Loathe

“I have started using the word ‘extraordinary’ to describe our situation,” says Loathe vocalist-guitarist Erik Bickerstaffe. “Not many people from the places that we were born, to my knowledge, have traveled as much as we have and have had the experiences that we have.” Bickerstaffe isn’t exaggerating. The Liverpool band recently released their most feverishly anticipated chapter to date: A Stranger to You — their first album in six years, and the first since 2020’s I Let It In and It Took Everything became a slow-burn cult success during the glacially paced days of quaran­tine. It gradually but unmistakably defined the shape of heavy music in the 2020s thanks to its gripping fusion of lacerating metalcore, industrial unease and iridescent shoegaze, reimagining familiar elements into something oth­erworldly and fresh. Off the back of it, the band — Bickerstaffe, lead vocalist Kadeem France, bass­ist Feisal El-Khazragi and drummer Sean Radcliffe — had a greater international reach than ever. They’ve earned cosigns from everyone from Hayley Williams to Chino Moreno and circled North America on numerous support tours with the likes of Spiritbox, Korn and Gojira, returning to the U.S. so often they felt like honorary citizens. Despite this, Loathe are by no means a new phenomenon. Much like I Let It In, their trajectory has been closer to a slow burn, too. Their roots stretch back to the mid-2010s, when France turned to music as an outlet after losing his grandfather, a significant figure in his life who had helped raise him in the absence of his father. Bickerstaffe, meanwhile, was carving a name for himself in the local metalcore scene. France joined Bickerstaffe’s me­lodic metalcore outfit Our Imbalance when he was just 14 years old, and the band rebranded as Loathe in 2014 after some lineup changes. The following year, Loathe released their debut EP, Prepare Consume Proceed, in­dependently, eventually becoming one of SharpTone Records’ earliest signings. They toyed with using Slipknot-style masks and pseudonyms but abandoned both by the time they released 2017’s debut album The Cold Sun, which introduced the architecture of what Loathe would become: ruthlessly heavy yet intelligent and wrapped in widescreen, conceptual ideas. They honed their live show across the next few years on the road with Oceans Ate Alaska, Wage War, Hollywood Undead and others, but the release of I Let It In catalyzed their rise. They came out of quarantine with far more eyes on them than they had when they went in. Dimitry Mak The question of Loathe’s next move began following them almost immediately, but the band took the less-trodden path. Exactly one year after I Let It In, they re­leased The Things They Believe, a mostly instrumental companion piece that drifted through an ambient haze while fleshing out the band’s mythology. Then came the 2022 single “Dimorphous Display,” a warped flash of Deftones-meets-Meshuggah tension that suggested Loathe’s new era could go anywhere. This was amplified by the two new versions of I Let It In standout “Is It Really You?” that came out around the same time: one being a collaboration with Teenage Wrist, the other being an emotional piano cover by longtime peers Sleep Token. As the opportunities piled up, the release date for their next proper full-length was pushed further and further into the distance. The hunger for new music was astronomical, yet there were few rumblings from the Loathe camp about when it would arrive, or if it even existed. The anticipation even inspired a widely shared meme: “When I’m in a dropping new music competition and my opponent is Loathe.” Then, at the end of April 2026, the details finally came to light: the al­bum, A Stranger to You, would drop in July, over six years on from I Let It In. Sonically and emotionally, A Stranger to You is a mellifluous collage of Loathe’s evolving tastes, which have branched far beyond the sphere of modern metal, as well as their personal metamorphosis in those past six years. As they explained in 2025 upon the release of lead single “Gifted Every Strength” — a smorgasbord of hulking djent, jazz fluidity and starry shoegaze — the whole reason for their prolonged absence was to let those influences crystallize and figure out exactly who they were after their lives had changed so drastically. “The last album opened so many more doors for us creatively,” says France. “We felt a lot more comfortable with being able to do the heaviest song we can do, and then also the softest song we can do, and knowing that people will love us and know that that’s a Loathe thing for us to do.” Produced, engineered and mixed by the band, with additional mixing from Ed Al-Shakarchi, the record still has a distinctively metallic backbone. You can hear it on the furious, industrial-inflected “Revenant,” featuring NOWHERE2RUN, the experimental electronic project of Code Orange’s Jami Morgan and Eric “Shade” Bal­derose. But A Stranger to You also soars above Loathe’s usual frontiers in a manner that feels transcendent, post-genre, even. In fact, the first voice heard upon hitting play on opening cut “Entrance” is that of hip-hop artist bucki sugar, a close friend of the group’s. Loathe reach even further outside metal with the inclusion of soul-jazz singer Jordan Rakei and genre-bending guitarist Mansur Brown, while also nod­ding to the world they came from with the epic “Block of Flats,” featuring Static Dress vocalist Olli Appleyard, another close friend and peer. At their core, Loathe want to be chameleonic. They’re spending their summer touring with Mastodon before rolling into dates opening for Interpol, and that’s exactly how they like it. Dimitry Mak “That sort of spectrum of music that we can perform with and perform along­side is an accurate representation of how we all are in the band,” says El-Khazragi. “We all have super varied tastes and we all want to do everything, and I think that subconsciously just spills out into the music. It’s like that whole law of attrac­tion thing — we’re always thinking about playing with all these different types of bands, and it just worked out that way because it’s always been at the forefront of our mind.” Maybe there is something otherworldly about Loathe’s story after all — or at least about the way the band understand their creativity. “I’m not really religious, but there’s something that has happened that has brought us together, that has allowed us to connect to so many people, and has given us this kind of mental ex­perience,” says Bickerstaffe. “I think it was David Lynch who talked about search­ing through a radio and you’re just going through the static. The moment that you land on this station of creativity, it’s like you want to stay on that as much as possible. You don’t want to lose the station number. In order to stay on that, you need to be receptive to the spirit of creativity.” “Erik pointed out when we had the finished record how so many meanings came out of the woodwork after [we made it],” El-Khazragi adds. “That was very much an argument for being a vessel to let creativity and music flow through, because it just happens sometimes without you even noticing it. You hear people talk about it being like lightning in a bottle, but I don’t think for us, at least, that was necessarily it. I think there was just multiple instances of everyone in the band getting onto that frequency and just letting something come through. “This record is just that happening again, albeit over a long period of time. But I think that longer period of time has led to a more refined, cohesive and com­plete vision of what we wanted to do, whether or not we knew that was happen­ing at the time.” This album’s been so long in the making, but when were the first seeds actually planted? How long do some of these songs date back to?Feisal El-Khazragi “No Stranger to You…” was the first thing we did for this record. That was done literally a day or two after the I Let It In release tour in 2020. Erik Bickerstaffe It was hot off the heels of us feeling really good about finishing that album, and then doing the little tour that we did after it. I think Feisal was in the midst of going back down to Cardiff [Wales], and was staying at mine for a bit before he left. We just did one session on it, and we had the full song. It just kind of instantly happened. It’s gone through many iterations, like most of the songs have. It went around the houses, that song. We traveled a lot with it, and changed a lot of it, and it became a different song at one point. That happened a lot with a few of the songs, just trial and error. There was an element of second-guessing ourselves sometimes, but I think it’s all necessary in order for us to weed out the weaker parts. El-Khazragi All the songs feel like old friends at this point. Kadeem France That’s true. And when did you actually manage to finally sign off on it?El-Khazragi Only in the last few months. There was so much stuff that was flowing about, and loads of variables, even when it comes down to the artwork, because we were toying with loads of different visual identities for the record, right up until the final months. With the music, the only thing we had to have faith in is the fact that we knew that when it came to piecing ev­erything together and having a cohesive record that it would feel like a Loathe record. It was an interesting period of time because I think we learned a few albums’ worth of lessons in one cycle. Everything was compounded into this, and I think we’ve taught ourselves a lot and given ourselves the tools to go ahead and