Year of The Knife have announced their new album, No Love Lost, due out October 27th from Pure Noise Records. The album finds Year of The Knife at their most sonically honed with nine lean and vicious songs that clock in at a blistering 20 minutes. Recorded by Kurt Ballou (Nails, The Armed, Code Orange), No Love Lost sounds truly massive, a crushing amalgam of hardcore and death metal influences that demands your attention and stays with you long after its concise runtime.
In late June, Year of The Knife were involved in a car accident while on tour. All four members endured serious injuries, especially vocalist Madison Watkins, who suffered many broken bones and a traumatic brain injury. No Love Lost sounds even more urgent and defiant in light of the band’s recent circumstances, and profits from the album’s sales will be going directly to the members’ ongoing recovery efforts.
Year of The Knife bassist (and husband of Madison Watkins) discussed the new album and the months since the accident, saying:
“After three months we’re finally gearing up to go home. We were in a terrible accident in Salt Lake City that left me concussed, Aaron with a broken femur and severed carotid artery, Andy with broken ankles, and Madi breaking almost everything and a traumatic brain injury. It’s been a long, long road but everyday brings new hope. Madi’s currently awake and alert, talking her head off, and doing constant speech, physical and occupational therapy. Like I said, it’s challenging but everyday is better. We’re looking forward to finally going home.
This record represents so many things for us. It’s Madi’s big debut, her second set of recordings and first ever LP singing for YOTK. In my opinion she CRUSHES. It was super hard to come to the decision to release the record while she’s still recovering. The record was originally supposed to start rolling out in July but with everything that happened we thought it best to wait. Now that Madi’s more aware of what’s going on I think she’ll be really excited. And we’re really excited to share this record with all of you. Our influences are all over the place for this record. This was the second time each of us wrote music for the record–like Dust to Dust where we each wrote a song, we all contributed. Madi even wrote a breakdown. It was an awesome experience learning how we each express ourselves musically. This is what I’ve got.”
Drummer Andrew Kisielewski added:
“At the end of June we had arguably the worst thing that can happen to a band happen to us. I sustained two dislocated and fractured ankles, had two surgeries in the span of days, spent over a month in a wheelchair, another challenging month on crutches, and now as of yesterday I’m officially walking completely unassisted. It’s crazy that all of this happened just three months ago, and that glimmer of normality already approaches us all faster than we would ever expect.
Given our current state, it wasn’t easy to make the decision to put out a record. It’s hard to say when we’ll be back in full swing, but for now we couldn’t be more excited to share this with everyone. In approaching writing, it was an unspoken consensus that our new lineup opened the door to evolve our sound even further. The overall dynamic, individual influences, and equal contribution between the four of us birthed something beyond anything we’ve done before. This record is the perfect culmination of us. It’s everything we wanna play, it’s everything we wanna hear, it’s 20 solid minutes of nothing but pure YOTK. To say I love this thing is an understatement, and I hope at least one of you finds a love for it the same way we do.”
