You may have seen Long Island-based melodic metalcore outfit Deadlands opening our very own Brooklyn Bowl for “bimbocore” originator Scene Queen and sapphic pop star girli (who you may have heard on Philthy Radio) this July. However, this Tuesday, December 16th, the band — comprised of singer Kasey Karlsen and producer and guitarist CJ Arey, professionally known as “NO SHADE” — are closing out 2025 with a headlining show at MilkBoy (They’ll also be returning to the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection when they provide support for VANA’s THE LADY IN RED TOUR April 22nd at The Foundry.) Deadlands have spent the second-half of 2025 touring and promoting SEVEN., a seven-song concept EP that explores each of the seven deadly sins, which dropped this June on Spinefarm and follows up 2022 debut EP Sentence of Myself. I recently got a chance to chat with Kasey Karlsen about Deadlands’ live show, concept albums, music videos, and more.
Izzy Cihak: This summer you released SEVEN., a concept EP. How do you feel like this collection compares to Sentence of Myself, in terms of sounds and even just how you function as a band, as far as writing and recording? You’ve already talked a lot about the themes and narratives of the EP.
Kasey Karlsen: I think SEVEN. really showcases how we wanted to experiment more with our sound and process. We’re a young band, paving our way every day, and every song that we wrote for this EP was another step closer to finding who we are as a band. We really wanted to challenge ourselves and, compared to Sentence of Myself, SEVEN. felt more mature and really felt like we were achieving the sound we were chasing since our inception.
Izzy: I’m a college professor and just the other day I was talking to a student who told me they miss classic concept albums and wished that there were more of them these days, so I’m curious if you have any favorite concept albums, whether of recent history or of previous eras?
Kasey: Oh, I have so many. Scoring the End of the World by Motionless In White, The Fallout by Crown the Empire, zero.point.genesis by The Pretty Wild (not entirely sure if this is concept, but it definitely feels like it), Post Human: Survival Horror by Bring Me the Horizon.
Izzy: Your video for “Wither” is totally amazing (I actually dig all your videos, which seem very cinematic, especially “House Of Cards.”) and which I understand really took a lot out of you. What kinds of things inspire the visual elements of Deadlands? It seems like you’re really into that stuff.
Kasey: Thank you so much!! Honestly, I don’t really know, it’s whatever comes naturally when I listen to the songs. For example, I have a general idea of what the theming should be like for an album, namely the color stories or symbolism that I can throw in, but the plotlines for each video always play like a movie in my head. For me, cinematic stuff really brings everything to life and if I can’t see imagery for it, maybe it’s not powerful enough to make it on the record.
Izzy: Last year you signed to Spinefarm, which is such an amazing label (I love Employed to Serve and Royal Thunder, and Killing Joke have been one of my all-time favorite acts since I was a teen in the early aughts.) How has it been working with them?
Kasey: Spinefarm has been great. They’ve really made a point to let us control the creative side of stuff and are very adamant on ramping up what we think is the right way to go. Everyone is so supportive and sweet, and they’re even more hype on the stuff we’ve been working on!
Izzy: You’re going to be wrapping up the year right here at MilkBoy! What can be expected of the live experience?
Kasey: We’re so excited! Our main priority is to provide major energy 100% of the time. The setlist consists of pretty much everything we’ve released, and this will be the last time we’re playing some of these songs for a while. We want to give them our all as a farewell and thank you to Sentence of Myself, but we are definitely ready to rip SEVEN. in its entirety, including one of the songs we never got to play on our last run with Scene Queen. If people haven’t seen us since before the Scene Queen tour, they are definitely in for a shock. The upgrades we’ve had in our sound and presentation have made us very proud,
Izzy: What have been some of your personal highlights, standout moments, or milestones of 2025, in addition to working with Spinefarm and dropping your latest EP? You have played kinda a lot of pretty huge shows with Scene Queen and girli (who I fucking love).
Kasey: I think the most standout moments we’ve had is having the crowd sing with us every night and have the merch line be incredible after every single set.
*Get your tickets here.
