blackQueen

blackQueen prep new LP 'The Destructive Cycle' (stream "Feed the Worm")

San Francisco’s blackQueen were formed in 1998 by Pete Jay, bassist of defunct grind legends Assück (and also of Wormwood), and they released some demos, a split, and a mini-LP before taking a long break and returning for their first-ever full-length album with 2012’s March of the Obsidian Triumvirate. They followed that in 2015 with The Directress, and now they’re set to release a third album, The Destructive Cycle, on CD/digital next week (11/22) and on vinyl in January via former Assück vocalist Paul Pavlovich’s Roman Numeral Records. Paul also lends his voice to three songs on the album (“Needle Grinding Well,” “Infinitesimal,” and the previously released “Calefactorum Occulta”), and the album also features Wrest of Leviathan on “The Sorcerer’s Jian” (and he also designed the album artwork).

We’re premiering second single “Feed the Worm,” which covers a lot of ground throughout its seven-minute running time, from brutal grind to soaring post-metal and plenty of the in-between. Pete tells us:

“Feed The Worm” represents the element of wood. Wood is born from the earth and has been twisted by man to construct dwellings, ships used in conquest, weapons and finally in the coffins they are buried in. As wood burns, it is destroyed, then it purifies the earth so that creation can blossom from it. In death, man is devoured by worms thereby going from the top of the food chain, to the absolute bottom. And so the cycle continues.

Listen below.