East Coast metalcore ensemble The Acacia Strain utilize a bone-crushing rhythm section, apocalyptic samples, and a unique triple-guitar assault to deliver their signature blend of hardcore, noise, and death and doom metal. Emerging in the early 2000s, the band found success in 2008 with their fourth full-length effort, Continent, which soared to the top of Billboard's U.S. Heatseekers chart. Subsequent efforts like Death Is the Only Mortal (2012), Coma Witch (2014), and the horror-themed semi-concept LP It Comes in Waves (2019) continued to snap necks in the metal community with brutal efficacy.
 

The Acacia Strain signed to Rise Records in 2012, releasing Death Is the Only Mortal by year's end. Longtime member Laskiewitz left the band in 2013, and was replaced by Devin Shidaker and Rich Gomez, both of whom contributed guitar to The Acacia Strain's seventh full-length album, 2014's Coma Witch. In early 2017, the group issued "Bitter Pill," the first single from their eighth studio long-player, Gravebloom, which arrived later that June. In late 2019, the band released It Comes in Waves, a doomy, taut, and atmospheric seven-song set with single-word song titles that, when put together, construct the sentence "Our only sin was giving them names." The following year saw The Acacia Strain issue a series of pummeling 7" releases (A, C, E, D, Y) that went on to form (and spell) the full-length Slow Decay, which arrived that summer.