After pummelling the UK festival circuit this summer following the release of singles ‘Harvest’ and ‘Stutter’, and with their debut record primed for release at the start of September, Empire State Bastard’s new near-7-minute single – aptly named ‘The Looming’ – is an apocalyptic final glimpse into the chaos to come.
Across the vast chronicle of a single, guitarist Mike Vennart’s fuzzy, stoner rock riffs lull the listener into a sense of unease, only to turn sinister and aid the crush created by Simon Neil’s increasingly feral vocals which build in insanity as the track progresses. Despite the singer’s distinguishable clean vocals featuring, and posing existential questions such as “the devastation’s looming like Jesus / what’s it going to take to believe us?”, the sound is far from any Biffy Clyro joint.
Coupled with the titanic drumming of Slayer’s Dave Lombardo, with crash cymbals chiming out to a jolted time signature on the hook, and sludgy bass tones from Naomi Macleod, ‘The Looming’ carries a Sleep-esque aura throughout, creating a soundscape that is gargantuan as it is layered with creative nuance. Accented with robotic bleeps as it descends further and further into madness, Neil declares like a twisted doomsayer: “The end is nigh! The end is looming! F*ck what they told ya!”
As the closer to both their upcoming album and their cathartic live shows, ‘The Looming’ sets the unavoidable affirmation that following a lengthy gestation period, the band is finally here to salvage every dark crevice of metal and genre-adjacent extremity in the loudest way possible.
Empire State Bastard’s upcoming shows include Germany’s Wacken Open Air on August 5th and ArcTanGent in Bristol on August 17th, before heading to the US for Riot Fest on September 17th, and as guests for Chat Pile in New York on September 20th.