Intensus, the solo studio project of multi-instrumentalist Eli Litwin, known for his work with John Frum and Knife The Glitter, has unveiled a new single called “Unholy,” taken from the forthcoming album The World Now, Still, arriving September 25 on all streaming platforms.
“Unholy” distills the dense, experimental character of the record into a collision of rhythmic complexity, dissonant heaviness and visceral vocals. Drawing on the weight and intensity of Neurosis, it works as an accessible entry point into an album that keeps pushing past conventional genre boundaries.
Litwin breaks down the track:
“As the album’s most straightforward track, ‘Unholy’ is a good introduction to the sonically dense, yet musically accessible sound of The World Now, Still. As I explain in the song breakdown video, I began with percussion improvisations, transcribed those rhythms, performed them again on acoustic guitar, and then I play a little rhythmic trick with the entrance of the main riff. My biggest influence for the heaviness, tempo, and vocal delivery of the song was one of my all-time favorite bands, Neurosis.”
“I lived in Philadelphia from 2001-2020, and I wrote the lyrics in 2018, in response to a PA Grand Jury report regarding decades of atrocities and systematic cover-ups. Google ‘2018 Pennsylvania Catholic Church cover-up’ if you’re unfamiliar.”
Litwin is also offering a deeper look inside the song’s construction with a breakdown video detailing the rhythmic process behind the track and how the initial percussion improvisations evolved into the finished song. Similar breakdowns covering every other song on the album are planned for the coming weeks, including new playalong and performance segments.
Pre-save The World Now, Still: https://show.co/cibz2b4
The World Now, Still
The album marks the first Intensus release since the project’s self-titled 2011 debut on Metal Blade Records. Once again Litwin performs every instrument himself, but this time he also takes complete control of the lyrics and vocals, resulting in an intensely personal record shaped by both his musical instincts and his response to the world around him.
Across seven tracks and 43 minutes it moves freely between metallic hardcore, progressive and experimental metal, industrial textures, doom, electronic music and atmospheric passages. The whole thing was built on Litwin’s drum improvisations, with those spontaneous performances becoming the foundation for increasingly intricate arrangements.
His broad vocabulary surfaces throughout, drawing from influences as far-ranging as Neurosis, Nine Inch Nails, Björk, The Beatles, Death, Converge, Aphex Twin and Brian Eno, alongside the spontaneity of free jazz and the meticulous construction of progressive metal.
It follows previously released single “Loathsome,” an expansive piece that moves through acoustic passages and layered strings into metallic hardcore, industrial rhythms, extreme vocals, progressive death metal and a climactic symphonic black metal finale.
The World Now, Still Tracklist
- Stay
- Leave This Land
- Rising Tides
- Unholy
- Loathsome
- I’m Not The Only One
- Sing To Me
The album is available for purchase now via Bandcamp, including a digital booklet with lyrics and extensive liner notes detailing the creative process and lyrical inspirations. The streaming release follows September 25.
About Eli Litwin
Eli Litwin is a multi-instrumentalist, improviser, composer, teacher and blogger, with albums released by Relapse Records, Metal Blade Records, Tzadik, Party Smasher Inc, High Two and ugEXPLODE. He graduated from the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University in 2006 with a degree in Jazz Performance on drum set and Music Technology, and earned a Master’s in Music Education from The University of the Arts in 2014. He has received the American Composers Forum Subito grant and the Meet the Composer Creative Connections grant.
Outside Intensus he is known as drummer for John Frum on Relapse Records, Knife The Glitter on Party Smasher Inc., and Deveykus on Tzadik, among numerous other projects. His former band Normal Love released two albums and a 7-inch of modern classical, noise and rock, while Inzinzac, Gun Muffs and Knife The Glitter each explored different amalgamations of jazz, metal and composition.
John Frum’s 2017 debut, mixing death metal, psychedelic atmospheres, progressive songwriting and bursts of unhinged improvisation, landed on numerous year-end lists.
