PREMIERE: Perth's Sedative Sheds 'Unlove' Ahead of Death Romantic LP

Perth has been spewing out some insanely heavy bands over the last few years, and 2022 is no different. Matt Daly is the vocalist for Sedative, and has been swimming in the WA heavy scene for many years now (as you'll learn more about below). Sedative, his latest project - is set to blow up with forthcoming release Death Romantic, and today we get another taste of the LP with the brand new single 'Unlove'.

So far, the westies have also shared blistering singles 'Romilda Vane' and 'Godspeed', which will entice you immediately. 'Unlove' continues the carnage with an Alpha Wolf infused sense of brutality. This new single sees Sedative bring in some deep hardcore roots into a deathcore infused tornado. 

We grabbed Daly aside for a chin-wag about the new track, and discussed how it fits in Death Romantic, which you'll get to hear in its entirety on May 20.

Hey Matt, Ricky here from Wall of Sound - how the hell have you been mate, it's been a while? 

Thanks for speaking to us again Ricky! Been way too long, things have been fantastic, mate.

Today is all about Sedative's new killer single 'Unlove'. It is unforgivingly heavy, with elements of metalcore, deathcore and even some tech-stuff going on there. Tell me a bit about this new track sonically?

This song is kind of like the flagship single for our new record 'Death Romantic'. I think the best way of explaining this song (and the record) is that these tracks were approached with more of a record in its entirety as the vibe as opposed to our previous catalogue of singles. 'Unlove' is the PINNACLE of this record as an experience, it really ties together everything the record represents in one punishing package.

What is 'Unlove' about lyrically? Do you bring in personal themes or do you write from a different outlet? 

Yeah, 'Unlove' along with the rest of this record and well, basically everything I write is an extremely personal insight into my own experiences, it's one of the most therapeutic outlets, having the ability to unload the sometimes overwhelming weight into an outlet that can really shed a lot of bleak and despondent feelings and instead of drowning in them, writing songs about them can generally stop them from consuming you.

The record is about all the different avenues of love and the regret, sorrow, tragedy etc. that comes along with it, 'Unlove' in particular is about a one-sided version of this in which being too attached becomes the undoing.

'Unlove' is the third track off upcoming LP Death Romantic. So far we've heard beastly tracks 'Romilda Vane' and 'Godspeed'. These tracks are menacing, what inspired this insane energy with Sedative? 

When we started this band, we wanted to separate ourselves from the masses of saturated bands that find a home in the heavy genre. Our approach to this was to try to be the most ridiculously, egregiously heavy band that we could possibly muster. The tracks that we've heard so far are just a small insight into what we like to think is some of the heaviest music the genre has seen in a recent overwhelming influx of metalcore.

Let's take a step back from the music itself and just get to know Sedative a little bit. You've been in the Perth heavy scene for a while now - what is this band all about to you? And how did you get to know the others in the band?

Yeah, so I've been playing in bands for about thirteen years now, in a myriad of different genres and all to varying degrees of success haha. This band when it began, was basically a collection of some of my closest friends that had the same mindset as me - stupidly, incomprehensibly heavy music. I've been playing with our guitarist Raphy for over ten years, spanning all the way back to a melodic hardcore band from the early 2000's called Winterfold.

Along the way we've played in bands together spanning hardcore, emo, deathcore and now whatever genre Sedative is. Ryan our bassist has been aligned with Raphy and myself for about three to four years now through different bands, and the rest of the guys are just good dudes we've picked up along the way.

What's it like bringing a new heavy entity into the already thick climate of metalcore in Perth?  

I like to think we don't fall in with the rest of the heavily populated metalcore-y bands that are so hugely present in the heavy genre right now. Honestly, since the inception of Sedative I think the reception to what we've wanted to do as a band has been extremely positive and people tend to be able to see what we're about immediately.

The support we've received since this band began has been insane and it has afforded so many crazy opportunities already in our band's short life span, not even taking into account everything else we have on the horizon since our first Australian tour last month and our record being about to release!

We've already heard a lot from Death Romantic, what's left? Any big surprises?

There are some very interesting tracks in this record. As I mentioned before we really tried to have this be approached and consumed as a full record as opposed to standalone tracks, so there are some things on this record that are going to sound like something you'd never hear from us, but contextually within the record they really come together fantastically. We can't wait for everyone to be able to hear Death Romantic in full.

Where would you like to see Sedative go, both physically on tour and philosophically as a body of work? (two questions in one!)

Well, we're really catapulting ourselves early into the touring circuit, we've just finished our first Australian run and have more to announce touring-wise for the rest of the year too. Outside of that we want to be hugely present nationally next year and begin to branch out into Asia and Europe!

Philosophically, I personally want to keep using this band as the vehicle to tell stories. We want to make music that people can relate to and use to turn negative experiences into positive outputs. 

If you could tour with one singular band on the planet right now who would it be?

I myself really wanna tour with Starve just because that band absolutely bangs, on a more grandiose scale I'd say touring with Boundaries, Varials, Traitors etc. would be so ridiculously massive.

Any final words for fans before they hear 'Unlove'?

Thanks so much for your support as always and I can't wait for 'Unlove' to release so that the rest of the record can finally release and we can finally hear what everyone thinks of the Death Romantic. We love y'all.

Interview by Ricky Aarons (@rickysaul90)

Sedative is Matthew Daly (vocals), Raphael Abadi (guitars), Scott Foster (guitars),
Ryan Spencer (bass/vocals) and Nathan Wolfenden (drums).

Stream Sedative - 'Unlove' here and Pre-order Death Romantic here - Out May 20, 2022

Sedative - Death Romantic tracklisting

1. Romilda Vane 2. Godspeed 3. Unlove 4. Can't Feel A Thing 5. Stained Soul 6. Abhorrent 7. Lothario

https://youtu.be/Znj2kcFQqEg