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Empire State Bastard have unleashed an epic new single, The Looming

With debut album Rivers Of Heresy on the horizon, Empire State Bastard – the heavy side-project of Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil and Mike Vennart – have shared closing track The Looming.

Empire State Bastard have unveiled the incredible closing track from their upcoming debut album Rivers Of Heresy.

The six-and-a-half-minute epic is entitled The Looming, and the duo – Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil and Mike Vennart – appropriately state that: “The end is nigh! The end is looming! Fuck what they told ya!” The Looming follows previous singles Harvest and Stutter, with Rivers Of Heresy due out in full on September 1 via Roadrunner Records.

Speaking about doing a side-project away from Biffy and making it want to stand apart, Simon Neil recently told Kerrang!: “Part of my issue with doing this project is that as soon as I pick up a guitar, it’s going to sound like fucking Biffy. And I didn’t want this to be anything other than me and Mike working in a different way. The spark had to be different. The challenging of each other had to be so important. ‘Is that obnoxious enough? Have you heard this band? Have you heard this artist from Japan that only 17 people have heard of?’ Things like that. We wanted to push that extremity and get ourselves into the right headspace for it.”

Watch the video for The Looming below:

And catch ESB live at the following dates this year:

August

5 Germany Wacken Open Air
17 UK ArcTanGent

September

17 Chicago Riot Fest
20 USA New York Le Poisson Rouge (guests to Chat Pile)

Read this: Empire State Bastard: “I’ve been needing to make a record like this for a long time”