New York, NY (Top40 Charts) O.R.k., featuring Italy's celebrated vocalist, producer and award-winning film score composer
Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari a.k.a LEF (lead vocals), King Crimson's Pat Mastelotto (drums), Porcupine Tree's Colin Edwin (bass),
Marta Sui Tubi's Carmelo Pipitone (guitars) are ready to reveal the first single "Kneel To Nothing" from their forthcoming new album on Kscope - Ramagehead.
The track "Kneel To Nothing" emphasises the band's bewilderment brought about by our modern world; a world of technological information overload, of uncertainty and post-truth messages. Songwriter Lef explains more "We're not preaching, we'd rather leave the lyrics open to different interpretations, but I guess this is one possible interpretation of the 'Kneel To Nothing' lyrics.
"As musicians, we collaborate across the miles thanks to the internet, so it goes without saying we aren't against technology in general, but at the same time, it's unarguably clear that the same technology has successfully made its way inside our bodies (and lives) in a potentially dangerous way in the last 20 years.
"How we react to impulses, live our relationships, and feel in general has become deeply influenced by new tech. We all seem to be trying to outdo each other, we can't get enough of this constant competition through social media, and it's making us more insular in real life. We also place an innate trust in the strength of our senses, but in a evolutionary perspective, we could end up diminishing of all our senses due to our evolving lifestyle. We're becoming too lazy to read an article - let alone a book, too bored to listen to a song that is longer than 3 minutes, and we relentlessly skip from one impulse to another without really feeling anything. In a way we're therefore 'slaves'. It's not as spooky as the visionary movie directors from the past have pictured it, but it's happening in a subtler, yet still potentially hazardous way. We have somehow we've become both devoted and addicted to our smart phones"
The forthcoming album Ramagehead was created from the band's collective vision, unique influences and a multi-layered reflection of their powerful and engaging live experience. The resulting epic contains all the ingredients of a fiery O.R.k. performance with dark and heavy riffing, mesmeric atmospheres. Recorded during 2018 at LefMusicStudio (Italy), The Wormhole (USA) and Nightspace (UK). The mixing for Ramagehead was handled by Adrian Benavides and three-time Grammy-winning engineer Marc Urselli (U2, Foo Fighters, Nick Cave), the mastering by Michael Fossenkemper, engineering by Benavides and Bill Munyon (King Crimson), cover art by Adam Jones (TOOL) and design by Denis Rodier (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman). The recordings, and involvement of SOAD's
Serj Tankian on a forthcoming single, solidifies the band's serious intent to use their musical chemistry in exploring the hard-edged possibilities within rock.