Empire State Bastard have shared a dystopian video for their recent single ‘The Looming’ – check it out below.
The side-project of Biffy Clyro frontman Simon Neil, and their touring guitarist Mike Vennart (Oceansize) will release debut album ‘Rivers Of Heresy’ on September 1 (pre-order/pre-save here).
‘The Looming’ was shared last month as a follow-up to the singles ‘Harvest’ and ‘Stutter’, and its video continues the dystopian themes of the track.
Of the video, the band said: “ESB x Mike Bourne. The end is looming!”
Watch the video below.
Speaking to NME earlier this year, Neil said that ESB were “going for extremity at all costs” while embarking on what he described as a “hideously horrific musical journey”.
“Because we play together in Biffy, there’s no point in us doing another project that doesn’t feel miles apart,” he explained. “That’s a pet hate of mine, when people leave their full-time band to do another thing and it’s just a slightly different version of what they’re doing anyway. What’s the fucking point?”
As for the forthcoming ‘Rivers Of Heresy’ on the whole, Neil told NME: “I’ve put all of my nihilism and misanthropy into this record. The anger needs to be real.
“When the pandemic happened, there was so much to be angry about over that period. Even since then, I keep having this optimistic point of view that there’s going to be a right sharp turn of goodness and growth and everyone’s going to see the light.”
He continued: “I just needed to unleash something. This isn’t a political band, but there’s so much to be fucking angry about. You see the people running the country who just don’t give a shit, you see local neighbourhoods falling apart, and maybe I’ve connected to my hometown since I stopped touring so intensely after the pandemic. Maybe I feel more of a responsibility to my community.”