Philadelphia’s industrial sludge metallers WORST ONES is back with a new powerful single, entitled ‘Deny Reality’. The song channels the bleak pulse of Godflesh, the twisted hooks of Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, and the sample-driven chaos of Skinny Puppy, creating something both claustrophobic and hypnotic.
‘Deny Reality’ is a mid-tempo industrial sludge anthem built on relentless electronic percussion and skittering hi-hats that slice through layers of noise loops. The guitars have been shredded, resampled, and reconstructed into something ripped and inhuman. A towering chorus cuts through the haze, while a crushing breakdown in the middle drags the listener deeper into heaviness.
Lyrically, ‘Deny Reality’ confronts the culture of wilful ignorance that has metastasized into complicity. Lines like “Cast out your empathy, behold your tragedy” and “My nightmares are dreams, you deny reality” attack the blindness that sustains power and allows violence to thrive. The song reflects a world where denial has become survival, even as that denial drives us toward collapse. In its imagery of poisoned breath, hollow faith, and the erasure of empathy, the track positions ignorance not as escape but as the very engine of destruction.
In addition to its digital release, Deny Reality will appear on Abolish ICE, a compilation CD of Philadelphia-area metal, hardcore, and punk bands. The CD features 16 artists, including Trunk, L.M.I., Sunrot, Boozewa, SOJI, Detox Meds, and Get Well. Copies are available from the bands in exchange for donations to Juntos, a community-led Latine immigrant rights organization based in Philadelphia. Through this release, WORST ONES aligns its music with direct action, using its sound as both protest and support for those most affected by systemic oppression. With Deny Reality, the band continues the mission of turning noise into resistance. The result is not just another sludge anthem, but a dirge for a society choking on its own denial and a demand to confront the truth, no matter how unbearable.
AA
Aural Aggravation 