Hear Rap-Punk Upstart DEAR-GOD's Ruthless New Banger "Bitter Winter" | Page 2 | Revolver

Hear Rap-Punk Upstart DEAR-GOD's Ruthless New Banger "Bitter Winter"

A blast of "raw nihilism" written during a mental breakdown

Eighteen-year-old Robert Ortiz grew up playing in hardcore bands around his hometown of Brampton, Canada, and his current project DEAR-GOD takes the confrontational sound and spirit of punk and metal and infuses it into moody, snarling experimental hip-hop. DEAR-GOD has been playing unhinged local shows and building a name in the Canuck underground, but the project's first official release didn't come until September this year with the biting, Beastie Boys–esque single "The Burbs" and it's surreal music video (which you can watch below) skewering suburban family life. Now comes the follow-up, "Bitter Winter," an even harder hitting cut inspired by the frostbitten grimness of the great white north.

"The Canadian winter peaks are dreadful and can be extremely mentally exhausting," Ortiz says of the single. "It sucks being stuck inside all day completely isolated in a small town. It also sucks graduating high school and working trash jobs while all your friends move onto better things. In the midst of a mental breakdown, I churned up a ruthless, venting song about the aching depression that the lonely winter left me with. It was more of a middle finger up to the bullshit going on around me rather than a cry for help. I aimed to capture that raw nihilism I was really feeling at the time, and then this song came about."

Blast "Bitter Winter" above. If you like what you hear, follow DEAR-GOD on Instagram.