Cinematic alt-metal auteurs ASAVA have returned with the latest grimy chapter of their ongoing detective noir story, this time pairing intrigue, secret identities and explosive twists with the gloom-booming weight of their latest song, “Saveyourself”
The new single is the latest tease behind the band’s forthcoming Mahjong album, which is due out August 28th via MDDN/Atlantic Records. While last month’s “Valhalla” track found the band glowsticking and slamming themselves through a house-metal mash-up, “Saveyourself” is a more methodical, moody piece where slow-droned intros combust into TOOL-ish grooves and a scream-spiked finale.
The latest episode of their ongoing How Long Is Forever? series likewise exits the club, instead finding the pair of detectives from their “Rue” video investigating a missing persons case. A run-in with a masked killer leads to a chase, creepy discoveries in forests and run-down shacks, and a fiery showdown that alters the course of the detectives’ partnership.
The presentation of the music is likewise more score-like than a traditional single, the ebb-and-flow of the metal heaviness fading out towards more muted moments.
“‘Saveyourself” is us tripling down on our goals of being filmmakers,” ASAVA frontman and conceptualist Liam Brocious says in a statement. “While ‘Leigh’ and ‘Rue’ were shot with the intent of matching the tone and lyrics of the song, ‘Saveyourself’ was the other way around. After the first edit draft was done there wasn’t any song we had that matched the tone and pacing of the episode, so we wrote one for it. Essentially our first score we made for an episode.”
He continues: “It was challenging to write the song because I still wanted it to be a great, relistenable rock song in its own right. But after a lot of time and iterations, we finally hit the perfect presentation we were striving for.”
You can catch the latest How Long Is Forever? via the player up above.