Cold Cave – “Psalm 23”

Cold Cave – “Psalm 23”

It would seem that the aristocratic vampires in Cold Cave have essentially renounced the album format; Cherish The Light Years, their last full-length, is now just over a decade old. That means a seven-song Cold Cave EP is the closest thing we’re going to get to an LP anytime soon. We should take it and be happy. Cold Cave are making that easy. In a couple of weeks, the band will release the new EP Fate In Seven Lessons, and their first two singles, “Night Light” and “Prayer From Nowhere,” are both sick as fuck. The same is true of “Psalm 23,” the new track that the band just shared.

“Psalm 23” rides a squirmy synth-groove that recalls past Cold Cave tourmates Nine Inch Nails, and it’s also got eerie plucks and echo-slathered monotone vocals and sudden eruptions of damaged guitar. The bit where multi-instrumentalist Amy Lee’s vocals come in is so hard. (I don’t know what “Psalm 23” is about, but I just looked up the actual Psalm 23, and it’s the whole “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” one.)

Travis Shinn and Jeremy Danger directed the “Psalm 23” video, and it’s just a static shot of the band, perfectly lit, playing in a dark room. They barely move, but they brood hard. It’s really cool. (According to a press release, they’re playing in the studio, surrounded by 23 candles that Mark Lanegan gave them. Lanegan and Cold Cave teamed up for a Joy Division cover last year.) Check it out below.

Fate In Seven Lessons is out 6/11 on Heartworm Press. Also, later this year, Cold Cave will play two shows to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Cherish The Light Years — one at the Wiltern in LA 8/28, and one at Webster Hall in New York 9/25.

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