SYSTEM OF A DOWN's SERJ TANKIAN Guests On O.R.K.'s 'Ramagehead' Album

SYSTEM OF A DOWN frontman Serj Tankian has contributed his vocals to a song from O.R.K., featuring Italy’s celebrated vocalist, producer and award-winning film score composer Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari a.k.a LEF (lead vocals), KING CRIMSON‘s Pat Mastelotto (drums), PORCUPINE TREE‘s Colin Edwin (bass), MARTA SUI TUBI‘s Carmelo Pipitone (guitar).

The track, titled “Black Blooms”, appears on O.R.K.‘s new album “Ramagehead”, which will be released on February 22 via Kscope. The cover art for the album was created by TOOL guitarist Adam Jones and can be seen below.

The first single from “Ramagehead”, a song called “Kneel To Nothing”, emphasizes O.R.K.‘s bewilderment brought about by our modern world; a world of technological information overload, of uncertainty and post-truth messages.

LEF explains: “We’re not preaching. We’d rather leave the lyrics open to different interpretations, but I guess this is one possible interpretation of the ‘Kneel To Nothing’ lyrics.

“As musicians, we collaborate across the miles thanks to the Internet, so it goes without saying we aren’t against technology in general, but at the same time, it’s unarguably clear that the same technology has successfully made its way inside our bodies (and lives) in a potentially dangerous way in the last 20 years. How we react to impulses, live our relationships, and feel in general has become deeply influenced by new tech. We all seem to be trying to outdo each other. We can’t get enough of this constant competition through social media, and it’s making us more insular in real life. We also place an innate trust in the strength of our senses, but in a evolutionary perspective, we could end up diminishing of all our senses due to our evolving lifestyle. We’re becoming too lazy to read an article — let alone a book — too bored to listen to a song that is longer than three minutes, and we relentlessly skip from one impulse to another without really feeling anything. In a way, we’re therefore ‘slaves.’

“It’s not as spooky as the visionary movie directors from the past have pictured it, but it’s happening in a subtler, yet still potentially hazardous way. We have somehow we’ve become both devoted and addicted to our smart phones”

“Ramagehead” was created from O.R.K.‘s collective vision, unique influences and a multi-layered reflection of their powerful and engaging live experience. The resulting epic contains all the ingredients of a fiery O.R.K. performance with dark and heavy riffing, mesmeric atmospheres. Recorded during 2018 at LefMusicStudio (Italy), The Wormhole (USA) and Nightspace (UK). The mixing for “Ramagehead” was handled by Adrian Benavides and three-time Grammy-winning engineer Marc Urselli (U2, FOO FIGHTERS, Nick Cave), the mastering by Michael Fossenkemper, engineering by Benavides and Bill Munyon (KING CRIMSON), and design by Denis Rodier (“Superman”, “Batman”, “Wonder Woman”).

“Ramagehead” track listing:

01. Kneel to Nothing
02. Signals Erased
03. Beyond Sight
04. Black Blooms (feat. Serj Tankian)
05. Time Corroded
06. Down the Road
07. Some Other Rainbow Part 1
08. Strangled Words
09. Some Other Rainbow

O.R.K. has an extensive live campaign planned in support of “Ramagehead” which will begin in February 2019 with a European headline run as well as being special guests on the continuing “Dissolution Tour” from new label mates THE PINEAPPLE THIEF.