatia. There are definitely elements of that in the finished song, but there are also parts that remind me of bands such as Boysetsfire and Thursday - namely, the mysterious instrumental interlude just before the end of the song. We also threw in a blastbeat at the end of the song for good measure! The lyrics are about people who claim to 'not do politics' as they don't feel they're affected by what happens. It's a song born out of the frustration of seeing so much inequality and oppression throughout the world, and being confused as to why so many people are fine with keeping things the way that they ar,e rather than striving for something better.

5. The Inverse of Patriotism:

The lyrics to this song came out of disillusionment following things such as Brexit and the UK's response to Black Lives Matter. In the years since these lyrics were originally written (2021), they've only become ten times more relevant. It's very much a song in the vein of bands such as American Nightmare - a short burst of aggression and adrenaline!

6. Invertebrate:

The music for this one originally came from an unused song from my very first band. I'd been toying with bringing it back for Death of Youth for years, but it took until now to take another look at the song and provide it with a fresh coat of paint. The song is about emotional abuse and the effect that it has on its victims, and was inspired by the experiences a friend of mine had with a previous partner, and my seeing first-hand the aftereffects this experience had on her.

7. Performance Art:

Sometimes, you intend to write a song one way, and it ends up completely different from how you envisioned it! I originally intended for this song to have a similar vibe to Pave Paradise from Have Hear,t which you can kind of hear at the start of the song, but then halfway through it kind of turns into a slightly black metal-tinged Touche Amore. It ended up being arguably the heaviest song on the album! I wrote the lyrics to the song about bigotry within the heavy music scene and how people who hold views that oppose everything we stand for tend to keep to themselves until someone else within the scene validates that bigotry with their own.

8. Castle Rock:

This is a more sombre and reflective track. It started out as a single riff discovered on my voice recording app, and then grew into a whole song off the basis of that, years later. It's a song about me finding out that one of my high school friends had passed away. Even though I'd long since cut ties with this person (and everyone else I was at school with), it was still quite a lot to process finding out that they were no longer with us, and it put everything about the friendship into perspective. This song was my way of exploring that and hoping this friend understood my reasons for cutting ties were not personal. The title comes from the Rob Reiner film 'Stand By Me' (based on the Steven King novella 'The Body') as the finished song reminded me of the film's themes of the loss of innocence and reflecting on childhood friendships.

9. Nothing Is The Same Anymore:

The closing song on the album - this one is kind of a part 2 to Rumination, as it's about the same relationship. However, this song is more about my journey of healing after the break-up and learning to live with the metaphorical scars you're left with in a person's absence. Musically, I wanted something similar to the Touche Amore song Is Survived By to close out the album, and this song definitely has elements of that whilst still being its own distinct song. It has the perfect balance of aggression and melody with somewhat melancholic-sounding chords, reflecting the bittersweet mood of the lyrics.