Since the 2017 dissolution of the Dillinger Escape Plan, singer Greg Puciato has kept very busy, recording and performing with his electro-pop outfit the Black Queen, working on new material for the metal supergroup Killer Be Killed, co-founding a record label, releasing a book of poetry and photography, and singing with Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell. Now, he's added another endeavor to his packed slate: his debut solo album, Child Soldier: Creator of God, which he's announced by way of the explosive solo single "Fire for Water."
Fans of Puciato's heavier, more aggressive output should welcome its arrival. Rattling, concussive and unabashedly antagonistic, the industrialized cut sees the singer "reclaiming and owning the abrasive part of me," he says. "This whole album is, in a way, a very extreme statement of ownership." Puciato played all of the instruments on the song except for drums, which were laid down by original Dillinger Escape Plan drummer Chris Pennie, marking the pair's first collaboration since 2004's Miss Machine. (Pennie also contributed additional programming.) "Fire for Water" premiered yesterday (March 1st) on BBC Radio 1's Rock Show With Daniel P. Carter, and today Puciato has teamed with Revolver to unleash the single's accompanying music video (watch above). The stark, black-and-white clip was edited and directed by Puciato and fine artist Jesse Draxler, the singer's partner in his record label Federal Prisoner.
"I started writing in May or so of 2019, for what I thought would be the next Black Queen album, except that's not at all what came out," Puciato notes. "So, just like everything else that's been born of necessity, it felt like the right time to create a home for anything that I do that didn't fit neatly under any other existing roof. The misfits needed a place to go."
Child Soldier: Creator of God is due out this summer via Federal Prisoner. Additional album details will be made available soon.
