Fire Track: Protomartyr – “Exalted Eagles”

Fire Track · Domino

Protomartyr Close Out Hotel Usona Preview With the Warped Patriotism of “Exalted Eagles”

The Detroit post-punk outfit share the final single from their seventh album before it arrives this Friday, and Joe Casey has a message: Annuit coeptis.

If you’ve heard the singles, you know what’s coming Friday. And if you haven’t, “Exalted Eagles” is the place to start. The final preview from Hotel Usona turns its eye toward warped patriotism, a nation in free fall gripped by its own worst impulses. Joe Casey delivers it with the gallows clarity that has made Protomartyr one of the essential bands of the last decade, and the result is as hard and unflinching as anything they’ve put to tape.

Recorded with Dave Fridmann at his Tarbox Road Studios in western New York, Hotel Usona finds Casey, guitarist and co-producer Greg Ahee, drummer Alex Leonard, and bassist Scott Davidson at the peak of their powers. Ahee’s guitar work draws from the Middle East and 1950s exotica, finding common ground between dread and joy. Fridmann renders Leonard’s drumming more tangible and terrifying than ever, with son Jon Fridmann contributing horns throughout. The stakes are audible in every song.

On Hotel Usona, Casey has imagined his country as an aging hotel, each song a room haunted by its own troublesome guest. With “Exalted Eagles” closing out the previews, the doors open Friday. As Casey puts it: “Now that you’ve heard a third of the album, are you sold?”

Pre-Order Hotel Usona ↗

1The Old Hotel

2Sounds We Cannot Hear

3Converts

4Exalted Eagles

5The Knife Dream

6Feed the Sewer

7Lavender – Gospel

8Third Country

9Checking Out