Alternative/metalcore band Lost In Hollywood releases a cathodic and brutal metrik cover of "Abyss" featuring Artemis Rising.
To reach for higher potential, one of the primary tasks of a real artist is to listen, understand, and create music that we enjoy that is truly honest. Artists, like Lost In Hollywood, have always viewed their music as a dream that needed to be realized quickly but with integrity. When one has aspirations of being in a band and those embers are beginning to burn, one feels compelled to make those dreams a fiery reality because of the exhilaration of achieving tremendous musical success. When deciding to form and name for the band in early 2023, System of The Down's "Lost In Hollywood" described a similar narrative.
We wrote some heavy riffs and breakdowns on top of a drum and bass track, which was quite the funny process. After that, we asked our friend Daniel Simpson from the band Artemis Rising if he could do some brutal vocals on the track. Given that there were already certain key electronic elements we didn’t want to change from the original, the sound automatically departed a bit from our previous tracks, but not too far. We are still a very new band and don’t have a label telling us how far we can experiment with the sound. -Amon
A fight to realize their aspirations and shape their artistic visions into what they want. However, as their desire to create their own music became a reality, it made them recognize the loss, the cost of illusion, the snakes of the business who exploit others for greed and success, and to move ahead genuinely in terms of the sound they wanted to share with the world. Lost In Hollywood bare all these instrumental emotions and more in their latest single, “Abyss" featuring Artemis Rising. "Abyss" is a dynamic synchrony of vicious riffs, explosive breakdowns, powerful cathodic drum and bass elements, and poignant atmospherics tackling the concept of being in an emotionally dark place after losing someone you care about. While this up-and-coming metalcore band prepares for their new album, The Beauty of Death, which will be released in December 2024, Abyss has revealed a new aggressive and pensive sound for this year.
So I want to start with the most obvious question, but I always ask because I find the story behind a band's beginnings is better served by the artists themselves. Why Lost In Hollywood? How did this all start for you guys?
Amon: Our guitar player Timo and I (Amon) have been making music together since 2013, but the previous projects all fell apart. But after all that time, we had a lot of unreleased songs and decided that we should start a new project together even without having a bassist or a drummer. That's what we did in early 2023. Throughout the last years, I got lost in unhealthy dreams of quick success, I was listening to false promises and drowning in negative emotions. The song "Lost in Hollywood" by System of a Down is one of my favorites and tells a similar story. The name of the song kinda symbolizes this struggle for me. Hollywood, or in our case the music scene, will take your talent and mold it into whatever they want to. They look at you and your talent in disgusting ways with their ideas of how they can make you into a profit. But finally making music for ourselves helped us so much, and I realized that the price for this fake happiness and the illusion of success is too high and to be truly happy we have to make the music we love and be authentic.
Instrumentally, you guys explore some unique textures in the alternative/heavy genre, and your latest single, "Abyss," takes it a step further with your use of electronic elements. How was this approach different from others in The Beauty of Death?
Amon: One day, our producer Max Ivory sent us the original song “Abyss” by the drum and bass artist Metrik and said that we had to cover it. We were instantly hyped. The song already gave us some great metal vibes, and we just wanted to take it one step further. So we wrote some heavy riffs and breakdowns on top of a drum and bass track, which was quite the funny process. After that, we asked our friend Daniel Simpson from the band Artemis Rising if he could do some brutal vocals on the track. Given that there were already certain key electronic elements we didn’t want to change from the original, the sound automatically departed a bit from our previous tracks, but not too far. We are still a very new band and don’t have a label telling us how far we can experiment with the sound. So we take this chance and try every direction we think is worth exploring.
Lyrically, "Abyss" speaks to me about the hardship of being in a dark place or circumstance emotionally, and how those walls of helplessness may make us feel as if we are always in the dark. It's almost as if the noise of our own troubles drowns us out. Processing those feelings, I believe that when you let those tense times pour out of you, you reach a point of catharsis. Can We discuss some of the concepts of “Abyss?"
Amon: Metrik originally wrote the song after losing a close person. Having had the same
experience twice in the last 3 years, the lyrics strongly resonated with me and added some depth to the story we want to tell with our album The Beauty of Death which is coming out in December 2024.
What is your connection to 'Abyss?' It seems that with each new track that you release, there is a certain catharsis and a feeling of personal development that arises from these kinds of struggles. I am curious to hear your thoughts on how this process of making "Abyss" has affected you, both as an artist and as an individual.”
Amon: In our first single we released in October, "The Beauty of Death," we introduced the theme of the album as the lyrics were written after I lost my grandma who took me in after I left home when I was 15. Shortly before releasing the song, the father of my girlfriend died, and the lyrics took on a new meaning for me. As “The Beauty of Death” describes the process of accepting the loss, I think “Abyss” deals more with the darkness that consumes you right after losing a loved one.
What are you wanting fans to take from this new experience?
Amon: Musically, we wanted to have a kinda shocking and super heavy opening track for our live shows that showcase every element you can expect from a “Lost in Hollywood”
show and that blows you away right at the beginning. We love to mix clean singing and
great use of the head voice with heavy breakdowns and impactful moments. So we hope
we can give people the feeling of “I didn’t expect them to be that heavy” but at the same
time a connection to the emotional parts of the song. Besides that, the song is super fun to perform. And if we have fun, hopefully, the audience also has.
What is next for you guys?
Amon: We continue our release plan and are going to drop a song every 1 to 2 months. The next one will probably come out in mid-April with another music video. All that builds up to our album release in December, with a big release show and everything you can expect from a debut album. Originally we planned on doing only an EP but we had so many songs in the making that all thematically and sound-wise felt connected so there was a change of plans. We are currently working on our next shows which will be
announced as soon as possible, and some great features are in the making as well. We are I'm super excited about this year. It will be a hustle and a grind, but we can't wait to show the world all the coming tracks.
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