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If You Can't Stand The Heat, Get Out Of The Kitchen: Dejected - Altered (Track Review) Released: 4/25/25

 


Dejected, the McHenry County, Illinois heavy metal outfit that's been steadily building their sound since 2021, have come with "Altered," a single that functions as both a mission statement and a transformation document. Formed by Kevin Serratos, Adam Dean, and Kyle McCleavy with roots in metalcore, nu-metal, and deathcore, the band's sound shifted meaningfully when Jacob Hammer came aboard in 2023, folding in progressive metal and beatdown elements that gave their music more structural ambition. Derek Ansell's addition in 2025 rounds out the lineup, and "Altered" feels like the first real proof of what this fully assembled version of the band can do. Lyrically, "Altered" orbits the wreckage of misplaced trust. The opening lines paint a portrait of someone processing betrayal not with grief but with mounting resolve. The imagery of being sharpened and skinned alive cuts with surgical precision, grounding the track's emotional violence in something uncomfortably physical. Lines like "this weight is unbearable yet I won't bow" carry a defiant exhaustion that feels genuine rather than performative, and the song's framing of addiction and reckoning as forces that shadow a person gives the writing a psychological texture that elevates it above standard metalcore lyricism. What separates "Altered" from the pack is the way it builds across its five-minute runtime.


 The first half carries the lyrical weight before the track pivots into a hammering, repetitive descent anchored by the single word "heat." What could feel like a lazy outro instead becomes the song's most hypnotic section, the repetition mirrors the lyrical theme of obsession and inescapable consequence, making the structural choice feel intentional rather than accidental. The progressive and beatdown influences Hammer brought to the table are felt most prominently here, in the patience the track exercises as it allows that second half to both breathe and bludgeon simultaneously. "Altered" is Dejected, announcing that the band that formed in McHenry County has evolved into something harder to ignore. The production keeps things raw enough to honor their heavy roots without burying the nuance, and while some lyrical moments feel slightly unresolved, the ambition is undeniable, and the execution is largely there. For a band still in the process of defining themselves, that counts for a lot, and the transition into the "Heat" section alone is worth the price of admission.

Go give Altered a spin and see what you've been missing: 

Go give them a follow on Instagram: Dejected
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