Belgian progressive post-metallers Psychonaut are gearing up to release a new album, Violate Consensus Reality, on October 28 via Pelagic (pre-order). The song's almost-nine-minute title track features guest vocals from Brutus' Stefanie Mannaerts and Amenra's Colin H. van Eeckhout, and it's a towering, epic song that holds your attention for its entire lengthy running time, and it's a real treat to hear Stefanie and Colin's great voices on the same track. The band says:
“Violate Consensus Reality” explores and envisions new ways of organizing humankind, drawing inspiration from the notion that we are all part of a living, conscious universe rather than a dead, meaningless one. The title track conveys the desire to awaken from a story of separation in which we have been moulded all our lives. It is easy to get lost in short-term comfort and escapism, thus keeping us from doing the necessary internal work to detox from this material, superficial worldview. Only by going against this consensus of separation, can we start to lay down the foundation for the more beautiful world we know is possible.
During the writing process, we came up with the idea to ask Stefanie Mannaerts (Brutus) and Colin H. van Eeckhout (Amenra) for a guest performance. We had two parts in the song that we felt would be perfect for their voices so we reached out to them. Stefanie had already sung on one of our tracks on our first EP (24 Trips Around The Sun, 2014) and initially, we asked her to just sing together with us on the outro. However, she had an idea for an intro and re-used the lyrics to make a beautiful, entrancing vocal part that we would have never thought of ourselves. The same is true for Colin: he re-wrote the original lyrics to make them more natural to sing for him. In this way, he really fortified the energy of the big climax part by leaving his own mark on it. We couldn't imagine this song without their contribution, and we want to thank Stefanie and Colin from the bottom of our hearts.
The video follows the main concept of the new album: the feeling of being part of a world that doesn’t feel right. A world that does not resonate with our true potential as human beings. People of our generation are weary about the future and even though we want to make a change, we don’t know what our destination is and feel powerless in reaching it.
Our protagonist wakes up in a seemingly deserted world. The places he visits have been destroyed by global warming, ecocide and other violent reflections of our contemporary society. Because our man is alone in this world, he can't put the blame on anyone else. The only way of changing something is by starting within and reconnecting to a deeper nature.