Month: April 2021

California metallers ATREYU have released the official visualizer for their new song “Catastrophe”. The track is taken from the band’s upcoming album, “Baptize”, which is due on June 4 via Spinefarm Records. The clip arrives six months after the release of “Save Us”, which was the first taste of the band’s music since the departure of vocalist Alex Varkatzas in September.

“Catastrophe” showcases ATREYU’s current lineup consisting of drummer Brandon Saller focusing completely on singing after previously sharing lead vocals with Varkatzas for most of the band’s two-decade-plus existence. Sitting behind the kit is Saller’s HELL OR HIGHWATER bandmate Kyle Rosa, who had filled in for Saller on drums in 2019 after Varkatzas bowed out of the band’s European tour while dealing with serious back and hernia issues.

“Baptize” track listing:

01. Strange Powers Of Prophecy
02. Baptize
03. Save Us
04. Underrated
05. Broken Again
06. Weed
07. Dead Weight
08. Catastrophe
09. Fucked Up
10. Sabotage Me
11. Untouchable (feat. Jacoby Shaddix)
12. No Matter What
13. Oblivion (feat. Matt Heafy)
14. Stay
15. Warrior (feat. Travis Barker)

Asked in a recent interview with the “RRBG Podcast”if fans have responded positively to ATREYU’s lineup change, guitarist Travis Miguel said: “For the most part, yeah. There’s obviously naysayers and people who are bummed out. And that’s totally fine — I mean, we all expected that. Because change in any shape or form, really, can be very uncomfortable. Especially for a band that loses their frontman, a lot of bands, they either thrive or it just doesn’t resonate the same with the listeners. But luckily, it’s not like we got a complete stranger coming in and moving up to the frontman spot. Brandon, obviously, did just about 50 percent of the vocals on all ATREYU stuff anyway. And he’s been working his ass off kind of transitioning from literally the dude from behind the drums to into the front of the stage.

“That being said, not this past summer, but in 2019, we did a tour in Europe, and Alex, at the time, he had injured his back and he literally couldn’t sit on a plane for 11, 12 hours to fly over to Europe, so he had to sit that one out,” he continued. “So we went over to Europe with this lineup that we have now. So there wasn’t a whole lot of thought [put into it]. It was kind of a no-brainer. Kyle Rosa, who is now playing drums for us, it was almost like that was his tryout, and we didn’t even know it. So it’s just kind of weird how things pan out.”

Speaking about the musical direction of the new ATREYU material, Travis said: “There are definite heavy bangers on there. It’s definitely ATREYU, which that could mean just about anything, really. A lot of people would consider that complete shitty music. Some people think it’s the greatest thing on earth. It’s all over the place, really, which is kind of what we’ve always done.”

ATREYU spent the first couple of months of 2020 working on material for its eighth album with producer John Feldmann, who previously helmed 2018’s “In Our Wake” and 2007’s breakout LP “Lead Sails, Paper Anchor”.

In August 2019, ATREYU released a deluxe edition of “In Our Wake” via Spinefarm Records. The new version featured the original “In Our Wake” album, along with seven additional tracks. The bonus material included B-sides from the sessions for both “In Our Wake” and 2015’s “Long Live”, along with alternate versions of the title track and “The Time Is Now” from “In Our Wake”. The deluxe edition featured completely redesigned artwork and a total of 19 songs.

French progressive metallers GOJIRA have dropped the official music video for “The Chant”, the latest single from the band’s new album, “Fortitude”, which is being released today (Friday, April 30) via Roadrunner Records.

The centerpiece of an album-long call to action, “The Chant” is a slow-burning track featuring some of GOJIRA’s most melodic material to date. Where past anthems were driven by nuanced dynamics and technical guitar arrangements, “The Chant” is what the GOJIRA members describe as a “healing ritual” emanating primordial warmth, culminating in a harmony-stacked chorus that bridges the gap between ancient hymnals and contemporary rock.

Vocalist / guitarist Joseph Duplantier elaborated on “The Chant” stating: “Let this chant ring in your bones and lift you up.”

“The Chant” follows early album singles “Another World”, “Born For One Thing”, “Into The Storm” and “Amazonia”, the latter of which was launched alongside a fundraising initiative to benefit the indigenous owned NGO The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) who advocate for environmental and cultural rights of indigenous tribes in the Amazon.

