Swedish screamo band Kid, Feral finally release 2019, a chaotic and emotionally raw album shaped by seven years of setbacks, obsession, and personal collapse.
Swedish screamo band Kid, Feral have officially returned with 2019, their long-awaited second full-length album, out now through Backpack Records. Arriving nearly eight years after their debut album Live and Let’s Die!, the new release captures years of emotional exhaustion, creative frustration, and personal turmoil inside a dense and unstable collection of songs.
Made up of eight tracks, 2019 was written and rebuilt across nearly seven years. According to the band, the album was shaped by failed relationships, serious injuries, and long stretches of uncertainty. Some material dates back to 2019, with drum recordings completed years ago before the rest of the songs slowly evolved through endless rewrites and rearrangements.
Rather than working in a professional studio, Kid, Feral recorded the entire album themselves inside their rehearsal space. The band also handled the mixing and mastering independently, giving the record a rough and intimate sound that matches its emotional weight. The production intentionally avoids polished perfection, leaning into warmth, distortion, and instability instead. Guitars scrape against blown-out drums while the vocals feel seconds away from collapse.
Despite the chaotic surface, the album carries an enormous amount of detail underneath. Layers of guitar revisions, shifting dynamics, and unpredictable structures reveal how much time was spent shaping the songs into their final form. The result feels messy in a deliberate way, balancing emotional immediacy with careful craftsmanship.
Since emerging from Skövde, Sweden in the late 2010s, Kid, Feral have stood out within screamo for blending emotional vulnerability with abrasive intensity. Their music pulls from hardcore, post-hardcore, and skramz traditions while still sounding deeply personal and unfiltered.
The band features vocalist and guitarist Vile Hartman, drummer Jesper Sundell, bassist Jonathan Holmström, and guitarist Jack Smith Insulander. Together, they push 2019 between moments of fragility and complete emotional collapse without losing momentum.
Fans of Touché Amoré, Loma Prieta, and Birds in Row will likely connect with the album’s mix of urgency, noise, and emotional honesty. 2019 feels less like a polished comeback and more like a document of survival.