Back in 2019, the Flint, Michigan band Greet Death released their gorgeously heavy LP New Hell. Greet Death haven’t come out with another album, but the band has switched up its sound on a series of singles that have come out over the past few months. On their songs “I Hate Everything,” “Your Love Is Alcohol,” and “Punishment Existence,” Greet Death’s music has grown folkier, and their lyrics have gotten bleaker. Tomorrow night in Milwaukee, the band will kick off a national tour with my friends in Infant Island. Today, they’ve shared another single.

Greet Death’s newest track is called “Panic Song,” and it’s the most upbeat thing that’s come out of this current run of singles. “Panic Song” is a sort of uptempo shoegaze number, a bleary and swirling pop song with some serious early-’90s alt-rock-radio catchiness working for it. It sounds a bit like the Lemonheads trying to sound like My Bloody Valentine. The lyrics tell the story of two struggling people trying to help each other through hard times. For this band, that’s about as happy as things get.

In a press release, Greet Death’s Sam Boyhtari explains the song’s backstory:

At the end of 2020, I was living with my partner Larissa in an apartment on the North side of Chicago. I was staying up until 5 or 6 in the morning every night and experiencing some terrible panic attacks. One night, Larissa woke up and sat with me on the couch, talking me through an especially awful attack. The living room was dark, there was a CTA station across the street that gave us a little bit of light at night. It was our first time living together and a time I now look back on very fondly. Larissa would go to work, and I would work from home all day in her former roommate’s empty bedroom. At night, we would hang out until she went to bed, then I would put a horror movie on the TV and listen to music through headphones at the same time like a fucking weirdo. Despite the turmoil I was going through, I felt very comfortable in that place. So one day while Larissa was at work and I was alone in the apartment, I wrote a song about it.

Check out “Panic Song” below.

“Panic Song” is out now on Deathwish, Inc.