There is something different in the air around Lost Society in 2026. Confidence is nothing new for the Jyväskylä outfit, but on their sixth album Hell Is A State Of Mind, it feels earned in a deeper way. Not bravado. Not reinvention for the sake of it. This is the sound of a band that has stopped searching and started becoming.
Catching up with frontman Samy Elbanna ahead of the album’s 6 March release via Nuclear Blast, the message is clear. The teenage thrash tornadoes who burst out of Finland with Fast Loud Death have grown into something far more expansive, far more cinematic, and far more self aware.
And yet, at its core, it is still unmistakably Lost Society.
From Darkness To Afterlife
When we last spoke around 2022’s If The Sky Came Down, Samy described that record as the heart and soul of the band. It was written during one of the darkest periods of his life, uncensored and brutally honest. Songs like “112” and “Suffocating” captured emotional collapse, despair, and the thin line between breaking and rebuilding.
Hell Is A State Of Mind picks up exactly there.
“I’m stoked you picked up on that,” Samy smiles when I mention how the new album feels like a continuation. “This is the closest thing we’ve ever done to a concept record.”
The story begins in the Afterlife. From there, the protagonist moves through the wreckage of destructive love, addiction, self sabotage, societal cruelty, and personal demons. But instead of staying in the gloom, the narrative bends toward liberation.
“It’s about self acceptance,” Samy explains. “Learning that if you can change your life, you have to do everything you can toward that. Hell was never a place. It was a mindset.”
That idea becomes the thesis of the album. The title is not just poetic. It is the revelation.
Evolution Without Apology
Formed in 2010, Lost Society began as high speed thrash disciples, proudly wearing their Bay Area influences on their sleeves. Over the years, albums like Braindead and No Absolution introduced groove metal, metalcore weight, and darker lyrical territory. By the time If The Sky Came Down arrived, the band had fully embraced a modern melodic metal identity.
With Hell Is A State Of Mind, they push that identity into theatrical territory.
Samy speaks openly about growth. He started writing songs at 15. He is 30 now. The observations, the scars, the perspective have changed. The music reflects that.
For this record, the inspirations were not contemporary chart toppers. Instead, the band looked back to the records that shaped them as kids. Albums like “Hey Stupid” by Alice Cooper, “Painkiller” by Judas Priest and “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son” by Iron Maiden became touchstones.
“It was pure joy writing music this time,” Samy says. “We wanted to consciously write something better than anything we’ve done before.”
That ambition is audible everywhere.
The Song That Changed Everything
The turning point was “Blood Diamond.”
What began as a melody sketched over a hip hop beat exploded into something far grander once orchestral strings entered the demo. That moment reshaped the entire album’s DNA.
Instead of chasing the heaviest breakdown or the most extreme vocal trick, Lost Society discovered something else.
“In my head, putting a classical instrument together with metal can sound heavier than a ten minute blast beat,” Samy says.
That philosophy led to one of the boldest production moves in recent Finnish metal history.
Building A Timeless Sound
The band tracked the album’s foundation at the legendary Finnvox Studios. They brought in 25 guitar heads and 10 cabinets, chasing a sonic identity that would not blend into the grid perfect sameness of modern production trends.
“No amp modeling. No grid perfect edits. Minimal drum samples,” Samy explains. “We wanted a sound that is ours. You hear one note and you know it’s us.”
Then came the crown jewel. A 40 piece Babelsberg Film Orchestra layered cinematic fire across the album. Strings were not decoration. They were structural.
The title track, written while Samy burned through a near 40 degree fever, morphs from romantic violin passages into progressive metal, rap cadences, pop tinged choruses, and even blackened darkness. It is ambitious. It is dramatic. It works.
If any song encapsulates Lost Society in 2026, it is that five minute epic.
Vulnerability And Voice
Vocally, this is Samy’s most dynamic performance to date. Angelic falsettos. Dissonant screams. Rap leaning cadences. Intricate melodic layering.
“There’s a conscious challenge,” he says. “I don’t want to be just a guitarist who sings. I want to be a guitarist and a singer.”
Tracks like “Is This What You Wanted” hit with raw vulnerability, while “Synthetic” injects cyberpunk energy into a groove driven assault built from a single lyrical line.
Even in its aggression, the album carries empowerment rather than nihilism. Heavy music, positive intent. Rage with direction.
And crucially, Samy wants listeners to build their own stories within it.
“You can have fifty thousand people singing the same lyric, but they’ll have fifty thousand different meanings.”
The Stage Is Waiting
With a European tour locked in across the UK, Germany, Scandinavia and beyond, the real test will be the stage. Lost Society have built their reputation on adrenaline soaked live shows. Translating orchestration and complex structures into that environment will be part of the thrill.
Samy is already wrestling with the setlist. The title track. “Is This What You Wanted.” “Synthetic.” He wants them all in.
And yes, Australia remains on the radar.
After touring here previously, he fell hard for Sydney and the energy down under. Promoters, you have your invitation.
A Defining Statement
After six albums of evolution, Hell Is A State Of Mind does not feel like an experiment. It feels like consolidation. Theatrical without losing grit. Expansive without sacrificing hooks. Personal without becoming insular.
Lost Society are not chasing trends. They are building their own sonic world.
Hell was never a place. It was a mindset.
And on this record, Lost Society have broken free of it.
Pre-order the album Hell Is A State Of Mind: https://lostsociety.bfan.link/hell-is-a-state-of-mind
Line up:
Samy Elbanna | Vocals, Guitar
Arttu Lesonen | Guitar
Mirko Lehtinen | Bass
Taz Fagerström | Drums
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