BETTER LIFE

Better Life plows through the veil of the recognizable features of metal music. Only to reveal a box of art-rock and avantgarde methods that open up and challenge the fundamentals of conventional genre characteristics with new aesthetics.

Driven by darkness and chaos, the music shifts rapidly between extreme dynamics, from walls of noise to silent beauty. Their sound is based on an in-depth exploration of metal songwriting methods, combined with improvisation and field recordings. That turns into songs that are built on hard-hitting riffs, dissonance, and loose time structures. Musical references span from Chat Pile, Oranssi Pazuzu, This Heat, early Korn and Slint.

The Copenhagen-based band was formed in 2024 by Simon Hiemstra, during his studies at the Rhythmical Music Conservatory. Consisting of Anders Justiniano (drums), Harald Ingvarsson (guitar), Mads Ulrich (bass), Oscar Alstrup (saxophone, synth) and Simon Hiemstra (vocals, guitar), the members came to know each other as musicians through structured improvisation.

In summer 2025, the band recorded their first album in the studio of Copenhagen Classical Conservatory. Shane Embury (Napalm Death) features on a few tracks, recording a noise-box and drone pipe. The band's own experiments of adding black metal elements, Mellotron samples and saxophone, then shaped their sound further into a genre-blending expression. During 2026, the songs were refined and finished.

The album is mixed by Julius Mauranen and will be released through the Copenhagen metal label, Over the Under Records, on February 26th, 2027