Working with the social good-focused digital platform Propeller, GOJIRA is curating a charitable campaign featuring an auction of one-of-a-kind items from the band and their friends, as well as a raffle were fans can donate to be entered for a chance to win a hand customized signature Joseph Duplantier guitar and a hand painted drum head by GOJIRA’s Mario Duplantier. Having already raised over $250,000 to date for APIB, new auction listings include a Slash autographed top hat and “Appetite” signature Les Paul guitar, a signed Fender Precision bass from GOJIRA’s Jean-Michel Labadie used to record the band’s seminal album “From Mars To Sirius”, and more, with bidding on the final round of auction items ending April 29 at 3 p.m. PST (11 p.m. GMT). To see the current auction listings, visit propeller.la/gojira. Furthermore, GOJIRA have also launched a limited-edition art print to benefit the APIB, which is available at gojira.lnk.to/poster.

Recorded and produced by Joseph Duplantier at Silver Cord Studio — GOJIRA’s Ridgewood, Queens, headquarters — and mixed by Andy Wallace (NIRVANA, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE), “Fortitude” is a collection of songs urging humanity to imagine a new world — and then make it happen. The band initially laid the foundation for “Fortitude” last year with the surprise release of the 2020 single “Another World”. NPR hailed the track as “an apocalyptic banger,” and Stereogum declared, “GOJIRA are one of this century’s most important underground metal institutions,” while “Fortitude” was voted by fans as the #1 release on Revolver’s “Most Anticipated Albums of 2021.”

GOJIRA’s widely anticipated tour dates supporting DEFTONES have been rescheduled for 2021.

Photo credit: Gabrielle Duplantier

On June 4, Polish tech death metal virtuosos DECAPITATED will release their early demos in a carefully handpicked collection called “The First Damned”.

Officially released via Nuclear Blast for the first time, DECAPITATED’s early demos have not been remixed, remastered, or messed with in any way. Instead, this is a blistering snapshot of four young men with fire in their bellies and a bright future ahead of them.

Guitarist Waclaw “Vogg” Kieltyka states: “For some of you, the story behind these demos might be an awesome way to learn about the band or refresh your memory on our history.

“Demo tape is at the core of the band’s DNA, and when I think about it now, I am really surprised that we were able to record both demos at such a young age.

“I am excited that it was possible to work on this release with a great team and deliver something for our die-hard fans. ‘The First Damned’ is unique, with an awesome layout and bio, which some of you might not be familiar with.

“If it wasn’t for Sauron, who came up with the idea of starting a band, my brother Vitek, who played drums at the age of 12, and Martin, who had the idea of going to the studio to record those tracks, there wouldn’t be a band called DECAPITATED. We were just a bunch of young guys who were inspired by thrash and death metal. Now, with the help of great people Dom Lawson, Micah Ulrich, Marcelo Vasco, and all the team who worked on this release, we were able to create — in my opinion — a cool design and honoring the true demo cassette vibe.

“For the first time, this record will be released on LP, and of course, we couldn’t forget about cassettes, which are another cool way to keep the memories alive. We didn’t change anything with the sound. We took the sound from the original DAT masters, so it’s the real, organic sound of the music we recorded back in the days. I hope you will enjoy it the same way I do.”

Today, DECAPITATED has released the track “Destiny” as the first appetizer to the band’s early works, launching this emotional journey from the past. The single is available on all digital streaming platforms and for download.

Formed in 1996, DECAPITATED built a reputation over the years as one of the international leaders of the “tech death” genre. Over its nearly 20-year career, DECAPITATED has released seven studio albums, which are considered to be some of the most influential death metal releases of the 21st century.

On May 1, preeminent global distributor and rights management partner for music films Abramorama will have its documentary “Long Live Rock: Celebrate The Chaos” premiere on The Coda Collection — a unique, subscription streaming offering featuring an exclusive, curated selection of iconic music documentaries, concert films, and episodic series via Amazon Prime video channels, paired with a complementary web site exploring new perspectives on music. Starting on June 1, “Long Live Rock: Celebrate The Chaos” will be available for rent and purchase globally on iTunes, Google Play, Xbox and PlayStation 5.

