Lengthy-running Swedish-Norwegian rap-metal combo CLAWFINGER will launch “Earlier than We All Die”, its first studio album in 18 years, on February 20, 2026 by way of the Notion label, a division of Reigning Phoenix Music. Loud, livid, darkly humorous and brutally sincere, it is every little thing you forgot you wanted — and precisely what you’d count on from a band that by no means cared a lot for subtlety.
“This is not about discovering peace,” CLAWFINGER frontman Zak Inform says. “It is about telling the reality — even when it’s ugly. Particularly then.”
From environmental collapse to political hypocrisy, private disillusionment to collective denial, that is CLAWFINGER at full quantity — nonetheless pissed off, nonetheless sharp as ever, and nonetheless refusing to close up whereas the world pretends it’s all positive.
Already launched, the one “Scum” units the tone: zero tolerance for corrupt management, faux morality, or the rising tide of right-wing rubbish. It is not a love tune — except you actually love rage and distortion.
“This album is a component protest, half remedy, and half center finger,” the band provides. “We’re not providing options. We’re screaming as a result of silence is give up.”
CLAWFINGER are thought of pioneers of European rap-metal. Shaped in Stockholm within the early Nineties, the Swedish-Norwegian band made an explosive debut with “Deaf Dumb Blind” (1993),mixing aggressive guitar riffs with politically charged lyrics and rap vocals. The album offered over 600,000 copies worldwide — greater than 250,000 in Germany alone — and gained a Swedish Grammis award within the hardrock/steel class.
CLAWFINGER‘s follow-up, “Use Your Mind” (1995) continued their success with chart placements throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Sweden. Through the years, they launched seven studio albums, together with “A Complete Lot Of Nothing”, “Zeros & Heroes”, “Hate Your self With Model” and “Life Will Kill You”, promoting over 1.5 million data worldwide.
Recognized for his or her direct, riff-driven sound and powerful political stance, CLAWFINGER tackle matters comparable to racism, political delusion, drug coverage, environmental destruction, and social inequality. Within the Nineties, they toured intensively with acts like ALICE IN CHAINS, MEGADETH and FAITH NO MORE and appeared at main festivals together with Rock Am Ring, Roskilde and Monsters Of Rock in South America.
After a quick hiatus, the band returned in 2014 and has since launched new singles like “Save Our Souls” (2017) and “Environmental Sufferers” (2022]) In 2025, CLAWFINGER signed a brand new label cope with Notion, with extra music on the way in which — nonetheless as loud, sharp, and uncompromising as ever.
Earlier within the month, CLAWFINGER launched the official Rune Foss-directed music video for “Scum”. The monitor, which was combined by Jocke Skog on the Sunmountain Amenities and mastered by Jens Bogren at Fascination Road, is a transparent jab at U.S. president Donald Trump, with such lyrics as “a foul style in my mouth, a sore sight for my eyes a foul stench within the air, a nasty vibe in the home a foul excuse for a person, a darkish time for the earth” and “one other pussy to seize, sure that is what you mentioned, a small cock in your pants, no mind in your head”.
Inform mentioned in a press release: “‘Scum’ is a uncooked, loud, and brutally sincere punk rap anthem that goes straight for the throat. It is aimed on the type of man who’s egocentric, sexist, stuffed with himself and in some way nonetheless speaking. With sharp lyrics and a beat that hits like a punch, ‘Scum’ says what we’re all serious about that one man all of us want would simply vanish from the face of the earth. It is indignant and it is darkish. When you’ve ever needed to spit in somebody’s face however lacked the upper-body power or social permission, this tune’s for you.”
5 years in the past, Inform expressed his disdain for Trump whereas talking to Germany’s Metalogy concerning the enduring lyrical themes lined on the band’s debut album, “Deaf Dumb Blind”, which got here out greater than 30 years in the past. He mentioned: “I want I might say that issues have modified [since that record has released]. I suppose a few issues did that too. However in the event you take a look at what is going on on on the earth and the way we behave as human beings, I believe we have not made a lot progress. And it appears like there’s a Trump for each Greta [Thunberg] — that is simply an instance as a result of it is simply a lot on the information. For each one that needs to enhance the world, there’s an fool who needs to show every little thing again. It seems prefer it occurs each time. I already thought that perhaps that is merely human nature; the fixed back-and-forth and colliding. I am actually undecided if issues have gotten higher. I want I might say that they have been. However I do not suppose they’re. So I believe that the ‘Deaf Dumb Blind’ message remains to be updated and that it has stands the take a look at of time fairly effectively. After all, it is troublesome to be goal with one thing that may be a large a part of me.”
In March 2022, CLAWFINGER launched the official music video for its earlier single, “Environmental Sufferers”. The monitor marked the primary new music from CLAWFINGER in additional than two years.
Previous to the arrival of “Environmental Sufferers”, CLAWFINGER launched a single referred to as “Tear You Down” in September 2019 and “Save Our Souls” in 2017. “Save Our Souls” was made obtainable 4 years after CLAWFINGER introduced it was calling it quits.
Through the break from the studio, the members of CLAWFINGER have been reportedly caring for their households whereas performing sporadic reunion reveals, principally at European festivals. “CLAWFINGER not is our foremost job,” the band defined on the time. “All of us produce other jobs and households to like.”
CLAWFINGER‘s final studio album, the aforementioned “Life Will Kill You”, was launched within the U.S. in July 2008 by way of Locomotive Information. The CD, which entered the German Media Management chart at place No. 89 upon its European launch in 2007, was recorded and produced at Sweden’s Worry And Loathing Studios, a facility that CLAWFINGER runs together with the members of MESHUGGAH.
CLAWFINGER is:
Zak Inform – vocals
Jocke Skog – guitar, keyboards
Bård Torstensen – guitars
André Skaug – bass
Micke Dahlén – drums
Picture credit score: Peter Bjöns
