KAYO DOT: POST NEW TRACK "THE NECKLACE"

 

New York City, New York, U.S.A. based experimental rock, metal warriors KAYO DOT have posted  "THE NECKLACE"  , a track from the bands anticipated new release "MOSS GREW ON THE SWORDS AND PLOWSHARES ALIKE", due to be unleashed 10/29/2021 via PROPHECY RECORDS. 

This year, 2021, is the 20th anniversary of the classic MAUDLIN OF THE WELL  double album

 

 

 

 KAYO DOT unleashed "BLASPHEMY", in 2019 via PROPHECY PRODUCTIONS.  

FROM PROPHECY PRODUCTIONS: 

The stark frailty of the human condition is the overall theme running through the veins of KAYO DOT's 10th regular studio album "Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike". In the sprawling, churning musical multiverse of mainly multi-instrumentalist Toby Driver's creation that has never accepted nor cared for any artificial borders of genre and incorporated for example rock, metal, classical music, goth, indie, pop, and jazzy structures, this avant-garde album appears to tilt towards a more harsh as well as heavy approach than on some of the previous recordings – and considering its dark and melancholic undertones may be given the epithet doom. The human experience of a finite life probably gave birth to the linear monotheist concept of a universe that is created and expiring. The pagan mind often has a deeper looking cyclic vision as exemplified in Nordic myth, in which the world inevitably perishing in the fires of Ragnarok will be born renewed on the next day. Something of the latter's appears to have infected "Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike". This album has been recorded with the original line-up of Toby Driver's previous band MAUDLIN OF THE WELL. He also recorded the new tracks in the same location as the very first MAUDLIN OF THE WELL tape. In a way, KAYO DOT are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of the landmark double album "Bath/Leaving Your Body Map" and the 25 years since MAUDLIN OF THE WELL's inception with "Moss Covered the Swords and Plowshares Alike". After the split of much loved MAUDLIN OF THE WELL, charismatic frontman Toby Driver formed the avant-garde music project KAYO DOT as a new outlet for his burgeoning creativity in 2003. The multi-instrumentalist and singer remains the only absolute constant in this band, although there are frequent lyrical contributions from his former band-mate Jason Byron throughout the extensive discography. In the following 18 years, KAYO DOT released an impressive number of full-lengths, EPs, splits, and live recordings that are all marked by considerable stylistic differences and a wide array of instrumentation that included guitars, bass, drums, vibraphone, violin, synthesizers, flutes, clarinets and saxophone. With "Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike", KAYO DOT deliver another beautiful and essential facet of their complex musical multiverse, although the album can easily stand on its own as a most impressive piece of dark avant-garde metal. "Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike" is available as 180g ash grey gatefold 2-vinyl, 180g black gatefold 2-vinyl, and on CD.

FROM KAYO DOT: 

CW: Dark things. This post is about a new song– no cause for concern. Read on...

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Today we release the final single from "Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike," before the album release date at the end of October. A bit more musically oblique than the previous ones, it is a person sliding away into a dark hole, disappearing.

There was a fan of my music who, over the past few years, came to every concert he could, and was so supportive, kind, and gentle that he quickly became a friend. We communicated online pretty regularly, and he would be very open with me about his struggles with depression, having connected with the strong emotions that permeate my work. He was a medical doctor, and he was even able to speak about his struggles in a clinical and objective way most of the time, so he seemed rather in control. As artist/fan relationships go, I felt an uncommon closeness and love for him, and it seemed that he had an all-encompassing pureness of soul that ran deeper than anyone's. Tragically, just about one year ago, in fact maybe exactly one yer ago, I got word that he fell victim to suicide. I think a lot of it had to do with being an ER doctor during the height of the pandemic– this is not pure speculation, as we had talked about it a lot.

I think that many of us by now must know at least one suicide victim in our own lives; I certainly know several. But it's a uniquely strange, confusing experience when the victim has been resonating with your artistic output which is frequently about such sensitive topics, and they've directly told you that they struggle with this, and somehow your work seems to help them. It's hard not to wonder if you're inadvertently leading them down a dark tunnel, even though they tell you otherwise. But, I personally understand how dark music can be a savior, and how hearing other voices expressing your pain makes you know that you're not alone. For many of us, if we didn't have dark music, we wouldn't have made it. I just wish that it would work 100% of the time.

There's a really horrible, powerful line in this song that says "Every last one of us will see you there," communicating the starkness of the feelings of shame and humiliation of the act that only serve as another turn of the screw. Suicidal thoughts are nothing to be ashamed of though; in fact, I'm honestly surprised when someone *hasn't* thought of it. But considering this line, not knowing how he would feel, I won't say my friend's name in this post but I will dedicate this song, "The Necklace," to him. (in comments)

NATIONAL SUICIDE HOTLINE (U.S.A.): 

1-800-273-8255

VIDEO BELOW: KAYO DOT:"THE NECKLACE" (VIA YOU TUBE, COURTESY OF PROPHECY RECORDS): 

 

 

 

Thanks-Stay Metal, Stay Brutal-\m/ -l-