Death Index is a union of fringe punk experiments by Carson Cox (Merchandise, Neon Bluid, Romeo Blu) and Marco Rapisarda (Psico Galera, La Piovra, Smart Cops). The band's creative conscience ranges extensively, from industrial to pop, from Crass Records to Wax Trax!, from modern to primitive. ‘Civilized By A Lie’ is the culmination of the group both defining and rejecting traditional notions of the what you expect of rock’n’roll. In today’s world, influence comes at the viewer from all angles, beyond music, from science, art, culture, and societal decay. This album is a reflection of that.

The writing and recording process of ‘Civilized by A Lie’ started in 2016 after touring the first DEATH INDEX album, released by Deathwish Inc.. In the studio with producer par excellence Maurizio Baggio (Boy Harsher, The Soft Moon, Merchandise), they began, unbeknownst to them, what would be a 6-year process of writing and recording. Following on from a few days of playing guitars and drums, the band brought in pieces of metal and iron sheets from the construction site across from the studio and began layering the songs with non-musical implements, which you can hear in the final versions of songs like “Ego-Dance” and “D.O.G [Delusions of Grandeur].” adding a blistering element of modern industrial material. These tracks would be an important foundation to the process to follow.

After Cox left Europe and went back to the States, to his home at the time in Washington, DC, he was returning to a different America. 2016 was the beginning of a new wave of mainstream fascism in the US under conservative rule. The inhabitants of the nation’s capital were often mobilized against it despite living in the same city as the regime, marching in solidarity with marginalized voices through community organizing and art. On the street, everyone was caught up in what seemed like an overnight revolution. The freedom of expression and civil rights that had been hard earned by former generations were starting to be erased by the always not-so-dormant evangelical panic deep seated in the American psyche. To the new generation especially, this seemed like traveling back in time to our despotic past. To the time of America’s shadow. The climate was something like a nightmare, even with some people uniting against it.

Every day, the news would echo reality with stories of police brutality, civil violence, poverty, the opioid crisis, global warming, etc., all of which seemed motivated by racism, xenophobia, capitalism, and the all-encompassing inheritance of western progress. Even with constant coverage of the coup happening in America, people’s inability to act, or overthrow the bastards, has become not just a criticism of Americans but also a reflection of the world we live in today. Even with information in the palm of our hands, uncertainty permeates all human progress through division and confusion. Since the end of the 20th century, isolation has only increased as the tech market soars. The attitude of indifference or plain selfishness is just an elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge. How many people have to die before it’s a problem? We have convenient ways to avoid those kinds of thoughts with blindfolds. Ignorance nowadays is not a product of not knowing; it is often voluntary, even for those who claim to know what’s happening.

This LIE is the main ingredient of so-called progress. If you remove it, people will realize they’re animals fighting for scraps in the mud. Remove the LIE, and you have a meaningless country, society, war, existence, etc.

The lyrics and sounds of this album are an investigation of this. The truth of the LIE not simply to judge or waste time preaching what’s wrong because everyone already knows what’s wrong. The album isn’t a pamphlet or declaration of evil on the part of western superpowers. It’s a bird’s eye view of what we look like on Earth, destroying each other over imaginary differences - be it language, ideology or personal preference. Everyone is in the same sinking boat. Indicting anyone other than ourselves, the collective us, is foolish.

But something must be done with the anxiety beyond marching against the tide of evil and fascism, beyond organizing. This album is a way to bundle that anxiety and shoot it at the sun, so to speak.

After years of sending bits back and forth and writing some 20 odd songs, the best were put together to create a maelstrom of dissonance. When compared with the group's first album, you immediately realize that the band has no time for repetition. Combining industrial rock, progressive synth elements, and minimal chromatic structures, they take the language of the first wave of American and European hardcore to an unpredictable new place.

It’s the year 2023; people are starting to recognize the patterns, but they still feel hopeless. Through the smoke, the barricades go up, and new wars and old wars collide. Those who refuse the LIE are the only ones who truly live.