ASAVA

ASAVA are back with another cinematic instalment of their developing detective noir story, colliding techno-metal soundscapes and cryptic, club-set visuals for their newest single, “Valhalla.” The new song is the latest to arrive behind the band’s in-the-works Mahjong LP, and follows last month’s brooding “Leigh.” This time around, ASAVA lay the groundwork with a dark-throbbing, psyche-pounding extended house beat — four-on-the-floors menacingly thrumming alongside various ambient drones and moans for a few minutes before the group cathartically erupt into an acid-tabbed breakdown. Visually, we’re brought into a dank and sweat-glistening electro club, an ab-stacked DJ seemingly wearing nothing but a visor and a Serato turntable while doling out rhythms for a pack of dancers. We see a kinda corpse-painted guy pull himself up form the ground to let out a mighty primal yell. He’s then approached by a tat-blasted, crimson-wigged woman who looks to be the same person that fled for her life from a home in the “Leigh” video. It’s unclear where this chapter sits in ASAVA’s broader narrative. “‘Valhalla’ is a further exploration of the uncanny, and unsettling, horror elements of ASAVA,” frontman Liam Brocious explained of the aesthetic. “I showed Spencer [Cindia, ASAVA drummer] what I was going for and asked him to cook something sexy and scary that would rip in a club. He sent the main part of the song over about an hour later. “This song’s definitely a testament to how insane he is as a producer and the band’s overall versatility. And while the video wasn’t easy to make, it was instantly clear that we should make a grungy underground club scene like The Matrix or Blade. And of course, make it unnecessarily disturbing on the way out.” It’s decidedly less blood-spewing than the vampire rave in Blade, but you can immerse yourself in ASAVA’s latest video via the player up above. Due to the strobe-heavy lightning for the club scene, the clip arrives with a warning for more photo-sensitive viewers. Mahjong is expected to arrive in full later this year via MDDN Records and Atlantic Records.