MUST DIE!

MUST DIE! makes bombastic, elaborately designed dubstep and electro-house tracks incorporating elements of trance, drum'n'bass, hardcore, and numerous other genres. Highly prolific since the early 2010s, he has co-produced tracks with artists like Zomboy, Getter, and Datsik, and his 2014 full-length Death & Magic, issued by Skrillex's OWSLA label, featured guest appearances by the Ragga Twins and Tkay Maidza. He's continued pushing his sound into heavier, more chaotic directions with subsequent singles like the hardstyle-influenced "BLISS 2K" (2019) and the acid trance-tinged "SORROW TECH" (2021).
Houston-born Lee Austin Bates formed the duo Street Lurkin in 2010, then began releasing solo material as MUST DIE! in 2012. Steve Aoki's Dim Mak label released the full-length Vines, a mixture of dubstep, drum'n'bass, and electro-house, and EPs appeared on imprints like Rottun Recordings and Subhuman. Two Fever Dream EPs were issued by London's Never Say Die in 2013, beginning a long-running relationship with the label. "Survivors," a collaboration with Zomboy, was released by OWSLA sublabel Nest in 2014, and the full-length Death & Magic appeared on OWSLA itself, followed by remixes of the singles "Hellcat" and "Imprint" (with Tkay Maidza). MUST DIE! returned to Never Say Die with 2015's Neo Tokyo EP, and continued issuing all of his work through the label. The EPs Forever Digital and Hyper Future (with Eptic) both appeared in 2017, and after a silent 2018, he returned with some of his hardest, most complex material yet. The 2019 singles "BLISS 2K" and "CHAOS" became two of his most heavily streamed songs, and he kept up the momentum with further tracks like "HELLBURST" (2020) and "SORROW TECH" (2021). ~ Paul Simpson