After developing a name for themselves and garnering press praise from Revolver, Kerrang!, New Noise, and more with 2019’s full-length “Sole Impulse”, Savannah’s VATICAN are pleased to announce that they have signed with UNFD. The label is home to the likes of Silverstein, Stray From The Path, ERRA, Frank Iero, and more. The five-piece storms out of the gates hard with the new double-single effort “Become A New God“, which features “Fractured God” and “Absolute Reality”.
The release finds Vatican tackling the complexity of the human experience and all its brokenness, uncertainties, strangeness, and need for constant self-reflection and improvement. Singer Mike Sugars offered some deep insight about each track. “‘Fractured God’ is about questioning who you are, and what makes up your individuality”, he explains. “Are we truly individuals, or are we products of ideals passed on from last generations? Do we have our own ideals or are we just vessels for those we inherited?”.
Regarding “Absolute Reality”, Sugars says: “We talk about undeniable truths, and how hard they are to find. There’s a constant flow of information and disinformation in the world today, and it flows at an ever-increasing rate. How can we possibly take all of this and use it to create real context in a technological landscape where this information is disseminated out to users who just chew it up and repeat it?”. He finishes: “‘Become A New God’, as a pairing of these songs, is trying to question what it is to be human in an increasingly complex world and time”. While edging on sub-genres like djent and industrial and with influences like Meshuggah and The Dillinger Escape Plan, Vatican also sit tightly against new wave risers like Knocked Loose and fellow Southern heavyweights Kublai Khan.
Guitarist Tom Lovejoy shares how their ethos as individuals and as Vatican cuts through in “Become A New God”, saying: “Part of what I think we all represent as people and a band is the idea of taking yourself to task when challenges come up, and figuring out the healthiest, most constructive way to deal with it. That’s why some of the lyrics are extremely blunt, and why the title of the record is, too; it’s not shrouded in metaphors. It’s just a quick way of saying, ‘Accept that maybe you’ve fucked some things up and it’s nobody’s responsibility but yours to fix that'”.
Armed with these two tracks, Vatican are poised to break from the shackles of small-town Savannah before too long. “Become A New God” is out April 22, 2021 via UNFD.
