arab strap
photo: Kat Gollock

Arab Strap share intense video for new single "Here Comes Comus!"

Scottish duo Arab Strap will release As Days Get Dark, their anticipated first album 16 years, in just a couple weeks (March 5 via Rock Action) and they’ve just shared brooding new single “Here Comes Comus!” and it’s somewhat disturbing video.

“It’s a song about the god of nocturnal excess and my inability to ever refuse him,” says Aidan Moffat. “It takes place in a pub, a club, and city alleyways, all the places I’d hoped we’d be able to enjoy again by now – but it’s been so long since I’ve had a big night out that listening to it now seems almost nostalgic. He still pops round to see me at home now and again, but I know he’s holding back and planning for the future, and one day soon we’ll dance again.”

The video for the song was directed by Bryan M. Ferguson that takes the song’s themes of nocturnal excess down a very dark alley. “When I first heard Aidan’s lyrics on the track, my mind was quickly flung into a murky pit of complete debauchery and I really wanted the video to be a story of excess to match not just the lyrics but the whole mythology of Comus being the rebellious god of festivity who pretty much represents anarchy and chaos,” Ferguson says. “I felt the video needed to explore these themes of overindulgence much like the protagonist. I wanted to make the viewer feel dirty and maybe even disgusted at their own enjoyment of the imagery.”

The video carries a warning — “THE FOLLOWING VIDEO CONTAINS VIOLENCE AND CONTENT WHICH SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND DISTURBING” — So watch at your discretion. (It’s not that crazy — you’ve probably seen worse on True Detective.) There’s also non-video version you can stream below.

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