The Last Martyr Unleash Their Fierce New Single, "Sugar"
Sickly sweet and manically heavy, The Last Martyr create an effortless balance of the two on new single, "Sugar", the bands heaviest track to date. The modern metal outfit return bouncing back and fourth between extreme highs and lows musically, as well as emotionally, on their chaotic new single and drops just in time for their appearance at this year's Bigsound 2022 Festival in September. The song takes the listener through passages of spine-tingling double kick patterns, showcasing vocalist Monica Strut's brutal Valkyrie-like screams before rising up to a soaring and glowing chorus that will burrow deep within listener's brains.
Spilling out truths of mental health struggles, "Sugar" lies close to home for Strut and her experiences with antidepressants and their effect on Monica's headspace. “I wrote Sugar about my experiences being on SSRIs last year when I was struggling with anxiety and depression," explains Strut. ”On one hand, they made life sweeter and much easier to deal with, but on the other hand, after a while I noticed that my range of emotion really narrowed. I was unable to feel super high or low and began feeling apathetic towards people and things in my life which was super confusing. I’d never heard anyone else speak about this before and with everything we’ve gone through the last two years, I really wanted to share my experiences in case it helps someone else feel less alone.”
The Last Martyr exploded with a vengeance in April 2021 with single, "Hindsight", a fierce tune with bounce that led the band to a multitude of milestones including triple j rotation and Unearthed Feature Artist, establishing the band's unique blend of nu-metal and heavy rock.
The band followed swiftly with, "Afterglow" a hard-hitting and nostalgic bop about young love and reflection through rose-coloured glasses. The track itself features a huge chorus with a twist in the form of a trap second verse. The bands carefully crafted sound found them a spot on Metal Injection's relaunched Slay At Home monthly series in October, where The Last Martyr performed a mini live stream set to thousands of viewers.
Their blast-beat-led single ‘Freaking Out’ was the final piece to drop from their EP, ‘Purgatory;’ once again produced by Lalic. The release was met with critical acclaim with NME declaring, “This five-track project is filled with gut-punch riffs, powerful vocals and propulsive blast beats,” and Hysteria Magazine gushing, “Hellishly good or heaven-sent, however you want to spin it, it doesn’t get more epic than Purgatory.”
Before the year was out the band had lined up performances at Unify Forever, and Halloween Hysteria Festival, with triple j’s Lochlan Watt selecting ‘Hindsight,’ as his favourite track uploaded to Unearthed in 2021. The new year has seen the band support hard rock heavyweights, Black Veil Brides (USA) across several shows, Dayseeker (USA), Paledusk (JPN) and are mid-way through a national tour with newly-reformed nu-metal icons Sunk Loto. To celebrate their new single, ‘Sugar,’ The Last Martyr are headlining Bonez Alternative Queer Party across the east coast this month joined by Five Island Drive and Vilify.
The band will showcase their addictive sound at this year’s Bigsound Festival in September before they step up to play In Peril Festival, Scorched Festival and Froth & Fury Festival through October and November. The Last Martyr will re-join Sunk Loto in Sydney and Melbourne late in November to round out their huge 2022 and make way for an even bigger 2023.
'Sugar' is streaming everywhere today and is available now.