Biffy Clyro side-project Empire State Bastard share blistering debut single ‘Harvest’

Empire State Bastard have released their debut single ‘Harvest’ – you can listen to it below.

The group, which is the side-project of Biffy Clyro frontman Simon Neil and Mike Vennart (Biffy live guitarist, solo artist, and ex-Oceansize singer), teased the track earlier this month after announcing a brief UK tour.

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“Empires fall, States rise, B*stards sing…it’s Harvest time mother*ckers!” the group said in a statement upon the brutal noise/metal song arriving today (March 24) via Roadrunner Records.

Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Testament, Fantomas) played drums on the single, and will perform in ESB’s live band alongside Naomi Macleod (Bitch Falcon) on bass.

Per a press release, ‘Harvest’ “emerged from the dark recesses of the duo’s mind, inspired by spending downtime during Biffy Clyro tours by sharing the heaviest, most avant-garde or the most sickeningly confrontational music they could find”.

In turn, Empire State Bastard ended up with a collection of tunes that “adventurously probes almost every dark crevice imaginable from the myriad sounds of metal and genre-adjacent extremity”.

This month will see the band play a trio of intimate sold-out gigs in Glasgow (March 26), Manchester (27) and London (28). They’re also due to make appearances at Download Festival, Hellfest, 2000Trees and ArcTanGent.

Simon Neil spoke about his new side-project during a 2020 interview with NME, where he said he had four albums lined up with Biffy Clyro, Marmaduke Duke, Empire State Bastard and Tippie Toes.

He explained at the time that he would be dropping “a grindcore extreme metal album called ‘Empire State Bastard'”.

The frontman continued: “I like putting myself in these positions where I’m like, ‘I should never be doing this, so this is what I’m going to do’. I don’t just want to do the same shit. Every time between records, I want to do something that’s fucked up and off the wall. It brings me back to Biffy and I’m more in love with it now than I’ve ever been.”

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