What if Frank Zappa and Kurt Cobain secretly wrote songs for Queens of the Stone Age and Alice In Chains? We don’t have the answer to this mysterious question, but maybe (just maybe) The Stone Eye can answer it for us…
Philadelphia sludge rockers The Stone Eye have revealed a new music video and single for the song “Witches & Raptures“. The video was directed by Stephen Burdick. Watch it right now at this location. “Witches & Raptures” is the first single from the band’s sixth full-length album South Of The Sun which is scheduled for a worldwide release on October 15, 2021 via Eclipse Records.
“In a nutshell, Witches & Raptures can best be described as a song about feeling trapped in the greater picture of everything around you” says lead vocalist & guitarist Stephen Burdick. “Does that meaning come through in the video? Maybe… who knows! We picked the song as a single because we felt as though it was one of the most interesting pieces of music we have written thus far, whilst also retaining an element of pop-sensibility amidst the abnormal structure and harmonies. It is weird, but it’s catchy. When it came to working on the video, we sought out weirdness. Film some footage of us rehearsing, some footage of us being hooligans in front of the green screen and go to town in post-production!”
The new record, titled South of the Sun, is one of those gems that is familiar somehow, yet takes the listener on a journey mapped out in new pathways. Heavy with a layer of glorious weirdness, this album combines a raucous, dirty guitar sound with clever musicianship … vocals that are as hypnotic in harmony as they are diverse in range, and a rhythm section as daring as it is ornate and, at times, funk-a-licious. With thirteen mesmerizing songs altogether, the singles from the album certainly showcase the wide range of influences upon the band’s writing. For the first single “Witches & Raptures“, the band sings about being trapped in the big picture of the world around us and how servants eventually are consumed by their social masters after they have served their purpose. The second single “Catatonia” is more of an exercise in meditative songwriting designed to just lose the listener in the lyrics which represent such philosophical questions such as ‘who’s out there, what’s there?’. The third single “Aleutian Summer” can be best described as a scene out of The Shining, going stir-crazy because you’re figuratively trapped in the middle of God knows where. They are soulful songs, and in their own way erotic, both perfect for rock, alternative, stoner, and even metal radio playlists as fuzzy stoner sludge wrapped up in a progressive, pop metal take on the rock genre.
