During his time in the Dillinger Escape Plan, it became quickly clear that singer Greg Puciato’s musical taste and talents encompassed a lot more than just seizure-inducing post-hardcore, as under his frontmanship, the Jersey crew expanded its sound greatly. Then, in 2015, he revealed the Black Queen, a long-gestating electronic project with Joshua Eustis and Steven Alexander and, the following year, offered up its debut full-length Fever Daydream, which brought his love of Eighties New Wave and Nineties R&B to the fore. Now, the group is set to release its sophomore LP, Infinite Games (due September 28th via the Black Queen’s own label Federal Prisoner and available for pre-order here), and today they’re premiering the video for its lead single “Thrown Into the Dark,” which debuted earlier this month via BBC Radio, revealing new nuances to TBQ’s neon-drenched sound.
The song is one of the trio’s most beautiful and ethereal cuts to date, a five-minute trip that takes its time working toward its apex, offering up flashes and shadows of Eighties post-punk and dark wave along the way. It’s accompanying clip is stark and patient, serving as almost a prequel to the Replacement’s “Bastards of Young” music video, as its POV pulls back from disquieting abstraction to reveal a thumping speaker. Watch it above, and if you can, catch the Black Queen at one of their upcoming tour dates.