Radiant Knife Pressure

Radiant Knife's Brilliant Sludge Twists Words and Minds on "His Capa Was Detated" (Video Premiere)


Watch your footing – this sludge most fast. Louisiana progressive sludge duo Radiant Knife‘s upcoming album Pressure rips along with a zealous thirst for speed and creative heaviness that feels rooted in the less-structured chaos of the genre that thrived right around the turn of the century. Radiant Knife are looking even farther back than that, though; citing bands like King Crimson and Yes as crucial inspirations, unusual time signatures and rhythms are integral to Pressure. If you peel back some of the distortion and sonic chaos, there’s definitely prog rock roots here, but simply absorbing the crushing, twisting mix as-is works extremely well, too.

Stylistic interpretations aside, Pressure demands attention if you want to catch all the details. With blink-and-you’ll-miss-them time signature changes and perfectly matched cohesion, the guitar/drum interplay on Pressure feels like a conversation, with vocals almost as an afterthought. Trading off between thick, chuggy obliteration and spidery riffing, guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Stephen Sheppert locks in with drummer Greg Travasos to make the most of his riffing, but still leaves gaps for Travasos to pack in smart fills. To get a better idea of how this goes down, check out the trippy video for new single “His Capa Was Detated,” which blends performance shots with, uh, a weird clown-bear telling me to commit crimes, I think. Better just watch it now:

The band adds:

‘His Capa Was Detated’ is a reflection on the malevolent intent of most mainstream media outlets, pushing cloaked content to sell for puppet masters such as pharmaceutical companies and all things big business.

Pressure releases July 14th independently, and can be pre-ordered on Bandcamp.