Megg Jacobs wrestles with duality in her dark new single Ego — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The North Carolina artist’s new single highlights the illusions encountered when forced into positions of apprehension. Through downreaching lyrics, a powerful and vigorous outlook, Jacobs conveys the story of someone caught in an endless loop between a sterile, whitewashed world stained by filth and a glittering, enchanted forest that hides rot beneath beauty. Both are illusions. Both are prisons.
Jacobs encourages listeners to plunge deeper into their own struggles and experiences. Ego explores the concept of ego death, not the serene, spiritual kind, but a forced unraveling of self that is violent, chaotic, and deeply unsettling. “Lyrically, the song deals with forced ego death,” Jacobs shares. “It’s about what happens when your sense of self is stripped away, and you’re left to confront the messy, inescapable gray that life actually exists in. Fighting the gray doesn’t bring clarity, it just shoves you into a different extreme.”
At its core, the song dissects how rejecting nuance and refusing to live in the gray can become its own kind of hell. Living in a world where you are placed into the cycle of feeling compelled to sit with the tragedies of your reality, while at the same time being influenced to look for the silver lining, causing existence to be agonizing. Beginning with heavy tones, boisterous vocals, intensifying drums, and thunderous guitars, the track grabs the consciousness of listeners and transports them into a roaring ambience.
The edgy instrumentation and rambunctious vocals stay consistent, rasping in each line, immediately enticing the listener, carrying them into a storm of emotional reckoning. Using worms as the unofficial mascot for her brand, Jacobs threads dark irony woven into the work, where worms, long and strange, become agents of transformation, consuming the ego instead of flesh. Produced in collaboration with Spicehouse out of Sanford, NC, the outcome is exuberant and bold.
Jacobs became fascinated by music early on in her life. Raised in rural Maine around “misty forests, long winters and the eerie kind of silence that makes you creative… or a little crazy,” Jacobs grew up in a distinctive atmosphere, causing her imagination to flourish. Now based in North Carolina, she holds on to the whimsical magic and infuses it into her sound. Although she had been training vocally most of her life, her sharp and recognizable sound didn’t appear until 2022, when she transitioned to a heavier vocal technique. Jacobs reveals herself with sounds of polarity and pliancy, leading her to convey ideas of an alluring and ambivalent mood, making her a voice to watch in metalcore.
Ego demonstrates what it feels like to lose your sense of self in times of catastrophe. It serves as a reminder that we are always going to endure happenings that lead us into a place of skepticism. Ignoring the feelings that you are experiencing will only lead you into a more distressing place.
Check out Ego above, hear more from Megg Jacobs below, and find her on her website and Instagram.
