The Flint, Michigan trio Greet Death released New Hell, an album of gorgeously sad and heavy shoegaze, in 2019. It ruled. Since then, the band has expanded to a four-piece, and they’ve started to sketch out a completely different sound, which also rules. In the past few months, Greet Death have released two standalone singles, “I Hate Everything” and “Your Love Is Alcohol,” that point toward a sound that’s spare and folky but just as heavy in its own way. Today, they’ve shared another song, and it’s another crusher.

Greet Death’s latest single is called “Punishment Existence,” and it’s a sort of fuzz-folk elegy that reminds me of prime Arab Strap. It’s a soft, muttery song about suffering through your own existence as you watch the world collapse around you: “I get off of work, and I just crawl into my bed/ Staring at the ceiling, lost in thought about death/ Sometimes, it feels like everything is coming to an end/ I wish I could escape from this existential dread.” This song is not a pick-me-up.

In the video, a man takes a sunny motorcycle journey down a California coastline that feels ominously fragile. Director David Beuthin sometimes reverses the film, so it feels like everything is going backwards. Greet Death are planning to spend their spring on a full US tour with my friends in Infant Island. Below, check out the “Punishment Existence” video and the dates for that tour.

In a press release, Greet Death’s Logan Gaval says:

This song was originally about my girlfriend’s uncle and his drawn-out battle with cancer. I couldn’t come up with a second verse, so I asked Sam [Boyhtari] to write one as well. I love his verse and the piano part we came up with.

I will never forget the night we finished tracking “Punishment Existence.” My mom texted me that my grandma had passed away. Connie was a matriarch and a very cool person who loved music. She would drink half a bud light and put the cap back on it and stow it away in her fridge. She would call you a “bitch” or a “shithead” if you beat her in poker. Heather’s uncle Kevin was one of the kindest people I’d ever met and built an orphanage in India among other things. Anyway, I think this song is about loss in general. Whether it’s time lost working our jobs during the pandemic, loved ones lost, loss of hope… Great people are taken from this earth, and we’re left with the dregs of humanity. I don’t know if that’s actually true, but that’s how I felt when I wrote this song and how I feel right now.

TOUR DATES:

3/24 Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club *
3/25 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry *
3/26 Fargo, ND @ The Aquarium *
3/27 Des Moines, IA @ Gas Lamp (Matinee) *
3/28 Wichita, KS @ Barleycorn’s *
3/29 Denver, CO @ Meadowlark *
3/31 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court *
4/01 Boise, ID @ The Olympic *
4/02 Portland, OR @ The High Water Mark *
4/03 Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile *
4/05 Oakland, CA @ Elbo Room *
4/06 Los Angeles, CA @ Resident *
4/07 Costa Mesa, CA @ The Wayfarer *
4/08 San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick *
4/09 Phoenix, AZ @ Nile (Underground) *
4/11 Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips *
4/12 Austin, TX @ Spider House Ballroom *
4/13 Houston, TX @ Eighteen Ten Ojeman *
4/14 New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa *
4/15 Mobile, AL @ Alabama Music Box *
4/16 Atlanta, GA @ Boggs *
4/17 Nashville, TN @ Springwater *
4/18 West Columbia, SC @ New Brookland Tavern *
4/19 Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor *
4/20 Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall *
4/21 Washington, D.C. @ Pie Shop *
4/22 Philadelphia, PA @ Milk Boy *
4/23 Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus *
4/24 Allston, MA @ O’Brien’s Pub
4/26 Middletown, CT @ Rednawa *
4/27 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Funhouse *
4/28 Columbus, OH @ Spacebar *
4/29 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle *
4/30 Detroit, MI @ Sanctuary *

* with Infant Island

“Punishment Existence” is out now on Deathwish, Inc.