Ethereal Metal

Ryan Murray | Co-Owner | Chief Editor | Contributor | Photographer

r.m.music84@gmail.com

There’s heavy, and then there’s Animalistic.

PLUSH has unleashed the official music video for their latest single and this thing absolutely has a bite! Teeth sinking in, as the lyrics say, doesn’t even begin to cover the sheer aggression packed into this track. The music already hits like a freight train, but the new visuals take that energy and crank it up another ten levels.

Directed by Vicente Cordero, the video dives directly into the song’s central concept: the internal battle between the version of ourselves we present to the world and the darker, more primal force that exists underneath. PLUSH uses contrasting fashion and lighting to represent those two sides—the lighter scenes reflecting the persona we choose to show, while the darker imagery exposes the animal lurking within.

And that animal is hungry.

From the opening moments, Animalistic feels like something barely being held back. The riffs are thick, the rhythm section hits with serious weight, and Moriah Formica’s vocals carry the kind of intensity that makes the song feel less like a performance and more like an emotional release.

But what makes the track particularly exciting is that the aggression we’re hearing isn’t some isolated experiment.

When I recently sat down with PLUSH in person, the band opened up about the creative direction behind Mass Hysteria and just how deeply the new album dives into rage, aggression, and some of the darker emotional territory they’re embracing as a band. They also described the record as their most mature work yet.

You can hear that maturity in the music, but it certainly doesn’t mean Mass Hysteria is pulling its punches.

Quite the opposite.

The band has embraced significantly lower tunings throughout the album, including Drop C, Drop G, and other seriously low territory, giving the guitars an added physical weight and allowing the songs to hit harder than much of what we’ve heard from PLUSH before. Faith even joked about needing a triple kick pedal 😅.

There’s something almost physical about the low-end attack of this song. It doesn’t simply sound aggressive—it feels aggressive. Every riff seems designed to put another layer of pressure on the listener, while the drums drive everything forward with the kind of relentless force that makes sitting still increasingly difficult.

And suddenly, the title makes perfect sense.

Animalistic is about embracing the rage that lives inside all of us and confronting it head-on. PLUSH has described the song as an exploration of that inner turmoil, with the lighter and darker sides of the video representing the opposing versions of ourselves.

That idea becomes even more interesting when viewed through the lens of what the band told us about Mass Hysteria.

This isn’t simply a band trying to make a heavier record.

They’re digging into heavier emotions.

The rage, frustration, aggression, pain, and survival instinct running through the album all seem to feed directly into the music. The result is a record that sounds like a band becoming more confident in confronting things that aren’t necessarily comfortable.

And Animalistic is one heck of an introduction to that world.

The video takes that internal conflict and turns it into something tangible. Light gives way to darkness. The polished exterior gives way to something much more primal. The tension keeps building until the distinction between the two sides starts to feel increasingly fragile.

That’s where Cordero’s visuals really work.

The video doesn’t just slap some dark imagery over a heavy song and call it a day. Its visual language actually reinforces what PLUSH is saying about the song. The darkness represents the side of ourselves we tend to keep buried—the part that gets angry, frustrated, furious and untamed.

The animal.

And PLUSH lets it out.

Musically, Animalistic was written by Formica alongside Blair Daly and Zac Maloy, with production from Kile O’Dell and Formica. It’s the first taste of Mass Hysteria, which arrives September 18, and the band has already positioned the album as its most mature and sonically aggressive work to date.

After hearing the band talk about the record in person, that description feels increasingly accurate.

There is a confidence in this new material that comes from knowing exactly what they want to say—and refusing to soften it.

PLUSH has always had the ability to hit hard, but Mass Hysteria appears to be taking that instinct somewhere much deeper. The lower tunings give the songs more muscle, the aggression gives them teeth, and the emotional weight underneath it all gives that heaviness a reason to exist.

That’s an important distinction.

Anyone can turn up the gain.

It takes something more to make the heaviness mean something.

Animalistic does.

And then there’s the video.

The visual intensity mirrors the song so closely that the two almost feel inseparable. Every shift in lighting, every darker frame, every glimpse of the band’s more feral side reinforces the sensation that something is trying to break through.

It’s claustrophobic.

It’s confrontational.

It’s dark.

And absolutely explosive.

Most importantly, it makes you want to see what else PLUSH has been keeping in that cage.

Because if Animalistic is the warning shot for Mass Hysteria, the full album could be one hell of a ride.

The band has talked about facing the darkest and most volatile parts of themselves, while ultimately finding a way to survive the chaos and carry those scars forward.

Animalistic is where that fight begins. And PLUSH isn’t walking into it quietly at all. They’re kicking the door down, baring their teeth, and letting the beast run.