Southern California quartet Death Lens have always been a great band but right now they’re operating in their prime. Coming out in exactly one month on April 24 is What’s Left Now?, their first album since 2024’s Cold World and their second for Epitaph Records. Their most fully realised music yet, the songs on What’s Left Now? are crunchy, urgent, melancholy, raging, and so goddamn easy to headbang along to. It nods to the crushing riffage of Drug Church, the wiry energy of Viagra Boys, and the spirited social commentary of IDLES, but with a delivery and perspective that’s entirely Death Lens.
“There’s nothing softened or reflective here, just a bold (and quite timely) dare towards the world to test you as you continue to push through its wreckage with a refusal to fold,” said Remezcla of this new music.
The band is sharing album closer ‘Debt Collector’, a righteously pissed punk ripper about “The enslavement of society and just having to pay, pay, pay,” frontman Bryan Torres laments. “And there’s really no way out.” Also featuring a new video directed by Torres, Watch + listen below.
Watch New Video for ‘Debt Collector’
Praise for Death Lens
“Whether or not they want to be lumped in with the current rise in popularity of hardcore as a genre, the punk influence in their music doesn’t go unnoticed — Death Lens make explicit effort to weave social and political activism into their lyrics and live shows.” – AltPress
What’s Left Now? is the product of two tumultuous years for Death Lens, both as people and as bandmates. When Cold World dropped, the band toured for nine long months, honing their craft as live performers and increasing their fanbase tenfold. However, all that time on the road stress-tested the band as an interpersonal unit, and Death Lens ended up shedding two members from the subsequent growing pains. Ultimately, they bounced back stronger than ever, gaining guitar virtuoso Ernie Gutierrez into the core lineup of frontman Bryan Torres, guitarist Jhon Reyes, and drummer Tony Rangel. Now, Death Lens are closer as friends and more musically in-sync than they’ve ever been, and What’s Left Now? is a testament to their glow-up.
What’s Left Now? is an honest record by a band who’ve always cut the bullshit. Growing up in lower-income homes twenty miles east of Los Angeles, Death Lens’ members weren’t afforded the privilege to effortlessly ascend in the music scene. They’ve had to grind for every opportunity they’ve gotten, and they continue to write music for people just like them. “Our messaging is towards those who always feel like they don’t have a voice,” Torres explains. “We didn’t have a voice for a long time. It’s hard to break out if you’re from Los Angeles or aren’t — and I hate to say this — a predominantly good-looking band.”
Featuring influences of indie-rock, hardcore, old-school punk, and present-day post-punk that have all congealed together into Death Lens’ own signature style, What’s Left Now? was produced by Zach Tuch (Knocked Loose, Touché Amoré, Movements), who understood exactly how the band wanted to sound on this LP: chunky and riotous just like their live shows, but with enough dynamic breadth to emphasize their evolved nuances.
“Tuch is easy to work with but he’s also brutally honest, which works in my favor,” Torres says with a smile. “I like people who are honest. If you’re honest with me, I’ll be honest with you.”
Being the everyday guys that they are, Death Lens don’t have a solution to the world’s problems. The cover art of What’s Left Now? is an artful exaggeration of their own stark reality: portraying the band coming home from a hard day on the job feeling defeated and worn-down with very little to show for it, just like many other working people in this country. Death Lens may not have the answers, but what they do know is that playing music, expressing themselves, and giving their fans the opportunity to find community in their songs is what makes all the sweat, all the stress, all the side gigs they do outside of touring all worthwhile.
“Sometimes it doesn’t feel right to be enjoying yourself playing music out on tour when everyone else is having a terrible time in life, getting deported and all of that shit,” Reyes says. “Death Lens is a reminder that you can still have a good time but also connect with those who are going through it.”
What’s Left Now? captures that dichotomy with creativity and candor. A fist-pumping punk-rock escape, and a hard dose of reality. Because for Death Lens, one doesn’t exist without the other.
Death Lens
What’s Left Now?
Out April 24 via Epitaph
Tracklisting
1. Monolith
2. Power
3. Out Of My Skin
4. Waiting to Know (feat. Militarie Gun)
5. Drown
6. Am I A Drug To You?
7. Saints In The Panic Room
8. Off The Edge
9. Useless
10. Last Call
11. Pulling Teeth
12. Debt Collector
Follow Death Lens
