Elder Devil Released Video For “Burning Forest”

Californian grindcore group ELDER DEVIL has today shared their latest single and music video, “Burning Forest”, to be taken from the band’s upcoming sophomore album, Everything Worth Loving, due for release via Prosthetic Records on June 16. The high contrast black and white performance video sees vocalist Stephen Muir once again take up directing duties, following previously released music video “My Body Is An Earthen Shrine”.

Speaking on the single release, ELDER DEVIL’s Stephen Muir comments: “‘Burning Forest’ is about watching everything you love burn down around you. Nothing is permanent and comfort is fleeting.”

Jacob Lee (guitar) adds: “Some of these riffs were so fun to come up with as I was writing the album, I was glad ‘Burning Forest’ became not only a single but a staple in the set list for all of us to shred through. The video was a blast to film and I’ll never forget having to stand on location and play with a strobe light in front of my face for three takes.”

Founded in 2016 by primary songwriter Jacob Lee (Hellish Form, Keeper, PlasticBag FaceMask) and vocalist Stephen Muir, ELDER DEVIL’s mission statement of crafting coruscating grindcore and apoplectic sludge for the love of extreme music, and the scene they were birthed from, has remained unwavering in its execution. With a handful of EPs and 2019 full-length, The Light Dimmed Eternal, ELDER DEVIL’s latest chapter is an uneasy rumination on grief.

Upon completing writing for the musical components of Everything Worth Loving in January 2021, Muir took meticulous care in penning the lyrics to their sophomore’s 13 tracks. With the passing of his mother at the forefront of his mind, Everything Worth Loving is tinged with personal loss and a sense of displacement. Melding the insular and universal aspects of such grief is exemplified on the title track’s ponderance of love itself, as Muir questions, “Why do we love and why does that love leave?”. ELDER DEVIL’s answers for such questions are not easily stomached, but beneath the surface of their harsh noise lies a comfort within the cacophony.

With Lee once again taking on production duties, ELDER DEVIL commenced recording and mixing sessions between April and May of 2022 before handing over mastering duties to Jacob Plotkin (Cave In, Old Man Gloom, Street Sects and many more). The resulting 13 tracks possess a fervently raw side to the band, capturing ELDER DEVIL’s live explosiveness and grit in equal measure.

The striking black and white cover art for Everything Worth Loving was commissioned from Richmond, VA artist Derek R. Setzer, embodying the restless disquiet of ELDER DEVIL’s latest work. For all of the harsh truths and loss that permeates Everything Worth Loving, ELDER DEVIL’s second long player sees the quartet stand tall on, and come into, their own in uncompromisingly dark fashion.