Algiers Return With The Claustrophobic “Irreversible Damage (ft. Zach De La Rocha)”

Algiers’ last release, the masterful and unsettlingly prescient There Is No Year set the tone for the past few years. Released in the early days of 2020, the record captured the tension of watching the world hang by a thread. A swirling mix of rage, remorse, and defiant optimism, Franklin James Fisher and crew fine-tuned their sound into a precision oracle. Since then, the world has changed in ways that have only made their music more vital, and if early tastes of their forthcoming Shook is any indication, that fact is not lost on them.

With the claustrophobic and captivating “Irreversible Damage,” the band enlists none other than Zach De La Rocha for a track that shines a light on everything Algiers does best. It’s intense, but contemplative, haunting but driving. Jagged edged guitars and liquid 303s underpin Fisher and De La Rocha’s tumultuous vocals which spit out lines that split the difference between poetry and prophecy. Concluding in a deconstructed collision of detuned guitars and melting synths, Franklin James Fisher says “The end of that song is the sound of joy. That’s what hope sounds like in 2022 when everything’s falling apart.”

Shook is due out in February 2023. Follow Algiers @algierstheband for more.