Godcaster, 'Vivian Heck'

Godcaster's esoteric music is a lot of things — psychedelic, brooding, confrontational — but it isn't exactly romantic. Across a slim handful of releases, the New York City sextet has honed a theatrical, yet sinister sound that has led it to share stages with fellow oddball up-and-comers like Guerilla Toss and Model/Actriz. The band's new track, "Vivian Heck," is a pummeling, shoegaze-y love song. It opens with a guitar riff that evokes desert rock and the rougher-hewn side of '90s alternative in equal measure. Eventually, it disintegrates into a soaring, screamy outro that is more in line with Godcaster's typically feisty sound.

With lyrics about the type of over-the-top passion that provokes physical outbursts, it finds the act pushing a simple concept into a weird-but-wonderful terrain. "Shudders quake / Through Adonison / Sees her in the sun / And laughs through tears," Judson Kolk sings in the song's first verse. The final single from Godcaster's upcoming self-titled record, this cut highlights the band's knack for dynamic unpredictability — a quality that has led it to become one of the most promising rising groups in the booming East Coast avant-rock underground.

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