do the next one. Bickerstaffe I don’t foresee it being too different next time, either. I think that level of learning is always going to be a part of it, really. There were things that were uncertain about six hours before we submitted it. There was no down­time really to sit on it for a bit and feel it out. We were in it, and we had to let go at a certain point. Dimitry Mak Given you were searching for the point where it “felt like a Loathe record,” what makes a Loathe song a Loathe song? What defines the essence of what you do?El-Khazragi There’s a part of each of us that is integral to what Loathe is. All of us have got our main influences that feel as if they’re within the sphere of what Loathe does, be it musically or visually. There’s that common thread between us where it’s just something that we all have and stay true to, that it can’t not be Loathe if we just trust that. It’s not necessarily a thing that we think too hard about, it’s just trusting that whatever comes out of the people who do it, it will have that DNA that’s necessary. And if there’s anything that’s lacking in any cer­tain regard, but we all like it, someone else can come in and help pull it into the world even more than we want it to. It feels like there’s a real push here to color outside the lines of genre. Were you intentionally trying to do something that’s post-genre or transcends any notion of scene?Bickerstaffe As we’ve grown older, our tastes have expanded past what we’ve done in the past. They’re broader and more things interest us. I think it is a mixture of conscious and unconscious, really, because it’s always been, “Let’s do what we feel is cool,” as well as having some kind of intention. We want to show everyone that we’re not just this one-lane type thing. But even then, it was more that we enjoy this type of song right now, and putting them all together is this interesting expression of us in this moment. France It’s given us more freedom in that way and more comfort, whereas I feel like on the last one we were like, “It’s so sick that we have all these different sides of the band, but will it be loved?” Knowing that we are loved regardless how heavy or how light we can be has been a big factor in this album, for sure. Does it feel like things are limitless now?Bickerstaffe There’s some things that are possible that we should not do, but I think that goes for everyone. I don’t think we should do a ska song. Reel Big Fish are awesome, but I don’t really think it fits the Loathe wheelhouse! You’ve got loads of guest features on this album. bucki sugar opens the record, and there are also appearances from NOWHERE2RUN, Mansur Brown, Jordan Rakei and Static Dress’ Olli Appleyard. Why that selection of guests?Bickerstaffe It varies from childhood friends to people that we look up to and admire as musicians. France With a track like “Revenant,” we’ve been big fans of Code Orange for a long time, and respect Shade and Jami as musicians and their influence — even back to when we first started listening to them. There was a lot of stuff that they would do that we would do, in terms of the effects they use on certain things — like the scene that they set with music is very much in the same vein as Loathe. Then to release a song with them and to do cool things … on a track, it’s like you all live within a network together without even knowing. When it comes to features… It’s like there will literally be a part in a song and we’ll be like, “Oh, my God, imagine if Jami did that,” or, “Imagine if Olli sang that, that would be unreal.” It’ll come in that moment of listening to the specific section and being like, “Oh, my God, it’d be perfect for them to be there.” Bickerstaffe All of the ideas that we’ve been able to make happen — spe­cifically with Olli, Jami, Shade and bucki — they’re all people that we’ve known and developed a relationship with over years now, some upwards of a decade. Then, to have people like Mansur and Jordan — who are influential towards us as musicians now — to have some kind of creative connection with them on one of our songs now is amazing. Mansur has inspired me as a guitarist, and Feisal as a guitarist as well, quite deeply. France I wanted to add about bucki, how long we’ve actually been really good friends with him, and how much of a big part of the band he has been basically from the inception. We’ve known each other literally since we were 16-17. We’ve been involved in each other’s journey for so long. There were even lyrics on our first album that he had written, features that he had done on our first album, and then to have him now, like open this album is so special to us all. Bickerstaffe He acts as the narrator through the whole record. He’s such an amazing lyricist, and the way he puts across is crazy. When we first heard