It’s now officially next month when Darkside will release their hotly anticipated second album Spiral. With the songs “Liberty Bell” and “The Limit” already out, they’ve today shared another great new one called “Lawmaker”.
As suggested by the title, “Lawmaker” focuses on the titular character. Jaar sets the scene “people are gathered outside, waiting for someone to pray,” but, once the door is open, the singer intones repeatedly how “he’s wearing a doctor’s coat / but in his hand is the ring of a lawmaker,” as if he’s fixated on this fact – perhaps full of fear at the power this man holds (“he’s got the cures we need”). There are plenty more little details to pick up on, but at this point Darkside kick into gear and drive the song into a deeply hypnotic groove, their dual guitars providing an ululating core while outré percussion dances and fizzing atmospherics flit around. Mid-point of “Lawmaker”, the crowd is now naked on the ground, hallucinating wildly from whatever he has given them, and Darkside provide a vast soundscape to evoke that wide-pupil feeling. They then return to their groove, and you can imagine the “Lawmaker” galloping coolly off into the sunset, leaving a trail of writhing bodies in his wake. Badass.
Darkside’s new album Spiral arrives on July 23 via Matador (pre-order/save). Find the project on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Bandcamp.
