Vape Warlök Post “Inhale Death” Video; New Music Coming Soon
The rumor I hear is that Los Angeles-based, ultra-weed-worship extreme sludge lurch absurdists Vape Warlök are going to be a real band, at least for guitarist/vocalist Collyn McCoy, if not the lineup with which the dense-fog riffstompers played their first show early in February. Alongside McCoy — known as ringmaster for the avant-garde Circle of Sighs and the dark-techno experimentalists Night City, now also bass in the reignited Unida, ex-Aboleth, Trash Titan, The Ultra Electric Mega Galactic, on and on — for the gig were bassist Mariana Fiel (High Priestess) and drummer Rick Ferrante (ex-Sasquatch, The UEMG, etc.), and the set took place as part of a showcase held at the Suspirium warehouse art space that seems set to become a DIY epicenter for these players and their surrounding creative consortium.
A heartfelt ‘fucking a’ to that, and more generally to Vape Warlök, which made its debut last June with the Inhale Death EP (review here), collecting four songs of absolutely gross-sounding dankness, like if you were to scrape black mold off the walls of a musty tomb and say to yourself, “Oh yeah, I think this’ll go nicely with that bit of hash I have leftover.” Stoned rot righteousness. You will not hear me complaining about more of it should that manifest — one never knows with something so superlatively bombed-out — but I’m likewise glad to have a new video for the Inhale Death title-track, with footage from the aforementioned show run through a range of in-app effects and so on by Sean “Skillit” McEleny, whose praises I happened to be singing just the other day in an announcement for Circle of Sighs‘ upcoming live release (info here).
Now, before I turn you over to the YouTube player, let me put emphasis on just how perfect the method by which the video came about actually is. Not only does the resultant clip look completely over-the-top lysergic-goop wash to match the thickness of the tones, slow plod and indecipherable vocal gurgle — all of which rule, if it needs to be said — but the fact that you can see social media tags in some of it, the intentionally haphazard, tossoff hodgepodge fuckall with which it’s made could not possibly be more appropriate for what this band’s mission seems to be. If I lived in L.A., I would just keep showing up until they let me scream in my socks and sandals about how I want to get high to do the dishes, and that’s a fun little daydream in which to dwell for a moment, but more important is that you take the WTF-factor here as part of the artistry.
Thus far — and if there’s going to be more, we are at the beginning — Vape Warlök dwell in that place between genre satire and genre itself, and if you can’t watch the clip and see it as a show of love and oh-so-fitting tribute to the project and the ceremony, then I guess maybe we’ll have to work on that. And that’s fine. Rumor has it there will be more opportunities. I certainly hope so.
Enjoy the video:
Vape Warlök, “Inhale Death” official video
Vape Warlök “Inhale Death” video by Skillit
Please visit the VW bandcamp: https://vapewarlok.bandcamp.com/album/inhale-death
Created with live videos from friends phones and a loop of a close friend of ours childhood photo singing the baby shark song thanks to a sketchy iphone app. Much like the quick DIY nature of the VW EP this was done with effects from Instagram, Tik Tok, iMovie and Photoshop. It was a labor of love on the part of SkilliArt, that and cannabis (but not vaped!).
Live video from the Feb 4th Vape Warlök debut show at Suspirium featuring Collyn McCoy, Mariana Fiel and Rick Ferrante, music from the VW debut release.
