Some songs don’t just play — they pull you under. Hurts Like Hell is one of them. From the first note, it doesn’t ask permission. It grabs you by the chest and drags you straight into the fire — the kind of emotional storm you thought you’d already escaped.
Released in December 2024, this isn’t just two bands teaming up for a feature. This is Hands Like Houses colliding head-on with Normandie, each bringing their own brand of intensity until the track feels like one loud, messy, perfectly controlled explosion of pain and passion.
The magic here is in the vocal interplay — two perspectives of the same meltdown. One voice pulls you deeper into the wreckage, the other reminds you you’ve never actually left. There’s urgency in every delivery, but it’s not chaos for chaos’s sake. Every scream, every held note, every pause is deliberate.
It’s toxic connection captured in sound — knowing it’s bad for you, craving it anyway, and feeling more alive because of it.
Hurts Like Hell lives on MESO, the warmer, more emotional half of HLH’s double album ATMOSPHERICS. If EKTOS was the storm, MESO is the fire. And this track? It’s right at the core — loud, raw, vulnerable, and fully aware of the damage it’s doing.
The result is a song that burns without losing control. It’s big, but clean. Emotional, but razor-sharp.
The track’s intensity is no accident.
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Co-produced by Callan Orr and Philip Strand
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Engineered by Callan, Philip, and Benjamin Woolner
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Mixed by Philip Strand
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Mastered by Grant Berry at Fader Mastering
Every layer — from the tight rhythm section to the moments of silence that hang like held breath — has purpose.
This is also Josh Raven’s first official release as Hands Like Houses’ new frontman — and he came out swinging. No hesitation, no holding back. His tone slots into the band’s sound so naturally it feels like he’s always been there. If anyone doubted the transition, Hurts Like Hell is the rebuttal.
The official video, directed by Chris Zagas at Neck Up Collective, matches the track’s emotional weight without overexplaining it. It’s not about neat narratives — it’s about pure feeling, capturing that push-and-pull between hurt and addiction.
At its core, Hurts Like Hell is about the beautiful, destructive pull of something you can’t let go of. The pain is real, the high is realer, and walking away feels worse than running toward the fire.
This isn’t background noise. It’s the soundtrack for when you’re wrecked but not done. When it’s deafening inside your head but silent everywhere else.