“We are beyond thrilled that ‘Long Live Rock: Celebrate The Chaos’ will be streaming on The Coda Collection,” stated director Jonathan McHugh. “To be on the same platform with documentaries about rock royalty like John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Dave Grohl (with his new rock doc ‘What Drives Us’ debuting on Coda the same weekend as ‘Long Live Rock: Celebrate The Chaos’) is truly an honor. As our film celebrates the rock icons of today as well as the genre’s most passionate fans, we can’t wait for the world to now have a chance to see the film on this well curated music documentary platform.”

“Long Live Rock: Celebrate The Chaos” is a deep dive into the culture of hard rock music. This genre, beloved by its millions of fans, is often misunderstood and maligned by the media and the music industry. In intimate interviews, the leading titans of rock discuss the genre and the special relationship they have with their audience. It features members of METALLICA, GUNS N’ ROSES, SLIPKNOT, KORN, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, ROB ZOMBIE, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, GRETA VAN FLEET, HALESTORM and many more.

Viewers will get a front-row seat of what makes hard rock fans want to crowd surf, mix it up in the mosh pit or just throw all caution to the wind by participating in the ultimate community mayhem of the “Wall Of Death.” We follow some of these passionate fans as they drop everything to “commune” with their “rockfamily” at music festivals across the U.S. — or wherever the road takes them — to celebrate the chaos that is rock ‘n’ roll.

The Coda Collection is a multi-media company founded by a team of legendary musicians, music industry veterans, and entrepreneurs that enables fans to see the most iconic moments and artists in music with a new perspective.

The Coda Collection is available to Amazon Prime members in the U.S. now for $4.99 per month, with a free seven-day trial, and will roll out globally throughout the rest of 2021.

To see the complete library of titles available to stream exclusively on The Coda Collection and explore new perspectives on the artists and performances surrounding the most iconic moments in music, visit www.codacollection.co.

Canadian metal outfit SPIRITBOX has released a brand new song, “Circle With Me”, via Rise Records. The track features the glorious combination of ethereal vocals, bombastic riffs and savage screams that make up the utterly unique SPIRITBOX calling card. It is accompanied by a gorgeous music video directed by Orie McGinness that perfectly complements the lyrical theme of the song with a constantly revolving shot around the band as they perform.

Speaking about the new track, singer Courtney LaPlante shares: “This song was written in the studio as a last-minute addition, one of the many reasons we are so grateful to no longer be exclusively working remotely. It captures the spectrum of emotions I’ve been feeling lately about my music. From the anxiety I feel about messing up to a confidence meant to protect me from self-doubt. Visually, we wanted to present the viewer with the image of us that we miss the most: us performing on stage, with nothing to hide behind: instruments, some lights, and beautiful camera movement.”

“Circle With Me” follows the band’s two breakout hit singles released last year — the heartbreaking and otherworldly “Constance” and the unrelentingly brutal “Holy Roller”. Between them, they have clocked up a staggering 18 million streams to date, with “Holy Roller” debuting at No. 25 on Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs and spending seven weeks at No. 1 on SiriusXM Liquid Metal’s “Devil’s Dozen”, with the remix version of the song featuring Ryo Kinoshita of CRYSTAL LAKE spending five weeks at No. 2.

SPIRITBOX recently finished work on its debut album which is slated for release later this year.

The husband-and-wife duo consisting of Courtney LaPlante and Michael Stringer made its debut with an independently released EP in October 2017, quickly building a cult following. In 2018, they found their musical counterpart in bass player Bill Crook and partnered with Pale Chord Music to continue to create and release music in single and EP formats, and in fall of 2020, signed with globally renowned label Rise Records.

Drawing its name from a device that some believe is capable of communing with the dead, SPIRITBOX has a paranormal undertone that runs through everything they do, using EVP (electronic voice phenomena) recordings both at its live shows and within its tracks.

