On ILSA's new album, Preyer, the Washington, D.C. band embraces sonic
pummeling like never before. Recorded as the world shuttered away in
2020, ILSA harnessed the fears and uncertainties of troubled times, and
used these as driving forces for their unnerving metal's raw, chaotic,
and whipping intensity. The result is a new full length that delivers
overdoses of crushing doom and menacing death metal.
The ghost of the Satanic murderer Sean Sellers still haunts the band.
The notorious killer was the first and remains the only person executed
in the U.S. for a crime committed under the age of 17 since the
reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. "These songs were written
with his life in mind," the band states. "Sean's story is an
exploitative intersection of religious, media and state authority,
culminating in his 1999 execution for murders committed in a state of
self-described "Demonic Possession."
But make no mistake, Preyer is not simply a narrative or concept album.
Remaining true to ILSA's punk ethos, Preyer serves as a cathartic
condemnation of a Christo-fascist society, a corrupt class dimension,
and the evil cruelty behind it all. "Preyer is a wringing of these
themes for the sweat and stink. Power's
destructive force, love and other extremist positions, religious
fanaticism, depression & mental illness, social order and control."
In the midst of the darkness that continues to take hold, ILSA remain
observant and pull no punches. With tracks such as "Poor Devil",
"Shibboleth", and the album's title track, the band are poised to
release one of the year's most vicious offerings from the underground.