Copperhead performs the task of playing out the furious joys and crushing sorrows that define a life. It’s our pleasure to premiere a track from their upcoming album Gazing In The Dark, which will be released via the always forward-thinking PTP.
The double-edged sword of “Ball Gag Waltz/Shrunken Hog Head” opens with some summoning, marching-band style drums that ascend in volume as if town-crying an approaching procession. Movement abounds. Missteps are encouraged—the ballroom dance is taking place without the ballroom.
Copperhead’s vocals (I hear the word “soldiers” scream-sung) burst in as if through a paper banner. They are the band leader and the star and completely untitled. (“You will not control me.”) Some bone-quakingly deep bass rumbles in to shake up our stomachs and hearts before being snatched back into the void from which it came. Will it return? We miss it.
When it thankfully does, it rides waves alongside an electric guitar’s whines that build until the track totally explodes into the doom metal sludge that is “Shrunken Hog Head”. Here, Copperhead begins to sing in duet with guest vocalist Emilie Gumming. So many faces that look slightly distorted through fear, which they scream right into for us, gratefully, to hear.
Gazing In The Dark will be released on cassette and digital formats on September 6. Preorder it here.
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