Vimic — the hard-rock group co-founded by late Slipknot/Murderdolls icon Joey Jordison — will finally drop their long-delayed and highly anticipated debut album, Open Your Omen, this fall at a record release party in Los Angeles. But before they offer it all up to the public, they’ve teamed with Revolver to premiere “In Your Shadow,” a track originally written as a tribute to late Type O Negative vocalist-bassist Peter Steele.
The band explain that the song had initially been conceived back in 2014 by Jordison, Vimic vocalist Kalen Chase and former guitarist Kris Norris. As you can hear via the player down below, the hard-hitting track plays out with yearning, anthemic guitar melodies and earnest requiescat-leaning lyricism (“Go find your peace, my friend… we have not forgotten you were a giant among men”).
While “In Your Shadow” doesn’t exactly tap into Type O’s heavy goth romanticism — it’s full of shreddy guitar accents, while Chase’s tuneful rasp sits a few registers higher than Steele’s iconic baritone — Vimic’s vocalist “immediately caught a melodic connection” to the Drab Four when he was first presented with the tune.
“Maybe it was in my head, but it’s where I went with it,” Chase tells Revolver, adding, “Joey was a big fan of Peter Steele and he actually introduced me to him in 2007, so there was no pushback on writing a tribute song about him.”
He continues, “It’s a departure from the more extreme stuff we were doing for the record, which made it feel fresh. Playing it live was special because everybody had somebody specific in mind they were playing for. Now we’re playing it for Joey.”
“In Your Shadow” follows previously released singles “Simple Skeletons,” “She Sees Everything,” “My Fate” and “Fail Me (My Temple).” Open Your Omen arrives in full later this fall, and will be supported by the surviving members’ October 3rd show at Los Angeles, California’s Teragram Ballroom.
Chase confirmed that getting the band back together and revisiting the music they made with Jordison has been an emotional experience for all involved.
“Preparing for this show is exciting and sad, beautiful and bittersweet, cathartic and overwhelming,” he says. “Everyone involved is working their asses off and I’m honored to be a part of such a dedicated group of people. It’s a testament to how loved Joey was, because he loved all of us with the same intensity.”
Vimic’s surviving members will be joined throughout the night by guest drummers Luana Dametto (Crypta) and Ash Pearson (3 Inches of Blood).