Animals As Leaders return with epic, unrelenting new single, Monomyth

Progessive metal titans Animals As Leaders have made their long-awaited return to the music scene, sharing their first new single since 2016, Monomyth.

The track itself – the newest offering since the band’s last studio album, The Madness Of Many – is everything that eager Leaders fans could have hoped for, dialing up the anticipation to almost unbearable levels before serving up a sublimely sweet pay off.

Headed up by Tosin Abasi’s exquisite high-gain tone, Javier Reyes’s unrelenting rhythms and Matt Garstka’s pounding kick-heavy foundations, Monomyth opts for a tense opening that will have your hairs standing on end, whittling off sporadic chugs that precede an intricate melodic motif.

In what is certain to go straight into the playbook of Animals As Leaders songs that every keen electric guitar player will strive to learn note-for-note, Abasi then plugs into his celebrated Neural DSP-sponsored tone for a wailing, tastefully assembled lead exchange.

Accompanying the single is an ominously curated music video directed by Telavaya Reynolds, which features the choreography of Tlathui Maza and the Nohbords dance group, whose hypnotic physical movements coalesce with the uncompromising high-gain barrage.

Of the track, Abasi commented, “Monomyth is part fever dream, part ritual. Its imagery represents man's ceaseless attempts to translate transcendent ideas into movement. 

“The conflation of struggle with meaning,” he continued. “Pain with significance. The ultimate failure of distilling perceived patterns in the world into knowledge."

Ushering in the epic single is the news that the band have also signed a new deal with their current label, the independent Sumerian Records.

Though there has been no official word regarding a new album from the band just yet, Monomyth is likely to feature on an upcoming yet-to-be-announced record, a theory supported by Abasi’s recent Instagram tease.

“Finished tracking everything for the next Animals As Leaders album last night!” he shared, while flexing his two-hand tapping skills in a quick-fire sneak-peek clip.

That’s all we have to go on for the time being, unfortunately, though we’ll bring you more Animals As Leaders news as it comes in. In the meantime, Monomyth is sure to quench our prog-metal thirst… for now, at least.