Video Premiere: Kings Destroy Make the Most of Quarantine with “Fantasma Nera” Video
By now the ‘quarantine video’ is fast becoming a genre of its own, and one that will, when the planet has reopened to whatever new reality awaits our pitiful species — back to burning working class labor and fossil fuels we go, merrily cutting taxes and learning nothing — be a marker of this time and experience. It speaks to the simple need to create that, even isolated from each other, the members of bands can’t help but collaborate on projects like this new video from Kings Destroy. There are so many working on new material during this lockdown, and as we seem to be at least telling ourselves we’re through the worst of it — maybe we are, I don’t know — the baby-boom of records to come might indeed be another marker of COVID-19’s aftermath. So be it. In the meantime, locked in their homes in New York, Kings Destroy put together a clip for “Fantasma Nera” from their 2019 album of the same name (review here), which Svart delivered and you should’ve listened to if you didn’t. There’s time now, to paraphrase Burgess Meredith at the end of the world.
But whatever. The album’s fanatically melodic, and a boldly rock and roll reaction to the confrontationalism of their past work. More than anything, it was the record where they perhaps once and for all shrugged off the expectations of others and took the course they wanted to take. No two Kings Destroy releases have ever been the same — all the more reason to listen — so I wouldn’t count on them repeating this process next time, even should they return to work again with producer David Bottrill (Tool, King Crimson, etc.). But though I’m sure guitarists Carl Porcaro, who bursts into the room at one point in the video with his freshly-shaved head carrying his guitar like he’s on Smackdown, and Christopher Skowronski, who hates run-on sentences like this one and recently did a days of rona talking about his own plague experience, have been chipping away at new riffs and during their stuck-at-home time, the band as a whole aren’t probably there yet. It would probably help things along though if they could get in the same room. Remember when that used to happen?
And as the opening lyrics of the song say, “Remember when we were alive?/Neither do I.”
On that fun note, a few highlights: We see drummer Rob Sefcik‘s dog and child and he gives a good shrug in addition to a righteous performance on some pretend drums. At one point, vocalist Steve Murphy points at the camera. Bassist/backing vocalist Aaron Bumpus fades in with some ’80s metal effects on the harmonies and, later, enjoys a drink, as does much of the band. And of course, that Porcaro entrance. It’s a good one.
The video was edited by Skowronski and he offers some quick comment below, and the Bandcamp stream of Fantasma Nera is down there too. Have at it.
And please enjoy:
Kings Destroy, “Fantasma Nera” official video
Christopher Skowronski on “Fantasma Nera”:
“I was just looking for a project to keep me busy during the lockdown. I realized we never made a video for any song off of Fantasma Nera, so why not make one. Of course all of us being in isolation posed a problem. I also didn’t want to do one of those videos of a band playing “live” via Zoom or whatever. I mean, I’ve seen some cool ones, but it’s been done, and not all of us have the technology to pull that off anyway. So I just asked everyone to film themselves playing the song, as well as some footage of them in isolation doing whatever they chose. I got a ton of footage back from everyone, went through it, and cut it together. It wasn’t until I began making it that I realized the lyrics — especially the first few lines of the song — fit the overall situation so well. Anyway, it at least gave us all something creative to do.”
Fantasma Nera is out now on Svart Records: https://svartrecords.com/?s=kings+destroy
Kings Destroy, Fantasma Nera (2019)
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Tags: Brooklyn, Fantasma Nera, Kings Destroy, Kings Destroy Fantasma Nera, New York City, Svart Records
