Celestial Sludgers Montezuma’s Revenge Take On “Sleeping Beauty” In New Music Video
Formed in Moscow circa 2004, Russian quartet MONTEZUMA’S REVENGE are not only a formidable and highly impressive sludge rock machine, they’re also quite possibly one of the best kept secrets of the heavy underground.
For the past decade-and-a-half, the band has released a steady stream of stellar stoner-sludge sound, sharing stages with Crowbar, Mastodon, Red Fang, and many more. Now, the band turns their attention to a new album ’S.W.I.M’ (2021) and you’re about to experience the world premiere of its first single and music video, “Sleeping Beauty.”
Launching an attack with a slow swirling hammer blow of riffs and transcendental doom, “Sleeping Beauty” is actually a reimagining of a recording done earlier by the band in 2011. The subject matter concerns an ethereal snow maiden who is gifted with the dubious ability to freeze anything she touches. Weighted like a pendulum swinging menacingly between celestial rock and relentless stoner metal, it is a distinct innovation on the band’s earlier sound.
“We’re not huge fans of covers for the sake of covers,” says guitarist Ilya Boots. “There’s never a shortage of new material but we’ve been playing this older song in our new line-up, and it’s slowly transgressed into an entirely different beast.”
He goes on to tell Doomed & Stoned:
The video was shot during the recording of the single in and around the DTH studios where we’ve been recording for many years. DTH sits in an old factory building in Moscow and it is a very special place for the band and many fellow underground musicians, so it was decided to put it on film.
The factory’s unique look comes from its construction, which began before the Soviet 1917 Revolution and continued after clashing robust imperial facades with stark boldness of early Soviet industrial constructivism. The factory used to produce old Soviet electrical appliances and is called Electrozavod (Electric Factory). What better place for music like ours?
The whole thing happened in the first few weeks of lockdown. It was probably us simply keeping busy for the sake of our own sanity. So we went into the studio to record the song, each of us laying our tracks separately, and then shot this little video with a super-small team and very light touch production.
I also had very clear references in my head. It was winter and lockdown, and I was sitting at home reading Mark Lanegan’s book ‘Sing Backwards and Weep’ and his collection of poems 'I Am the Wolf.’ It was like talking to someone who can really appreciate misery and decay. Then I came across one of his earlier videos for “Ugly Sunday.” Black and white, no discernible story, gloomy shots of mundane urban life in Seattle. And that all felt so familiar and inspired our shots of the factory, really. Our Director of Photography Kirill Frolov did an amazing job getting the best out of half a day with us in the studio.
“Sleeping Beauty” is a song that becomes more addictive everytime you hear it. Dark, slugging bass meets irradiated guitars and glorious, soaring vocal harmonies. It’s enough to whet our appetites for the rest of the material in store for us when Andrew Lockjaw Kontuzov (vox), Ilya Boots (guitar), Andrew “Astro” Gankin (bass), and Anton Yalovchuk (drums) cut loose their third LP this summer. The music video was produced by Montezuma’s Revenge and Kirill Frolov, along with the talented crew of Vasily Cobileanu (camera), Alexander Samulekin (gaffer), Sergey Leonchik (editor), and Vasily Cobileanu (additional effects).
’S.W.I.M.’ (follow-up to their phenomenal 2017 album, 'Them’) was recorded and mixed at DTH Studios by Andrew “Astro” Gankin and mastered by James Plotkin. The new record is staged for release on July 23rd via DTH Records and is a must for fans of Corrosion of Conformity, Orchid and Alice in Chains!
Give ear…