Hopium Brings Us to the Dark Side with ‘cut’ [video]

Hopium is a mysterious newcomer hailing from Australia. Their song “Cut” is disturbing and startling, both lyrically and sonically, jumping back and forth between subdued violins and spliced, screeching vocals. Also spliced is Hopium’s lead singer, who declares that he’ll cut off his legs to never be able to leave the one he wronged. There’s something carnal about the way the song ping pongs back and forth, and watching the video heightens this sense of building tension as bodies writhe, come into focus and blur away.

The song climaxes into a tremor-like explosion, a culmination of the harrowing lyrics and foreboding sounds. It’s akin to a primal scream, but somehow its conveyed almost completely through synths — a description that hardly makes sense until you’re five minutes deep into the video, and the man who promises to “cut off his tongue so [he] won’t ever deceive you” seems to be screaming for forgiveness. Come to the dark side and watch the video above.