Empire State Bastard have teased their debut single ‘Harvest’ – listen to a clip below.
The band, which is the side project of Biffy Clyro singer and guitarist Simon Neil and Mike Vennart (Biffy Clyro live guitarist, solo artist, and ex-Oceansize frontman), shared the teaser on Instagram today (March 16).
In the accompanying caption, they shared that the single would officially be released on March 24, featuring Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Testament, Fantomas) on drums.
The band previously shared a first teaser of music in February, before going on to announce a spring tour.
Empire State Bastard kick the shows off in Glasgow on March 26 at Cathouse before heading to Manchester’s Rebellion on March 27 and London’s The Underworld on March 28. Tickets for shows are available here.
Elsewhere, the band have announced that they are set to appear at French metal festival Hellfest alongside Kiss, Mötley Crüe, Iron Maiden and Slipknot in Clisson from June 15-18. You can find more information on tickets here.
They have also been confirmed for three UK festival performances this summer: at Download Festival, ArcTanGent, and 2000Trees.
Neil previously spoke about the project during an In Conversation video chat with NME, where he said he had four albums lined up with Biffy Clyro, Marmaduke Duke, Empire State Bastard and Tippie Toes.
He said at the time: “We’ve got the new Biffy record, Marmaduke Duke’s ‘Death Of The Duke’, then we’ve got Tippie Toes which is a mong-ageddon drone project where you can just take some valium and chill out, and then a grindcore extreme metal album called ‘Empire State Bastard’. Honestly, it’s the one thing getting me through not touring – just knowing I can spend the year making new music.”
Neil continued: “I like putting myself in these positions where I’m like, ‘I should never be doing this, so this is what I’m going to do’. I don’t just want to do the same shit. Every time between records, I want to do something that’s fucked up and off the wall. It brings me back to Biffy and I’m more in love with it now than I’ve ever been.”