Weeping Icon Confront the Void on Shadowy New Single, “Control”

New York noise punks Weeping Icon are releasing their debut self-titled album this Friday (Sept. 27), and have dropped a final single and video ahead of the record. “Control,” an unsettling ode to repressed rage, features an equally eerie visual accompaniment. “I’m really trying to perfect the art of screaming into a paper bag, and I want to look good doing it,” declares vocalist Sara Fantry, with careful diction and little emotion, over ominous close-ups of an electric fan. As the track moves from spoken word to garbled vocals and searing guitar, the eight-minute black-and-white video continues to transform the familiar into the unnerving as mysterious gloved hands caress an ancient, staticky television. Artist Cal Fish performs a movement piece throughout, alternately reflected in a blank TV screen and dancing in silhouette or alongside their hulking shadow on the wall.

In a statement, Fantry explained the origins of “Control” and the shadowy concept of its video:

With the song “Control,” the final song on our album, we wanted to create a tactile experience born from the subjects we explored throughout, a sort of musical epilogue that would take our animus and end it in a catharsis of mournful fury. The video opens with the lead-in track “perfect the art,” which alludes to the major working concept from our album—the exhausting, unsustainable drive to stay relevant in the modern world, and its largely unexamined foundations in egotism, selfishness and exploitation—and juxtaposes it against the truth of inevitable loss. The video stars Cal Fish, one of our favorite artists, who shared with us an emotionally moving, unrestrained physical performance. To us, their character represents the unlocking of true artistic potential. One day we’ll be gone, and we won’t be able to change the impression we’ve made on the world. The only real, lasting control we have is how we sculpt our shadows.

Watch “Control” below.