The USA-based avant-garde/experimental rock/metal band Kayo Dot released a brand new video single, "Oracle By Severed Head". The single is taken from the forthcoming album, Every Rock, Every Half-Truth Under Reason, which is scheduled for release on 1 August via Prophecy Productions.
"The song 'Oracle by Severed Head' is about prophecy, but not the clean, transcendent kind that we've been taught to expect", mastermind Toby Driver reveals. "This is prophecy as defilement – a sacred voice ripped from the past and forced through a severed head – a voice no longer truly its own, but distorted, fragmented, bleeding into the present. It is a song that interrogates the ways in which manipulated versions of the past continue to invade the present, asserting themselves in violent ways. These voices might be real and they might speak some truths, but who, through the obscene fracture that brought them back, are we really listening to? And at what cost? Musically, 'Oracle by Severed Head' pulls us into that space of rupture. It is built on a large ensemble – guitars, drums, bass, strings, woodwinds, trumpet, and vocals – an orchestration that calls back to the earliest Kayo Dot works. The song is a perfect choice for a first single, as it celebrates our return to form while marking the passing of time since 'Choirs of the Eye'. The music is expansive but controlled, allowing tension and release to breathe in real time. Its beauty is at odds with its plaintiveness, as aching melodies and delicate harmonies evoke a sense of loss and longing. The climaxes feel inevitable, yet somehow unexpected. In these moments, the music mirrors the emotional intensity of our most powerful moments, but also speaks to the underlying disquiet of the present – trapped between what was and what is yet to come."
On their eleventh regular studio album, Every Rock, Every Half-Truth Under Reason, Kayo Dot commemorate the 20th anniversary of Choirs Of The Eye by reuniting the original line-up. This bold musical statement from the ever-changing composer and mastermind Toby Driver marks both a return and a progression from the band's seminal debut by revisiting the compositional practices that defined it while pushing forward into uncharted territory.
Rejecting traditional rock structures and the more predictable contours of metal, Every Rock, Every Half-Truth Under Reason shapes a sound that feels familiar and alien at once, where custom-designed microtonal organs and guitars weave an effort to reconcile the impossible tension between past and future. Moving away from the typical emphasis on low-end frequencies, it floats instead in the upper spectrum, where the textures become more fragile, more intimate, and more abrasive and terrifying. Link
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