SHINEDOWN has released a thought-provoking and cinematic music video for its new single, “Planet Zero”. The clip arrives as “Planet Zero” hits No. 1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart this week.
The explosive single, the title track from the band’s seventh studio album, out April 22 via Atlantic Records, is SHINEDOWN‘s 17th No. 1 and sixth consecutive chart-topper, breaking a new record for the most No. 1s in the 40-year history of the chart.
Directed by Charles De Meyer, the video brings to life a glimpse of a dystopian future (complete with a menacing A.I. character named Cyren from the album’s interludes who we hear at the end of the music video) that warns of the dangerous dehumanizing consequences of cancel culture run rampant.
On “Planet Zero”, SHINEDOWN is serving up an incisive look at some of society’s most critical issues, including the increasingly toxic division among those of differing ideologies, the need for honesty in our public discourse, and the corrosive effects of social media and cancel culture on mental health and humanity. The “Planet Zero” single rings the alarm with a cautionary warning that if we shut each other down, we risk losing empathy, respect for one another, and our ability to communicate and unify in a way that leads to actual progress and understanding.
SHINEDOWN singer Brent Smith said: “We wanted the first visual of ‘Planet Zero’ to be unlike anything we have done previously. We chose to work with visionary director Charles De Meyer. We did not want a traditional music video feel — we wanted avant-garde, thought-provoking and surreal. Make no mistake, there is a message in the visual, a warning of what is to come, if society does not wake up, and demand the truth be told. Welcome to PLANET ZERO…”
Over the last two decades, SHINEDOWN has cemented its status as one of the most vital and forward-thinking powerhouses in modern rock. Their most ambitious and masterfully realized work to date, “Planet Zero” is a high-concept, ultra-vivid, viscerally charged saga. A critical yet optimistic look at the fractures and frays of a society that has undergone many challenges in recent years, the album is part social commentary and part in-depth exploration of the human psyche.
Produced by SHINEDOWN‘s own Eric Bass (who also helmed the band’s 2018 album, “Attention Attention”), and recorded at Bass‘s newly built Big Animal Studio in South Carolina, “Planet Zero” matches its immersive world-building and takedown of authoritarianism with a deliberately unvarnished sound. The album is spliced with interludes featuring Cyren, an insidious and unsettling robot character that appears throughout the “Planet Zero” journey. While a raw ferocity fuels much of “Planet Zero” on tracks like “The Saints Of Violence” and “Innuendo”, “No Sleep Tonight”, and “America Burning”, there is also hope, triumph, and reminders that we all need one another on songs like “Daylight”, “Dysfunctional You”, and “A Symptom Of Being Human”. After all, it is the band’s impassioned drive for unity that has long been at the heart of their creative output and deeply informed the making of “Planet Zero”.
“Planet Zero” track listing:
01. 2184
02. No Sleep Tonight
03. Planet Zero
04. Welcome
05. Dysfunctional You
06. Dead Don’t Die
07. Standardized Experiences
08. America Burning
09. Do Not Panic
10. A Symptom Of Being Human
11. Hope
12. A More Utopian Future
13. Clueless And Dramatic
14. Sure Is Fun
15. Daylight
16. This Is A Warning
17. The Saints Of Violence And Innuendo
18. Army Of The Underappreciated
19. Delete
20. What You Wanted
SHINEDOWN will kick off “The Revolution’s Live” tour beginning April 1, propelled by the undeniable power of Smith’s voice and their biggest stage production yet. Following this April and May run with special guests THE PRETTY RECKLESS and DIAMANTE, SHINEDOWN will head to Daytona Beach for Welcome To Rockville 2022 where they’ll headline Saturday, May 21 alongside GUNS N’ ROSES and RISE AGAINST. In June, SHINEDOWN will head overseas for a European run featuring festival appearances at Rock Im Park and Rock Am Ring in Germany, Download festival in the U.K. and Hellfest in France along with select shows with IRON MAIDEN. The band will then embark on a run of Canadian dates beginning in July with support from POP EVIL and AYRON JONES.
Photo credit: Jimmy Fontaine
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Tagged: Alternative Music, music blog