The single was recorded and produced by Kane Churko, whose resume boasts names like the game-changing In This Moment, Bad Omens, and powerhouse Five Finger Death Punch. Frontwoman Alyse Zavala communicates the concept with a beautiful frailty. In "Barely Human," she lays out a vision of humanity sundered by a catastrophic virus, where survivors are obliged to replace ruined bodies with mechanical replacements. But more than that, what follows is actually the much more personal question of whether or not to give in to chilling detachment, whether to protect yourself by becoming a cold, empty, and soulless creature, or if you keep to your last ounce of humanity. It's a metaphor that extends far beyond fiction, mirroring the emotional survival tools we all develop in times of adversity.
It's a song that thrives on tension, contrast, both musical and metaphorical. Thick guitars rub against bionic electronics, and hip-hop shards splay crisply from the tune's intensity. The interplay between the band's two vocalists, Zavala and Oscar Romero, intensifies the drama, and their performances crackle like a showdown between the heart and the logic of machine. The effect is both punishing and cathartic, a landscape that reflects the disorder of the story. The video takes the concept even further into sci-fi visually. Amid a wasteland, Zavala and Romero stand in a filmic standoff, steel and grit clashing beneath a scorched sky.
Indio Falconer Downey's appearance on the battlefield, brandishing futuristic weaponry, is evocative of the song's immersive energy as otherworldly. "Barely Human" is a hard rock anthem or a sci-fi fever dream. It's a daring meditation on resilience, identity, and the razor-thin line between survival and surrender. In that sense, LYLVC plant their feet as successful genre-benders, but also as storytellers who are not afraid to play with the boundaries of reality and metaphor to remind us all that, even while broken and beaten, the human spirit continues to fight to survive.
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