What happens when you start to love the thing that’s destroying you? That’s the uncomfortable question at the heart of The Quarantined’s latest single, “Skeleton Chair,” which dropped July 23rd. The 4:27 track pulls from frontman Sean Martin’s time in Iraq, exploring territory most war songs won’t touch.
The song stems from a specific incident Martin witnessed in 2006. During a routine munitions disposal operation, the destruction of an abandoned house sparked a wildfire that spread through the area, igniting local tensions. It’s the kind of surreal moment that sticks with you—the unintended chaos that spirals from a single decision. Martin channels that experience into lyrics that paint vivid images of physical exhaustion and the harsh realities of desert warfare.
Here’s what catches you off guard about “Skeleton Chair”—it doesn’t preach. Instead of hammering home a message about war’s horrors, the band explores something more complex. As The Quarantined explain: ‘It’s a song about a person falling in love with war, and the paradox that that truly is. It is also about the ultimate forces behind it all (hate, torture, psychosis) blinding you, but also tempting you.’
The track starts quietly, almost folksy, with just an acoustic guitar. Then the drums kick in with this tom-heavy pattern that builds tension without rushing. When the chorus hits, the distortion crashes in, but it’s controlled—there’s melody threading through the noise. You can hear the alt-rock and post-grunge influences in the DNA, but The Quarantined aren’t trying to recreate the ’90s. They’re using those touchstones as a foundation for something that feels explosive and current.
Around the 2:15 mark, guitarist Zack Rapp delivers a solo that actually serves the song. No shredding for the sake of it—just tasteful phrasing that gives the track room to breathe. It’s the kind of moment that separates musicians who get it from those who don’t.
The production work at Blackbird Studios shows. Nathan Yarborough, who’s worked with Alice in Chains and Korn, handled the recording and mixing, while True East Mastering polished the final product. You can hear the attention to detail in every layer—from the way the acoustic guitar sits in the mix during the quiet moments to how the distorted guitars punch through without overwhelming everything else. The drums sound massive when they need to be, intimate when the song calls for restraint. But the real credit goes to Martin’s vision—he came in knowing exactly what story he wanted to tell and had the technical chops to translate those battlefield memories into sound. It’s one thing to have an idea, it’s another to execute it this precisely.
This follows their previous single “Unspoken” and sets up their forthcoming album Aversion to Normalcy. If these tracks are any indication, the album won’t offer easy answers. Instead, The Quarantined seem more interested in holding up uncomfortable mirrors, forcing us to look at the contradictions we’d rather ignore.
“Skeleton Chair” doesn’t wrap things up neatly. There’s no resolution, no moment of clarity where everything makes sense. Just the lingering question of how we square our ability to create and destroy. It’s heavy stuff, but The Quarantined handle it without melodrama or pretense. They’re simply telling a story that needed telling.
The single is now available on all streaming platforms. Follow The Quarantined on Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
