Deathcore’s reigning kings of dread are back, and they’ve brought a mirror — one shaped suspiciously like your phone screen.

DISTANT, the Rotterdam/Bratislava-born juggernaut, have unleashed their crushing new single and video, “Rat Torture,” a bleak meditation on the digital dystopia we’ve all happily volunteered for. If doomscrolling had a soundtrack, this would be it — and it would be screaming at you in dissonant, slam-laced fury.

“‘Rat Torture’ is about a suffocating descend into a world where the illusion of freedom is maintained by the glowing screens and empty validation,” the band explains. “The song paints humanity as willing prisoners, rats in a cage they worship. Every scroll is a mechanized ritual where identity is performed instead of lived. While there might be still human beneath the glow, it’s too numb to break free.”

Heavy? Absolutely. Accurate? Uncomfortably so.

Sonically, “Rat Torture” is exactly what longtime DISTANT fans have come to expect — a hyper-dissonant orchestra of impending doom welded to brutal death metal, slam, noise, and beatdown bludgeoning. The accompanying performance video matches the intensity beat for beat, capturing the band in full crushing form.

Watch and stream “Rat Torture” here: https://youtu.be/cXAa2K_2eqM

The single drops as DISTANT continue their relentless 2026 campaign. Fresh off a European tour with Sylosis and a US run that included dates with In Flames and Thrown, the band is now barreling into European festival season with a stacked summer.

DISTANT LIVE:
6/18–6/21 — Dessel, BE — Graspop Metal Meeting
6/24 — Pilsen, CZ — Basinfire Festival
6/26–6/27 — Leipzig, DE — Impericon Festival
6/27 — Ysselsteyn, NL — Jera On Air
7/4 — Viveiro, ES — Resurrection Fest
10/31 — Göppingen, DE — Core Fest

Whether you’re catching them on a festival main stage or screaming along in your headphones at 2 a.m., “Rat Torture” is essential listening for anyone willing to look up from the glow long enough to feel something. Put the phone down. Press play. Then, sure — pick the phone back up. The cage is comfortable, after all.