While their sound more closely aligns with noise rock and manic hardcore, KEN mode have attracted a decent audience of metalheads over the course of their two decades together due to having opened for the likes of black metal bands like Deafheaven and stoner metal groups like Torche. In fact their forthcoming album NULL arrives the same day they plan on kicking off a set of four shows in their native Canada alongside sludge-metal duo Vile Creature, whose sprawling, spacious orchestrations directly oppose the fast and manic sounds of their tourmates.
To continue to hype both the new release and its complementary tour, the Winnipeg-based group is sharing the second single from that new album today along with a video of the quartet ripping through the track in a dark venue setting. With a similar pummeling energy to the song that preceded it, “But They Respect My Tactics” sounds a bit more panicked, while new member Kathryn Kerr swaps out her dissonant sax for keyboard duties on the bass-heavy track.
“Do you ever feel like your heroes have become parodies of a former version of themselves?” asks vocalist Jesse Matthewson, contextualizing the single. “Does it even matter? As long as there is chatter online, and we keep you online making noise, the narrative itself is meaningless. What matters is that we’re collecting your data and advertising to you and, in the broad scope of the human experience, all of this will only be a footnote as well.”
Watch the clip below. You can find the band’s dates with Vile Creature here, and you can pre-order the album here.
