Metric has been pretty quiet since wrapping up their tour for Synthetica, and it turns out they got back into the studio pretty quickly. In a new post on their website, Emily Haines writes that the band is now “fully immersed in fresh music and somewhat amazed that we’ve managed to keep on loving what we do for this long.” She also shared a new unfinished song called “The Fatal Gift,” which she says “doesn’t really sound at all like anything else we’re doing and stands alone.” It’s a ballad that’s more in the vein of Haines’ solo work (which is still vastly underrated — Knives Don’t Have Your Back is truly fantastic), and she questions if she “accidentally wrote a dark Christmas carol last summer.” Listen and read Haines’ full letter below.

Last year at this time, we were staggering home from our last leg of touring Synthetica, and we were beyond ready for a hard won year off. “This time, it will be a REAL year off!”, we proclaimed, swearing we would not go straight into making another album as soon as we had unpacked our bags. And yet, here I am, writing this letter to you from the studio, fully immersed in fresh music and somewhat amazed that we’ve managed to keep on loving what we do for this long.

So much has gone down this year but I’m feeling surprisingly refreshed and excited. I was really enjoying not having to care what happened next and then by accident we made something new. Meanwhile, the internal voice that constantly highlights my flaws, ignores my accomplishments and only reminds me what I can’t do seems to have worn itself out and quit. It may be time to put my heart back on my sleeve where it belongs, but that is often easier said than done.

What the hell, I’ll start now with the song below, “The Fatal Gift.” It doesn’t really sound at all like anything else we’re doing and stands alone. It’s unfinished but I like it enough the way it is to play it for you now. The question is, did I accidentally write a dark Christmas carol last summer? Looks like we’re about to find out.
xo emily