With their upcoming second album ‘Bend the Arc!’ looming like a philosophical thundercloud, Tritonic offers a visceral glimpse into their evolving chaos with the single ‘Demiurge’- a track that’s as unnerving as it is uncompromising. Known for their unorthodox blend of sludge, doom, hardcore, and the occasional melodic gut-punch, the UK-based trio continues to swerve around genre expectations with gleeful defiance.
‘Demiurge’ is not content to follow a straight path. It spirals, it heaves, it lurches- underpinned by their trademark fretless guitars, which turn riffs into something amorphous and unsettling. Every note bends in and out of key, evoking not just aggression but disorientation. Where other bands might use heaviness as an end, Tritonic wields it as a means- fracturing it through shards of jazz dissonance, spoken word samples, and what sounds like the audio equivalent of a nervous breakdown. It’s hardcore dragged into a feedback loop of introspection.
The video itself is less a performance and more an invocation- abstract, slow-burning, and cryptic. As the band questions who, if anyone, ensures justice’s arc actually bends, the song feels like a demand as much as a lament. Tritonic’s refusal to colour inside the lines, musically or philosophically, positions them at the very edge of the avant-heavy scene- uncomfortable, confrontational, and utterly necessary.
Where the album ‘Port of Spain’ hinted at vulnerability and EP ‘Algae Bloom’ flirted with digital subversion, ‘Demiurge’ feels like the band breaking free of all known forms. By removing the frets, Tritonic aren’t just playing differently- they’re thinking differently. This a track that challenges the genre’s orthodoxy and tears it up to feed it to the abyss.