Track listing: The Rebirth (Instrumental), Trampled, In Reverence, Dedication, Dark Side, By Design, Not Alone, Rampage, Guidance, The Fallout (Instrumental)
April 15, 2026 is a day of reckoning--not exclusively for the reason that Americans' taxes must be handed over to a regime hell-bent on the destruction of Mother Nature and Humanity itself. But for the sake of this moment, the Ides of April brings forth Relentless Pursuit's latest full-length album My Own Worst Enemy.
This world is a dark hole transcending through time regressing one day after another. Only with the light there is a glimmer of hope. Where has compassion gone?
- "Trampled"
The wizard behind the curtain, Matthew Konradt, delivers a sonically punishing LP detailing the stark, barren gloom that looms overhead. "Rise and see this world is on borrowed time." It's not so much a warning or a threat as it is a statement of fact, being that we are on a crash course with the end of humanity.
While My Own Worst Enemy approaches armageddon from a spiritual angle, Konradt's not just making this shit up. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has ticked its longstanding Doomsday Clock to its most dire state yet: 85 Seconds to Midnight. In the seemingly rare flow where scientists and the Church align, "Dark Side" asks "Where has the time gone? Is this an established order or a dictatorship?" The fear, the anger, the sense of hopelessness amidst leaders running wild, unchecked--it's all very much our reality.
In a rare Relentless Pursuit cover (Red's "Not Alone"), the listener is presented with a ray of hope for those living in isolation: "When you're finally in my arms, You'll look up and see, love has a face." Konradt lays out in My Own Worst Enemy the dark state of existence we're dealing with, both globally and within each of our own hearts and minds. But stopping shy of coaxing us to lose all hope, there are moments shining light on Faith, Hope, and Forgiveness.
Perhaps your own yearning is for a religious revelation. Or for those not really into that sort of thing, your faith may exist in the Good within humanity, and compassionate leaders being given the chance to redeem the transgressions of their predecessors--that is its own variety of Love and Hope. Both exist in a parallel realm with similar end-games of salvation and redemption.
Musically speaking, having listened to much of Relentless Pursuit's discography, My Own Worst Enemy strikes me as one of Matthew's more vulnerable works. For one, there's more singing. As in pleasant-sounding melodic vocals! We get to hear more unprocessed, not-metal-growling singing. Small inflections of his voice come through, which present themselves in stark contrast to the heavy gutteral growls across much of the artist's work. And I like it!
No, I neither expect nor hope for the next album to be filled with sappy ballads. But the juxtaposition of heaviness with more easily comprehended verse lyrics gives My Own Worst Enemy its own new feel. A new message, perhaps, relatable to a more broad listening audience.
You can pre-order My Own Worst Enemy on relentlesspursuit.bandcamp.com/album/my-own-worst-enemy or check out the album's singles on Relentless Pursuit's Spotify.