Queensland metalcore stalwarts The Amity Affliction have released the new single, ‘Like Love’. The song, written by vocalist Joel Birch, is about the passing of the band’s friend, musician Sean Kennedy.
‘Like Love’ comes with a music video, also directed by Birch, which draws attention to the pain behind such stark lyrics as, “Another star fell out of the sky, the night you took your own life,” and “I know the hell you were living in.”
Kennedy died in February 2021. He was known as a member of I Killed the Prom Queen and Deez Nuts. He was 35 years old. The Amity Affliction posted a tribute to Kennedy at the time, writing “Rest easy dear friend. We send all our love and thoughts to SK’s friends and family.”
‘Like Love’ is the first new music from The Amity Affliction since their seventh album, Everyone Love You… Once You Leave Them, was released in February 2020. Everyone Loves You… debuted at #2 on the ARIA charts, following the band’s previous #1 albums, Chasing Ghosts, This Could be Heartbreak, Let The Ocean Take Me and Misery.
A statement accompanying ‘Like Love’ underlines its core themes: “The song shifts between positive and negative, hope and hopelessness, and draws on an intimate knowledge of drug use and depression and how the two are often inextricably linked in their personal devastation, while also acknowledging the peace for those who suffer once they are gone.”
