Originally formed in Moscow and currently based in Berlin, Montezuma’s Revenge are not only a formidable and highly impressive sludge rock machine. They are also one of Eastern Europe’s best kept underground secrets.
Having released a steady stream of music since 2004 and toured Eastern Europe with the likes of Crowbar, Mastodon and Red Fang, the Muscovites 2021 album S.W.I.M. unleashed a slow swirling hammer blow of riffs and transcendental doom. Weighted like a pendulum swinging menacingly between celestial rock and relentless stoner metal, it showcased a distinct elaboration of the band’s earlier sound.
Latest single New You is taken from that very album and while written in late 2020, the video is three years in the making, thanks to an epic collaboration and culmination of animation and sound created by a cast of artists. Of course, fast-forward to 2023 and the song has taken on an entirely new meaning for all involved following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. A move that confirmed the band’s decision to leave for new beginnings.
“Back then the horror was not real, it was a mere premonition,” explains guitarist, Ilya Boots. “The clichéd DNA of being a doom band in a doomed land. We couldn’t live there any longer.”
