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EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: Archaeologist Dig Deep to Bring You “Serpentine”

Yes, that’s an archaeology pun. Yes, I know I’m cancelled, let’s move on. A few weeks ago, I told you to listen to Archaeologist, a one man

5 years ago

Yes, that’s an archaeology pun. Yes, I know I’m cancelled, let’s move on. A few weeks ago, I told you to listen to Archaeologist, a one man project with far ranging collaborations and influences. The music was of the instrumental progressive persuasion and showed plenty of promise. What’s more, the project’s backlog showed a predilection for experimentation and the pushing of boundaries, which led me to proclaim that its future might not be what you expect. If you then foolishly attempted to guess at that future anyway and came up with “they’ll record as a full band, play an even tighter version of the progressive metal we expected, and make a cheesy but endearing video about resurrecting a caveman to play their drums and also dinosaurs” then that’s very impressive but you’ve won absolutely nothing. Except this exclusive video! Scroll on down below to travel back in time.

OK, first off: all bands trying to make “joke” videos should take a page from Archaeologist’s book. The video is the exact balance between goofy and self-deprecating, not trying too hard to be funny but also not so nonsensical that it loses all point. It also helps that the music is damn excellent; this is an extended re-recording of an old track and the first with the band which makes up the live version of the project. The addition of vocals, the dynamic between the main guitar and the bass, the caveman drums, everything just coalesces into one kick-ass, note-heavy, dynamic whole. Even the acoustic interlude with weird sound effects derived from the video’s narrative works! The vocal harmonies that follow it are probably my favorite part of the track, perfectly setting up the twisting (I didn’t say serpentine!) and intricate guitar passages after (the guitar unisons are especially pleasing).

All in all, this is an impressive step forward and one which promises much more in the future. Hopefully Archaeologist and capitalize on this new line up as a full band and release more of the excellent music we can now come to expect of them. I’m only worried about how they’ll follow up this video; I mean, it has a goddamn eagle cry sample. Where do you go from here?

If you like what you’ve heard, make sure to follow the band on Facebook and check out their Bandcamp page for more music!

Eden Kupermintz

Published 5 years ago