PRIEST Feat. Former Members Of GHOST: ‘Techno Girl’ Music Video Released

BLABBERMOUTH.NET

Following up on the triumphant "A Signal In The Noise", released at the end of 2021, PRIEST, the synthwave act featuring former members of the Grammy Award-winning Swedish rock act GHOST, has just unleashed a follow-up single, "Techno Girl". The track trades the distorted guitars of PRIEST's former gig for icy synths and throbbing drums to craft a memorably melodic ode to female badassery. To promote the song, the band decided to create its biggest, most elaborate music video to date, collaborating with in-demand filmmaker and videographer Vicente Cordero (Industrialism Films), who has helmed videos by CRADLE OF FILTH, SKOLD, 3TEETH, QUEENSRŸCHE and others. Cordero pulls out all the stops for "Techno Girl", saturating the screen with neon colors and retro graphics to bring the song's central character to life, an ass-kicking, video game playing, motorcycle riding, gun toting renegade who has no problem holding her own in Cordero's quasi-futuristic hyper-violent world. The video showcases the cinematic quality of PRIEST's sound, which has already been tapped by major Hollywood producers for inclusion in the upcoming Mel Gibson movie "Hot Seat". As the bandmembers themselves declare: "This is a hi-octane bop with instant hooks that scores the futuristic mindscape of PRIEST. Vicente masterfully realizes that vision and we only wish we made the song longer so we could see more of it. Strap your belt on properly and enjoy 'Techno Girl'!" PRIEST will embark on a European tour, "Eurotour 2022", with special guests SJÖBLOM and CRAVEN, at the end of March. Hailing from the same icy darkness of the Scandinavian inland that birthed GHOST, PRIEST consists of a trio of musicians — vocalist Mercury, who was known as Water when he played bass for GHOST, keyboardist Salt, formerly known as GHOST keyboardist Air, and programmer/ keyboardist Sulfur — who came together in 2017 and started releasing their own unique brew of electronic music that bears little sonic resemblance to their former band yet still shares the same creative DNA. But whereas GHOST borrowed their theatrics from old school horror and '80s rock, PRIEST comes steeped in cyberpunk and industrial music. PRIEST's upcoming full-length album, due later in the year via Cleopatra Records, was produced by another GHOST alumni, Simon Söderberg (GHOST guitarist and producer/engineer of debut album "Opus Eponymous"). In 2020, PRIEST released a new album called "Cyberhead", the follow-up to its debut, "New Flesh". "Cyberhead" was the first album since original singer Tom Åsberg (also known as Ginger Khan) left the band to pursue other projects. PRIEST mastermind Linton Rubino has taken over on vocals, which are performed by a masked character they call Mercury. Back in 2017, GHOST leader Tobias Forge was sued by four former members of the band after being dismissed by the group's founder the previous December. They accused the singer of cheating them out of their rightful share of the profits from the band's album releases and world tours. The lawsuit was filed in the district court of Linköping, Sweden, where GHOST was originally based. It claimed that a partnership agreement existed between Forge and the four former members, all of whom performed anonymously in the band as Nameless Ghouls. As a result of the lawsuit, Forge was forced to reveal his identity after years of performing in a mask as Papa Emeritus. He has maintained that "no legal partnership" ever existed between him and the other members. In May 2018, Linton, who played bass live in GHOST from 2013 to 2014 in the role of the Nameless Ghoul Water, blasted the band's 2018 album "Prequelle", saying he was "ashamed to have been part of that" and calling the music "a joke" and "mainstream shit."