Three years after their debut album ‘When My Darkness Came To Light’, Exploited Body has returned with their new album ‘Here, I Abandon’.

‘Here, I Abandon’ marks a new beginning, documenting the grievous first steps on the path of healing. The title references reaching a point, where all that doesn’t serve oneself must be left behind. The record is an exercise in “noise pop”, featuring prominent vocals from Exploited Body while combining their signature blistering distortion with their love of catchy melodies.

The album opens with ‘Only Your Eyes Could See My Wings’, a fragile and minimal ballad dedicated to their partner, who helped them find their way out of their pain-shrouded mind. Emerging from the fog, echoing vocals and thunderous piano drones lead into the disarmingly vulnerable vocal passage, the most personal song Exploited Body has ever shared with the world. ‘Demon Of Hatred’ is a slow-burning mantra about ending the cycle of trauma that began long ago, that manifests itself as a rage-filled beast. The screeching metal and cavernous bells collide under the somber vocals until it’s all ripped to shreds by violent pillars of noise. ‘After All (In The Ruins Of Limerence)’ deals with losing oneself in another person and awakening from the fever dream that is limerence. Along with the swinging vocal melodies, the dissonant mechanical humming break out into an onslaught of distorted kick drums before dissolving into harmonic bliss.

‘Replacing A Scar With Another’ explores themes of self-sabotage and self-harm, how we often reject help that is offered to us, creating new wounds to tend to instead of mending the old ones and trading old harmful beliefs into new even more detrimental ones (“replacing a god with another”). ’Self-Surrender’ is about shame, self-deception, requesting others to ‘hold your light’ until the sun’s out while you wallow in the dark abyss of self-pity, but now the time to has come to face yourself. The ethereal production paired with a delicate melody is reminiscent of a haunting lullaby with ghostly voices creaking in the midst of ringing synths, before everything comes to a head for a disjointed crescendo.’ Abandon’ is the purge that marks the point of no return, stripping off your weakness piece by piece, like an exorcism through the brutal wall of noise that the song builds up to. The closing track ‘Tear Me Apart Until All That’s Left Is Love’ is the bittersweet moment of letting yourself disintegrate and splinter into pieces to make room for what lies at the core of it all. A soft landing back into your body, before the colossal aftershock kicks in and sends you on your way to what comes next.

The album is written, produced, mixed and mastered by Nori Kin and features artwork by Changeless-affiliated Helsinki-based photographer Markus Watkins & Nori Kin.