Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe and dub pioneer Lee “Scratch” Perry have joined forces for “Lions,” a new single they contributed to art collective/supergroup Saudade.
The track opens with a peaceful interlude of Perry speaking, as Blythe takes over on vocals. “Honey dripping through the ceiling/On the shifting blue below,” he sings. “Their beauty stings in floating dreams/That let the poison flow.” He uses his heavy-metal vocals to scream through the chorus: “We’ve been pushed to this/We kill with a kiss.”
“What an incredible honor for me to be working with these legends,” Blythe wrote on his Instagram. “At almost 49, for once, I get to be ‘the kid’ in the band (the other vocalist is 83 years old). These are serious, SERIOUS, heavy-duty players; the talent on this recording is pretty freaking insane — the sonic impact of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry alone as an artist, producer, & mixer on modern music itself, regardless of genre, simply cannot be overstated. It doesn’t sound anything like my band, but that’s the point of working with other musicians on different projects.”
Saudade — a term in Portuguese used to describe longing and melancholy — consists of Deftones’ Chino Moreno, bassist Chuck Doom, Bad Brains’ Dr. Know, John Medeski (Medeski Martin and Wood), and others. Their self-titled debut single was released in 2016. The collective dropped the EP Shadows & Light/Sanctuary Dub in 2019.
