The Death of Peace of Mind is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Bad Omens, released on February 25, 2022, through Sumerian Records. The band produced the album themselves, with mixing and mastering by Zakk Cervini. The album mixes metalcore and alternative metal with R&B, pop and electronic music. The album cover was shot by photographer Oswaldo Cepeda.
On February 26, 2023, Bad Omens released a cappella versions of every track to commemorate the album's first anniversary.
Musical style The album has a different sound to the band's previous albums, mixing their traditional metalcore sound with R&B, pop and electronic music elements and synths. Charlie Hill of Ghost Cult Magazine described the closing track on the album, "Miracle", saying: "With dense, glitchy synths and bass taking the front seat, Sebastian follows with screaming vocals as the whole song distorts to a thunderous breakdown climax". Reviewer Simon K. said on Sputnikmusic: "the production is punchy and has a dystopian cyberpunk-ish feel to it".
Release On November 10, 2021, Bad Omens released the song "The Death of Peace of Mind", and announced their third studio album of the same name would be released on February 25, 2022.
Prior to release, the initial creation of "Somebody Else" and "The Death of Peace of Mind" were both uploaded onto YouTube by Sebastian, having live-streamed the former, and creating the other without instruments as a "quarantine sample challenge". The album spawned three radio singles: "Like a Villain", "Just Pretend", and "The Death of Peace of Mind" (which was released to radio in 2023). Other songs released digitally prior to album release were "What Do You Want from Me?", "Artificial Suicide", and "The Grey".
In September, 2023, Sumerian Comics released the first issue of a monthly tie-in comic book series that was later collected in graphic novel format. The series was written by vocalist Noah Sebastian with additional creative provided by Davis Rider, Kevin Roditeli, Nicola Izzo, and Micah Myers. The story itself was called "Concrete Jungle" and tied into the themes of the songs while adapting various scenes from music videos to tell a cohesive storyline starring the band members.
Reception
The album received generally positive reviews, with Paul Brown of Wall of Sound saying that "Bad Omens have more than proved themselves and their worth with The Death of Peace of Mind". Dan Stapleton of Rock'N'Load Magazine applauded the band and the album, saying "Bad Omens have created a phenomenal album here that is fresh enough to stand out against the rest of their genre while still being familiar enough to be easily accessible".
The Death of Peace of Mind won the "Best Album" award at the Heavy Music Awards 2023. In 2024, Loudwire staff elected it as the best hard rock album of 2022.
Track listing All tracks are written and produced by Noah Sebastian and Joakim Karlsson, with additional writers and producers where noted.
Notes "IDWT$" stands for "I Don't Want the Money". "Who Are You?", "Somebody Else.", and "What Do You Want from Me?" are all stylized in sentence case. "Concrete Jungle", The Death of Peace of Mind", and "Artificial Suicide" are all stylized in upper case. "Bad Decisions" is stylized in lower case.
Personnel Bad Omens Noah Sebastian – vocals, programming, production Joakim Karlsson – guitar, programming, production Nicholas Ruffilo – bass Nick Folio – drums
Production Zakk Cervini – mixing, mastering
Charts
Weekly charts +Weekly chart performance for The Death of Peace of Mind Chart (2022–2025) Peakposition Australian Albums (ARIA) 14 Australian Vinyl Albums (ARIA) 1 UK Album Downloads (OCC) 19 UK Independent Album Breakers (OCC) 16 US Top Album Sales (Billboard) 43 US Top Current Album Sales (Billboard) 29
Year-end charts + Year-end chart performance for The Death of Peace of Mind Chart (2023) Position US Top Hard Rock Albums (Billboard) 14 Chart (2024) Position US Top Hard Rock Albums (Billboard) 23
Certifications
References