Having toured the world many times over with their previous bands — metal outfit IWRESTLEDABEARONCE (Courtney and Mike) and pop punk band LIVING WITH LIONS (Bill) — SPIRITBOX absorbed the highs and lows of living as working musicians and decided to try a different and more sustainable approach when it came to releasing their music. They took the concept of supply and demand and applied it to their release model, focusing on making fans across the globe by using the social media tools available to them, releasing shorter bodies of music and removing touring from the plan until a demand was built. In doing so they quickly garnered a cult-like online following which has lead to over 66.6 million streams across all platforms and sell outs on every physical release and most merch items they’ve released to date.

In Febuary 2020, SPIRITBOX jumped on a plane and finally went on tour in support of AFTER THE BURIAL across Europe, which was unfortunately cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite having to return to Canada early, SPIRITBOX has remained busy, recording the two new music, shooting the accompanying videos, launching their Patreon and working on their debut LP.

Photo credit: Travis Shinn

Swedish melodic death metal pioneers AT THE GATES have released “Spectre Of Extinction”, the first single from their upcoming studio album, “The Nightmare Of Being”. The disc will arrive on July 2 via Century Media Records.

While main parts for “The Nightmare Of Being” were recorded in several different Swedish studios — drums at Studio Gröndal with Jens Bogren, guitars and bass with Andy La Rocque at Sonic Train Studio and vocals at Welfare Sounds with Per Stålberg — the LP was mixed and mastered at Fascination Street Studios (AMON AMARTH, OPETH, KREATOR) by Jens Bogren, who has previously worked with AT THE GATES on the “At War With Reality” comeback album in 2014. The album’s visual concept was developed by artist Eva Nahon.

AT THE GATES vocalist Tomas Lindberg checked in with the following comment about the album’s concept: “The overall theme deals with the topic of pessimism, and I have been diving deep down in pessimistic philosophers. Trying to understand this way of looking at the world. It is not a negative album, more a gateway into new ideas for me personally, trying out different perspectives. You could call the album an introduction to pessimism as a concept, I guess. It is a very dark album, but not negative…”

And musically, while “The Nightmare Of Being” unveils a newly liberated and adventurous AT THE GATES via some of the bravest and most mesmerizing material they have ever written, Lindberg adds: “It still sounds like AT THE GATES, 100 percent. It is just more of everything…”

“The Nightmare Of Being” track listing:

01. Spectre Of Extinction
02. The Paradox
03. The Nightmare Of Being
04. Garden Of Cyrus
05. Touched By The White Hands Of Death
06. The Fall Into Time
07. Cult of Salvation
08. The Abstract Enthroned
09. Cosmic Pessimism
10. Eternal Winter Of Reason

Speaking to MessedUp Magazine, Lindberg stated about the upcoming effort: “We were very excited about [2014’s] ‘At War With Reality’ already before it was released, because it represented our comeback. No one was as excited about it as us, but some time later, I thought it was too slick, too well-produced. ‘To Drink From the Night Itself’ was a response to that and we wanted it to be dirty and gritty and have loads of classic death metal sounds on it, like a lot of reverb on the vocals and that stuff. It was a record for old-school fans. The upcoming album is somewhere in between, something that continues on the concept we started on the two previous albums where we incorporated much more of our proggy, krauty and avant-gardist influences. Just to give you the picture of how it sounds; one song goes by the nickname ‘the Goblin song,’ another we call ‘the Neu song.’ But I promise you we don’t take it too far — people wouldn’t listen to it if we did. [Laughs] When we were in the studio, we told Jens Bogren [producer] to keep the gritty sound and the attack from the last record and put the overall sound in between the comeback records. And it sounds awesome.

“When we did the Roadburn festival two years ago we did a special set with guest vocalists and string instruments and that stuff on stage and played songs we never played live before. All that was very inspiring because we realized we can do it today, the things we thought we could do as teenagers when we wanted to be the KING CRIMSON of death metal [laughs], but we weren’t good enough. After the Roadburn gig, we talked about incorporating more of those elements on record.

“Let’s say we’re super excited about how people will receive the record because there’s stuff on the album never heard on an AT THE GATES record before — a lot of weird things. [Laughs] For old fans, there’s at least five or six classic AT THE GATES songs on it, but it’s a quite diverse album.

