Dying Wish: Born Survivors

Ask almost any metalcore aficionado who one of the best new bands in the scene are and there’s a good chance they’ll point you to DYING WISH. The Portland quintet have risen steadily, touring constantly when they could, releasing one of 2021’s standout albums in debut Fragments Of A Bitter Memory. Two and a bit years on, they’re bigger and better than ever, having grown into themselves, coming a long way not just as a band but as people. Armed with new album Symptoms Of Survival, a love letter to personal growth and survival, they’re ready to take on the world.

When we sit down with vocalist Emma Boster, it’s mere days before they embark on a headline tour to celebrate their new album. It’s chaotic, preparing for a huge run of shows to close out the year, midway through which they release their stunning sophomore effort. Not unlike the past couple of years, as they ascended through the ranks of upcoming bands to the very forefront of the metalcore scene. “My life before the pandemic is entirely different than it is now. Constant change, growth and new things happening. It’s been overwhelming, but mostly just really exciting,” she grins.

Looking back on Fragments Of A Bitter Memory, the band has grown a huge amount since, and, as Emma puts it, they’re grateful it worked out that way. “It was a really good foundation. It left us a lot of room and space to decide where to go next, how we were going to evolve our sound and continue to establish ourselves,” they explain. Its diversity of sound gave them the opportunity to hop on almost any alternative tour going, and that plus time allowed them to hone in on where they wanted to take DYING WISH on album two.

“We wanted to establish more of the melodic, epic choruses, but didn’t want to abandon the heavy sound too much,” Emma says of their approach to writing Symptoms Of Survival. “We also really wanted to write a ballad, that was a real goal for this album. I don’t think we strayed too far from anything, we definitely expanded on what we were already doing.” The likes of Starved certainly exemplify that, a battering double kick assault capped by Emma’s ferocious screams, while closer Lost In The Fall opens the heavens with a gorgeous vocal hook in its soaring, sorrowful chorus.

It’s an album rooted in not only growth, but the fear of failure; when asked whether there was some fear or pressure surrounding following up such an acclaimed debut, they were as forthcoming and honest as ever. “Absolutely,” she states, “there was a lot of fear around a sophomore slump, as they say. The success all happened really quickly, and there’s been a lot of pressure and visibility on me, I feel. It was written about how I feel overexposed to the public eye a lot of the time, and how it doesn’t feel normal at all. Plus I was dealing with self-consciousness, imposter syndrome. All of that.”

That exposure to the public eye has been enormous; just recently, SPIRITBOX vocalist Courtney LaPlante named her as a vocalist currently inspiring her, while Emma also joined her onstage recently to perform Holy Roller together. But what scares her most isn’t being on huge stages, so much as “if people feel my humanity is being stripped away from me as I continue to work and we become more successful, because that vulnerability makes me even more human. It’s a weird mixture of complicatedness that I don’t talk about much, but it’s a lot.”

Determination to show the full spectrum of humanity, exploring survival as well as growth is writ large Symptoms; while Fragments was often fuelled by anger, the likes of Path To Your Grave or Paved In Sorrow show there’s far more to them. The former is effectively Fragments’ title track part 2, but coming from a place of healing where the trauma presented has far less of a hold, while Paved In Sorrow is a letter to a loved one examining guilt and remorse for a perceived failure to protect them from something, particularly an abusive situation. “It’s complexity, it’s acceptance and its growth,” they explain.

Another core message she’s keen to stress is that there can be unity and community through our struggle. “If anyone pays attention to current events, it just seems a lot of people are struggling right now no matter where you are in the world.” While she’s written songs from radical left-wing perspectives, her core thought is one of unifying our struggle and laying aside differences. “Unity and community are everything. That’s who we are as a band, we’ve always wanted to create a community around us. How long is it until people realise that’s our saving grace?”

DYING WISH is, in many ways, her own way of finding community. The band formed through their local hardcore scene (which Emma still puts on shows for) and it became a way for her to process events in her own life. “I’m 29 now, and I’ve spent my 20s reinventing myself. I was traumatised as a late teenager and mentally ill and not seeking any help for it. I made a lot of bad decisions and put myself in a really tough place. I hit rock bottom and I needed to change everything, or I wouldn’t survive.”

From that moment in her early 20s, it became “the culmination of me reinventing myself, believing in myself and becoming the person I want to be. It’s been healing, and transformative and in a lot of ways, this means everything to me.” This is ultimately the essence of Symptoms Of Survival; not the end, but a huge step on their journey to reinventing themselves. It’s a record that – rightfully – they’re all extremely proud of; “right now, my favourite moment is the huge hook ‘letting you go’ [in Lost In The Fall]. When we finished that, I knew that was the moment I needed on the record,” she grins.

“I think it’ll surprise some people too,” she says, “we’ve never written a song like Symptoms Of Survival before. There’s also some pretty hateful things I say on the album that I really say with my chest. I kinda surprised even myself there,” they admit, “plus the ballad, but everyone knew that was coming.” It’s an incredible progression for a band who were already at the forefront of a new wave of metalcore, which in just half an hour simultaneously reaffirms that they can not only do heavy, but really go for the skyscraper melodies.

Its artwork was designed in conjunction with the legendary Paul Romano, who she sent all her lyrics and an in-depth analysis of the album to. The resultant piece reaffirms the themes of the album, stunning blue and green hues, plant life rising from a traumatised body. It’s bold, striking and shows alongside such powerful music and Emma’s own story that no matter what someone goes through, growth and healing are possible. DYING WISH might have started off sounding much like the metalcore greats of yesteryear, but with Symptoms Of Survival they’ve found a voice truly their own.

Symptoms Of Survival is out now via SharpTone Records.

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