Last month, Denver blackened doom metal trio, Primitive Man, released the diseased sounds of their Home Is Where The Hatred Is EP upon blameless masses. Spewing forth four vicious slabs of confrontational, feedback-drenched sonic severity, Home Is Where The Hatred Is was tracked at Flatline Audio by Dave Otero (Cephalic Carnage, Catheter, Cobalt, etc.) and is currently available as a special 12″ via Relapse Records.
In conjunction with its release, Primitive Man has released the shocking and controversial video for “Bag Man.” Premiering at Noisey, the NSFW video was co-directed and created by Marcos Morales and Neil Barrett of Novel Concept TV and produced and conceptualized by Primitive Man’s Ethan McCarthy. “Bag Man” is a disturbing, seven-minute glimpse into the “American dream.” Comments McCarthy bluntly, “Die slow.”
The title of the track, “Bag Man,” seems to be an obvious reference to the man who puts dead bodies into body bags. Other than a few phrases here and there, it’s a difficult task to decipher the lyrics, so I looked them up, and sure enough, the song is about accepting your diseased fate and surrendering to the bag man. However, what the song is about has little to nothing to do with the visual representation of the video, which means it’s open to interpretation. So here are my thoughts: The use of the American flag as a burqa on naked women is a direct statement toward Muslim extremists, perhaps meant to antagonize. As well, given the fact that these women are cleaning and preparing their weapons without showing their faces, I might say that they are hiding behind their faith or using it as an excuse for violence.
Whatever the message of the “Bag Man” video is, it’s definitely thought provoking and a comment on the struggles of our time.
See Primitive Man spring and summer tour dates listed below.
Here are the lyrics to “Bag Man,” as posted at darklyrics.com:
it is all I have
a life wasting away
I’m covered with sores
a symptom of my loss
a chain over the neck
of the fucking bagman
I’ll just smoke to dust
to dust
a toast to my alcoholism
a smoke to my struggle bag man
witness
no one around me to relate to this
the sting of all wounds stain my world black
my only companion
in this fucking nightmare
is the darkness I conceal the sting of all wounds stains me with bloodin over my head
in this life as trash
trash
raped
discarded
filled with
the stone that is my heart submerged
chained
to a life
of nothingness
my hate is real
my hate is me
die slow
Primitive Man Tour Dates:
w/ Sea Bastard
3/30/2015 Unicorn – London, UK
3/31/2015 Zanzibar – Liverpool, UK
4/01/2015 Roadhouse – Manchester, UK
4/02/2015 South Sea Live – Sheffield, UK
4/03/2015 Head Of Steam – Newcastle, UK
4/04/2015 Nice N Sleezy – Glasgow, UK
4/05/2015 Bannermans – Edinburgh, UK
w/ Fister
4/06/2015 The Pit’s – Kortijk, BE
4/07/2015 Het Bos – Antwerp, BE
4/08/2015 Vera – Groningen, NL
4/09/2015 Roadburn Festival 2015 @ 013 Venue – Tilburg, NL
4/10/2015 1000fryd – Copenhagen, DK
4/11/2015 Urban Spree – Berlin, DE
4/12/2015 Modra Vopice – Prague, CZ
4/13/2015 Chemiefabrik – Dresden, DE
4/14/2015 L’usine – Geneva, CH
4/15/2015 Freakout Club – Bologna, IT
4/16/2015 Lo-Fi – Milan, IT
4/18/2015 Jugendhaus Kloster – Weil der Stadt, DE
4/19/2015 Ogden Theater – Denver, CO w/ Sleep
w/ Wake
5/16/2015 TBA – Omaha, NE
5/17/2015 The Black Hole – Cedar Falls, IA
5/18/2015 Skeletunes Lounge – Fort Wayne, IN
5/19/2015 The Sanctuary – Detroit, MI
5/20/2015 Now That’s Class – Cleveland, OH
5/21 – 5/24/2015 Maryland Death Fest – Baltimore, MD
5/25/2015 TBA – Washing DC w/ the Body Water Torture, Wake
5/26/2015 Strange Matter – Richmond, VA
5/27/2015 JJ’s Bohemia – Chatanooga, TN
5/28/2015 The Demo – St. Louis, MO
5/30/2015 Flux Capacitor – Colorado Springs, CO (No Wake)
w/ Celeste
6/17/2015 Total Drag Records – Sioux Falls, SD
6/18/2015 Hexagon – Minneapolis, MN
6/19/2015 Club Garabaldi’s – Milwaukee, WI
6/20/2015 Cobra Lounge – Chicago, IL
6/21/2015 Death House – Grand Rapids, MI
6/22/2015 Mr. Roboto Project – Pittsburgh, PA
6/23/2015 Good Weekend – Allentown, PA
6/24/2015 Sidebar – Baltimore, MD
6/25/2015 The Maywood – Raleigh, NC
6/26/2015 New Brooklyn Tavern – Columbia, SC
6/27/2015 Uncle Lou’s – Orlando, FL
6/28/2015 Churchill’s – Miami, FL
6/29/2015 Epic Problem – Tampa, FL
6/30/2015 529 – Atlanta, GA
7/1/2015 The Stone Fox – Nashville, TN
7/2/2015 TBA – Kansas City, MO
7/3/2015 South LuLu Temple Of Doom – Wichita, KS
7/4/2015 Glob – Denver, CO
w/ Opium Lord
7/16/2015TBA – Kalamazoo, MI
7/17/2015 Coalition – Toronto, ON
7/18/2015 TBA – Montreal, QC
7/19/2015 Middle East – Boston, MA
7/20/2015 Funky Jungle – Providence, RI
7/21/2015 TBA – Long Island, NY
7/22/2015 Bar – New Haven, CT
7/23/2015 Saint Vitus Bar – Brooklyn, NY
7/24/2015 Kung Fu Necktie – Philadelphia, PA
7/25/2015 Ace Of Cups – Columbus, OH
7/26/2015 Jackpot Music Hall – Lawrence, KS
w/ Northless
8/10/2015 Fly Catcher – Tucson, AZ
8/12/2015 Star Bar – Los Angeles, CA
8/13/2015 Thee Parkside – San Francisco, CA
8/14/2015 Oakland Deadfest 2015 @ Oakland Metro – Oakland, CA
8/15/2015 Oakland Deadfest 2015 @ Oakland Metro – Oakland, CA
8/16/2015 Starlite- Sacramento, CA
8/18/2015 Rotture – Portland, OR
8/19/2015 Obsidian – Olympia, WA
8/20/2015 Highline – Seattle, WA
8/21/2015 Black Sparrow Tattoo – Billings, MT
Rock Hard \m/
