“I can’t feel anything” are the finals lyrics of Donovan Wolfington’s “Mosquito”, and moreover, a pretty accurate bummer-thesis about the track itself. The song, from the New Orleans-based group’s forthcoming record How to Treat the Ones You Love, draws from emo and punk to create a weirdly serene, at-times dreamy vibe, even though the source material is devastatingly sad .

In the midst of recording their new record, the band lost a close personal friend, and thus the album became a “dark representation of painful events put in a pretty and crisp bow,” according to lead singer, Neil Berthier. The “pretty…crisp bow” aspect is the most compelling part of “Mosquito”, as harsh, caustic moments always yield to brief periods of instrumental and vocal respite. Nothing as chaotic or traumatic as death can ever be neatly tied up in a bow, but to hear a the group grapple with the vicissitudes of grief in two minutes and fifty seconds gives the song an appropriately angry, unruly, choking feeling. If the track is any indication of what to expect from the rest of the record, I could not be more excited–this is exactly the kind of music I love.

How to Treat the Ones You Love drops August 21st via Topshelf Records and you can preorder it here.