“AT THE GATES have been around for such a long time by now that we don’t need to release records to please someone else — we want to do things we like ourselves. It’s still death metal, but it has evolved. We just want it to sell enough to get money to record the next album. [Laughs] ”

AT THE GATES guitarist Jonas Stålhammar recently told Italy’s Poisoned Rock about the music he and his bandmates have written for the upcoming effort: “It’s kind of progressing even more from the last album. It’s gonna be different than that one too, but still you know it’s AT THE GATES. It’s evolving even more. All of us are kind of on the same page with why should we do the same record over and over again.”

“To Drink From The Night Itself” was produced with Russ Russell (NAPALM DEATH, THE HAUNTED, DIMMU BORGIR) at Parlour Studios in the U.K. The follow-up 2014’s “At War With Reality” featured conceptual artwork created by Costin Chioreanu of Twilight13Media, who also worked with AT THE GATES on the band’s previous disc.

“To Drink From The Night Itself” was the first AT THE GATES album written and recorded without lead guitarist/primary songwriter Anders Björler, who departed in 2017. He has since been replaced by Stålhammar.

Further details about “The Nightmare Of Being” and its various formats will be revealed on April 30, with the start of the album’s pre-order campaign.

AT THE GATES is:

Adrian Erlandsson – Drums
Jonas Björler – Bass
Tomas Lindberg – Vocals
Jonas Stålhammar – Guitar
Martin Larsson – Guitar

Above photo by Ester Segarra

Serj Tankian has released a video for the song “Rumi”, a tribute to both the 13th century Sufi poet and Tankian’s six-year-old son of the same name.

“Lyrical specificity in music is generally discouraged because less people internalize them as they have less of a personal connection,” explains the SYSTEM OF A DOWN frontman of his out-of-character decision to share the lyrics to the track. “But there are cases where it is vital if the inspiration and muse is specific. In this case, a father talking to his son and reverence to the poet that inspired the son’s name could not be re-written so one can generalize.”

The Craig Ray-directed and -produced video is the fourth song from the widely praised five-track “Elasticity” EP (Alchemy Recordings/BMG) to receive a visual companion, with the Los Angeles- and New Zealand-based musician previously releasing clips for “Your Mom”, “Elasticity” and “Electric Yerevan”.

Regarding how the idea for “Elasticity” came about, Serj said: “When I conceived possibly doing another record with the guys from SYSTEM OF A DOWN a few years back, I started working on a set of songs that I arranged in rock format for that purpose. As we weren’t able to see eye to eye on the vision going forward with an SOAD album, I decided to release these songs under my moniker.” With his trademark eclecticism and one-of-a-kind vocal style, Serj delivers a collection that runs the gamut from hard-driving, electronically enhanced anthems like the title track, a rallying cry for his beloved Armenia (“Electric Yerevan”), the piano-laden “How Many Times?” and “Rumi”.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN hasn’t released a full-length album since the “Mezmerize” and “Hypnotize” LPs, which came out in 2005.

In 2018, guitarist Daron Malakian publicly accused Tankian of not wanting to record, with Tankian responding that creative and financial issues with Malakian led to the stalemate. In a message on Facebook, Tankian wrote that Malakian wanted to control SYSTEM’s creative process, take more of the publishing money and be the only band member to speak to the press.

Photo credit: Travis Shinn

Australian politician Clive Palmer has been ordered to pay AUS$1.5 million (approximately $1.17 million) in damages after losing a copyright case involving TWISTED SISTER’s classic song “We’re Not Gonna Take It”.

In 2019, Palmer adopted the melody and rhythm of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” in his political advertisements for the United Australia Party. The advertisements feature a vocalist singing the TWISTED SISTER song’s melody along with the lyrics: “Australia ain’t gonna cop it, no Australia’s not gonna cop it, Aussies not gonna cop it any more.”

In TWISTED SISTER’s original, Dee Snider sings: “Oh we’re not gonna take it, no we ain’t gonna take it, oh we’re not gonna take it anymore.”

Universal Music, which acquired publishing rights to “We’re Not Gonna Take It” from Snider in 2015, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Palmer in February 2020.

During the trial, Palmer accused TWISTED SISTER of “swindling its hit song from a famous Christmas carol.” Snider had previously admitted that glam rock band SLADE and “O Come, All Ye Faithful” were influences while he was writing “We’re Not Gonna Take It”.

