(written by Islander)
“BEWARE OF GODS!” With little doubt, someone has been yelling that warning ever since human beings first conceived of divinities, but with little apparent success. The Minneapolis-based project whose music is the subject of this premiere brandishes that warning in its very name, while simultaneously crafting mythic lyrical and musical narratives that seem to teach other lessons as well — often in exceedingly scary terms.
We’ve had occasion to spread the word about Beware of Gods before, but a few reminders are probably worthwhile. It’s the solo project of a creator known as The Archetype, and has been devoted to the unfolding of a mythos centered on a protagonist called I Nomad — a dystopian cosmic mythos too be sure, but one that provides a mirror to quite human experiences of personal collapse, addiction, and rebirth, influenced by The Archetype’s own near-death experience and long recovery.
The latest Beware of Gods record is Behead the Oracle, the third and final installment in a musical arc named Upon Whom The Last Light Descends, and it’s set for release on July 10th by Invoke Records. As the label explains, it “completes a sprawling narrative about false prophets, algorithmic gods, and the collapse of meaning in a hyper-controlled future.”
The label further characterizes the album (and does so accurately) as a musical blending of “Doom metal’s physical weight, Industrial music’s mechanized tension, and Sci-fi horror’s existential scale”, and thematically as “a rejection of false guidance, illusion, and external authority… and the violent reclamation of self”.
What we have for you today is the premiere of a third single off the new album, “Secondary Drowning“.
This is a cinematic experience, in that it sounds, through the gradual layering of ingredients, like the soundtrack to unfolding events (and it becomes musically quite expansive too).
The song begins in relatively gentle fashion, with a gloomy acoustic-guitar melody set against a backdrop of ominous and unsettling noise, which becomes even more unsettling through the emergence of rapidly skittering ticks and a two-toned vocal harmony that’s both sinister and haunting vocal.
The pacing is slow, and so is the unfolding that occurs. Even as the opening melody and the unnerving vocal harmonies persist, a heavily growling bass and scarring vocals add to the music’s feeling of ominous tension, and big throbbing beats begin triggering muscle movement.
The accretion continues, with searing waves and quivering radiations moving in the upper reaches, and violent screams erupting from below. The low end booms with earth-heaving effects and the drums rattle skulls. The music’s intensity also briefly pulls back to give more room to doomed singing, but becomes no less frightening even then.
Near the end, the pairing of that acoustic melody with an electric guitar’s shrill, demented squirming and eerie synths may leave you chilled. Probably best not to listen to this frightening musical dream shortly before bedtime, because it’s not conducive to an easy sleep.
MORE DETAILS: Behead the Oracle encompasses 11 tracks. In addition to the work of The Archetype, it includes contributions from Kellii Scott (Failure), Feederwire, and Eric Plonka, and it was engineered and mixed by Pete Grossmann (Bricktop Recording).
Invoke Records will release it on CD and digital formats, and pre-orders are available via the links below. At Bandcamp you can also listen to two other previously released songs from the album, “Ocean Of Teeth (Haunted By The Glimpse Of A White Light)” and “Disenchanted Enchanter“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://bewareofgods.bandcamp.com/album/upon-whom-the-last-descends-iii-behead-the-oracle
BEWARE OF GODS:
https://www.facebook.com/bewareofgodsband
https://www.instagram.com/beware_of_gods