Three seconds in, before any lyrics show up, you already know this isn’t a song for sitting still. Nathan Bryce and Loaded Dice just released “Panic Is the Norm,” and it grabs you by the collar before you’ve even decided if you like it yet.

Candace Crockett wrote these lyrics from a place most songwriters avoid. She’s a widowed mother who’s had to keep functioning when the world gave her every reason to stop, and instead of turning that into something heavy and sad, she wrote it mean and funny. That’s a harder trick than people give it credit for. Grief songs are easy to write. A song about outrunning grief with a grin on your face, that takes actual nerve.

Clayton Doley shows up on keys and basically steals the room. His playing has that Jerry Lee Lewis chaos to it, hands moving like the piano owes him money. Paired against guitar that refuses to back down, the whole thing lands somewhere between southern rock revival and a bar fight set to music.

“You don’t always get a break. You just get better at running.” Nathan said that about the song, and once you hear the track, it clicks into place as the whole thesis. Not a complaint, just a fact he’s decided to be loud about.

What sells it for me is how little polish they let creep in. Loaded Dice built their name on live shows that hit like a truck, and this single sounds like they refused to sand that down for the studio. No safe transitions, no predictable breakdown, just momentum from start to finish.

You can listen here.