Puscifer have announced the release of their fourth studio album, Existential Reckoning. In advance of its October 30th arrival, the band has unleashed the album’s second single, “The Underwhelming”.
The experimental rock band’s core lineup consists of vocalist Maynard James Keenan (Tool), singer-keyboardist Carina Round, and multi-instrumentalist Mat Mitchell. For this album, they’ve also recruited Greg Edwards (Failure), and drummers Gunnar Olsen and Sarah Jones.
Existential Reckoning will arrive five years to the day that Puscifer released their last album, Money Shot. The new song “The Underwhelming” follows first single, “Apocalyptical”, which was unveiled way back in May.
Like everything Puscifer have done in the past, there is a certain mystique around Existential Reckoning. The album was announced in the style of a classified government document:
“Reports out of Jerome, Ariz. confirm the impending arrival of Existential Reckoning, a 12-song album from the special agents operating under code name Puscifer. The release is scheduled for an Oct. 30 arrival via Alchemy Recordings/Puscifer Entertainment/BMG.
The agents, Mat Mitchell (guitar, bass, keys) and Carina Round (vocals, keys), with agent-in-training Maynard James Keenan (vocals, stories) a.k.a. Dick Merkin, preview the forthcoming release with ‘The Underwhelming’.
In a report to commanding officers, the trio said: ‘In the Summer of 2016, we received a call from Hildy Berger, Billy D’s loving wife. [REDACTED]. Billy D, rumored to have been carrying nothing but a bottle of wine and a mysterious briefcase, had disappeared without a trace somewhere in the high deserts of the Southwestern United States.
Rumors of alien abduction were at the forefront throughout the dark web chatter. Therefore traditional methods of tracking a lost and hopeless drunkard in a dirty leisure suit were not an option. [REDACTED]. We hypothesized the only way to locate the subject was to [REDACTED] construct traversable bridges between intuition and technology, requiring us to explore the metaphorical mycelium between Math and Passion, Art and Order, and Hope and Proof. Through these methods [REDACTED] we are able to pinpoint the exact location of both Billy D and the mysterious briefcase.’”
The Billy D Berger mentioned in the “memo” was a character that Keenan portrayed on the cover art of the band’s 2011 album Conditions of My Parole, as well as in the video for that LP’s title track.
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The release of Existential Reckoning will come 14 months after Tool unleashed Fear Inoculum, their first album in 13 years. The original plan was for Tool to tour extensively in support of the album in 2020, with the focus shifting to Puscifer in 2021. However, with the pandemic bringing Tool’s tour to a halt, Keenan and company decided to put the spotlight on Puscifer’s new music this year.
Pre-orders for Puscifer’s Existential Reckoning can be placed via Amazon or the band’s merch store. Check out the new single “The Underwhelming”, as well as the album art and tracklist, below.
Existential Reckoning Artwork:
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Puscifer – Existential Reckoning
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Puscifer – Existential Reckoning
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Existential Reckoning Tracklist:
01. Bread and Circus
02. Apocalyptical
03. The Underwhelming
04. Grey Area 5.1
05. Theorem
06. UPGrade
07. Bullet Train to Iowa
08.Personal Prometheus
09. A Singularity
10. Postulous
11. Fake Affront
12. Bedlamite