The opening five words in the lyrics of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” have the same melody as the song in the ad, as well as the chorus of “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, but the Christmas carol follows a different chord progression and is traditionally played in a different musical style to both the ad and the TWISTED SISTER classic.

Palmer’s attorney played a mashup of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, performed during a live Christmas concert in Chicago, which was featured in the 2014 stage musical “Dee Snider’s Rock & Roll Christmas Tale”.

Snider said the two songs were “rhythmically different, and that is inspiration not duplication.” He added the songs had to be “shoehorned” together to create the versions used in his musical and the 2006 cover. “It was very difficult,” he said.

Universal attorney Patrick Flynn told the court that Palmer had balked at paying a $150,000 copyright fee to use the song, instead offering just $35,000.

On Friday (April 30), Federal Court Justice Anna Katzmann ruled that Palmer was guilty of infringing the copyright of both the musical and literary work of the original track.

“Mr. Palmer’s use of [the song] was opportunistic,” she wrote in her judgment, according to ABC. “He saw political and personal advantage in both its notoriety or popularity and the message it conveyed and he thought that he could get away with using it merely by altering some of the words. He was wrong.”

Along with having to cop $1.5 million in damages, Palmer has also been ordered to pay legal costs and to remove all copies of his song and video from the Internet.

Snider celebrated the win, tweeting: “HALLELUJAH!! Just found out that the copyright infringement of ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ by ‘politician’ Clive Palmer in Australia has been decided MAJORLY in favor of myself as writer and @UMG as publishers! WE’RE NOT GONNA TAKE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT ANY MORE!!”

HALLELUJAH!! Just found out that the copyright infringement of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by “politician” Clive Palmer in Australia has been decided MAJORLY in favor of myself as writer and @UMG as publishers! WE’RE NOT GONNA TAKE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT ANY MORE!!
— Dee Snider?? (@deesnider) April 30, 2021

When you consider how incredibly fucking weird the world has become over the last few years, it makes sense that death metal should respond in kind. Following in the radioactive footsteps of BLOOD INCANTATION, CRYPTIC SHIFT, BEDSORE and many others, UNIVERSALLY ESTRANGED are firmly entrenched in the surreal and psychedelic world of sci-fi-obsessed, cosmic extremity, with all the wild dissonance and lysergic experimentation that fans of this stuff will be craving. Aside from being an exhilarating alternative to death metal’s usual preoccupations — which, of course, are all to be cherished — records like “Reared Up In Spectral Predation” tap into the exploratory spirit of the genre’s very early days, when bands like MORBID ANGEL and VITAL REMAINS made music that sounded like nothing else on Earth.

Admittedly, as the face-flaying chaos of the opening “Despoiling Souls Of Flesh Across The Galaxy” erupts, the Texans’ sound is recognizably tethered to some form of traditional brutality, but it’s the atmosphere the band generate, as they switch seamlessly from avant-garde cacophony to propulsive, four-to-the-floor riffing and then again, to a modular synth interlude, that fires the whole three-minute experience purposefully into the depths of space. With echoes of IMMOLATION at their most scabrous and ragged, “The Visitor” is another deceptively evocative slice of heads-down pummeling, as urgent but angular mid-paced riffs collide with some deeply twisted soloing. Significantly, the production throughout strikes a neat balance between foggy squall and contemporary crunch. The result is that swivel-eyed exercises in brevity and spite like “Sentient Meatsack” exert great presence and power, even as all those subtle layers of contrary churn conspire to send the listener’s brain spiraling off toward some altered state of consciousness. “Teeming With That Of Unknown Origin” is particularly gripping: broadly straightforward, it hints at an epic streak that will serve UNIVERSALLY ESTRANGED well in the future, but with wicked spikes of feedback and a shuffling post-rock postscript.

They save the best until last: “Blistered Under The Blue Illusion” is a master class in old-school vibes welded to a proudly tripped-out mentality. The track has multiple killer riffs, some brilliantly abyssal gutturals from the band’s (apparently nameless) frontman and an overwhelming sense that this would be the perfect soundtrack for the inevitable alien invasion that frees this wretched planet from our collective stupidity. Or, at least, that’s what I’m getting from it. It’s been a weird year. UNIVERSALLY ESTRANGED get it.