Dying Wish

Dying Wish

Dying Wish is a metalcore and hardcore group from Kitchener, Ontario, active since 2009. The band’s lineup includes vocalist Emma Boster, guitarists Pedro Carrillo and Sam Reynolds, bassist Jon Mackey, and drummer Jeff Yambra. Former bassist Andrew Le leaves the group in 2023, and Jon Mackey joins as his replacement.

Formation and early releases

The band begins during a basement show hosted by Creeping Death in 2018. Its first demo, also called Dying Wish, contains three tracks and appears in 2018. Later that year, the band releases the split EP Dying Wish / Serration with the Canadian band Serration.

Breakthrough and associations

Dying Wish receives early attention after Knocked Loose headlines a Portland show and chooses the band as local support. Bryan from Knocked Loose later asks Emma Boster to sing on the song “A Serpent’s Touch,” and that release leads to a support slot on Counterparts’ US tour. Bryan also appears on the track “Enemies in Red” from Dying Wish’s debut album.

Albums, sound and themes

The band’s debut album, Fragments of a Bitter Memory, appears on SharpTone Records. Its lyrics draw on Boster’s experience as a survivor of an alcoholic stepfather, along with themes of police brutality and anti-colonialism. Dying Wish’s sound sits between 2000s metalcore and modern hardcore, with influences also placed in metallic hardcore and melodic metalcore. The band uses its music to address personal trauma and political themes, and it presents an explicitly left-leaning, countercultural hardcore identity centred on liberation, abolition and revolution.

Recognition

The split EP with Serration brings a nomination for Best International Band at the UK’s Heavy Music Awards.