Acid Row & Samavayo Premiere Collaboration Single “The Serpent”
Posted in audiObelisk on December 15th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Spoiler alert: After he kills you, he’s gonna wear your skin.
That particularly gruesome image serves as one of the final lyrical impressions on “The Serpent,” a remote-collaborative single composed online from riff to demo to completion by Czechia’s Acid Row and Germany’s Samavayo, which tells the story or at least explores the mindset of French serial killer Hotchand Bhawnani Gurumukh Charles Sobhraj, whose name is an argument for cut and paste if ever I’ve seen one and whose tourist-murdering/robbing exploits in Thailand were recently made into a BBC/Netflix drama also called The Serpent. I haven’t seen the show, but I can’t imagine it’s half as groovy as the song.
The pairing of Acid Row and Samavayo isn’t happenstance so much as born travel itself — the bands met while Samavayo were on tour — and as their first work written completely virtually together, “The Serpent” hits with a decidedly sure sense of structure and style. There’s something raw about the drums and the artwork feeds a kind of ’60s lysergic vagary — take acid, do murder, etc. — but the tones of the guitars and bass and the vocal melodies pull more from a ’90s alternative aesthetic, bringing about a balance that’s exploratory in its affect while traditionalist in its verse/chorus presentation. Solos trade over international borders, and the hook returns, duly methodical in its escalation.
Of course, when it comes to serial killer thematics in heavy music, one can’t get past however many sentences this is without a mention of Church of Misery, but there’s nothing so directly doom-loyalist happening in “The Serpent” itself. That is, all heavy roads may lead to Sabbath, but Acid Row/Samavayo take their own to get there.
You’ll find the track premiering in the visualizer/video below, followed by more background on its making.
Please enjoy, and watch your skin:
Acid Row & Samavayo, “The Serpent” premiere
SINGLE RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT – THE SERPENT: 15.12. 2021 // Acid Row feat. Samavayo
Acid Row and Samavayo are releasing a feature single about a serial killer
Czech stoner-rock band Acid Row in cooperation with Samavayo from Berlin (Germany) are releasing a feature single The Serpent. A record about a serial killer arose from two different distant places, two countries and both bands participated in the production of it. The Czech unit recorded their parts at Golden Hive Studio in Prague and the German unit at their HQ in Berlin. The single is accompanied with minimalistic “Music Video”, more likely a gentle animation of a moving demonic snake with a human head created by the guitarist from Acid Row, Dominik Klesa.
“This cooperation with Acid Row (CZ) is the first time we wrote a song with another band. Before that we had done cooperations where each band contributed songs to a jointly release. But this time we composed together and the challenge was to do that spaced apart in different countries. We managed well and created a unique piece of Rock music with creative input of both bands! We did that because the project sounded like fun, we knew it’d be a challenge and Acid Row are friends from Brno/Prague, where we had a lot of fun on previous shows!” says the frontman from Samavayo Behrang Alavi about the collaboration.
Members of both bands did the whole songwriting process online. They shared their ideas, created together a demo version of the song, discussed everything from pre-production, production to final release and promo of the song. The theme of the song depicts French serial killer Hotchand Bhawanani Gurumukh Charles Sobhraj, who killed around 20 people in an area of South Asia. In media the criminal got a nickname The Serpent. This is also symbolized in artwork made by Daniel Gerhard Holc with the central motif of a dancing snake with a human head of the mentioned killer mixed with slightly psychedelic background which also includes some shots from liquid light show made by a creative group called Weird Visuals from Prague.
“Psychology, especially the psychology of serial killers interests me both personally and also on the level of musical inspiration. Some cases encourage specific imagery, symbolics and so on. Like in case of a serpent. Sobhraj was stealing from their victims their property and identity, which is similar to skin changing of a snake. He was also poisoning their victims very slowly. People have behind their social masks a lot of different animal instincts. What I like to do in some songs is to reveal what’s actually hidden behind those masks.” says Alex Fonar, the frontman from Acid Row, in connection to the topic.
German trio Samavayo plunder European venues and festivals for more than twenty years. Touring f.e. Ukrainian Stoned Jesus or Greenleaf from Sweden brought them to most of the European countries including Czech Republic where they also met with Acid Row on one of their together shows. They also played together at Setalight Festival in Berlin, which is organized by members of Samavayo.
Across border collaboration came to life thanks to support of the proexport office caller SoundCzech under the Ministry of Culture Czech Republic. Mixed and mastered by sound engineer Jens Güttes.
Dominik Klesa (Acid Row): Guitars, Animation-Video
Alex Fonar (Acid Row): Baritone, Vocals
Stephan Voland (Samavayo): Drums
Andreas Voland (Samavayo): Bass and Synthesizer
Behrang Alavi (Samavayo) Guitar, Vocals
Mix/Mastering: Jens Güttes
Artwork: Daniel Gerhard Holc
Recording (Acid Row parts): Golden Hive Studio
