Evil Sword is a Philadelphia-based gang of spooky noise rockers. These weirdos create chaotic and jarring atmosphere with their minimalist approach, consisting of distorted bass lines, unorthodox percussion choices, and piercing vocals.
Evil Sword are also their own self-contained art department, as evident in their new "Old Barn" music video that I'm thrilled to premiere on this blog.
"Old Barn" is a hilariously twisted vision. Enter a world of animatronic demons, a whole lot of hay, and a lady dressed as a sheep being sliced apart as she sings. This stuff is scarier than most black metal bands these days could ever hope to be.
Evil Sword's upcoming album Agony Of The Wart God will be released on October 25.
Below is an interview with the dark minds behind Evil Sword, Ben Furgal and Kate Ferencz.
How do you describe Evil Sword in your own words?
A force of nature. Evil Sword has crushed and devoured friends and foes alike as it marches forward and we are powerless to stop it. We do our best to steer the giant, but it has a chaotic will and power of it's own, and we are just as surprised to see where it takes us as our audience. We do not trouble our viewers with endless exposition, like all good fantasy we want our audience to be completely immersed as quickly as possible into the magic of our world. You don't need to be told why a hog has risen from the dead to dance before you, you won't find an answer. Just breathe it in.Favorite horror movie?
Heidi by American artists Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy is one of our absolute favorites, and it is absolutely horrifying. Warping the classic 1881 Swiss children’s story where a young girl is cured of the vices of the city by wholesome country living, the isolated and pure country culture is depicted as an inbred insane asylum. The mountain cabin is stripped of it's folksy ornamentation and depicted as an
austere wooden shed. The grandfather is a senile degenerate, the son an imbecile. All roles are played interchangeably by Kelley and McCarthy in various rubber masks. Scenes are stretched out and replayed in uncomfortably long durations, forcing the viewer to continuously relive the horrors, and (if they aren't triggered or mortified in the process) share in the manic delight.
Tell me about the creative process for your new music video?
Scandinavian Black Metal took something that was so abundant as to be almost invisible, Medieval churches, and revived their ancient symbolic power by burning them, making them present once again. We are an American band - What better symbol of traditional Americana than a barn? What better way to simultaneously celebrate and eviscerate that culture than to watch it burn?
We spent roughly a year scouring thrift stores for animatronic
Christmas decorations, ripping them apart and giving them new life as Boschian barnyard animals. The first one, Wooly, was built on Thanksgiving Day by flaying a Santa robot. That was a weird day. They are unsettling, and easily mistaken for real animals when they are crawling around at night.
Once we felt we had enough animals, we started scavenging for material to transform our home into an old barn to shoot the video in. We filled our house with bales of hay and worn wood; it really smelled like a barn for weeks. We'd like to sincerely thank our friends who danced around for us in this hell we made for them.
Is there a concept behind your new album?
Evil Sword isn't allegorical. We are exploring another world with our audience, and our responsibility is to depict that world as truthfully as possible with each album. We aren't interested in monsters from another dimension, alien invaders come to destroy civilization. Those stories are used by those in power to retain power. Aren't the demons within us far more frightening? That wisdom can so easily be lost and forgotten? That given the right circumstances anyone of us, even the most well intentioned person, can be led astray, can commit terrible acts with wild abandon?
Once again, these innovative ghouls remind us of how far one can go with a strong Do-It-Yourself work ethic, and aa little creativity. Order Evil Sword's new album Agony Of The Wart God at their bandcamp.
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