Prepare to have the paint peeled clean off your walls, because Helpless is here with their scathing new track "The Empty Gesture" off their coming record Caged In Gold. And what better lyrical content to pair with music this pissed off than ones about the amoral forces in the world, and how those on their side aren't quite doing the good work they think they are.
"The lyrics were heavily inspired from a lecture by the writer Russell Banks on immortality, titled Feeding Moloch: The Sacrifice Of Children On The Altar Of Capitalism. Banks talks of the 'smiling salesman': 'It's a familiar image from the cartoons and comics in the first half of the 20th century. It's purpose of course is to illustrate that the family, especially the more easily deceived members of the family, which is to say the children, must be protected from the blandishments of the clever, smiling salesman. He is the living embodiment of the amoral force of the consumer economy.'
"I applied this line of thinking to the political landscape at the time, to poke fun at Trump (the amoral force) and his Qanon type following, turning the satanic imagery on it's head toward the very people making such outrageous claims. These people believed they were fighting the good fight, all the while they were feeding Moloch themselves."
Caged In Gold is out March 22. Pre-orders are available here.
