Collapsing Scenery just released a remix of their song “The Grey Cardinal” by Ryan Ross, the former lead guitarist for Panic! At The Disco. Ross stripped back the background instrumentation and slowed down the track, letting the dark, otherworldly voice of lead singer Reggie Debris take center stage.
You can watch the music video here or below.
Ross’ somber, eerie reimagining is accompanied by a music video directed by Z Berg and Drew Fuller. The visual seems to portray a conflict between two characters. One figure appears in elaborate Georgian-era attire, and arrives to duel a second person clad in full metal armor. The more modern-looking person wins the duel only to be thwarted by the dying knight. The video may be too graphic for some people. It ends with a fairy princess covered in blood, laughing at their expense. The chilling imagery pairs perfectly with the ghostly sound of the remake.
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Collapsing Scenery explained the meaning behind the song and music video in a press release.
“‘The Grey Cardinal’ refers to Vladislav Surkov, the evil genius behind the modern Russian propaganda machine, whose tactics have gone global and are largely responsible for the total breakdown in productive discourse that characterizes modern politics,” they say. “Z’s visual take on the song represents this chaos by making literal the inability of her various characters to communicate—except through violence—and their occupation of different planes of reality—by the incongruity and anachronism of the Georgian-era dandy dueling the medieval knight, tended to by an old prospector from the Wild West as an ethereal fairy princess looks on. Ryan Ross’ remix takes the synthy, rhythmic original and recasts it as a brooding, gothic drama, steeped in dread and foreboding.”
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The band also released a reimagined version of “The Grey Cardinal” by Cold Cave. Cold Cave took a completely different approach, building on the original instead of stripping it down to its bones. They use Auto-Tune and poppy electronic beats to completely reinterpret the record.
What do you think of Ryan Ross’ remix of Collapsing Scenery’s “The Grey Cardinal”? Let us know in the comments below.