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Survival Burn All of Their Instruments in ‘Tragedy of the Mind’ Video

Survival Liturgy 'Tragedy of the Mind' Video Hunter Hunt-Hendrix

Hunter Hunt-Hendrix has made his name screeching and shredding in black metal outfit Liturgy, but he’s got a softer side, too, evidenced by his a cappella cover of Shellac’s incredibly bitter “Prayer to God” for the A.V. Club. Okay, so it’s a slightly softer side, but we’ll take it. Especially when “it” comes in the form of Survival, the more prog-inclined band that Hunt-Hendrix now fronts.

Rounded out by guitarist Jeff Bobula and drummer Greg Smith, the trio will release their self-titled debut on Thrill Jockey May 14. According to the label, we should avoid that pesky desire to compare projects. While both share a certain “existential angst, ever-shifting time-signatures, and emphasis on mood and atmosphere,” they are indeed different beasts, as evidenced by “Tragedy of the Mind.” The song initially appears plucked from the post-hardcore canon, but soon reveals its true psychedelic nature as the riffage plays with knotty loops and the vocals drone on melodically.

Solid as the track is, it’s tough to outshine the Eric Wren-directed video, in which a pile of instruments are brutally burned without any explanation whatsoever.