Blast into deep space with New Zealand stoner doom space travelers Planet of the Dead. They first emerged from the eternal void in 2018, and released their debut in early 2020. Now Planet of the Dead have set their lasers to liquefy as they prepare to release their sophomore record, Pilgrims. Like their Fear of a Dead Planet debut, the upcoming album explodes from the speakers. The songs crawl with cosmic horror while huffing the rocket fumes of Clutch’s “Spacegrass.” Planet of the Dead release Pilgrims on July 23rd on a variety of formats. But today Decibel has returned from our deep space voyage with an artifact from a future time: a video for their single “Pilgrim.”
“Our second album came together around the titular track “Pilgrim,” which is based on the book Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut,” the band shares. “Musically, it plays upon the themes of moments trapped in the amber.”
“Our basic concept is heavy music played heavy, and we try to keep it simple,” Planet of the Dead continues. “There are recurrent themes in our riffs which gives the album a sense of coherence, but we’ve experimented with some new sounds in the latest album which we feel results in a greater sense of dynamism. Lyrically, we dug deeper into our obsessions with classic sci-fi and horror. There is a distinctive and undeniable fan-fiction element to our work. We actively seek out cultural references, and weave them into our tapestries.”
The psychedelic video for “Pilgrim” demonstrates the band’s enthusiasm for grooves heavier than a dying sun. Picture a meteor shower of technicolor skulls and pulp sci-fi imagery pummeling your ears. Keep those force fields down and enjoy. The lyrics embrace the time-leaping brainmelt of Vonnegut’s prose while achieving a balance of thematic heaviness and rollicking rock ‘n’ roll.
Press play below and get ready for the crushing gravity shift of Planet of the Dead’s “Pilgrim.”
Pre-order Planet of the Dead’s Pilgrims on Bandcamp HERE
Follow Planet of the Dead on Facebook for news and updates HERE
