It’s been a couple of years since we last heard from Ho99o9, releasing the Travis Barker-produced SKIN in 2022 and following that up with a surprise mixtape. However, the duo just announced their new album, Tomorrow We Escape (out Sept. 9), which will twist hip-hop, digitalized hardcore, metal, industrial, and electronic into a chaotic whole while getting more vulnerable.
“When we started this process, we knew we wanted to make more relatable songs,” theOGM says. “It was a healthy challenge to focus on emotion. In the past, a lot of our material was politically charged. That element is present to a degree, but we wanted to take a more personal route. This mindset drove how we wrote songs. Everybody has a struggle. The goal is to find motivation for preservation.”
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“Upside Down” is the first preview, a hugely distorted, eerie track that leans positive (“Heaven isn’t up, spiral going down/We were made to sin/Only you can control how”). Its video, directed by Noah Porter, takes place in a dystopian world where water is sold on the black market.
Ho99o9 will play at the Long Beach stop of Vans Warped Tour and have Australian dates with the Dillinger Escape Plan, kicking off in August. See all of their upcoming shows here and the visual for “Upside Down” below.