Knifeplay – “Toil (Reprise)”

Knifeplay are getting ready to drop an epic on us. In January, Philadelphia slow-crushers, a 2022-vintage Band To Watch, will release What Is Truth?, a new album that apparently lasts for nearly 80 minutes. The sprawling, swooning 10-minute lead single "Love Song" was one of our favorites of the week. Today, we get another taste. What Is Truth? opens with a song called "Toil," but that's not the track that Knifeplay have released today. Instead, the band shares "Toil (Reprise)," which comes later in the LP and revisits that opener. The reprise is itself pretty huge, building from gauzy drone-riffs to thundering blackgaze over six minutes. The track comes with a graphic, disturbing video that frontman Tj Strohmer directed. I watched a few seconds and then let it play in a different tab because I don't really need that in my life. Your mileage may vary. Apparently, it's his homage to Begotten, the silient, experimental 1989 horror film. Some of my friends saw that movie in high school and wouldn't shut up about it for years. Here's what Strohmer says: This video is a remake or retelling of Elias Merhige’s 1989 silent horror film Begotten, which, in my interpretation, tells the story of the cycle of suffering that has befallen humanity via the metaphorical (or literal?) death of God and subsequent torture and death of "Mother Earth." While I am probably not a Christian, I do not see this story as a blasphemous one; I see it as having empathy for a god, a planet, and a people who, like Mother Earth’s forlorn child, have found themselves helpless, injured, and confused.Given that the song is primarily instrumental and lyrically simple, it felt like the perfect canvas to tell this story, whose themes are relevant across the whole album. The original film is shocking and uncompromising in its storytelling, which are traits I have always wanted to bring into my own artistry. Despite being an extreme amateur when it comes to video work, with a scarcity of time, resources, and courage, I attempted to tell the story in a slightly milder way that would work for a music video.Check it out below.What Is Truth? is out 1/22 on Double Double Whammy.