THE CONTORTIONIST have released new single / video ‘Early Grave’ and details of a new EP. Produced and directed by Corey Norman and produced and edited by vocalist Michael Lessard, this is the first music video and original song we’ve seen from the progressive group since the release of their Clairvoyant album in 2017.
THE CONTORTIONIST will release new EP Our Bones on 9th August 2019 via Entertainment One / Good Fight Music. Crafted in the compound owned by producer/engineer John Douglass (Coheed & Cambria, Bad Wolves, Carnifex), where the guys were able to live and work, Our Bones began with some ideas Robby Bacawould regularly run through at the band’s soundchecks.
“Once I was finally able to get Robby to record that riff we started piecing together the song in the back of the van, while on tour in Europe,” Lessard recalls. The result was lead single ‘Early Grave,’ an expression of gratitude to the fans who’ve shared their stories of heartbreak, loneliness, and depression, and found new strength in the music of THE CONTORTIONIST.
The band’s blistering new EP sees THE CONTORTIONIST step outside the atmospheric storytelling of their critically-lauded conceptual masterpiece Clairvoyant (2017) to indulge an aggressive shadow side. More an anthology of standalone bursts of intensity, Our Bones isn’t a mere stopover between albums, it’s both a definitive look back and an ambitious leap forward.
“We try to do something different with everything we create,” explains Lessard. “With our albums, we tend to work with overarching interconnected themes. ‘Our Bones’ is a departure. It offered an opportunity to dive into some things we haven’t had a chance to explore, and the shorter EP format allowed us to be hyper-focused on each song.”
Our Bones was mixed and mastered by longtime collaborator Jamie King (Between The Buried And Me, Through The Eyes Of The Dead), who worked on Language and Clairvoyant.
While THE CONTORTIONIST ultimately have proven themselves masters of psychedelic-enhanced experimentation and trippy melodicism, endearing them to fans of later period Enslaved and Sigur Ros alike, they have never entirely forsaken the urgent impact of tech-leaning extremity.
“From The Beatles to Pink Floyd to Mastodon, all the great rock bands in history have clear, non-linear musical trajectories,” Metal Sucks observed. “It’s great to see a band taking chances and moving forward. The result is a fully formed band, four albums in, to which no other bands compare. Literally: no one else sounds like The Contortionist even a little.”
THE CONTORTIONIST have announced a run of European tour dates including appearances at ArcTanGent (UK), Summer Breeze (DE) and Brutal Assault (CZ) festivals. Azusa, featuring former members of Dillinger Escape Plan, will support on a number of the headline dates. This directly follows the band’s summer North American tour with Between The Buried and Me.
Dates:
August 3 – Venice, Italy @ Argo 16*
August 4 – Milan, Italy @ Circolo Svolta*
August 6 – Wiesbaden, Germany @ Kesselhaus
August 7 – Dresden, Germany @ Beatpol
August 8 – Warsaw, Poland @ Hydrozagadka*
August 9 – Jaromer, Czech Republic @ Brutal Assault Festival
August 10 – Berlin, Germany @ Music & Frieden
August 11 – Hamburg, Germany @ Knust
August 13 – Nijmegen, Netherlands @ Merelyn
August 14 – Cologne, Germany @ Club Volta
August 15 – Dinkelsbuhl, Germany @ Summer Breeze Festival
August 17 – Bristol, England @ Arctangent Festival
August 19 – Dublin, Ireland @ Voodoo Lounge*
August 20 – Belfast, UK @ Speakeasy*
August 22 – Leeds, England @ Brudenell Social Club
*=No Azusa