PISSPOOR Unleash Hardcore Fury with New Album ‘You Were Born To Die A Sinful Lamb’ [Premiere]

That’s just piss poor, dude. I mean, what the hell is this? How could you not know this band?! It’s a good question because who wouldn’t be able to not tell it’s Piss Poor by the Lubbock, Texas quartet’s unmistakable hardcore/metal sound. The same exact sonic wall you’ll find on the band’s new Goodjunkie Records album, You Were Born To Die a Sinful Lamb, due for release on May 1st. The record is seven tracks of intense, hardcore rawness that will give you a sonic slap in the face and oust all those COVID-19-induced cobwebs growing inside your head. The recently-released single “Sob (Exaltedamomgnations),” offers an accurate indication of just how hardcore this album actually is.

If you thought the album title was just intentionally blunt to emphasize just how hardcore Piss Poor is, it’s quite the contrary. You Were Born To Die a Sinful Lamb is a narrative that the group has created which rebukes those in religious authority who use their power and stature to abuse children. The band would like to highlight that according to statistics provided by the non-profit organization RAIIN, over 57,000 children were victims of sexual abuse in 2016. According to NBC, 1,700 priests accused of sexual abuse in 2019 were not put under further supervision by religious or law enforcement after the incidents and still were permitted to work with children. Piss Poor wants people to know that these heinous acts remain very prevalent and it is time to speak out against those who commit them.

To further discuss the new album, its narrative, and the origins of the band’s name, we connected with drummer Duncan Newey for a short chat.

You Were Born To Die a Sinful Lamb may be the most metal-sounding album name of all time. Where did this album name come from?

Duncan Newey: “The title is actually also a line in one of the tracks on the record! Our bassist, Pete Guajardo wrote almost everything lyrically. I can’t express how talented he is at putting his feelings into words, I would honestly probably say he’s one of my favourite writers ever and that’s saying a lot. He wrote that like when we first started coming up with the concept for the whole record. It’s an overall statement towards any man in a religious setting who takes advantage of their followers whether that be mental abuse, sexual exploitation, and many other things.”

I also can’t help but ask you about the band name Piss Poor because it’s just so damn amusing. How did you guys come up with the band name?

“It honestly started as a joke for another band a few of us were in. After I wrote the WTH demo in 2018, we started getting show offers so I stuck with that name and it just never changed.”

Artwork for ‘You Were Born To Die a Sinful Lamb’ by Piss Poor

Alright, now onto the album. There is some absolute brutality on this new collection of songs with a real no holds barred kind of sound to it. How did you conjure up such a fierce sound for this album?

“I feel like this is the first time we’ve actually started to find our true sound. Our new guitarist, Jaden Wells, actually wrote the majority of riffs on this release while in the past it was only me and occasionally Pete. I also feel that the lyrical content was something to take into account. This is something I think we were all super passionate about. If you’ve seen us live, you know we say what’s on our mind and we’ll firmly stand by our opinions on everything. This was like our first time really expressing that on a record. Also one last side note, we went through Connor Haines (of Mugshot) from Corruption Recordings for the mix and master and he’s insanely meticulous at his job. Loved working with him.”

In listening to these songs, my feeling is that you really left all of your inhibitions at the door when you recorded You Were Born To Die a Sinful Lamb. Would you say that you really tried to just let loose in recording the album?

“One hundred percent. Like I had mentioned before, this was our first time we really got to express our feelings on a topic that we firmly believe needs to be addressed more often.”

What was the time frame like for the recording process? From how raw these tracks sound, I would guess that you tried not to spend too much time on recording and trying to fine-tune them in the studio?

“We actually started writing riffs for this release in the middle of finishing up our first EP, A Multitude of Minds in a Sole Host. From there it’s just been reforming the songs and making them the best they could be. Overall I’d say it took us a little over a year to have everything done. We wanted it to sound as real as we could without it sounding too amateur. I think we did everything exactly how we wanted it on this release.”