watch Greet Death's Sam Boyhtari perform "New Hell" solo in quarantine

Michigan punk/shoegaze/etc band Greet Death released their very good sophomore album (and Deathwish debut) New Hell last year, and they were going to tour with Deafheaven this year until COVID-19 happened. Earlier on in quarantine, we asked the band about what music they were listening to in isolation, and now we’re premiering a quarantine performance video of Sam Boyhtari playing the album’s title track. The album version explodes into a heavy, post-rocky climax, which obviously doesn’t happen during this solo performance, but as Sam tells us, “New Hell” was originally written with just him and a guitar, so it’s no surprise that it sounds really great in this context too.

“When I wrote this song and showed it to Jim and Logan this is what is sounded like. Just me and a guitar,” Sam said. “I wrote the lyrics on scraps of paper I could find around the workplace before going home to try and put it together. I like playing it like this because it reminds me where the song started, leaving nothing but the lyrics (which are among my favorite I’ve written) and the melody in direct focus.”

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