what he did for “Entrance,” it was such a huge moment for all of us, because he basically encapsulated our relationship and the time that we’ve spent to­gether. The stuff he did on “Athena” is so amazing, and it’s such an honor and an amazing thing for us to broadcast him. He’s so deserving of people hearing him and loving his music, and hopefully we can play a small part in that. Dimitry Mak It’s always a testament to a band’s love of the game and their authenticity when they get bigger and then pull up other artists with them, much like what Knocked Loose and Turnstile do.Bickerstaffe Sometimes it can feel better than us succeeding, you know? If we can help in any way to bring someone along with us, or help them on the journey, or anything like that. France That last tour we just did in Australia, doing that with Static Dress, and the history we both have together, and then to be able to be doing this at this point in our careers together, it was just an amalgamation of unbelievable things. Bickerstaffe There was so many times where Olli would come up to me and he’d be like, “What the fuck are we doing right now?” A Stranger To You feels rather self-reflective. What common themes did you find yourself coming back to as you wrote the lyrics?France It always ended up being a self-report, either something that we’re dealing with personally or as a band together. There’s not really been an effort to make this a conceptual album. I think it became a thing of the trials and tribula­tions of those six years, in a way, and where we’ve been, and how that has had an effect on us as a band and our personal lives. Bickerstaffe There’s a lot of time-and-place situations that I think aren’t necessarily too nuanced, either. It’s not specific to people who are in our situa­tion [as touring musicians]. I think those situations that we were involved in are very run-of-the-mill human experiences, and I think that is something that we were really drawn to, maybe as a contrast to the very expansive and cinematic, larger-than-life nature of the music. When it came down to what we were speak­ing about, and how we felt, and what we felt like needed to be the voice of the album, it was very personal and very human. El-Khazragi We really enjoy leaning into ambiguity and the different mean­ings that can be taken out of different songs. So one tune can mean five different things to five different people — or different things to the same person, depend­ing on what mood they’re in, and they can feel the song in a different light. Each song was more like a check-in as to where each of us are. Your DIY ethos has always been the backbone of your band operations, but how will that change and what will it take to remain in touch with those roots as you grow as a band?Bickerstaffe We have gone through different stages and phases of our rela­tionship with that. We’ve had different goals and different ways of doing it, and we’ve just come back to the reality, which is: We have to do it all. We have to do all the designs. We have to do the engineering, the producing, the mixing. We have to do all of the merch — we have to do everything. It’s not really as a slight to anyone else, it’s just we’re more comfortable doing it ourselves than trying to communicate through somebody else’s artistic output. All of our lives have been dedicated to writing music, recording music, doing visual design, doing photography. Every aspect of what a band does is some­thing that we’ve kind of been in the library revising for our entire lives. There’s no real scenario where it [feels] correct to let it go, and even in the very rare instances that we do, it’s after a lengthy vetting process where we really truly feel comfortable bringing someone else into the fold. Like for instance Ed [Al-Sha­karchi], who mixed the album and did a few sessions of engineering with us. Our relationship is something we’ve developed for a while now. We’ve spent countless hours on Zoom calls and in person and in studios with him. It’s like he was essentially another member of the band to a degree when it came to finishing the record. He played a very integral part in making it sound the way it does. Dimitry Mak You’ve got a varied touring schedule, with dates along­side both Mastodon and Interpol in the diary. What does it mean to you that you can be that chameleonic and fit on such different bills?El-Khazragi It means that the plan is working. Bickerstaffe It’s just awesome. It’s a reflection of what we really are as a band. We love Mastodon, we love Interpol, so it’s fucking sick that we can play with both of them. How cool is that? [We’re never like,] “We’ll just do this one thing, and we’ll stick to doing that one thing.” Because all of our attention spans are also quite thin, for it to be varied is only a plus.